|
NOTE FROM IIMAY HO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF RG
I spent most of last weekend in a puddle of sadness and overwhelm. Nothing was okay. Nothing I did mattered. Ominous Election Day countdown emails crowded my inbox (26 days until the apocalypse!). I had a meltdown about accidentally buying chicken sausage instead of pork sausage (true story). Does this sound familiar to you? Perhaps you too have had a meltdown about groceries that was really existential dread about the threats of the pandemic, rising fascism, and climate disaster?
As I talk to friends and family and colleagues about this moment I hear a lot of similar themes about anxiety, fear, and grief. It comforts me to know I’m not alone and that this is a collective experience. At the same time I know that I have a particular experience of class privilege and access to wealth that buffer me from the worst impacts of the pandemic, and that my class privilege patterns often get activated under times of stress and uncertainty.
I want to share my reflections on how my class privilege patterns are showing up right now with the hope that it invites other young people with class privilege to practice self-reflection, connection, and accountability so that we can bring our most grounded selves to movements.
Read the rest of Iimay's blog post, “Class Privilege Patterns in Times of Stress and Uncertainty" here.
-- Iimay, RG Executive Director
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY
Today marks Indigenous Peoples’ Day, an important day of reclamation. Achieving RG’s mission of a world where wealth, land, and power are distributed equitably requires the recognition, respect, and full sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples.
The racial wealth gap in this country could not exist as it does if not for the theft and exploitation of Native lands. It’s time for systems of power and individuals with wealth to give that land back!
Join us in supporting the official launch of the #LANDBACK Campaign - a campaign to return Native land to its rightful stewards.
This year has been a whirlwind of avoidable catastrophes and also of unstoppable uprisings in support of Black Life, and awe-inspiring Indigenous land defense. This summer, as confederate statues around the country fell, Mt. Rushmore -a blatant symbol of white supremacy- was also put under the spotlight. Indigenous land defenders protested Trump’s visit to Mt. Rushmore, calling for a return of the Black Hills.
Take action
The scope of public land returns being called for by the #LANDBACK campaign are rightfully on a scale that governments must account for.
On a much smaller scale, those of us with class privilege can do our part to support this vital work through donations to the campaign and to other Black and Indigenous-led land projects and by returning land we or our family have access to. The accumulation of stolen land has been central to the accumulation of stolen wealth. We understand land returns as a critical tool of wealth redistribution and repair.
Art for Resource Generation by @ashlukadraws
RG’s Land Reparations working group recently created a guide for people with wealth or other resources who are interested in land returns and supporting land justice.
We also encourage RG members to commit to a yearly practice of paying Indigenous Land Tax to the tribe whose land you occupy, and organize any institutions you are a part of to do the same.
If you are someone with race and/or class privilege who is interested in doing land returns, please do your work with peers first. Please email [email protected] to be added onto the RG land reparations listserv.
WE SAY HER NAME: BREONNA TAYLOR
RG national staff are enraged, we are grieving, we aren't surprised, we are ready to throw down, we are tired, and we are here to support our members to respond.
We are committed to supporting this fight alongside the Movement for Black Lives, for Breonna Taylor and the list of names that is painfully long and growing. In addition to mobilizing resources, we are committed to organizing alongside M4BL for policy demands and structural change, both locally (in Louisville & beyond) as well as nationally (in the form of legislation like The Breathe Act).
If you're interested in getting more involved in these efforts, contact your regional organizer.
Statement from RG national campaign partner, The Movement For Black Lives:
"Last month, a wall in Kentucky — an inanimate object — received more justice than Breonna Taylor. The Attorney General of Kentucky announced a meaningless indictment of first degree wanton endangerment against one of the three police officers who killed Breonna Taylor in her home on the night of March 13, 2020.
Wanton endangerment, a low-level felony, is a charge often used in accidental injuries and implies minimal responsibility for the death or injury. This charge is connected to shooting into the neighboring apartment unit, but not the murder of Breonna Taylor. She deserved so much more.
This indictment is another clear and egregious reminder that the criminal-legal system in Louisville - and in this country - does not value Black people or see us as deserving of protection from those who have taken an oath to ‘protect and serve’. This is why we must organize and not stop until ALL Black people are free.
