What is Cross Section?

We are a Seattle area collective of activists from a variety of communities and backgrounds. Our political focuses are many and varied, and together we believe our impact will be broader, and more likely to help to bring about fundamental change. We believe that our focuses should remain diverse, but that our interactions and connections lend strength and credibility to all of our focuses, as well as our role in the broader cause of justice.

As a collective, our work will focus on two main goals: first, to build connections among activists, to foster solidarity, collaboration and mutual aid. As we see it, effective activism is about more than marches, rallies, counter-cultures, direct actions or campaigns. To be effective, we must connect, expand, and go beyond all of these. We expect that as the links are illustrated and bridges built, between issues, actions, groups and regions, we will have empowered our movements to make real change.

Our second, and most important, focus is to help to empower our own communities—and to help other activists do the same within their own communities—to take control of their own needs, dreams and collective fate. Too often, activists are disconnected and isolated from, and irrelevant to, the communities of which they are a part.

While ideologically diverse, we believe actions and ideas can't be separated. It's not enough to feed a person, nor to simply explain how to do so themselves. We won't try to remove politics from action, and we trust people to think independently and critically. So long as the values of the collective (egalitarianism, justice, respect and mutual support) are respected, anyone can work with CrossSection, and will be encouraged to share their personal views as such.