Below you will find:

• Required readings
• Readings for the Zionism webinar (for everyone) and the Challenging Male Supremacy (for people with male privilege)
• Readings for the case studies on imperialism for each magical creature group
• Recommended readings

We are assigning some readings that were difficult for us to read. And we’re going to talk about some theories that are difficult to grasp. It’s totally normal to struggle to read theoretical pieces that weren’t written for mass consumption. But we think it’s worth it, because how we understand what we’re up against impacts what we think the solutions are, and how we need to organize to get there.  In order to do that we need to know the history that we’ve been denied through traditional school systems.

If you’re struggling with reading, reach out to others in the group to read together, or get help on terms you’re struggling with. We’ve also created this glossary to support with key terms. All audio and video that didn’t have accompanying transcripts or accurate closed captioning is transcribed, with links here

A note on the readings: Readings are provided free for use by participants studying in the Anne Braden Training Program for Anti-Racist Organizers, a noncommercial, nonprofit educational program. We encourage everyone to honor the emotional and intellectual labor of these authors by buying the works from which excerpts have been taken where possible. This is especially important as we all have white skin privilege and many of these authors are folks of color. When sharing any of these readings with your comrades, please also pass on this message.

All of these categories overlap, and many of these readings are deeply intersectional. We offered these categories to help you all pull out themes, but take them with a grain of salt and look for interconnections.

Enjoy!

Required Readings

Anti-Black Racism and Black Liberation

• Movement for Black Lives, Reparations Toolkit: Read  p8-16, 19-29, 32-40, 88-94. (36 pgs, entire toolkit is recommended.)
• I am Not Your Negro (strongly recommend whole movie, last 30 mins required) 
  • To access go to amazon.com, login: dylcooke@gmail.com, password: JamesBaldwinIsGod, find movie on prime movies by searching. If you get a request for a code to login to amazon, clear your cookies on your browser and log in again. Here’s how to do that on chrome, firefox, and safari. Email dylan@collectiveliberation.org if this is confusing.
• Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, “Double Standard of Justice,” From #BLACKLIVESMATTER to Black Liberation. Excerpt starts at “Postwar Policing.” (18 pgs)
• Charles Payne, “Slow and Respectful Work: Organizers and Organizing,” I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle. (29 pgs)

Patriarchy and Women of Color Feminisms

• MAJOR! (90 min film)
• The Combahee River Collective, “A Black Feminist Statement,” Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought, ed. by Beverly Guy-Sheftall. (6 pgs PDF)
• Don’t Need Saving: Aboriginal Women and Access to Justice. (6 min video) 
• Leanna Betasamosake Simpson “Not Murdered, Not Missing: Rebelling Against Colonial Gender Violence,” leannesimpson.ca. (6 pgs)
• This is what women couldn’t do before the 70s, OMGFacts. (1 min video)
• Decrim D.C., #DecrimNow: What media should be telling you about the fight to decriminalize sex work. (9 min video)
• Global Network of Sex Work Projects, Policy Brief: Sex Work and Gender Equality: Introduction, p4-9. (7 pgs)

• Mohja Kahf, “The Pity Committee and the Careful Reader: How Not to Buy Stereotypes about Muslim Women,” Arab and Arab American Feminisms: Gender, Violence, and Belonging ed. by Rabab Abdulhadi, Evelyn Asultany, and Nadine Naber. (12 pgs)
• Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Borderlands excerpts. (6 pgs)
• Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, “Not Over it, Not Fixed, and Living a Life Worth Living: Towards an Anti-Ableist Vision of Survivorhood” excerpt, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice. (10 pgs)
  • Note: this piece is about how we as a community approach what it means to be a survivor of sexual violence, in case that impacts where and how you want to read it. It is beautiful and powerful. 

