A note on the readings: Where articles/books/videos were available online or we have the author’s permission, we have linked them directly, otherwise please buy/borrow/find at the library the book/video. We encourage everyone to honor the emotional and intellectual labor of these authors and media makers by buying the works from which excerpts have been taken where possible. This is especially important as many of these authors are folks of color/queer/poor or working class people. When sharing any of these readings with others, please also pass on this message.

We assign some readings that were difficult for us to read. 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 to have a reading group together, or get help on terms you’re struggling with. We’ve also created this glossary to support with key terms.

All of the categories below are very overlapping, 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 AND VIDEO –

The World We Want: Anti-Racist Vision and Organizing Strategy

Readings

1. N’Tanya Lee, Cinthya Muñoz, Maria Poblet, Josh Warren-White, and Steve Williams on behalf of the LeftRoots Coordinating Committee, “Towards a Transformational Strategy”  from LeftRoots. Also at leftroots.net/towards-strategy (6 pages)
2. Glen Coulthard, Voices Rising (Indigenous Nationhood Movement), “For our Nations to Live, Capitalism Must Die,” from Unsettling America (5 pages)
3. Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada, “We live in the future. Come join us,” from KE KAUPU HEHI ALE (3 pgs)
4. Maria Poblet, “‘It’s Time To Lead Ourselves:’ An interview with Rosa Elva Tobías about Feminist Organizing in El Salvador,” from Organizing Upgrade (6 pages)
5. Rachel Herzing, “Big Dreams and Bold Steps toward a Police Free Future,” from Rachel Herzing (5 pages)
6. Alex Lee, Morgan Bassichis and Dean Spade, “Building an Abolitionist Trans and Queer Movement with Everything We’ve Got,” from Captive Genders, pg 15-37 — link is to whole book (22 pages)
7. Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project, “Just Transition Zine” pgs 14-28 required, rest recommended (15 pages)
8. Rebecca Solnit, “Protest and persist: why giving up hope is not an option” , March 2017 (8 pages)
9. Anne Braden, “Black Power and White Organizing” (4 page PDF) (bio)
10. Rural Organizing Project, “‘A Struggle for Our Lives’: Anti-Racist Organizing in White Rural and Working-Class Communities: An Interview with the Rural Organizing Project in Oregon” from Chris Crass ed., Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy (17 page PDF). (bio).
11. Harsha Walia, “Decolonizing together: Moving beyond a politics of solidarity toward a practice of decolonization,” Briarpatch Magazine, January/February 2012. (4 page PDF) (also at briarpatchmagazine.com)
12. Carlos Garcia, “#Not1More Means Not 1 More,” from Puente Movement, November 22, 2014. (3 page PDF, also on the web at puenteaz.org/blog/not1more-means-not-one-more).
13. Shailly Gupta Barnes, “Organizing with Klansmen for Social Justice: Bob Zellner Tells His Story” August 2016 (5 pages)

Video

• Interview with Kali Akuno about Cooperation Jackson, done by Chris Hedges, from On Contact on Russia Today (30 minutes)
• Marilyn Buck – a Tribute from Freedom Archives. Recorded in 1989 in a Washington DC jail, tribute to political prisoner Marilyn Buck (9 minutes)
• Kamau Walton, “What’s Wrong With Community Control of Police,” from Critical Resistance’s video series, “Breaking Down the Prison Industrial Complex,” (5 minutes)
• interview with Myles Horton, “Radical Hillbilly– A Wisdom Teacher for Activism and Civic Engagement” (from 1:10-1:42 –total of 32 minutes required, last hour recommended)

Leadership Development and Personal Transformation 

1. Barbara Ransby,  “Mentoring a New Generation of Activists: The Birth of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1960-1961,” Chapter 8 from Ella Baker & the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision. Pages 239-273 (34 pgs)
2. Mia Mingus, “On Collaboration: Starting With Each Other,” Excerpts from the 5th Annual Queer & Asian Conference, “Collide, Connect, Create,” keynote address, delivered on April 28, 2012, Berkeley, California. (4 page PDF, also at leavingevidence.wordpress.com).
3. Aurora Levins Morales, “False Memories” from Medicine Stories, 1998 (6 pages)
4. Interview of M. Dove Kent by Caitlin Breedlove, Fortification Podcast Episode 20. (NOTE: Whole interview optional, minute 9 til the end required, 22 minutes)
5. Dismantling Racism Works, “Giving Feedback” from their Handbook (1 page)
6. Whites Confronting Racism Workshop (Lorraine Marino and Antje Mattheus), “Tips for Addressing Conflict” from their workshop manual (1 page)
7. Brooke Anderson, “10 Tips on Receiving Feedback: A Guide for Activists” (6 pgs)

Resisting State Repression

• Catalyst Project, “A Troublemaker’s Guide: Principles for Racial Justice Activists in the Face of State Repression” (about 15 pages of text, you should have the paper copy!)
• Shanelle Matthews and Malkia Cyril, “We say black lives matter. The FBI says that makes us a security threat,” from Washington Post (3 pages)
• Zoë Carpenter and Tracie Williams, “Since Standing Rock, 56 Bills Have Been Introduced in 30 States to Restrict Protests,” from The Nation (5 pages)
• Dara Greenwald, “The Package” (9 min video)
• Dom Phillips, “Protests held across Brazil after Rio councillor shot dead,” from The Guardian (2 pages)

Strongly Recommended:

1. Freedom Archives, “COINTELPRO 101” (60 minute video documentary).

 Poems

• Marge Piercy, “The birthday of the world” from The Crooked Inheritance (2 pages)
• Louise Erdrich, “ADVICE TO MYSELF: #2 RESISTANCE,” from Women and Standing Rock (2 pages)
• Alexis Pauline Gumbs poem in Octavia’s Brood – “a letter to her former self” (2 pages)
• Mario Benedetti, “Why do we sing?” (1 page)
• Adrienne Marie Brown, “harriet is a north star” (3 pages)
• Otto Renee Castillo, “Before the Scales, Tomorrow” (1 page)
• Suheir Hammad, “open poem to those who rather we not read… or breathe,” from Born Palestinian Born Black (2 pages)
• Ruby Ibarra Feat. Rocky Rivers, Klass, and Faith Santilla, “US.” (5 min song, lyrics can be found here)

To First Session readings

To Second Session readings

To Homework list

RECOMMENDED READINGS & VIDEO

Visionary Politics

1. 1. Angela Y. Davis, “Abolitionist Alternatives,”  Chapter 6 from Are Prisons Obsolete? (8 page).
   2. Ai-jen Poo, “Transformative Organizing Theory,” from Transformative Organizing Panel at the U.S. Social Forum, 2010.  (Video; Ai-jen begins at 10:43 and ends at 21:05). (Transcription: 3 page PDF).
   3. Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” in Cherrie L. Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa eds., This Bridge Called my Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. (2 page PDF).
   4. Gloria Anzaldúa, “La conciencia de la mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness,” from Borderlands: La Frontera, The New Mestiza. (12 page PDF).
   5. Generation Five, “Chapter 2,” from Toward Transformative Justice: A Liberatory Approach to Child Sexual Abuse and other forms of Intimate and Community Violence, A Call to Action for the Left and the Sexual and Domestic Violence Sectors. (7 page PDF)
   6. Lee Veeraraghavan, “Decolonizing Pipeline Resistance: An Interview with Freda Huson,” from occupy.com (4 page PDF)
   7. Subcomandante Marcos, “Letter to Mumia Abu Jamal,”  April 24, 1999 from “Our Word is Our Weapon: The Selected Writings of Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos” (also 4 page PDF) (bio for Marcos; bio for Mumia).
   8. Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan, “A Window to a New World”  from Organizing Upgrade. (6 pages) (bio).

Personal Transformation

1. Ng’ethe Maina‘s presentation at the Transformative Organizing Panel from the US Social Forum, 2010 (Video: the first 10 minutes, 45 seconds) (bio)
2. Catherine Jones, “Love Letter to Common Ground Clinic” (4 page PDF) (bio)
3. Yashna Maya Padamsee, “Communities of Care, Organizations for Liberation”  (2 pages)
4. Tema Okun, “From White Racist to White Anti-Racist: The Lifelong Journey”  (16 page PDF). (bio)
5. Ejeris Dixon, “Our Relationships Keep Us Alive: Let’s Prioritize Them in 2018” from truth-out.org (6-7 pages)

Anti-Racist Organizing Strategy

1. Rachel Herzing, “‘Tweaking Armageddon’: The Potential and Limits of Conditions of Confinement Campaigns,” from Social Justice (5 page PDF)
2. Ai-jen Poo, “Lessons from the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights Campaign in New York” (6 page PDF, also at www.leftturn.org/Organizing-with-Love) (bio)
3. Vermont Workers’ Center, “The People’s Recipe,” from “Vermont People’s Convention for Human Rights” (1 page PDF)
4. B Loewe, “White Anti-Racist Organizers in Working Class Communities of Color: an interview with B Loewe of the Latino Union of Chicago,” interview by Chris Crass (11 page PDF)
5. Angela Davis,  “Ferguson Reminds Us of the Importance of a Global Context,” from Freedom is a Constant Struggle (17 pages)
6. Dan Berger, “Chokwe Lumumba and Black Nationalist Convergence,” from Black Perspectives (3 pgs)
7. Program Demand Group of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, excerpt from “Toward a Program of Resistance” (3 page PDF) (bio)
8. Dan Berger, Mariame Kaba, and David Stein “What Abolitionists Do,”  from Jacobin Magazine (6 pages)

Leadership Development

1. Catalyst Project, “The 5 Gs: Tips for Leadership Development One on Ones” (1 page PDF)
2. Sista II Sista, “Sistas Makin’ Moves: Collective Leadership for Personal Transformation and Social Justice,” from INCITE!: Women of Color Against Violence, eds., The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-profit Industrial Complex. (6 page PDF) (bio)
3. Chris Crass, “‘But We Don’t Have Leaders’: Leadership Development and Anti-Authoritarian Organizing,” from Chris Crass ed., Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy. (7 page PDF) (bio)
4. DataCenter, “Power Analysis: Types and Sources of Power and Leadership Styles” (7 page PDF) (bio)
5. Alexis Shotwell and Chris Dixon’s of Punch Up Collective, “Getting It Together,” from Briarpatch Magazine (6 pages)

State Repression

1. Sarah Lazare’s, “The police state can come after Trump protesters, but it can’t make them cooperate,” from In These Times (6 pages)
2. G. Flint Taylor, “How the FBI Conspired to Destroy the Black Panther Party,” from In These Times (4 pages)
3. Democracy Now, “Private mercenary firm TigerSwan compares anti-DAPL water protectors to ‘Jihadist Insurgency'” (60 minute video)
4. Democracy Now, “Part 2: Private security firm TigerSwan targets pipeline protesters in COINTELPRO-like operation” (22 minute video)
5. Individual Thought, Eyes On The Prize Part 12 (covers the murder of Fred Hampton & the Attica prison rebellion) (60 minute video)