Oregon’s own Rural Organizing Project (ROP) continues to build a powerful and unique network of small-town activists with a big drive for change. This spring, over 130 people hit the road from Oregon’s Blue Mountains in the east, from Oregon’s southern coast, from Central Oregon’s high desert, and from everywhere in between to join together for ROP’s Annual Rural Caucus and Strategy Session. These folks traveled hundreds of miles to Albany, Oregon, to strengthen the movement for justice and democracy amidst the changing landscape of rural Oregon.

We’re all facing tough times, but problems are even more pronounced in rural communities – high unemployment (especially for young adults), aggressive military recruiters moving into schools, families facing foreclosure, serious cuts to already scant services. And people everywhere are being offered their immigrant neighbors as scapegoats. It can be easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume and complexity of the problems these communities face.

Or it can highlight the need to make connections that allow us to tackle more than one problem at a time.

“How can we, as rural and small-town folks, organize in our communities to help ourselves and our neighbors to survive and at the same time build a stronger movement that gets to the bottom of our shared struggles?” asks Cara Shufelt, ROP Co-director. “We take the mystery out of the economy and affirm our communities’ wisdom, ability, and right to create the changes that our communities need to meet our needs. People coined the term ‘democratic economy’ to describe the kind of people-centered, accountable, fair economy that we want and deserve.”

One of ROP’s unique qualities is their vision for the long haul that weaves different types of justice work together. A theme throughout the day was the ties among different issues and the importance of building a movement that unites us.

In addition to their conversations on the economy, the caucus brought together a panel of allied groups to share their work. These groups included Umatilla-Morrow Alternatives, who work on LGBTQ rural issues and racial profiling; CAUSA, Oregon’s immigration reform coalition; and Military Families Speak Out.

Each group shared how their work connects with other justice movements, and with a broader social justice movement outside of Oregon. Stephanie Guilloud came from Project South and shared examples of how organizing in rural Oregon is connected with work throughout the urban and rural South and in Detroit, home of the second U.S. Social Forum this June.

The next step from here is turning these ideas and connections into statewide action. ROP will be taking the conversations from the Caucus, working with their local network for human dignity groups across the state to move these plans forward, and honing the expertise they bring to the table into a “Hometown Strategies Notebook.” The notebook will provide strategies and resources to rural Oregonians working to put this vision for democratic economy into practice in their communities.

ROP continues to show that they’re a model for how to do rural organizing that transforms individuals and communities. ROP was included in a recent feature in the Daily Kos as part of a series on democratic local organizing. You’ll also find an excellent article, Uniting One County at a Time, that ROP founder Marcy Westerling wrote with Mike Edera for In These Times.

Learn more about ROP at their website: www.rop.org

Photo courtesy of Rural Organizing Project