On Saturday, December 2, and with the generous leadership of our partner, Wisconsin Voices, Building Unity and other partners held our day-long Fall Unity Summit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At this summit, we further developed our relationships and the possibilities for collaboration. Given that our numbers were around participants, we chose to stay together and all take part in all four sections of the summit. It was a rich and powerful summit. You can view segments of it on the Building Unity Facebook page (www.facebook.com/buildingunitywi/) if you scroll down our feed to December 2, 2023. 

The Fall Unity Summit was divided into four sections – the four pillars of our movement – Peace, Justice, Sustainability, and Democracy. What follows are some of the results, some of the decisions that came out of the work at the Summit, and actions that we are now taking as a result of this work.

Peace: Led by Dena Eakles

  • We need to start by making sure that we are seeking some peace in our hearts.
  • We can’t understand others unless we make a point to listen…with Love and love by listening.
  • We are truly ONE. Much of the separation that we experience is caused by deep personal and societal hurts. Shame, blame, and “othering” in any way only serves to make it harder to see and understand each other and harder for all of us to heal.
  • The current genocide in Palestine has gone on far too long. Building Unity partners will support peace and as we are able we will show up for each other.
  • We will update this page: https://tinyurl.com/BU-with-Palestine, as a place where we can share information about upcoming events to support the Palestinian people and stop the U.S.-backed genocide that is being committed by Israel. 
  • Building Unity has been helping to hold down an ongoing vigil at Senator Baldwin’s Madison office. We are asking her to take a strong stand for a permanent ceasefire and an end to funding the Israeli war machine.
  • We will continue to work to pull various peace groups together in an effort to end the genocide in Palestine.

Justice: Led by Donte Cottingham and others from EXPO

  • We will do our best to show up for all forms of justice as we move through a calendar year:
    • MLK Day Building Unity has continued to put out a statewide directory of MLK Weekend events throughout Wisconsin: https://tinyurl.com/WI-MLK-Events 
    • February Climate Summit (NAACP) (2/24) Save the Date. More info coming soon.
    • Poor People’s Campaign State Capitol Rallies across the US (Madison will be one) (3/2)
    • Earth Day (4/22)
    • May Day (5/1)
    • Juneteenth (6/19)
    • Peace Day (9/21)
    • Indigenous Peoples’ Day (10/14)
    • GOTV Celebrations (11/2 – 11/5)
  • We will work for the creation of a Wisconsin State criminal/legal system reform board that has seats for people who have been incarcerated and impacted by this system.
  • In the coming election year, we will support efforts to “unlock the vote” for people who are no longer incarcerated and who are fulfilling their obligations of probation and parole. We will also support efforts to provide voting opportunities to those who are not convicted of felonies who are locked up in county jails awaiting trial. 
  • And we will continue to support campaigns against long sentences, and inhumane conditions and practices including: 
    • over-crowding, 
    • solitary confinement, 
    • shackling during labor and delivery, 
    • crimeless revocations, and 
    • release without adequate community support in place.  

Sustainability: Led by Emily Park

  • Some of the efforts that we hope to support include the following:
    • Helping to build grassroots opposition to the expansion of the Line 5 pipeline in the Bad River Watershed (Home of the Bad River Ojibwe Nation).
    • Helping to secure federal IRA dollars for job programs that vastly increase the presence and benefits of renewables and conservation measures in all Wisconsin communities.
    • Building statewide solidarity for clean drinking water as a human right that has been compromised by contaminations of PFOS, lead, agro-chemicals, concentrated animal waste from CAFOs and mining practices.
    • Support Wisconsin for Environmental Justice to pressure the Wisconsin Attorney General to sue the fossil fuel companies for negligence and withholding information in relation to climate change.
    • On Feb. 24th we will partner with the NAACP to create a powerful climate justice summit in Milwaukee.

Democracy: Led by LaToya White

  • We intend to strengthen our democracy by facilitating collaboration to:
    • Increase voter registration, engagement, education, and voting in all four 2024 elections.
    • We hope to organize a “Democracy Tour” (3/15 – 5/31) This tour will:
      • Provide community forums where all community members can learn and share about the essential goals of peace, justice, sustainability, and democracy and explore ways to work within our democracy to strengthen each.
      • Expose the ill effects of voter suppression, gerrymandering, politics dominated by big money, and mis-information on our democracy.
      • Provide opportunities for creative artists and activists to share their work as sources of inspiration and hope.
      • Give candidates from all levels of government an opportunity to share there views on the issues related to the above mentioned “four pillars” of our movement.

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