Role of white women in white supremacy

• White women’s liberal feminism as it holds up White Supremacy
  • Audre Lorde, “Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” Sister Outsider. (10 pgs)
  • Victoria Law, “Against Carceral Feminism,” Jacobin. (5 pgs)
• White women actively organizing for White Supremacy
  • Elizabeth Gillespie McRae, “The Women Behind White Power,” The New York Times. (3 pgs, PDF here)
  • Coleman Lowndes, How Southern Socialites Rewrote Civil War History, Vox. (7 min video)

Imperialism & Neoliberalism

• PLEASE NOTE: Each small magical creature group has specific readings for an imperialism case study, which is just below where the required readings section ends.  
• Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous People’s History of the United States excerpt. (14 pgs)
• Tom Engelhardt, “Seventy-Six Countries Are Now Involved in Washington’s War on Terror,” Truthout. (6 pgs)
• Arundhati Roy, “Come September,” War Talk. (watch 44 min video OR read 14 pg excerpt of her original presentation)
• David McNally, Global Slump excerpts: part 1, part 2. (17 pgs)

Class & Classism

• Russel Rickford, “Rebuilding the Robesonian Labor Movement,” Black Perspectives. (3 pgs)
• Molly Hein, [diagram of privilege x-rayed], Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use It for Social Change, Karen Pittelman and Resource Generation. (2 pgs)
• Showing Up for Racial Justice, “Cross-Class Capacity Tool.” (4 pgs)
• Prosperity Now and The Institute for Policy Studies,“Government Boosts & Blocks to Building Wealth,” The Road to Zero Wealth. (2 pgs)
• Amy Sonnie and James Tracy, Excerpt about the October 4th Organization: Poor whites organizing in Philadelphia, Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power. (11 pgs)
• Cynthia Kaufman, “Capitalism and Class,”Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change. (11 pgs)

Poetry:

• Assata Shakur, “The Tradition.” (1 pg)
• Alexis Pauline Gumbs, “Exhibit E,” Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. (2 pgs)
• Chrystos, “I Walk In the History of My People.” (2 pgs)
• June Jordan, “Poem about My Rights,” Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan. (Note: contains explicit descriptions of sexual violence) (listen to 5 min audio OR read 4 pg PDF)
• Pat Parker, “My Lover is a Woman.” (1 pg)
• Jo Carrillo, “And When You Leave Take Your Pictures With You,” This Bridge Called My Back, Writings by Radical Women of Color. (2 pgs)
• Lorna Dee Cervantes, “Young White Man Poem.” (1 pg)
• adrienne maree brown, “making the world (thank you to the women’s march).” (2 pgs)

Total pages – 229

Total Audio – 186 mins 3 hrs and 6 mins

Challenging Male Supremacy Homework:

This is for the required challenging male supremacy workshop for cisgender men. If you have questions about whether or not you should participate, contact elisabeth@collectiveliberation.org. 

• The Feminist on Cellblock Y (1 hour 15 mins)
• Gillette Commercial We Believe: The Best Men Can Be(2 mins)

Zionism webinar readings (20 pgs total):

• Nadine Naber, Eman Desouky, and Lina Baroudi, “The Forgotten ‘ism’,” Color of Violence: the INCITE! Anthology. (16 pgs)
• “Colonialism and Apartheid,” BDS movement, please read the following short sections, which are listed on the left side of the webpage (4 pgs): Summary, Brief Background, The Origins of Israel: Zionism and Settler Colonialism, Nakba

Assignments for imperialism small groups:

Dragons – Puerto Rico

• The Intercept, The Battle for Paradise: Naomi Klein Reports from Puerto Rico. (17 min)
• Yulissa Arce, “Puerto Rican Resistance Began Long Before Rosselló,” Truthout. (6 pgs)
• Nelson Denis, “Historical Overview,” War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony (15 pgs– this can be skimmed, you don’t have to read every word)

Recommended

• “A Victory for the People of Puerto Rico”: Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Resigns Following Mass Protests, Democracy Now! (15 min video)
• Nelson Denis, “After a Century of American Citizenship, Puerto Ricans Have Little to Show for it,”The Nation. (9 pgs)

