May First/People Link Leadership Committee:

Official Statement on the Intentionality of the Leadership of Global Majority and Women in Our Organization

MF/PL, as a progressive membership organization, responds to the activities and developments within our movements for change and, at this point in the United States, the major movements for change are predominantly led by people of color (the Global Majority). This remarkable ascendancy, the product of decades of grass-roots struggle by movements of color, must be reflected in our membership, leadership and activities.

The fierce attack on women's rights, coupled with the persistent and deep-seated sexism within the technology industry (that affects all technology work), and the fundamental importance of feminism and the women's movements to all movements for social change makes urgent the same reflection of women and women's movements in membership, leadership and activities.

The reality is that, because of the particularly history of movements within the Global Majority communities in the United States (and the vicious targeting of men of color by repressive and genocidal policies), women are frequently in movement leadership and comprise large sections of these movements' rank and file.

The role of technology in these movements is particularly important. Because it represents the most eloquent expression of democratic spirit and human collaboration, it is vital to the success of our movements and the survival of the human race. At the same time, we must be conscious that particular effort has been made to lure people and movements of color into the use of corporate-owned social media and other proprietary tools and that the Internet's Left has done little to prevent that.

At the same time, the incessant and increasing use of surveillance and other measures disruptive of democratic norms have been turned especially on communities of the Global Majority and this is particularly true of the use of Internet and communications technology by governments and repressive agencies like the National Security Agency.

We also recognize that most organizations led by Global Majority people simply don't believe that Internet activism itself is a priority and that joining our organization is not a political priority. We view that as a challenge we, as an organization, must take up.

Finally, we believe it is essential to bring together political progressive technologists of all backgrounds, particularly people of color, to begin to coordinate a strategy for response to these repressive measures and to advance the protection of the Internet's neutrality and free software development.

For these reasons, we will conduct our work and guide our organization's work with this intentionality.