White Awake Courses | Unbreakable Solidarity 2023

Unbreakable Solidarity

Course Participant Page

Welcome! This page is for registrants in our 2023 Unbreakable Solidarity course. Please do not share this page with anyone who is not registered for the course. You are welcome to share specific homework materials, but not the link to the page – which will include links to recordings as they become available.

Homework:

Important Information

Homework: Homework materials for all sessions will be posted below. Please allow 2-3 hours for homework per session. We ask that everyone engage with the study materials and activities prior to each session.

Recordings: Recordings of each live session will be available 2-3 days after it takes place. Links to these recordings will be posted at the top of the homework assignment for the corresponding session. Recordings, along with the participant page as a whole, will remain accessible through September 5, 2023 (three months after our final live session). After this, study materials will be mailed to you as a PDF and session recordings will no longer be available.

Have you visited the Logistics Page for the Course? Please allow 20 minutes to review this page and take the action steps outlined within it prior to the course. Applications for your personal zoom login must be submitted by the end of the day Saturday, April 29, in order to participate in the first live session (applications are approved manually, not instantly).

Join Our Mighty Network! Read the full invitation, which includes the link to join, here

Mighty Networks is a versatile forum for participant connection and sharing. It has similar functionality to Facebook, but more privacy. White Awake uses it as a forum for course participants to make connections with one another and exchange information, ideas, and experiences related to course curriculum. Please refer to your full invitation to join the group for this course. Once you have signed up, you can re-access the network at this link: white-awake.mn.co. From there, click "Groups" on the sidebar to access the course-specific group. Please notice that there is more than one " Unbreakable Solidarity" group on the network, and that you belong with the 2023 cohort. :)

Session One

Session One: Understanding White Supremacy & Capitalism

Session Recording (4/30): View Here

Chat Log: View here

Study Materials

Excerpt from: A People's Guide to Capitalism - Hadas Thier (20-25 min read)

Capitalism in a contemporary context | Highlighting the recent & noteworthy hearing of Howard Schultz before Congress to testify on Starbucks illegal union busting activities, our intention is for the following four materials to be demonstrative, not exhaustive. (approx 25 min total time)
- Fired Starbucks Organizer EXPOSES Illegal Union Busting | Breaking Points (9 min watch)
- Max Alvarez on Amy’s Kitchen union busting activities | Please watch 3 min from the point this link takes you to (10:30 time stamp) through the worker statement Max reads that ends at13:09 (to go deeper, read or listen to the full interview with Amy's Kitchen workers
- Bad Faith Episode 266 | Please watch the first 5 minutes 45 seconds of the episode, through the end of Sen Markey's speech.
- Q&A: Are you targeting "plutocrats" as "the enemy"? | Eleanor Hancock response to participant question, Radical Anti-Bias Education 2022 (5 min watch/listen)

Why the Working Class? – Vivek Chibber (10-15 min read)

A Liberal vs Radical Analysis of Racism – David Dean (13 min watch) Though most of this presentation applies to our work in this course, it was given in our winter ancestral recovery course and some content relates more specifically to that curriculum.

Working Class Victories!

We’ll be sharing an example of current working class victories in each of your homework assignments for the course. For this session’s homework we are highlighting the phenomenal victory of Brandon Johnson in the recent Chicago mayoral race, a victory built in large part on years of work by the Chicago Teacher's Union, one of the most militant and democratic teacher union locals in the country.

Brandon Johnson defeated Paul Vallas’s austerity agenda in the Chicago mayoral race. | Jacobin (7-10min read)

Optional/Deeper Study

Birth of a White Nation – Jacqueline Battalora (36 min watch)
Understanding Antisemitism as Ruling Class Strategy – Excerpts from Essays by April Rosenblum and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
The Brief Origins of May Day - Eric Chase for the Industrial Workers of the World

Activities: View Full Assignment

Throughout this course, we will assign simple activities designed to help you internalize, in ways that go beyond the intellect, the concepts, strategies and stories (or histories) we are working with in the study materials and live sessions.

To kick off the course, we have started with a solidarity altar activity, which we will build upon as the course progresses. Please feel free to change, adapt, or otherwise personalize any activity we suggest for the course. You can find the full activity description for session one here.

