by Catalyst Project and Chris Crass
Organizing Upgrade
February 7, 2012
Amie Fishman of Catalyst Project and Chris Crass recently developed a
toolkit on anti-racist organizing in the Occupy moment. We are excited
to share the introduction to the toolkit with our readers. You can
access the whole toolkit here.
Why anti-racist organizing?
Catalyst
Project believes that anti-racist practice and organizing can help us
to build the vibrant massive movements for global justice we need to
create a world where all people are free from oppression. We are
fighting for a world where everyone has housing, income, food,
education, health care and is able to live in a way that is sustainable
and in harmony with the earth. We call this collective liberation, and
it is at the core of our work.
In the United States, we have seen
that racism is deeply ingrained in the structures of every institution
and in white people and white communities, including those of us who are
a part of the struggle for justice. Institutional and internalized
white privilege and racism have hindered our ability to build the strong
movements we need by keeping communities divided and pitted against one
another. Anti-racist vision, leadership, and practice can help to
ensure that visions for liberation are not compromised by divide and
control tactics and keep us focused on long-term social and
institutional transformation instead of short-term gains that oftentimes
come at the expense of communities of color.
What better time to engage in anti-racist work than now?
We
are living in extraordinary times, with a rising popular movement for
economic justice in the United States full of potential to make profound
social change. Under the banner of Occupy and the 99%, millions of
people have marched, camped, taken direct action, been arrested,
participated in and led General Assemblies, sent food and supplies to
encampments, brought issues of inequity to their community gatherings
and kitchen tables, led political education sessions, joined committees
at encampments, defended foreclosed homes, closed down banks and bank
accounts, made connections between encampments and local racial and
economic justice organizations, mic checked politicians and CEOs, shared
stories of hardship and resistance, made art and media, and stepped
into their power.
The 99% movement has grown quickly, and as with
all popular movements, it manifests the deep and painful dynamics of
privilege, oppression, and power that permeate the world we live in. As
always, the lack of anti-racist politics and practice among most of the
white activists in a majority white movement has damaging consequences.
Rather than distance ourselves from these issues, the problems of racism
and white privilege in a movement moment like Occupy require
anti-racists to bring our leadership, dive into the messiness and
possibility, and build together.
We know that the majority of
people reading this have been actively working to challenge racism and
white privilege in the 99% movement. We have assembled this resource to
support your efforts. For those who haven’t, please consider that Occupy
is an incredibly significant opportunity to build movement and win
victories for positive social change. We hope this packet will inspire
deeper participation. It is designed specifically for white activists to
work with white people in Occupy and in the 99% because we believe that
white people have a responsibility to address the racism within
ourselves, as well as within our families, organizations and
communities. However, many of the essays and materials in this tool kit
are useful for work with a wide range of people and communities.
In
addition to these resources, we also send our love and encouragement.
What this movement is doing is profound and historic, and could have
long-term impacts on the future of our society and the planet. You are
vital to what happens next.
GOALS OF THE CATALYZING LIBERATION RESOURCE PACKET
1.
We want to build up powerful, working class, feminist, multiracial
movements for collective liberation. The movement of the 99% is a
powerful convergence of movements for economic, social, racial, gender,
and environmental justice. It not only resonates with millions of
people, but it actively invites millions of people to participate in
creating both the movement and the vision of global justice that we are
working towards. This resource guide is a tool to help build up the
movement of the 99%, deepen its anti-racist analysis, and support
respectful and transformative multiracial alliances and collaborative
organizing efforts.
2. The movement of the 99% opens tremendous
opportunity to work with a wide range of people and communities. We want
to give anti-racists around the country tools for organizing in white
communities, including those already involved in Occupy and those who
have no relationship to it yet. We want anti-racist organizers and
leaders to support other white people in finding ways to express their
outrage about the profound inequalities of capitalism while challenging
white supremacy. We want white people to have meaningful ways of working
together with communities of color for justice. We want to support
anti-racists to step into this political moment, and move hundreds of
thousands of white people to understand that racism hurts everyone and
is part of what keeps the inequalities of capitalism intact. We want to
support white people to take action for economic and racial justice, in
ways that help them understand the necessity of ending white supremacy
as part of their own liberation from systems of oppression.
3. We
want to challenge the ways that racism divides movements for justice,
and give white people tools to work against these divisions. We want to
support white people standing with communities of color in ways that
feed and nurture a culture of solidarity, dignity, and love. While we
work against the impacts of systems of oppression in our communities,
families, and lives, it is essential that we also build up liberatory
culture, relationships, alliances, and practices.
SUGGESTIONS
FOR USING THE RESOURCE PACKET AS PART OF BUILDING A MASS COLLECTIVE
ACTION OF THE 99% & THE OCCUPY TOGETHER MOVEMENT
Share this
resource packet with people in Occupy efforts locally and nationally.