To support local Louisville organizing, give to these organizations:
The six local demands are:
1) Immediately fire and revoke the pensions of the officers that murdered Breonna.
2) Divest from LMPD and invest in community building.
3) The immediate resignation (or impeachment) of Mayor Greg Fischer.
4) Metro Council ends use of force by Louisville Metro Police Department. Police shootings are gun violence.
5) Establish a local, civilian community police accountability council that is independent from the Mayor’s Office and LMPD with investigation and discipline power #CPAC.
6) The creation of policy to ensure transparent investigation processes."
RG'S WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION FOR BLACK LIVES
SUMMER & 2020 FUNDRAISING GOALS!
We met our national goal of raising $1M for the Black-led Southern Power Fund, with over $1.2M in pledges! A big shoutout to over 40 pledges and $230K which came through in the last 48 hours before the Sept 30 deadline!
It’s incredible to see the RG community showing up to resource Black-led liberation, vision, and people through the pain of the last few weeks. Powerful leadership and work are being built, supported, and shown serious love right now.
If you missed the deadline, you can still donate, and funds will go towards seeding a long term fund to resource the South, governed by long-term, Black centered movement leadership. Learn more and donate here.
***
We’ve raised $3M to our $5M goal for the Movement for Black Lives -- $2M MORE TO GO ASAP!
Black-led organizing has catalyzed the biggest social movement in U.S. history and will continue to lead with transformative vision regardless of the election results. Let’s keep the momentum building in these last few weeks leading up to the election.
We have an important role to play in helping to fund a generation of Black-led, liberatory organizing, so give today to help us reach our goal!
UPCOMING RG WEBINARS & ONLINE EVENTS!
Making Money Make Change - a virtual event!
Join us for a 2-day virtual version of MMMC to connect around what it means to be young people with class privilege who believe in racial and economic justice.
We’ll convene Friday Nov. 13th and Saturday Nov. 14th from 1-6pm ET/10-3pm PT.
This two day version of the conference will include workshops, panels, small group conversations and plenaries.
Topics will include: how to apply a reparation lens to your giving, how young people with class privilege can support calls to defund the police, supporting Black and Indigenous land returns, lessons learned from social justice movement leaders about organizing in these times and more.
MMMC is for people 18-35, to learn more if the conference is right for you and to register at makingmoneymakechange.org. Spots are limited, register now, and share with others who might be interested.
**If you have attended a national conference before and would like to help lead the small group conversations please fill out this form.
**If you would like to attend but have a conflict over part of the time (including observing Shabbat) please be in touch to discuss options.**
-
RG 101 Virtual Orientation Space
New to RG? Know folks in your network who have class privilege? Join our RG 101 Orientation!
Join us on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 4:00 - 5:30PM ET/1:00 - 2:30 PM PT for our monthly RG 101 Orientation space! This virtual hang out/webinar/meeting serves as an onboarding space for new RGers! We’ll be sharing about what RG does, who we are, do some story-telling about our class backgrounds (aka "money stories"), and share ways to plug into RG’s work!
This is for folks who are in chapter areas and folks who are not :)
CHAPTER & STUDENT UPDATES
RG Bay Area (BARG)
Campaigns team is hosting a series of virtual BARG Phone banks where we'll be making calls for campaigns at every level of government. This will be our major campaign push for this fall.
We have been holding biweekly community calls to create an informal space for chapters members to discuss the issues that are important to them. Recent topics include family issues, ethics around buying a house, planning for retirement, climate justice, arts funding, co-working on giving plans.
Six praxis groups started in September: Jewish praxis, tech worker praxis, a South Bay praxis group and three white anti-racist praxis groups.
Our chapter is adopting sociocracy, to reflect RG's values around relational organizing and sharing power.
RG Boston
RG Boston and the emerging Connecticut crew came together for a powerful Southern Power Fund Story Share and Fundraiser in late September. We explored the ways that our money stories intersect with the US South, debunking myths about racism in the North, and moving over $60K to Black-led Southern organizations!
