Towards Collective Liberation

Towards Collective Liberation
Author: Chris Crass
Publisher: PM Press
Total Pages: 535
Release: 2013-05-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1604868473

Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy is for activists engaging with dynamic questions of how to create and support effective movements for visionary systemic change. Chris Crass’s collection of essays and interviews presents us with powerful lessons for transformative organizing through offering a firsthand look at the challenges and the opportunities of anti-racist work in white communities, feminist work with men, and bringing women of color feminism into the heart of social movements. Drawing on two decades of personal activist experience and case studies of anti-racist social justice organizations, Crass insightfully explores ways of transforming divisions of race, class, and gender into catalysts for powerful vision, strategy, and movement building in the United States today. Over the last two decades, activists in the United States have been experimenting with new politics and organizational approaches that stem from a fusion of radical political traditions and liberation struggles. Drawing inspiration from women of color feminism, justice struggles in communities of color, anarchist and socialist movements, the broad upsurges of the 1960s and 70s, and social movements in the Global South, a new generation of activists has sought to understand the past while building a movement for today’s world. Towards Collective Liberation contributes to this project by examining two primary dynamic trends in these efforts: the anarchist movement of the 1990s and 2000s, through which tens of thousands of activists were introduced to radical politics, direct action organizing, democratic decision making, and the profound challenges of taking on systems of oppression, privilege, and power in society at large and in the movement itself; and white anti-racist organizing efforts from the 2000s to the present as part of a larger strategy to build broad-based, effective multiracial movements in the United States. Crass’s collection begins with an overview of the anarchist tradition as it relates to contemporary activism and an in-depth look at Food Not Bombs, one of the leading anarchist groups in the revitalized radical Left in the 1990s. The second and third sections of the book combine stories and lessons from Crass’s experiences of working as an anti-racist and feminist organizer, combining insights from the Civil Rights Movement, women of color feminism, and anarchism to address questions of leadership, organization building, and revolutionary strategy. In section four, Crass discusses how contemporary organizations have responded to the need for white activists to lead anti-racist efforts in white communities and how these efforts have contributed to multiracial alliances in building a broad-based movement for collective liberation. Offering rich case studies of successful organizing, and grounded, thoughtful key lessons for movement building, Toward Collective Liberation is a must-read for anyone working for a better world.

In This Place Together

In This Place Together
Author: Penina Eilberg-Schwartz
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2021-04-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0807046841

A narrative meditation on joint nonviolence, opening a window to the questions of power, multiple narratives, and imagination that touch on struggles for justice everywhere. As a Palestinian youth, Sulaiman Khatib encountered the occupation in his village and attempted to fight back, stabbing an Israeli. Imprisoned at the age of 14, he began a process of political and spiritual transformation still unfolding today. In a book he asked Penina Eilberg-Schwartz, an American Jew, to write, and based on years of conversation between them, Khatib shares how his activism became deeply rooted in the belief that we must ground all work—from dialogue to direct action to healing—in recognition of the history and humanity of the other. He reveals how he became convinced that Palestinian freedom can flourish alongside Jewish connection to the land where he was born. In language that is poetic and unflinchingly honest, Eilberg-Schwartz and Khatib chronicle what led him to dedicate his life to joint nonviolence. In his journey, he encountered the deep injustice of torture, witnessed the power of hunger strikes, and studied Jewish history. Ultimately, he came to realize mutual recognition, alongside a transformation of the systems that governed their lives, was necessary for both Palestinians and Israelis to move forward. Still, as he built friendships with Israelis and resisted the occupation alongside them, he could not lose sight of the great power imbalance in the relationship, of all the violence and erasure still present as they dreamt forward together. Intimate and political, In This Place Together opens us up to the dangers and hopes of working with others across vast differences in power and experience. And it opens a new space, shapes a third narrative, and finds another world that can exist—though it’s often hard to see—inside this one.

Design Justice

Design Justice
Author: Sasha Costanza-Chock
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2020-03-03
Genre: Design
ISBN: 0262043459

An exploration of how design might be led by marginalized communities, dismantle structural inequality, and advance collective liberation and ecological survival. What is the relationship between design, power, and social justice? “Design justice” is an approach to design that is led by marginalized communities and that aims expilcitly to challenge, rather than reproduce, structural inequalities. It has emerged from a growing community of designers in various fields who work closely with social movements and community-based organizations around the world. This book explores the theory and practice of design justice, demonstrates how universalist design principles and practices erase certain groups of people—specifically, those who are intersectionally disadvantaged or multiply burdened under the matrix of domination (white supremacist heteropatriarchy, ableism, capitalism, and settler colonialism)—and invites readers to “build a better world, a world where many worlds fit; linked worlds of collective liberation and ecological sustainability.” Along the way, the book documents a multitude of real-world community-led design practices, each grounded in a particular social movement. Design Justice goes beyond recent calls for design for good, user-centered design, and employment diversity in the technology and design professions; it connects design to larger struggles for collective liberation and ecological survival.