Sesson 2

Session Two: Identity in Context (Developing a Healthy, Intersectional Analysis & Avoiding Distortions)

Session Recording (5/7): View Here

Chat Log: View here

Study Materials

The Evolution of Identity Politics: An Interview with Eric Ward (15-20 min read)

'Anti-Woke' Author GOES QUIET On Woke Definition | Breaking Points (5-10 min watch; while you’re welcome to watch the entire video, and/or start from the beginning, for session two we ask that you start at the point where the link takes you in the video, about 4:45 minute in, and watch through the 10:01 time stamp where Krystal wraps up her second point with the words “toxic workplace.”) | If you are not familiar with Breaking Points, you may want to read more about the show here. Co-hosts Krystal and Saagar represent progressive & conservative points of view, respectively, but share a strong affinity for the rights and wellbeing of working people. We selected this informal exchange because we felt the sentiments shared by Krystal and Saagar could stimulate our own discussion of some of the same themes.

Building Resilient Organizations: Toward Joy and Durable Power in a Time of Crisis - Maurice Mitchell (7-10 min read; underneath the larger heading, “Common Trends”, please read the following two sections: I. Neoliberal Identity and II. Maximalism)

Please choose one (or more) of the following resources to consider how neoliberal forces co-opt identity politics:

Raytheon Honored As Best Place To Work For LGBTQ People / Rising (4 min watch; please watch the first four minutes, after which the topic changes)
How feminism became capitalism's handmaiden - and how to reclaim it / Nancy Fraser (10-15 min read)
Ta-Nehisi Coates is the neoliberal face of the black freedom struggle / Cornel West (10-12 min read) | Our intention in sharing this piece is not to undermine the work of Ta-Nehisi Coates (about whom the organization has no official stance). Our intention is to uplift - for the sake of course discussion - Cornel West’s clear distinction between a neoliberal approach to identity versus a solidarity based approach that couches Black freedom struggle within a unifying vision of a socialist, democratic society.
Beware the Race Reductionist / Briahna Joy Gray (20-30 min read)

White Anti-Racism Must Be Based in Solidarity, Not Altruism - Jesse Myerson (15-18 min read)

Shared Foundations – Sarah Ngu (10-15 min read)

Reflection on Session Two Study Material Themes

After having read your study materials for the session, please reflect on the following quote by James Connolly, from his section on women in the 1915 publication, The Reconquest of Ireland:

None so fitted to break the chains as they who wear them, none so well equipped to decide what is a fetter. In its march towards freedom, the working class of Ireland must cheer on the efforts of those women who, feeling on their souls and bodies the fetters of the ages, have arisen to strike them off, and cheer all the louder if in its hatred of thraldom and passion for freedom the women’s army forges ahead of the militant army of Labour.

But whosoever carries the outworks of the citadel of oppression, the working class alone can raze it to the ground.

What do you think Connolly means when he writes:“None so fitted to break the chains as they who wear them …” ?

What does he mean by “... whosoever carries the outworks of the citadel of oppression …” ? Who are these people today?

Please review/refresh your memory of the article Why the Working Class? that you read for Session One. Considering the centrality of working people as a class and, in particular, the strategic power of organizing around our labor, what do you feel Connolly means when he writes “... the working class along can raze it to the ground” ? What might this look like today?

Working Class Victories!

“We’re Calling Bullshit”: Why Museum Workers Keep Unionizing - In These Times
Amazon Drivers Join Teamsters Union, Reach Agreement in Historic Victory - Int'l Brotherhood of Teamsters

Activities: View Full Assignment

Assignment Summary: For your Session Two homework, we have outlined two types of activities for you to engage in at home: a meditation (which you may want to do near or next to your altar) and a set of action-oriented activities meant to further your engagement with a social change organization. We trust you will respect your own values, time commitments, and personal capacity to do the actions and activities that are best suited for you at this time. Click here to read the full assignment.