When you share it, through email, Facebook, or by handing a paper copy
to a friend, use it as an opportunity to express your own thoughts on
why this is so important and a way of recruiting people to help move
this work forward. Us this toolkit as an opportunity to share your
thoughts and ask people questions about what they think about these
issues. This offers a way to begin conversations, as well as move
existing conversations into action steps.
There are a lot of
really good articles on analysis, strategy, and action steps. Take time
to study these articles for your own growth as an organizer. Read them
with other people and form both a study and action group.
If you
are already part of a group of people taking thoughtful action together,
you can use the packet to strengthen your efforts. Use the ideas in the
packet as a jumping off point either to discuss topics new for your
group, or to evaluate the goals you have for the work you’re doing, the
strategy you are using, and how you would like to move forward.
Go
big: reach out into broader circles of people, and offer them ways to
learn and connect. The Occupy movement has created incredible
opportunities to connect with a much wider group of people than many of
us are used to. Think about groups, institutions, and networks in
majority white communities and beyond that might be open to hearing
someone talk about the issues Occupy highlights. Millions of people all
over the country are talking about economic injustice and Occupy. Start
by thinking about your own (or the people in your groups) connections to
different parts of your community. You’ll likely be able to come up
with a lot of exciting possibilities. Some ideas include:
– Giving talks or workshops on economic inequity through an anti-racist lens at community centers, places of worship, classrooms, or people’s living rooms. (On this, read the interview with the Rural Organizing Project in this toolkit and check out their packet on Occupy organizing in small towns linked on our website.)
– Arranging with teachers or students you know who could bring you and/or another speaker into their classroom or student group event.
- Connecting with people who are members of a spiritual/religious community who might want to host you.
- Gathering a group of friends for a living room discussion.
Remember
to always include “What can I do next?” steps to help people get
involved. Often for those of us who have been to lots of demonstrations
or activist events, we assume that it’s easy to figure out what to do,
where to go, and what to do once you get there. Helping people who have
never been involved in the movement imagine how they could be
involved—and supporting them to get there—is key for successful
organizing. Not everyone will or is able to join encampments, marches,
or demonstrations, and those are not the only meaningful ways to engage.
Think outside the box about the endless ways that people can plug into
this movement, and help make it happen.
Experiment with ways to
help more and more people join the movement by participating in
demonstrations and events. We all learn a tremendous amount through
direct experience. When Occupy is having a demonstration about the
foreclosure crisis, corporate greed, immigrant rights, attacks on
unions, or economic inequality in general, think about ways you can help
bring in new people, particularly groups of people (like those who came
to a living room discussion, were at the teach-in, and so on) who can
come out together. Help people feel welcomed and wanted at the
demonstration or event. Talk to people about what they think, what is
exciting/confusing/feels good/feels hard about this event. Ask them how
they relate to this personally. Help people understand the context of
what’s going on; this gives you an opportunity to frame the
demonstration or event in a way that supports anti-racist and liberatory
goals. If possible, create space for people to get together at the end
to share reflections on the experience, discuss next steps, and build
their connection to the overall movement.
Find ways to make
anti-racism, feminism, queer liberation, and collective liberation
politics the norm in Occupy. Reflect on the following questions to help
deepen these politics in the movement:
– What steps could be taken to make these politics the norm, while still being a movement that everyday people can be part of?
– What would that look like?
– Why is that important?
- How will anti-racism support the 99% to achieve our goals?
– What are steps you can take to move Occupy in that direction?
Use
the power of stories to radicalize and unite people. Remember
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/? One of the ways it became clear
this was a powerful “movement moment” was when tens of thousands of
people began publicly sharing their stories of economic inequalities,
and locating themselves in the 99%. Creating space for story-sharing
across race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and age is a powerful
way to deepen analysis of systemic problems, and to build relationships.
Helping people move from sharing stories with one another to taking
action together is a key goal for us as organizers.
Take space to
breathe, connect to your vision, clarify your goals, and ground
yourself in whatever helps you feel a sense of your own power and your
ability to share/create power with others before and while doing this
work. Those of us who are white need to keep trying, practicing,
reflecting, and learning how to move through the world in new ways that
are shaped by our values instead of our internalized racism. Mistakes,
challenges, awkward stumbling moments, are all part of the process. Be
loving and kind toward yourself as a practice to help you engage others
with love and kindness. Remember, we are not trying to be “perfect”
anti-racist organizer—there is no such thing. We are building a
beautiful and powerful movement full of complex, flawed, remarkable,
everyday people.
Amie Fishman has been a member of Catalyst
Project since 2001. Catalyst Project is a center for political education
and movement building based in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are
committed to anti-racist work in majority white sections of left social
movements with the goal of deepening anti-racist commitment in white
communities and building multiracial left movements for liberation. We
are committed to creating spaces for activists and organizers to
collectively develop relevant theory, vision and strategy to build our
movements. Catalyst programs prioritize leadership development,
supporting grassroots social justice organizations and multiracial
alliance building.
