From the Alliance of Community Trainers, ACT
The Occupy movement has had enormous successes in the short time since September when activists took over a square near Wall Street. It has attracted hundreds of thousands of active participants, spawned occupations in cities and towns all over North America, changed the national dialogue and garnered enormous public support. It’s even, on occasion, gotten good press!
Now we are wrestling with the question that arises again and again in movements for social justice—how to struggle. Do we embrace nonviolence, or a ‘diversity of tactics?’ If we are a nonviolent movement, how do we define nonviolence? Is breaking a window violent?
We write as a trainers’ collective with decades of experience, from the anti-Vietnam protests of the sixties through the strictly nonviolent antinuclear blockades of the seventies, in feminist, environmental and anti-intervention movements and the global justice mobilizations of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. We embrace many labels, including feminist, anti-racist, eco-feminist and anarchist. We have many times stood shoulder to shoulder with black blocs in the face of the riot cops, and we’ve been tear-gassed, stun-gunned, pepper sprayed, clubbed, and arrested. Continue reading
Undoing Racism Austin is a collective effort by a group that includes artists, lawyers, community organizers, educators, and neighborhood activists. We are committed to Austin’s strong and equitable future by eliminating the very real and painful racial inequities in our City and in people’s lives. Undoing Racism Austin is a new initiative supported by ACT that is focused on organizing trainings with the Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond on how we can undo racism and build a city rooted in racial equity. November 8-10, 2013 was the first training. We’re growing fast. Learn more here: undoingracismaustin.org. 