Faeries – Haiti

• Whitney Webb, “Mass Protests in Haiti, Like France’s Yellow Vests, Threaten Modern Oligarchic Structure,” Mint Press News. (7 pgs)
• Gardy Guiteau, “An Abbreviated Timeline of Haitian History,” left turn. (4 pgs)
• Robert Roth, “Haiti: Roots of an Uprising,” Haiti Action Committee. (3 pgs)

Recommended

• Leslie Mullin, “a people that does not give up,” Haiti Solidarity p.6,  (18 pgs)
• Robert Roth, “Haiti in Crisis” (p.4), and Malaika Kambon, “Resisting the Lynching of Haitian Liberty,” (p.22) of Haiti Solidarity. (18 pgs)

Centaurs – Honduras

• Dana Frank, “Honduras: Which Side is the U.S. on?,” Honduras: Human Rights. (1 pg)
• Sarah Lazare, “There is an Epidemic of Assassinations Targeting Human Rights Defenders in Latin America,” AlterNet. (2 pgs)
• “Honduras arrests ‘mastermind’ behind Berta Cacares murder,” Al Jazeera. (2 pgs)

Recommended 

• Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber, “The Different Logics within the Honduran Resistance: An Interview with Bertha Cáceres,” Honduras: Human Rights (6 pgs)
• Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, “Statement on 2nd Anniversary of Coup in Honduras.” (3 pgs)
• Stonich and Susan C., “Reclaiming the Commons: Grassroots Resistance and Retaliation in the Honduras,” Cultural Survival. (7 pgs)

Merpeople – Iran

• Mehdi Hasan and Dina Sayedahmed, Blowback: CIA Coup Led to Islamic Revolution in Iran, The Intercept. (6:30m video)
• Raha Iranian Feminist Collective, “Sanctions Against Iran: A Duplicitous Alternative to War.” (6 pgs)
• “Iran – US Standoff: A Timeline of Key Events – May 2018 – June 2019,” Al Jazeera. (10 pgs)

Recommended

• Larry Everest, “Fueling the Iran-Iraq Slaughter,” ZNet. (5 pgs)

Unicorns – Palestine

• Statement from US Palestinian Community Network. (1 pg)
• Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) short video (4 min)
• Michelle Alexander, “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine,” The New York Times (7 pgs)

Recommended

• Gabriel Schivone, “Israel’s shadowy role in Guatemala’s dirty war,” The Electronic Intifada. (5 pgs)
• BDS Movement, “What is BDS?” (2 pgs)
• Jewish Voice for Peace, “Settler colonialism, white supremacy, and the US-Israel relationship.” (15 pgs)
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Israel’s World Wide Role in Repression. (25 pgs)
• US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, “Freedom Bound: Resisting Zionism & White Supremacy.” (3 pg) 

Recommended Readings & Video By Subject

Anti-Black Racism and Black Liberation

• Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations,” The Atlantic. Best read online at TheAtlantic.com
• Dan Berger, “Introduction” excerpt, Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era. (14 pgs)
• Vincent Harding, “American Bondage, American Freedom,” There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America. (18 pgs)
• Patrice Khan-Cullors, “When They Call You a Terrorist,” In These Times. (~10 pgs)
• Malcolm X, Message to the Grassroots. (43 min audio)
• Robin D.G. Kelley, ‘An Invisible Army: Jobs, Relief and the Birth of a Movement,” Hammer & Hoe (11 pgs)
• The Movement for Black Lives, Vision for Black Lives Policy Demands. (20 pgs)
• Black Panther Party for Self Defense, Ten Point Program. (2 pgs)
• Bay Area Solidarity Action Team, “Protocol and Principles for White People Working to Support the Black Liberation Movement, Bay Area Solidarity Action Team.” (4 pgs)