Boston is hosting praxis starting in mid-November, will be taking on Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) fundraising in the fall with other chapters and leaders in New England, and recently joined a collaboration with four other local organizations to host regular Action Circles for abolitionist campaigns.
RG D.C.
RG DC is launching a follow-up campaign to our mutual aid campaign in the spring, focused on supporting local abolition organizing. Given a lot of member growth in the last year, we have moved to a sociocracy model, adding 5 working groups around leaderful—Base Building, Political Ed, Divestment, Systems Change/Tax Justice and Campaigns. A recent highlight was 2 members testifying before city council as part of a local coalition against a regressive tax proposal and in support of taxing wealth in order to meet immediate economic needs. We were inspired by RG Boston’s incredible open letter, and are excited to increase our advocacy as well as to finish 2020 off with a strong fundraising campaign for M4BL groups/local black led abolition organizing.
RG NYC
...is keeping busy. We're launching a fundraising project for M4BL, new issue based Action circles around Housing Justice and Abolition and an experimental Mini Praxis based on the Virtual Praxis that National ran this summer!
RG Philly
The Philly Chapter has had an unprecedented summer of on boarding new people. We've done over 50 1-1s with new people, including people that were just finishing a praxis groups, to plug them into other projects in the chapter. We started a monthly newsletter and a Resource Mobilization Committee. We started working on using a new leadership structure using representatives from each of our committees; Base-Building, Political Action, and Resource Mobilization. This month, we bid ado to our interim paid organizer, Maisie, and are welcoming Nicole, our new Mid-Atlantic chapter organizer.
RG Portland
Portland RG finished up 2 spring praxis groups a while ago, and new praxis groups are in the works, starting later this month. We're also jumping in on phone banking and other election work before November.
We also have a collaborative event coming up: an online panel about wealth redistribution, shame, privilege and barriers to giving, in collaboration with MRG Foundation. Two RGers are on the panel alongside an older MRG donor. We hope the conversation will help shift some of MRG's older, wealthy donors out of fear and false scarcity, and towards transformative giving -- especially in the aftermath of the election. (The event is Nov 5, 6-7pm PST, and open to all! Register here)
RG Vermont
RG Vermont recently finished its 3-month Summer Series (from July-September) where members came together virtually once a month to discuss class privilege patterns, the racial wealth gap and accountability to movements and cross-class relationships. The chapter is excited to be hosting another round of praxis in the coming months and continuing to build power with the Vermont Worker Center and The Root Social Justice Center.
RG Western MA
...recently transitioned to a sociocracy (democratic system of governance) model / structure to deepen leadership development opportunities for chapter members and further transparency and ownership amongst the three teams (Action, Redistribution and Member)! In recent months, the Redistribution Team has created a shared bank account to respond to local redistribution asks from individuals and organizations, and continues to dig into learning and experimentation together and in relationships with partners.
--
***RG has several local chapters across the U.S. and growing! If you are interested in connecting with your local RG chapter or community to support local mutual aid efforts (and the long-term fight for social justice!), please check out the RG intake form.
ABOUT THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
The days after the election will be an intense period of time filled with openings to organize people toward social justice. We are committed to vote for the terrain on which we want to organize, and encourage RG chapters to come out to phone banking, text banking, and other get out the vote efforts that build year round community power and grassroots capacity.
We are also preparing for the possibility of a contested election and escalated state and white supremacist violence.
Resources and actions to take now:
FROM PARTNERS
RG STAFFING ANNOUNCEMENTS
RG is growing and we have some exciting staffing updates to share! We currently have a multi-racial, cross-class team of 20 full-time staff. With member support we’ve been able to grow our staff and capacity even in the midst of the uncertainty of the pandemic. We’re so excited to have welcomed six people onto our staff this year to build our organizing, reach new constituents, and strengthen our operations and digital organizing. Please give a warm welcome to our new staff:
- Nadav, New England Regional Organizer (joined in Apr 2020) Nadav (he/him) is a multiethnic organizer with Mizrahi (Arab Jewish) and Ashkenazi (Eastern European Jewish) roots. He was born in Jerusalem and grew up in the Bay Area in a professional/managerial class family. For several years, Nadav’s political and spiritual home has been at Kavod, a community that integrates Jewish practice and organizing. He’s led solidarity economy and abolitionist projects, in partnership with organizations such as Boston Ujima Project and Muslim Justice League, and co-facilitates a Jews of Color, Indigenous Jews, Sephardi & Mizrahi (JOCISM) caucus. Before joining staff in April, Nadav first connected with RG Boston in 2017 and participated in Praxis. He previously worked as a financial coach supporting families living in subsidized housing programs. Outside of movement work, he’s nourished by singing in community, making playlists, spending time in the nearby arboretum and watching/playing basketball.
