Education for Movement Building

Someone told me the before the program that Chris Crass (coordinator of catalyst) doesn't talk, he preeches. We experienced that last week, when we were talking about what makes an effective organizer. Something is lost in the transcription, but trust me when I say that he took our breath away with these words:

"We need an ecosystem of roles. Not everyone can be an organizer. Not everyone can be Ella Baker, but Ella Baker helped millions of people play meaningful roles in the movement--while they were raising children, while they were working, sharecropping for most of the hours of the day. They might not have understood all of the political theory, but they knew they were doing something important because she was engaging their humanity.

"Part of so much current activist culture is: you have to show up 100% informed. If you don't know everything when you show up to a protest, you have to front it, fake it, run around so that nobody notices. Look: we are trying to mobilize millions of people to transform society so that we all can lead fundamentally different lives, not to build strong subcultures."

That resonated pretty powerfully, and has been a big take-away point for me on strategy over the past few weeks. I think the statement also articulates a healthier orientation towards learning in movement building, which has been unfolding over the course of our sessions.

This past weekend, we explored the themes of white supremacy, capitalism, and white privilege--with a heavy empahsis on history. Chris started our session by encouraging us not to front or to feel embarrassment when we don't know something, but to open ourselves with excitement to the opportunity to learn something new. He situated our session in a history of working people educating each other and creating theory that described their lives: from midnight schools where slaves went to learn to read, to union halls, socialist and anarchist study groups, consciousness raising groups and liberation schools. There is amazing power in common people developing the confidence that they/we can learn and understand history, and use that understanding to create change. The popular educator and radical historian in me rejoiced at this introduction.

A final thing I will note that relates to education, is how intentional the Catalyst Project seems to be in its leadership development of its own staff. Members of the Leadership Team who completed the Braden Program just a few years back lead many parts of each session. Their segments are thoughtful and well done, but their presentations are not as seemless and polished as those led by more experienced staff. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks: instead of relying on one or two paid staff members to lead the trainings, Catalyst is distributing the work so that a large handful of newer leaders gain experience planning, presenting, and facilitating large workshops. For me, it makes me think: "hey, with a little more experience, I could be doing that!" Really seeing that process of development is new and inspiring to me. And, the presence, participation, and support of a large number of Catalyst staff and coordinators makes it feel all the more like there's a large community of white anti-racist organizers out there who are continuing to develop their capacity, and helping others grow, in turn.