Enough

Hello! Did anyone else feel a little demolished by Detroit? Amazing but exhausting. But I underwent a transformation at the U.S. Social Forum (at first I thought it was just regular emotional meltdown, but now I’m reconceptualizing it as transformation in honor of the USSF), a result of not eating or sleeping enough, doing too much, and extending myself far beyond my limits. The nonstop intensity was punctuated by moments of deep awe and inspiration, and since coming home I’ve been thinking so much about care and healing and community-building and how important they are as tools for movements. I was confronted with some important truths about my body’s capacity, in a space where I also got to be amazed by incredible organizers and healers and workshops about trauma, somatics, healing justice, accessibility and disability justice, and building communities of support and care. Exposure to all that amazingness can change a person! I’m landing back home committed to prioritizing those things even more, both in my life and my organizing. And not in a lip service-y way – in a real way.

I’ve been having great conversations about the multiplicity of forms that capitalism (patriarchy/ableism/colonization…) takes in our lives - like how easy it is for many of us to push ourselves too hard, to value tangible productivity over art, creativity, emotions, healing trauma, building relationships. I was talking the other day with my wonderful friend Susan about shifting paradigms, building communities rooted in interdependence. She observed that as much as we all now talk about interdependence, most of us don’t fully experience that in our current society – we get to taste pieces of it that leave us with questions and ideas. A lot of our work right now is about turning those ideas into tools and building them into strategies, practicing living the way we want to live in the world we want to live in.

For now, in the interest of ideas, I want to share some links that have been inspiring me lately:

First, I’ve been very obsessed with the Storytelling and Organizing Project website – they have tons of amazing audio recordings about community interventions in interpersonal violence. So important.

And Tiny’s piece about POOR Magazine’s time in Detroit:

In the U.S. we are all conditioned on the capitalist notion of independence, which demands separation of families from their elders, children from their parents and youth from their cultures…Our work as mamaz and fathers and grandfathers and grandmothers isn’t honored or considered. Our abilities to grow our own food, build our own houses, or comfort our folks, practice our traditions, honor our ancestors, take care of our elders – these aren’t considered “legitimate” forms of labor or real forms of work.

Also this recent post on Bilerico about building intersectional queer movements:

…collectivizing our movement strategies to get to the root of these issues is going to require that we share power, resources and remain authentically and deeply invested in one another’s individual and collective liberation. A tall order indeed when movement organizations and leadership are tied to a corporate funding system designed exquisitely to keep us from engaging in the hard conversations and ally building across communities that would bring us in strategic concert with one another.

And I’ve been wanting to link to this piece by Mia for so long but I keep forgetting. Everything she writes is amazing: Interdependency (exerpts from several talks)

We believe and swallow ableist notions that people should be “independent,” that we would never want to have to have a nurse, or not be able to drive, or not be able to see, or hear.  We believe that we should be able to do things on our own and push our selves (and the law) hard to ensure that we can.   We believe ableist heteronormative ideas that families should function as independent little spheres.  That I should just focus on MY family and make sure MY family is fed, clothed and provided for; that MY family inherits MY wealth; that families should not be dependent on the state or anyone else; that they should be “able-bodied,” essentially. We believe the ableist heteronormative racist classist myth that marriage, “independence” as sanctified through the state, is what we want because it allows us to be more “independent,” more “equal” to those who operate as if they are independent—That somehow, this makes us more “able.”

My favorite sociologist just sent me this link to an animation of part of a speech by David Harvey. Fun to watch. I wish someone would animate all the best speeches and articles so that more people would access them and enjoy them.

Also, here’s an article I wrote for the queer issue of Tikkun about the wealth redistribution and queer politics.

I just learned about this site which seems like a nice tool for starting conversations about wealth distribution and class. It doesn’t address stored wealth (like, I can imagine college students who don’t have jobs and are supported by their rich families and stand to inherit a lot putting in their income to happily discover that they aren’t rich), but it still seems like a useful intervention.  Also, I just stumbled across this new comic book about the economic crash.  I read it cover to cover in the bookstore cafe, thinking about whether it would be good to assign to my Poverty Law students since it both covers a lot of ground in terms of economic policy and describes social movement resistance work.

