About Convergence
Convergence is a magazine for radical insights. We work with organizers and activists on the frontlines of today’s most pressing struggles to produce articles, videos and podcasts that sharpen our collective practice by lifting up stories from the grassroots and making space for reflection and study. Our community of readers, viewers, and content producers are united in our purpose: winning multi-racial democracy and a radically democratic economy.
Today our movements continue to grow, but so too does the threat from the racist, authoritarian right. We believe we can defeat them, dismantle racial capitalism, and win the change we need by building a new governing majority that is driven by a convergence of grassroots social movements, labor movements, socialists, and progressives.
Join us.
Raves
Organizing Upgrade – now Convergence – is the best thing out there for serious thinking on the Left.
Robin D.G. Kelley, Professor of U.S. History at UCLA and author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
We must dare to win. Winning justice means winning power. Winning power is about defeating the autocracy of the boss at work and racist authoritarian right in the streets and in the government. Convergence Magazine is a critical space for us to debate, exchange ideas, dream big, and then take action to win the world.
Lauren Jacobs, Executive Director, Powerswitch Action
One of the main tasks for our movement building efforts is to converge social movements to fight the right, save the planet and advance peoples’ power. Convergence Magazine is where we can turn theory, debate and practice into strategy.
Cindy Wiesner, Executive Director, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Staff & Contributors
Publisher
Editorial Board
Zachary Norris
Nik Theodore
Milena Velis
STAFF
PRINT EDITOR
SENIOR MULTIMEDIA PRODUCER
Josh Elstro
Communications & administration
Mack Brown
production assistant
Kimmie David
print CONTRIBUTORS
PODCAST HOSTS
anti-authoritarian podcast
Sue Hyde
Scot Nakagawa
Black Work Talk
Bianca Cunningham
Jamala Rogers
Hegemonicon
William Lawrence
Indebted
Maurice BP-Weeks
Advisory Board
Calvin Cheung-Miaw – Historian
Stacy Davis Gates – Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union
Bill Fletcher Jr – former President, TransAfrica Forum
Van Gosse – Co-Chair, Historians for Peace and Democracy
Richard Healey – Board Chair, Commonwealth Foundation
Harmony Goldberg – Director of Praxis, Grassroots Power Project
Maurice Mitchell – National Director, Working Families Party
Tarso Ramos – Executive Director, Political Research Associates
Cindy Wiesner – Executive Director, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson – Co-Executive Director, Highlander Center
Mission
Convergence was founded, as Organizing Upgrade, in 2008. From the start, we’ve taken pride in being a publication by and for social movement practitioners, where people on the frontlines of the most pressing struggles of our time offer strategic analysis, assessments of our changing conditions, and arguments about how we could build power in working class communities and communities of color. That focus set us apart from publications that primarily report on progressive politics, promote efforts on the ground, or offer theoretical or historical analysis.
We re-launched Organizing Upgrade in 2017 to provide a space where left organizers could discuss strategy and share organizing models that respond to the profound dangers and the real opportunities of this political moment. Since then, we rebranded as Convergence Magazine – evoking the process of distinct streams coming together into alignment and flowing toward a common goal.
This change to Convergence represents the evolution of our thinking and the urgency of this political moment. We’ve committed to advancing the strategy, tactics, and vision that will help us decisively block the authoritarian right while building the forces, leadership, and vision of the Left – not as an isolated element of the fightback against white nationalist authoritarianism, but its dominant tendency.
Despite our defeat of Donald Trump’s bid for a second term in 2020, white nationalist authoritarians built on their 40+ years of political primacy under his administration. And the broader racist backlash gained power. The task of block and build is even more urgent today than it was in 2017, and we cannot afford to engage in politics as usual.
A right-wing takeover would only deepen the overlapping crises we face in this moment: the destruction of our democracy and rights, public goods and services, and our planet itself. The opportunities for building a new consensus led by the Left are just as dynamic. Our movements’ work in the broad-front effort to defeat Trump in 2020 deepened our connections to one another and increased our relevance to the mainstream of U.S. politics.
The uprisings in the spring and summer of 2020 showed the depth of resistance to and breadth of support for racial justice. The success of movement-backed left candidates for local and Congressional seats opens new possibilities for inside-outside strategies. The resilience and militance of communities organizing in the COVID pandemic point to new alternatives for working people and people of color, especially as the pandemic has foregrounded systemic racism.
Everywhere from the base of progressive movements to progressive institutions and even corners of the liberal mainstream, there is new openness to left analyses and solutions. The dynamics of our moment offer a concrete opportunity to rebuild a Left based on multi-racial, cross-class solidarity, a holistic and internationalist vision, and a determination to break out of the margins and get to the center of national politics.
The challenges and opportunities of our moment call for our boldest thinking. Convergence is a journal for that thinking – and for realizing the promise of the dual strategy of block and build to create the future we dream of and deserve.
Submissions
We welcome submissions that reflect on our strategic positions, and we also welcome thoughtful challenges to these positions. There is no easy or simple path forward, and we believe that productive debate is essential for maturing social movements and the left.
All views expressed in articles, podcasts, and videos published by Convergence are those of the writer or speaker. Convergence does not support or oppose any candidate for public office.
Please send us your ideas, feedback, submissions and thoughts. You can reach us at [email protected].
Intellectual Property & Republication Policy
Individual contributors retain the rights to intellectual property published with Convergence.
We ask that publications interested in re-publishing an article or other content that originally appeared in Convergence contact the Print Editor as well as the author, if possible, and publish the article with a link back to the original post and a statement acknowledging that the piece originally appeared in Convergence Magazine.
Audio content (podcasts) are the joint intellectual property of the show host(s) and Convergence. This material may not be re-published without explicit written permission from both the host(s) and Convergence.
Donate
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Convergence is a fiscally sponsored project of the 501(c)3 Commonwealth Foundation for Inclusive Democracy. Donations are tax-deductible under the Internal Revenue Code.