Imperialism and Neoliberalism

• Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beyond Vietnam–A Time to Break Silence.” (54 min)
• Tony Iltis and Stuart Munckton, “Rojava’s Democratic, Feminist Revolution a Source of Hope Among Horror,” Truthout. (3pgs)
• David Gilbert, “Looking Historically at the White Working Class in the U.S.,” Abolition. (15 pgs)
• Vijay Prashad, “Bread,” Arab Spring. (3 pgs)
• June Jordan, “Moving Toward Home,” Living Room: New Poems. (2 pgs)
• “Global Resistance, Africa to Palestine,” audio of Amilcar Cabral, Nelson Mandela, Chris Hani, the South African national anthem, and June Jordan, from Freedom Archives, Roots of Resistance. (10 min)
• How U.S. Involvement In Central America Led To a Border Crisis, Al Jazeera. (12 min)
• Vijay Prashad, “The 12-Step Method of Regime Change,” CounterPunch. (8 pgs)
• Jean Stewart and Marta Russell, “Disablement, Prison, and Historical Segregation” excerpt, Monthly Review. (4 pgs)

Patriarchy, Feminism & Queer & Trans Liberation

• INCITE!/Critical Resistance, “Gender violence and the prison industrial complex.” (3 pgs)
• Sunny Taylor, “The Right Not to Work: Power and Disability,” Monthly Review (13 page PDF and at this web page)
• Danielle L. McGuire, “Prologue,” At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance–A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. (8 pgs) [note: active description of sexual violence in this piece] 
• Southerners on New Ground, “Our People are Worth the Risks: a southern queer agenda from the margins and the red states.” (6 pgs)
• Claudia Jones, “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!” Political Affairs. (11 pgs)
• bell hooks, “Feminism and Class Power,” Where We Stand: Class Matters. (11 pgs)
• Gerda Lerner, “Introduction,” The Creation of Patriarchy. (14 pgs)
• Amnesty International, “From Margin to Center: Sex Work Decriminalization is a Racial Justice Issue.” (1 pg)
• Rights not Rescue: part 5 of 5. (start at 14:50, 15 mins total)
• SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, Deon Haywood Shares a Story. (21 min)
• Anne Braden, “Free Thomas Wanly: A letter to white Southern women from Anne Braden.” (11 pgs) 
• Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, “A Modest Proposal for a Fair Trade Emotional Labor Trade Economy,” Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice. (8 pgs)
• Jennifer Loubriel, “4 Racist Stereotypes White Patriarchy Invented to ‘Protect’ White Womanhood,” Everyday Feminism. (12 pgs)
• Dorothy Roberts, “Reproductive Justice, Not Just Rights,”DissentMagazine. (3 pgs)

Class

• Maria Poblet, “Revolutionary Democracy, Class-Consciousness, and Cross-Class Movement Building: Lessons from Amílcar Cabral,” Organizing Upgrade (4 pgs) [Skip down to the section on Class Consciousness if you feel overwhelmed by the Marxist jargon] 
• Robin D.G. Kelly, “Shiftless of the World Unite!” Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class. (17 pgs)
• Robert Allen, “Organized Labor: From Underdog to Overseer” Reluctant Reformers. (25 pgs)
• Karen Pittelman and Resource Generation, with illustrations by Molly Hein, “Chapter 3, Wealth= Class Privilege,” Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use It For Social Change. (6 pgs) ****looks like the links to the chapters are broken but you can download the whole thing
• Michael James, “Getting Ready for the Firing Line: Organizing in Uptown in the 60s. Remembering JOIN Community Union,” Next Left Notes. (10 pgs)

Indigenous Resistance and the Colonization of North America

• Andrea Smith, Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide, CMC Media and Democracy Lectures. (watch video, starting at 9:25, or read 22 pg transcript)
• Native American Land Losses (17 sec)
• Winona LaDuke, “The Militarization of Indian Country,” Democracy Now! (38 min or 6 pg transcript)
• Vijay Prashad, “The 12-Step Method of Regime Change,” CounterPunch. (8 pgs)