Project Description

The US–Africa Bridge Building Project
Crossing Borders, Building Power
for Economic and Social Justice

Vision

A world in which everyone pays their fair share to solve common problems.

Mission

Build powerful transnational alliances between local economic justice activists in the United States and Africans working to achieve this common vision.

Description

Communities in Africa and the U.S. share many things in common, from struggles for human and civil rights to the central importance of family and culture. But they also share a common experience of financial exploitation, as governments and businesses find ways to extract resources from communities of color. Estimates of the money diverted from health, education, jobs and infrastructure in both Africa and the United States through corruption, tax evasion and outright theft run as high as $500 billion a year and contribute to the current historic levels of income and social inequality. The few transnational bodies charged with monitoring and curbing these abuses frequently lack both the authority and the political will to do so effectively.

As a result, affected communities and grassroots social justice campaigners, themselves often the victims of racial and political marginalization at home, find themselves without  the resources and information they need to forge strong global alliances for change.

The US–Africa Bridge Building Project is an initiative to catalyze engagement between local struggles and global problems and promote mutual solidarity between Africans and Americans working to end corruption and tax injustice. The Bridge Building Project draws on the strategies developed by the African liberation solidarity movement to facilitate international links between community-based advocates in Africa and the United States fighting to end racism and economic exploitation.

The project has completed its first major resource, A Playbook for Transnational Solidarity. Designed for grassroots groups, the Playbook highlights successful strategies for cross-border collaboration and shares information about campaigns and initiatives in the United States and Africa. The complete Playbook essays are included in the book None of Us Is Free Until All of Us Are Free: New Perspectives on Global Solidarity, edited by William Minter.

Our work continues. Project staff is connecting community-based economic justice activists in select U.S. cities with African social movements so they can share analysis and strategies, build mutually beneficial relationships, and develop joint campaigns.

We are also working to engage the growing African Diaspora community in these efforts. The Diaspora is a vital and often overlooked source of knowledge and experience, and its involvement strengthens solidarity on both sides of the Atlantic.

The US–Africa Bridge Building Project is a nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization. Contributions to the US–Africa Bridge Building Project are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law.