In three sentences
1. Meet people where they are by being curious and listening.
2. Build community
3. We must all act, no one gets to only ask questions and write answers, even journalists.
2. Build community
3. We must all act, no one gets to only ask questions and write answers, even journalists.
Impressions
Collective action makes it possible and worthwhile to challenge social injustice.
Audience
Activists, organisers, people concerned with equality. The text is written clearly and is accessible to read.
Questions
How do we raise funds for social movement work? How should we manage our time between paid work that is often supporting unfair systems, and unpaid work that we see as essential?
How the text changed me
I'm motivated to do more. To credit people when I as an individual am celebrated. To commit to listening curiously. To tap into a breadth of emotions beyond fear.
Top three quotes
Good organizers do not want “fans.” They want committed and thoughtful co-strugglers. An organizer who wants your allegiance rather than your solidarity and co-investment in struggle is not someone whose leadership you should trust.
Fear is an emotion, but it is not the only emotion available to us. There are many other emotions we can tap into ... “We can use admiration,” says McDavis-Conway, “like admiration for Indigenous activists who are fighting pipelines. We can tap into nostalgia for coastal cultures. They’re impacted by rising sea levels. We can tap into love and sadness and excitement, outrage, even disgust."
Everything is a story, and people need to understand themselves as having a meaningful role within the story you, as an organizer, are telling.
Summary + notes
Kaba and Hayes contributed to the campaign against the simultaneous closure of public schools and the construction of a police training academy in Chicago. This was an example of anti-Black neoliberalism in practice, where increased policing restricted mobility for Black and Brown communities. I was grateful to participate in these protests and witness the relationship-building, political education, and assertions of dignity that emerged despite a city administration committed to policing.
Organisers have not only recognised police brutality but have also worked to imagine and enact responses to it. Kaba, Hayes, and other community members organized against Jon Burge’s police torture, demonstrating that deeply protected institutions like the police are not beyond challenge. Their efforts led to the establishment of a $5.5 million reparations fund, counseling services, and priority access to education, job training, and housing.
Commitment to each other’s well-being, even in personal struggles, strengthens our capacity to organize. Ruth Wilson Gilmore learned that addressing her own alcoholism was not enough—she had to commit to the sobriety of each member of her circle. This required deep listening and mutual care.
Lea Kayali reminds us that a focus on human rights is limited, as rights are granted by structures that can also revoke them. Organizing is never an individual effort. When credit is given to an individual, our responsibility is to expand the narrative and invite others into it, reinforcing the collective nature of our work.
Reference:
Hayes, Kelly. Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care. Haymarket Books, 2023.
I have adapted the questions I used to think about the text from Ali Abdaal.
