39 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
39 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
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Movements, especially ones organizing for liberation, are not leaderless. They are leaderful.
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In an interview with IBW21, Patrisse Cullors used the term ‘leaderful’ to describe the Black Lives Matter movement, which she had co-founded alongside fellow activists and friends Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi. Cullors said that “all movements have many leaders, our movement doesn't believe in a single charismatic leader.”
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Revolutionary leadership & critical consciousness (Freire)
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The shape of liberation - many connected circles → The Millionth Circle - Black Elk poem, non-hierarchical, aimed at building power and empowering, a web or a network not a pyramid. No top or bottom → equal distribution of power around a center.
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The work is spiritual and sacred
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“The medium is the message”
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- dual power
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- prefigurative politics
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Leaderful because choosing liberation also means accepting responsibility in creating it - “love is as love does”
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We don’t rely on single charismatic individuals in structuring our movement → collective leadership
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- We also strive to prefer construction over deference
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- “group-centered leadership” (Ella Baker)
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- Focus is on building power and sharing it
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- Strategic, radical, and with global scope
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Within our organizing we continue radical traditions while critically examining them and making new ones - everything we do, we should do with a critical understanding of its meaning, intention, and impact
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We have to acknowledge power - power exists even when it isn’t formally defined → understand the risks of abuse and lack of representation and avoid “tyranny of structurelessness” (Freeman 1973)
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- Democratic delegation
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- Distributing power to as many people as possible
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- Rotating tasks and responsibilities
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- Equal access to resources and knowledge/info
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- Allocate tasks according to reasonable criteria (e.g., ability, passion, etc.) (ECON, Hughes, Tota, et al.)
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- Clearly define roles
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- Accountability (whom are we accountable to? if we’re actually building something radical, significant, and positive then there should be accountability to a group/community/society)
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- Clarity as form of kindness while also not being too rigid/strict about control
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Collective power → communal power → power is shared, it is not property owned by a single person or entity but belongs to everyone and everyone has a responsibility for stewardship
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- We borrow from communal power and work together to tap into it to realize change
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- We need power to be able to rise up against unjust hierarchies and counteract the work of violent institutions, corporations, governments
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- Resistance to the atomization of individuals, erosion of communities, fragmentation of society
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- Promotion of empowered individuals, organized communities, and communities of solidarity (ECON)
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