Session 3

Session Three: Theory, Analysis & Strategy

Session Recording (5/21): View Here

Chat Log: View here

Study Materials

Social Service or Social Change? - Paul Kivel (30-40 min read; please read the first two pages only, skipping over the reflection questions & just reading the text)

Richard Wolff: Capitalism is holding "all of us hostage" - The Real News Network interview with Wolff (20 min watch; please watch 20 minutes after the point in the video that link brings you to, stopping at the 21:44 mark, when Wolff concludes his response to Alvarez’s first prompt)

Nothing More Powerful Than A Strike - Jane McAlevey (2 min watch)

Deeper Dive into Theory (building on session two; recommended but not required)

Excerpts: Class Rules Everything Around Me - Paul Heideman (15-25 min read) | If you would like to share this article with others, please share the original version on the Jacobin site. Do not share the handout we created for this class. Ty!

Capitalism’s Crisis of Care - An Interview with Nancy Fraser (10-15 min read)

Bargaining for the Common Good

“There Are So Many Things That We Can Learn From This Strike” - Jacobin interview with Alex Caputo-Pearl (15-20 min read; please read the first half of this interview, stopping at the end of Caputo-Pearl’s response to the question, “We’ve seen this wave of teachers’ strikes across the country. Did that have any influence on your strike?”)

Oakland has a school-to-prison pipeline. The teachers’ strike is our best hope to end it. - Shane Ruiz (15-20 min read)

Optional/Supplemental:

We Want Bread and Housing Too: Bargaining for the Common Good an Intersectional Feminist Strategy - Lauren Jacobs, Sheri Davis-Faulkner, Renata Pumarol, and Marilyn Sneiderman for The Forge
Chicago teachers say they will go on strike. They are demanding affordable housing for students. - Kim Bellware for the Washington Post
Organizing to Win A Green New Deal - Jane McAlevey

Working Class Victories!

‘I cannot survive on $260 a week’: US retail and fast-food workers strike | Michael Sainato for The Guardian
Minneapolis Educators Just Showed the Country How to Strike and Win | Jacobin interview with Greta Callahan & Shaun Laden

Activities: View Full Assignment

Assignment Summary: This session's activities portion first includes time with your solidarity altar to do some imagining about what a just future would look and feel like to you. Second, you'll take time to build on the “Mapping Your Personal Connections” activity from last week and continue deepening your reflection on your own personal network. Click here to read the full assignment.

Session 4

Session Four: Organizing & Application

Session Recording (6/4): View Here

Chat Log: View here

Study Materials

Strategies for Overcoming Division (20-25 min)

Heather McGee Interview - Bad Faith Podcast (watch/listen to first 10 mins)
Solidarity for Survival: An Interview with Ian Haney López – David Dean (Listen to 3 min intro) | There is a transcript below the audio, if you would prefer to read. The first three minutes are delineated by a small division in the text.
How Polarized Are We? - Jack Metzgar (7-10 min read)

Optional/Supplemental:

Why I Quit the Klan - C.P. Ellis narrative collected by Studs Terkel

Organizing Basics (30-40 min)

Building the Power to Win – Jane McAlevey (5 min watch)
An Organizing Basic: Keep Self-Interest in Mind - David McDowell with Southwest Organizing Project in Chicago (5-7 min read)
“Learning How to Listen - Michigan” – a podcast by People’s Action (Read episode description and listen from the 8:50 mark until the end, 20 min listen)

Optional/Supplemental:

Here’s How We Beat Amazon – Interview with Angelika Maldonado
“No One’s Ever Asked me Before” – Down Home North Carolina Report (suggested: executive summary pages 3-5)

Getting Involved (45-60 min or more)

“Chicago Is Leading the Way in Advancing a Real Political Alternative” - Interview with Emma Tai by Micah Uetricht (15-20 min read) | We’ve included this interview as an introduction to the following two, interactive handouts, because it offers inspiration and a real world example of how community & labor organizing go hand in hand. We hope this case study of a very recent, and major, working class victory can help you consider where you best fit in to this type of working class-centered work for social change.
Joining a Political Organization – White Awake Handout (25+ min of reading/research)
Building the Labor Movement Inside & Outside Your Workplace – David Dean (7-10 min read)

Activities: View Full Assignment

Assignment Summary: Your activities for session four include three sections. First, we've shared the last portion of the “Mapping Your Personal Connections” exercise. Second, you're invited to do a “personal assessment” reflecting on how you would like to shape your political life going forward. And lastly, we have a final altar activity for you. If you are short on time, we encourage you to prioritize the personal assessment as we will be asking folks to reflect on the content from this exercise in our next live session. Click here to read the full assignment.