[Peace] anti-racism workshop, anyone?

[adm mulblackberry]

Hello everybody,
This is Andrea that came to visit Urbana in January and put together
the anti-racism discussion at the yurt with Nikki, Billy, and Celeste.
The anti-racism education collective I'm part of here in Oakland is heading
east in March, and will be well positioned to be in Urbana on March 23-24.
Would anyone be interested in hosting us for a workshop? 2 of us are
driving across. For the spring we're looking for $200 for the workshop,
hopefully through university student funding or some other such source...this
is to fund us doing grassroots stuff in the summer (which y'all are,
more). Anyhow, if you're interested, please write back and let me know.
If the $ is an issue, we should talk about the summer time.
Below is the basic info on what we're doing.
Best to you all,
Andrea del Moral


Active Solidarity
A collective for anti-racist education

Overview:  
White supremacy has played a divisive and crippling role in virtually
every radical movement in US history. Active Solidarity¡¦s workshop intends
to dissect the historical origins and inner workings of racism. The workshop
explores the origins and institutional manifestations of white supremacy
and how it relates to other forms of systemic oppression, through hierarchy
and domination. The workshop then takes an in-depth look at the ways
in which racial prejudice and privilege affect the agendas and internal
dynamics of revolutionary projects.  We then suggest tools and strategies
to overcome these obstacles and build effective, multi-racial movements
for radical social change.

We Aim To¡K
„« Strengthen people¡¦s ability to challenge white privilege and to work
for racial justice.
„« Provide a general knowledge of the historical development and present
functions of the construct of race, racism, and white supremacy.
„« Examine how they function in and inhibit society and social movements.
„« Provide historical examples of resistance to racism.
„« Examine the impact of racism and white privilege on past and present
revolutionary movements.
„« Examine ways in which racism interlocks with and upholds other systems
of oppression.
„« Emphasize the fundamental role of anti-racist analysis and action
within the framework of participants¡¦ work.
„« Provide anti-racist workshops for a broad spectrum of audiences, while
focusing on the most relevant issues for each group. 
„« Use forms of popular and participatory education within the workshops.
„« Provide concrete resources for participants interested in further
anti-racist studies and projects.


Audience:  
Since racism was created and is perpetuated by white people, we see our
responsibility, as white people, to be involved with the education of
other white people who are working for change. We strive at building
an inclusive space for all people and will never put up a ¡§Whites Only¡¨
sign. But we will focus in this workshop on the responsibility of white
people to actively challenge and change their participation in racism.



Why We Do These Workshops:
The vast majority of multi-racial movements for both reform and/or revolution
have been greatly effected by forms of racism. Throughout history we
have seen these forces destroy all chances of re-creating society into
liberatory structures.  The current movement against global capitalism,
and the emerging movement against war abroad and racism at home, would
greatly benefit from an expanded and enhanced understanding of the institutional
workings of racism. The media represents these movements most visibly
through the voices of privileged people¡Xspecifically, people of white
privilege. As white people, we have a responsibility then to educate
ourselves about movements of oppressed peoples, and challenge dynamics
of privilege and power within our organizations.  In looking specifically
at the system of white supremacy, it is crucial that white people understand
the ways they benefit structurally and socially from white skin privilege,
and how this privilege informs the way they organize.  

The movement for global justice is now beginning to critique capitalism.
The anarchist component is pushing that analysis to encompass a deconstruction
of the state and other hierarchical institutions of power.  We want to
expand this effort because we see confronting specific forms of hierarchy
such as white supremacy, patriarchy and heterosexism as essential to
developing effective revolutionary strategies that can confront the current
systems of power.  This workshop focuses on white supremacy because as
a collective made up of young white, straight/queer/male/female people,
we recognize it as a point that has not been thoroughly examined by current
sectors of these social movements. This is not to suggest that dealing
with other systems of oppression are anywhere close to complete.

It is vital that the movements against global capitalism and domination
emphasize the creating of visions for the world we want to live in. We
believe in working towards a future, while actively struggling against
existing realities.  We need the voices and visions of all oppressed
people to collectively create revolutionary change and construct counter-institutions
because those most oppressed by capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy,
heterosexism, etc. often have the clearest perspectives on how those
hierarchies and systems of oppression manifest themselves.  

Workshops on confronting racism are one way to broaden our analysis to
include an anti-racist perspective on social change. This space can inform
our visions and organizing methods, and thus strengthen our movements.
 These workshops are not one stop fix all workshops, but they are a step
towards unraveling white supremacy. We challenge people to a discussion
of how white people can make their work actively anti-racist, and how
to become strong allies to oppressed peoples already involved in struggles
for global justice.

What We Expect From Host Groups or Organizations:
„« Funding: We are a collective of young organizers, from around the
United States. In order to cover our travel expenses we ask groups with
funding to contribute money for the workshop.  We recognize that organizations
have a wide range of resources, so we don¡¦t require a set amount.  We
ask that the host group cover the reading packet which participants will
receive and a stipend for the presenters.  We are fairly flexible and
can work out just what those costs will be on a group to group basis.
 
„« Housing: We ask host groups to help us find a place to crash while
presenting in your town. Don¡¦t worry, we¡¦re not too messy, aren¡¦t
too picky about the floors we sleep on and we like to think we¡¦re pretty
friendly and fun people.
„« Securing Space and Time: We ask that host groups secure a space for
the workshop to be held in.  An open room with electricity (preferred),
and enough space for however many participants the host group expects
will do fine.  Please book the space for enough time for set up, the
workshop, and pack up time (around 5 hours).
„« Outreach: Groups hosting the workshop will have to do their own outreach
for the workshop events.  Since we don¡¦t live in your town, and don¡¦t
know your activist community or organization we can¡¦t do the outreach
to get folks out to the event.  We will provide groups doing that outreach
with materials, such as a template poster with all the information about
the workshops (and stylish pictures as well), and the host group can
fill in the specific site and time information, and do advertising as
they see fit to get people to attend the workshop.

Who Are We?
We are a group of young, white, straight and queer, women and men who
come out of many different backgrounds, from all over the country.  We
are working for change in many ways. Some of us work in neighborhoods,
others on a national level. We have come together as people who have
spent the past couple of years disrupting global capitalism in North
America and striving to understand the systems of oppression that keep
us all down. We are all engaged in a current dialog within these movements,
about how to forward anti-racist agendas. We push the importance of illustrating
the crucial connections between global financial institutions and their
local consequences right here in the ¡§First World.¡¨  

In addition, we see that the predominantly white sectors of the movement
against global capitalism, as a traveling movement, has difficulty establishing
the forms of accountability so necessary to building solidarity with
local resisters to global capital.  We believe that such solidarity is
crucial to creating a popular movement that can topple all oppressive
systems of power and usher in a just and free society.  Therefore, it
is our intent to address and work on uprooting the racist dynamics at
play in our groups and movement and build relationships of solidarity
and common cause with local organizations, especially those with constituents
of color.  We intend to have sustained involvement in long-term campaigns
that challenge unjust and undemocratic institutions.  We view this work
as an important component of the movement against global capitalism.


-- 
adm mulblackberry
libreplanet at onebox.com - email
(510) 343-2139 x4511 - voicemail/fax



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