Liberation in Print

Liberation in Print
Author: Agatha Beins
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 0820349518

Introduction origins and reproductions -- Printing feminism -- Locating feminism -- Doing feminism -- Invitations to women's liberation -- Imaging and imagining revolution -- Conclusion feminism redux

Lessons in Liberation

Lessons in Liberation
Author: The Education for Liberation Network & Critical Resistance Editorial Collective
Publisher: AK Press
Total Pages: 524
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1849354375

Born from sustained organizing, and rooted in Black and women of color feminisms, disability justice, and other movements, abolition calls for an end to our reliance on imprisonment, policing and surveillance, and to imagine a safer future for our communities. Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for Educators offers entry points to build critical and intentional bridges between educational practice and the growing movement for abolition. Designed for educators, parents, and young people, this toolkit shines a light on innovative abolitionist projects, particularly in Pre-K–12 learning contexts. Sections are dedicated to entry points into Prison Industrial Complex abolition and education; the application of the lessons and principles of abolition; and stories about growing abolition outside of school settings. Topics addressed throughout include student organizing, immigrant justice in the face of ICE, approaches to sex education, arts-based curriculum, and building abolitionist skills and thinking in lesson plans. The result of patient and urgent work, and more than five years in the making, Lessons in Liberation invites educators into the work of abolition. Contributors include Black Organizing Project, Chicago Women’s Health Center, Mariame Kaba and Project NIA, Bettina L. Love, the MILPA Collective, and artists from the Justseeds Collective, among others.

How We Get Free

How We Get Free
Author: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2017-11-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1608468682

Black feminists remind us “that America’s destiny is inseparable from how it treats [black women] and the nation ignores this truth at its peril” (The New York Review of Books). Winner of the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction “If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free.” —Combahee River Collective Statement The Combahee River Collective, a path-breaking group of radical black feminists, was one of the most important organizations to develop out of the antiracist and women’s liberation movements of the 1960s and 70s. In this collection of essays and interviews edited by activist-scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, founding members of the organization and contemporary activists reflect on the legacy of its contributions to Black feminism and its impact on today’s struggles. “A striking collection that should be immediately added to the Black feminist canon.” —Bitch Media “An essential book for any feminist library.” —Library Journal “As white feminism has gained an increasing amount of coverage, there are still questions as to how black and brown women’s needs are being addressed. This book, through a collection of interviews with prominent black feminists, provides some answers.” —The Independent “For feminists of all kinds, astute scholars, or anyone with a passion for social justice, How We Get Free is an invaluable work.” —Ethnic and Racial Studies Journal

Towards the "Other America": Anti-Racist Resources for White People Taking Action for Black Lives Matter

Towards the
Author: Chris Crass
Publisher: Chalice Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2015-12-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780827237094

Chris Crass calls on all of us to join our values to the power of love and act with courage for a world where Black lives truly matter. A world where the death culture of white supremacy no longer devours the lives of Black people and no longer deforms the hearts and souls of white people. In addition to his own soul-searching essays and practical organizing advice in his "notes to activists," Chris Crass lifts up the voices of longtime white anti-racist leaders organizing in white communities for Black Lives Matter. Crass has collected lessons and vibrant examples of this work from rural working class communities in Kentucky and Maine, mass direct action in Wisconsin and New York, faith-based efforts among Jewish communities, Unitarian Universalists, and the United Church of Christ, and national efforts like Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) and Jewish Voice for Peace. "

Towards Collective Liberation

Towards Collective Liberation
Author: Chris Crass
Publisher: Pm Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2013
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781604866544

Towards Collective Liberation is for activists engaging with dynamic questions of how to create and support effective movements for visionary systemic change, namely those who wish to ensure that all movements are both feminist and anti-racist in nature. Drawing on two decades of personal activist experience and case studies of anti-racist social justice organisations, Crass insightfully explores ways of transforming divisions of race, class and gender into catalysts for powerful vision, strategy and movement building in the world today.

Pre-Post-Racial America

Pre-Post-Racial America
Author: Sandhya Rani Jha
Publisher: Chalice Press
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2015-03-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0827244932

Those people. Their issues. The day's news and the ways we treat each other, overtly or subliminally, prove we are not yet living in post-racial America. It's hard to talk about race in America without everyone very quickly becoming defensive and shutting down. What makes talking race even harder is that so few of us actually know each other in the fullness of our stories. A recent Reuters poll found 40% of White people have no friends of other races, and 25% of people of color only have friends of the same race. Sandhya Rani Jha addresses the hot topic in a way that is grounded in real people's stories and that offers solid biblical grounding for thinking about race relations in America, reminding us that God calls us to build Beloved Community. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter provide starting points for reading groups.

Organizing for Autonomy

Organizing for Autonomy
Author: Organization for a Free Society
Publisher:
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2020-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9781942173212

A revolutionary handbook to radical theory and history as well as an organizing model for how we get free."How can we get free? How can we free ourselves, our communities, our environments, our society? Our present is infused with incredible possibilities for realizing a free association of social individuals, sustainably regulating our relations within nature. Yet the material possibilities for the realization of this freedom remain trapped within a present that summons all available weapons of repression to contain and suppress it"The question of freedom is central to all revolutionary movements. It is at the root of everyday struggles to resist and overcome oppression. Often, the realities we face constrain how we understand this question, so we ask it in pieces. How do we provide for each other? How do we protect, nurture, care, love, create? These questions of survival and perseverance ask how we liberate ourselves from the hardships of enclosure, exploitation, and dependency that are imposed on our minds, bodies, communities, and environments."By laying bare the mechanisms of capitalism, imperialism, settler colonialism, climate catastrophe, heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, exploitation and dispossesion, and a range of other oppressive structures and countering them with a historical account of revolutionary movements from around the world, Organizing for Autonomynbsp; offers a brazen and determined articulation of a world that centers community, love, and justice.With an unparalleled breadth and by synthesizing innumerable sources of revolutionary thought and history, CounterPower presents the result of years of inquiry, struggle, and resistance. Bold, fearless, and radically original, Organizing for Autonomynbsp; imagines a decolonized, communist, alternative world order that is free from oppressive structures, state violence, and racial capitalism and helps us to get there.nbsp;nbsp;