- Charlotte, Operations Associate (joined in May 2020) Charlotte (she/her) is originally from the Bronx, NY and comes from a working class background. Prior to joining RG, she worked as a Grassroots Mobilization Associate at a lobbying organization in DC, where she organized nearly 100,000 folks around federal policies for social change. She holds a bachelors in African & African American Studies and Theology. Her race and ethnic background, coupled with her faith, is what informs her desire and motivation to promote justice and equity in her everyday work. When she’s not working, she enjoys taking long walks, window shopping, trying new foods, and listening to music.
- Falon, Database and Digital Engagement Manager (joined in July 2020) Falon (she/her) is an organizer and digital strategist with almost a decade of experience building campaigns for environmental equity, tenants' rights and political education. Falon is invested in using technology to support sustainable political transformation that centers transparency and accountability. Although not an RG constituent, she believes in the power of redistribution and is excited to cultivate meaningful cross-class relationships as the Database and Digital Engagement Manager.
- Caroline, Membership Coordinator (joined in Sept 2020) Caroline (she/her) comes from Ashkenazi Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust and western European settlers who were repeatedly on the frontlines of settler-colonial violence and land theft in the U.S. She's been active in racial justice, migrant justice, abolition, health & healing justice, and queer liberation movements for many years and learned what organizing to win looks like from working alongside and learning from criminalized undocumented peoples' movements in Arizona. As a white managerial class person, she's clear that none of us can truly live with safety and dignity until all of us can, and our collective liberation requires building strong cross-class, multiracial movements led by Black, Indigenous and people of color and poor and working class people. She currently lives on Narragansett, Pokanoket, and Wampanoag land (also known as Providence RI), and can often be found looking at bugs, building extensive domino runs, and imagining she's on Jupiter with her four year old.
- Nicole (she/her) is RG’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Organizer (joined in Sept 2020) and will work with RG’s Philly, New York City, and DC chapters as well as budding chapters in the region. A member & chapter leader in the NYC chapter over the last 3 years, Nicole has found her political home in organizing other young people with wealth and class privilege to build a more just world. She also volunteers with Survived & Punished NY to both free and end the criminalization of survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Prior to RG, Nicole worked at NorthLight Foundation and the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund. Outside of organizing, you can find Nicole running, reading, or talking with a friend.
- keithlee, College Organizer (joined in Sept 2020) keithlee (they/them) grew up in a working class family in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. They are a founding organizer of the DMV (D.C., Maryland, Virginia) De-escalation Collective, which trains people in de-escalation strategies to prevent and interrupt state violence. keithlee is committed to organizing at the intersections of disability justice, abolition, racial justice, and poor/working class solidarity. They love listening to podcasts about spirituality, fermenting vegetables, and doodling on post-its. keithlee lives on unceded Nacotchtank (Anacostan) and Piscataway land in Washington, D.C. with their chosen family and their dog, Yuba.
Faisal’s Sabbatical
We also want to wish Faisal, our Associate Director, well as he starts his 3-month sabbatical this week. Faisal joined the RG team in January 2016 as the Events and Operations Associate and we have benefited so much from his growing leadership as our staff and operations have increased in size and complexity. We are so glad to support him with his sustainability and wellness as he takes this break. Etta M., Director of Operations Initiatives and Events, will be Acting Associate Director while Faisal is out, so please contact Etta ([email protected]) if you have any questions related to our operations and finances.
Learn more about RG membership here
|
|
