The Coalition

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

SAALT is in a period of chrysalis. We are ded­i­cat­ing 2023 and 2024 to build­ing a foun­da­tion­al analy­sis of our South Asian­ness on the basis of caste. We have tran­si­tioned into a co-stew­ard­ship mod­el, to hold us through this tran­si­tion. We have ceased all exter­nal pro­gram­ming to focus on inter­nal polit­i­cal edu­ca­tion and the devel­op­ment of decol­o­nized and val­ues-aligned orga­ni­za­tion­al prac­tices, poli­cies and processes.

This peri­od will feed our ulti­mate pur­pose: to build South Asian peo­ple pow­er that is unapolo­get­i­cal­ly anti-caste and uphold­ing of gen­der, eco­nom­ic, racial, dis­abil­i­ty and envi­ron­men­tal justice.

Dur­ing this chrysalis peri­od, SAALT is ceas­ing all exter­nal pro­gram­ming and therefore:

  • SAALT will no longer mod­er­ate and man­age the NCSO list­serv (includ­ing “approv­ing” posts; which means post­ing will no longer work on the NCSO listserv),
  • SAALT will no longer engage in any NCSO’s orga­niz­ing, advo­ca­cy and pol­i­cy work includ­ing events, cam­paigns and actions led by the NSCO, and;
  • SAALT will be unable to spon­sor or par­tic­i­pate in NCSO cul­tur­al work.

We invite you to read our full chrysalis statement.

In com­mu­ni­ty,

The SAALT Ecosystem

The Nation­al Coali­tion of South Asian Orga­ni­za­tions (NCSO) is a thriv­ing ecosys­tem of South Asian orga­ni­za­tions in the U.S., work­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly to devel­op advo­ca­cy strate­gies, pol­i­cy actions, and com­mu­ni­ty enrich­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. Orig­i­nal­ly formed in 2007 as a net­work facil­i­tat­ed by SAALT to fos­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion across shared South Asian iden­ti­ty, the NCSO has been reor­ga­nized since 2020 to work towards abo­li­tion of harm­ful sys­tems impact­ing our com­mu­ni­ties through unlearn­ing — of caste suprema­cy, of carcer­al com­plex­es, of ongo­ing colonialism.

Start­ing in 2022, the NCSO is build­ing towards a fed­er­at­ed mod­el that pri­or­i­tizes decen­tral­ized and demo­c­ra­t­ic deci­sion-mak­ing and explic­it­ly ana­lyzes pow­er dynam­ics as they exist and affect South Asian orga­niz­ers and com­mu­ni­ties. This shifts SAALT’s role from being a facil­i­ta­tor of the coali­tion to work­ing hor­i­zon­tal­ly and in equal col­lab­o­ra­tion with all oth­er NCSO members.

If you belong to a South Asian orga­ni­za­tion, or would like to join or sup­port a South Asian orga­ni­za­tion, reach out to us at info@saalt.org so we can con­nect you with local allies and share more infor­ma­tion about what it means to belong to the NCSO.