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Need More People Power in Times of Crisis? Run Mass Trainings
For movements trying to harness the energy that emerges during political upheavals, mass training provides a crucial means to develop leadership and bring in new participants.
Palestine and Israel
Intro: Palestine and the US
We’ve come together to help people understand what’s happening in Gaza from an organizing perspective, and we will be sharing our perspectives while also sharing many points of view throughout the issue and we hope that you engage. This issue is important to many of us, and we intend to create space accessible to a variety of organizers for nuanced reflection and debate that pushes readers past fear and isolation, and towards true solidarity.
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Credit: Paul Campbell How Liberal Legal Frameworks Become Fodder for Fascism
Dima Khalidi of Palestine Legal explains how our legal system’s inability to challenge underlying power structures allows for the far right to wield it against our people and our movements. Adapted from remarks at the Through the Portal Conference in Chicago, September 2024.
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Credit: Lemon_tm Towards a New Philanthropy
How do we build together from the demand for an end to genocide towards a collective call for the safety, dignity, and freedom of the Palestinian people?
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Pray-in action led by Adalah Justice Project How Cultural Strategy Drives Long-Term Change
Cultural strategies have long been central to the success of social movements. Ciara Taylor of the Kairos Center uses prose, images, and songs to capture the role of cultural organizing in the ongoing struggle for a free Palestine.
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Credit: Josh Yoder, Look Loud Can Culture Build Power?
Get a behind the scenes at Look Loud, a cultural organization leveling up protests everywhere with beautiful, intentional, and powerful art.
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Credit: AlexLMX Cultural Boycott, and Ending Complicity in Genocide
Shiv Kotecha explains the role of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) in fighting against Israel's use of culture as a weapon of genocide.
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Montecruz Foto Black Feminist Reflections on Palestine Liberation
Barbara Ransby charts the relationship between Black feminist organizing and the movement for a Free Palestine, and provides a poem in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Building Resilient Organizations
How Progressive Organizers Can Build Healthier, More Effective Coalitions for Climate Action
Coalition work depends on trust and clarity—here's the blueprint to get there.
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Getty Images How (Not) to Dismantle White Supremacy
Is the fixation on naming "white supremacy culture" overtaking the fight against white supremacy?
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Never Again Action The Ten Components of Good Strategy
Never Again Action’s Serena Adlerstein proposes a framework for understanding strategy that aims to give organizers what they need to build more resilient, and effective, organizations.
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Getty Images Building Better Leadership Pipelines
In “Building Resilient Organizations,” Maurice Mitchell articulates what many in the professional left have felt but are afraid to say; the once-stable ground of our movement has turned into a space with rising tensions, organizational infighting, and proxy wars that have undermined our ability to be effective.
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Courtesy of the Working Families Party Building Resilient Organizations
Toward Joy and Durable Power in a Time of Crisis
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Credit: napolim Resisting Authoritarianism: Lessons from Arkansas
Bill Kopsky, executive director of Arkansas Public Policy Panel, argues for a multiracial organizing revival and bold ideas to overcome the divisiveness of a second Trump presidency and make progress on the core challenges facing Americans.
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A young Kwame Ture attempted to influence the organization but was stifled by the CIA. Credit: Leni Sinclair How We’re Rebuilding the Nation’s Largest Student Organization
For over seven decades, the U.S. Student Association represented millions of students, weathered challenges like CIA infiltration, and championed civil rights and free higher education. Learn how this organization was built in the 1940s and why a new generation is rebuilding it today.
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Credit: Peg Hunter, flickr Lessons for the Long Fight from Jewish Voice for Peace
Two former staff leaders of JVP reflect on what it looks like to build a durable institution capable of winning long-term governing power while remaining agile in moments of crisis.
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Credit: master1305 What Megachurches Can Teach Us About Organizing: Undivided Review
Hahrie Han’s new book about an evangelical church is packed with touching moments of human vulnerability and contains important lessons for organizers struggling within workplaces, families, and organizations that often feel hostile to our politics and values.
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Credit: PointImages How Black Workers Challenged the Mafia
A story of intrigue and power involving union organizers, Black laundry workers, the Mafia, and the FBI in 1980s Detroit.
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Credit: rob walsh 10 Ways to Be Prepared and Grounded Now That Trump Has Won
The key to taking effective action in a Trump world is to avoid perpetuating the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation.
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Credit: rob walsh 10 Ways to Be Prepared and Grounded Now That Trump Has Won
The key to taking effective action in a Trump world is to avoid perpetuating the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation.
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Jason Wu via Wikimedia Commons A New Wave of Movements Against Trumpism Is Coming
Our job is to translate outrage over his agenda into action toward a truly transformational vision.
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Credit: SementsovaLesia On Woodworking and Our Toolbox of Organizing Tactics
Rynn Reed dives deep into how carpentry taught her to better understand what it takes to build effective strategy.
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Credit: rudall30 Calling for a Global Approach to Countervailing Oligarchic Power
Meena Jagannath of the Movement Law Lab argues for global strategies that trade U.S. exceptionalism for an international analysis that takes seriously the ever-reaching power of the wealthy elite.
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Credit: siraanamwong How the Divestment Movement Can Fund the Revolution
A former student organizer proposes a strategy for the divestment movement to achieve victory while fundamentally transforming the organizing landscape in the process.
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Credit: rudall30 Provoke. Legitimize. Win. A Review of The Guarantee
A review of Natalie Foster's new "hopepunk" book that challenges right and leftwing cynicism with a clear-eyed vision for a beautiful future we may already be moving toward.
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Camp Casey Anti-Iraq War Protest | Carolmooredc, Wikimedia Commons How to Make Sure Your Disruptive Protest Helps Your Cause
Learn about the five factors that will influence whether a polarizing protest will strengthen your movement or potentially undermine it. Part 2 on polarization from Mark Engler and Paul Engler.
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Diana Ludwig A Departed Labor “Saint” Offers Vital Insights for This Moment
Staughton Lynd, worker-led unionism, and the total rejection of restraints on it.
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iStock: mactrunk Movement Media Organizations Are Uniting to Build Power
Fourteen values-aligned organizations have formed the Movement Media Alliance, a new coalition of social justice-driven journalism platforms aimed at building power, sharing resources, and transforming the news.
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Woolsworth Lunch Counter Sit-in, State Archives of North Carolina Why Protests Work, Even When Not Everybody Likes Them
First in a two-part series explaining protests and polarization. This first part breaks down why protests can be polarizing and how movements can win in moments of polarization, the second part covers what factors determine if a polarizing action will be successful.
