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Building grassroots power to end racism in an election year; apply for the Braden Program or become a Catalyst intern; bring Catalyst to your organization... and more!
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Building Grassroots Power to End Racism:
The 2012 Elections and Beyond
Election Year: Race and the Economy Front and Center
Why would an organization like Catalyst Project, which is invested in revolutionary transformation, put out a toolkit on how to engage in the 2012 U.S. elections? Regardless of the outcomes, the 2012 elections are a time when race and the economy will be in the news and on people’s minds. Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, his presidency, and now his re-election campaign have brought race front and center into U.S. public debate. From “the Food Stamp President” to Islamophobic fear-mongering, the Right has shown no limits in its willingness to launch racist attacks to discredit and take down the Obama Administration. Meanwhile, the deepening of the economic crisis and the rise of the Occupy movement have shone the light on the intensifying impacts of austerity policies.
This is an opportunity to engage in conversations with everyday people across the political spectrum, to highlight racism and wealth inequality as the drivers of the current crisis we are in, and to bring more people into the struggle for racial, economic, and ecological justice. This is a historic time, and an opportunity for anti-racist white organizers to push ourselves to engage in the conversations happening all around us, bringing a perspective grounded in the need for collective action at and beyond the polls. This toolkit aims to increase attention and action in white communities on the issues of structural racism that campaign headlines invoke. The toolkit is designed to support anti-racist white people to use the political moment of the 2012 US elections to organize discussions on issues of race raised by the elections with white folks who don't usually have explicit conversations about racism, and to build support for local racial justice struggles.
Ballots and Beyond: Using the Momentum of the 2012 Election to Engage our Communities in Anti-Racist work is one contribution to the long-term project of engaging tens of thousands of white people in effective, accountable anti-racist work. It offers discussion questions, activities and other organizing and fundraising tools to host dinner-table discussions across the country on race and the elections. Our hope is that this project can contribute to a larger change in cultural norms so that conversations and collective action against racism are something that white people do together on a mass scale in connection with multiracial movements. The toolkit is our latest experiment in finding ways to support people in our network to bring more people into grassroots organizing and deeper political consciousness. Voting rights is a key terrain of struggle for all of us working to end racism. While our politics may not center on electoral work, progressive victories in this arena and the defense of civil rights are of profound significance to all of us who are committed to justice. The Ballots and Beyond project asks:
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Where are there opportunities in local or national election arenas to advance racial and economic justice?
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How are the ideas and policies we are hearing from Democrats and Republicans highlighting the racism and economic inequality in our social system, and how do we help people to engage with these contradictions?
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What are the opportunities locally and nationally to address the massive disenfranchisement of working-class communities of color that we have seen through restricting the voting rights of imprisoned and formerly imprisoned people, immigrant and migrant communities, and the recent wave of laws requiring voters to present ID cards at voting stands?
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What additional opportunities do we see locally and nationally for folks to plug into movements for racial and economic justice inside and outside of the electoral system, and how can we use the elections as a moment to galvanize people?
Read the rest of this article on our homepage about engaging the contradictions of U.S. elections with the Ballots and Beyond organizing project, and check out how to get involved.
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Bring Catalyst to your Campus or Organization
As part of our National Political Education program Catalyst Project leads participatory trainings and organizes educational panels for organizations around the country. Bring us to your campus, community or organizaiton to do a training on any of these topics:
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Anti-Racism for Collective Liberation
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Anti-Racist Organizing Strategies
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Movements Against Empire at Home and Abroad
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Nonviolent Direct Action & Collective Liberation
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Grassroots Fundraising as Organizing
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Building Collective Leadership
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September 15th, 2012 is the deadline to apply for the 4th Anne Braden Program!
Join more than 100 activists around the country who have devleoped their anti-racist organizing practice through this transformative program. Applications available online.
This 4 month political education and leadership development program is designed to support the vision, strategy, and organizing skills of white activists in becoming accountable, principled anti-racist organizers building multiracial movements for justice.
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Occupying Privilege
Conversations on Love, Race, & Liberation
Order this new book by JLove Calderon where many of today’s cultural icons–writers, activists, educators, and artists offer unique and fresh perspectives on white supremacy, white privilege, and racial justice. Part of the proceeds go to supporting Catalyst Project's anti-racist organzing and political education.
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YOU make Catalyst's work possible!
Catalyst Project's work is made possible by grassroots donations from people like you! We rely solely on donations from our community to fund our anti-racist political education and organizing work. Make a donation today to support the Anne Braden Program and our work to develop anti-racist leadership.
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Catalyst Fall Internship
Catalyst Project internships combine administrative support, program support, grassroots fundraising, political education, community engagement, and mentorship by Catalyst staff and movement leaders.
Interning with Catalyst is a great way to make a big contribution to our efforts for anti-racist movement building, to connect with anti-racist community, and explore organizational skill-building. Previous interns have taken skills developed with us into their communities, paid work, and organizing efforts in a variety of ways. We are now accepting applications for fall internships. The minimum commitment is 15 hours a week for 3 months or more.
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Copyright © 2012 Catalyst Project, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you signed up on our website, www.collectiveliberation.org.
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