I’ve seen more cops on my block in the past 24 hours than I have in months – a series of fights and muggings have brought them out in ever-increasing force, reminding me vividly that I have been wanting to write about violence, about crisis and trauma in communities, and all the ways we deal with those things. I’m thinking about this in the context of the US Social Forum and the Allied Media Conference on the horizon, the convergence of so many queer/POC/women-led groups doing powerful anti-violence work (lots of links embedded towards the end of this post), and also in the context of my own relationship to violence and safety as a white person, as a trans person, as a person with class privilege, as a person read as female, as a survivor. (more…)

Hello! I just got back from the Bay Area where among many things I had the pleasure of co-hosting a house party for POOR Magazine, and it reminded me that I should post that interview/conversation I did with Tiny in the last issue of make/shift. So here it is! Though you should really buy the magazine – you get lots of other amazing articles, plus an extra cute and dorky picture of me and Tiny.

Hi friends, I wanted to pass along two links.  First, this article that talks about how the gap between Black and white household accumulated wealth quadrupled from 1984 to 2007.  Second, this link to the Democracy Now coverage of the ongoing strike at the  University of Puerto Rico.

One of our readers wrote in with a really interesting question that I’m hoping you will all have feedback about:

“I’m writing because I’m looking for support, feedback, strategies and this seems like a really good place to find it.  the subject is: a cross-class intimate relationship where the two people involved come from different class backgrounds AND, most saliently, have really different levels of access to money/resources right now.  and, maybe, they want to embark on a big land-based project together (with other folks involved, but as the primary movers).  this project will require many resources from both of them, but money can only come from one.  you see how some issues might come up where support and strategies would be very helpful!”

Please share your thoughts by commenting.  Thanks!

I wanted to pass along this statement from La Raza Centro Legal that provides some useful info about current immigration reform proposals.

WE DON’T WANT JUST ANY IMMIGRATION REFORM!

Last week, we witnessed the powerful marches of immigrant communities in Washington D.C., and in other cities, in support of “immigration reform.”  These righteous protests allowed those impacted by unfair immigration laws to remind lawmakers of what they are demanding:  legalization for themselves and their families.

But some of the groups that organized the march in Washington, led by beltway advocates like the National Immigration Forum and the National Council of La Raza, are supporting policies beyond legalization which actually harm immigrant communities. (more…)

Sorry for the lengthy silence. I’ve missed you! I’ve been thinking about so many Enough-related things lately – somehow I live this charmed life in which creative anti-capitalist projects and conversations surround me – and I’ve been wanting and planning to write about them all here, but, well – I haven’t. But I will! I guess I’ve been busy, with many things, some of which I am going to tell you about now. Also, let’s be real – it was winter, and sometimes winter can tend to drag on, and for some of us who are from Texas the lack of warmth and sunshine can have the effect of my life completely falling apart a slight decrease in productivity. But the sun is back and cherry blossoms are blooming all over Philadelphia, and I’ve been wearing shorts and sitting on my roof and planning a garden and I’ve been filled with joy and exuberance and also, of course, anticapitalist fervor. The feelings go hand in hand, really. We should make up a new word for anticapitalism, something positive, don’t you think? Because when I say I’m against capitalism, what I really mean is that I’m for, you know – liberation and people taking care of each other and collectivity and spiritual wholeness and cherry blossoms and such. Anyway, the point is, I really do believe in my heart that springtime = more writing on Enough. And that doesn’t just mean me and Dean, it means you too! Okay?

Hello dear Enough readers, I promise we haven’t abandoned you! I have a new piece to post, by the incomparable Jessica Hoffmann: The Practice of Freedom: A History of the Self Education Foundation.

The story of SEF has inspired me for years – they were a very small, very grassroots funding project run mostly by young women – organizers and activists who had few sources of individual wealth but shared an expansive vision of self-education that was rooted in social justice movements. None of the founders and organizers were traditional philanthropists – they just wanted to direct whatever resources they could to support the movements that inspired and sustained them. I’ve learned so much from being connected to some of the organizers of this project and hearing their reflections and anecdotes, and I’m very excited to be able to share this written history. Their story is especially inspiring in this era of professionalized social change work – SEF is a great example of what capitalism often makes us forget: that change is created by regular folks with vision and creativity, learning as we go, making mistakes, making up new models, taking risks, working together. Check it out.