Values

Racism is a fundamental force keeping systemic injustice in place, and white people have a strategic role to play and a stake in ending white supremacy.

  • White supremacy is a major barrier to ending all systems of oppression, including capitalism, patriarchy, homophobia, and others.
  • We believe that white people have a stake and a role in fighting for racial justice, and that not only our humanity but also our collective liberation depends on ending white supremacy.
  • Since the colonization of the Americas, white ruling elites have used racism to divide white people from people of color so that they can maintain power. In order to win a better life for the multiracial working class, a segment of the white population must break from the white ruling class and move into solidarity with communities of color. It is in the interest of the vast majority of white people to fight racism and join forces with the global majority for the sake of our lives, the survival of the planet, and a world where all can live with dignity.
  • We see working with other white people as a strategic way to support building multiracial movements for justice.
  • White people are best positioned to organize other white people into anti-racist solidarity, which is why we focus on building the leadership and capacity of anti-racist white people to be visionary, strategic and accountable members and leaders within multiracial, cross-class Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) led movements for racial and economic justice.

Intersectionality is the path to collective liberation; our liberation is intertwined with that of oppressed people around the world.

  • Histories of social movements show that those most impacted by systems of oppression have unique insights into how those systems work and the strategies required to undo them. We center the leadership of those most impacted by intersecting systems of oppression for this reason.
  • Within white anti-racist spaces, we look to white people who experience oppression alongside white privilege for their unique understandings of those oppressive systems.
  • If we don’t organize from an intersectional orientation, people whose leadership we need are left behind. We refuse to abandon some for the benefit of a privileged few.
  • As white people in the US, we have a responsibility to resist US imperialism. We have much to learn from oppressed communities around the world who’ve resisted colonial and imperial powers.

We need movements full of leaders.

  • The role of the organizer is to build more leaders. Our movements are stronger when we collectivize leadership and see all of us as potential leaders, organizers, and strategists.
  • We need white people taking bolder anti-racist action, not shrinking away from our responsibility to act and only acting when directed to by BIPOC leaders.
  • We value leadership from the bottom up and leading from the center instead of critiquing from the sidelines.
  • Our movements are stronger when we engage in principled struggle over differences; they are weakened by sectarian fighting over who has the most correct approach.
  • We need multiracial, multitendency, intergenerational movements that welcome in everyone who wants to live in a more just world.

Accountability is a practice.

  • Accountability to BIPOC communities/organizations/movements is integral to white anti-racism and we demonstrate it through action.
  • White people are encouraged by white supremacy to avoid accountability for systemic and individual harm. To build a more just world, white people must transform this tendency within ourselves and within the institutions that uphold white supremacy. This includes organizing for repair for past harm, to end racism in the present, and to dismantle systems of white supremacy. This is white people’s work.

Study and action go hand in hand.

  • Collective study has always been a part of revolutionary movements. Learning together builds our collective strength.
  • Understanding history and how things got to be this way is a crucial step in learning how to change things. Our movement is stronger when it incorporates lessons from many histories and traditions of successful organizing.
  • True understanding of systems of power often comes from below, so we prioritize learning from those most affected by oppression. We value grassroots working class intellectualism. We value knowledge from the streets and the factories and the working class struggle!
  • People develop and move much quicker when they are in motion. Experience provides context for understanding history and new concepts.

Relationships are the foundation of our movements.

  • Our power is in our relationships and connections to each other. Therefore, we must act in ways that build relationship and connection. Racial capitalism pushes people away from one another, and there is revolutionary potential in building new ways to be together.
  • We intentionally build a culture of appreciation, and we value all kinds of labor/contributions, especially reproductive labor and other work that is traditionally done by women, trans, and non-binary people.
  • When we invite people to show up as their full selves, our relationships and organizations are stronger. Laughter, vulnerability and joy feed our connections.

We are transformed in the process of transforming society.

  • We organize from a place of love and possibility and vision. We believe in the possibility of our people and their transformation.
  • We know that the personal is political and that personal and social transformation are inextricable.
  • No one is disposable. Mistakes are inevitable in the process of transformation, so we approach the work with humility and courage, and focus on learning and repair instead of punishment and disposability.




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Catalyst Project organizes, trains, and mentors white activists and majority-white organizations to be bold, strategic and accountable anti-racist leaders as a part of multiracial movements for liberation. Support this work with a gift today.

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Catalyst Project: A Project of the Tides Center