Over the coming days and weeks we will be posting reflections on the Trayvon Martin murder, Zimmerman acquittal, and all that it is opening up. They are from members, staff, former staff, RG advocates and allies…a series of posts as they arise; not all representing a sole vision or perspective but many processes that are…
Over the coming days and weeks we will be posting reflections on the Trayvon Martin murder, Zimmerman acquittal, and all that it is opening up. They are from members, staff, former staff, RG advocates and allies…a series of posts as they arise; not all representing a sole vision or perspective but many processes that are…
On February 20th, Resource Generation members around the country participated in a national day of action to stop “fiscal cliff” cuts to social programs and call for higher taxes on the rich. (You can find information about the impacts of the sequestration cuts in your state here, courtesy of the Coalition on Human Needs.) We submitted more…
For a long time, I thought that as a white, wealthy woman, there was no role for me in working to end racism and economic injustice. I tried doing service provision in low-income communities of color, and the “white savior” dynamics of that work felt disheartening. I was involved in anti-violence and queer organizing on…
Guest blog post from Dr. M. Starita Boyce Ansari from MSB Philanthropy Advisors. Fifty years ago, Americans from community after community came together and committed to a vision for justice and equality. People fought. People died. People transcended the small interests of their own needs, as Blacks, Jews, women, gays and lesbians, took real risks…
When I saw the tumblr site “We are the 1%. We stand with the 99%,” I thought about $140,050 sitting in a bank account in my name at the Permaculture Credit Union, money I’d received in distribution payments from my 5% share in an apartment complex. I questioned myself: How would I really be standing…
Reposted from the GIFT Blog.I attended my first workshop on disability justice facilitated by Mia Mingus and Stacey Milbern, two Korean queer women with disabilities, at the United States Social Forum in 2010. Sitting in a room with others wanting to talk about disability and ableism within a social justice framework was like coming home for me….
Taij Moteelall, RG’s former director, shares some reflections on her time with RG below. Reposted from the Power Up Networks Blog. As the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon grows in NYC, spreads throughout the United States and across the globe, I wonder what kind of a world will be rebuilt post-corruption, greed, and injustice that sparked this movement. How…
This letter to the editor was submitted to the NY Times at the end of last week. Sign on to a longer version of this letter at lettertothefuture.us. The Letter to the Future site will be updated soon with additional sponsors and information. Warren Buffett’s op-ed, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich,” struck a chord. As young philanthropists and…
I just read an email that Felice Yeskel, the former Executive Director and co-founder of Class Action and an inspiring activist for justice and against oppression, has passed away. Reading the note, I was struck by the real impact Felice has made on my life despite the few times we met or talked in the…
We hold the liberation of Black and Indigenous people as central to the liberation of all people. We know that attempted genocide and chattel slavery created the initial foundation for massive wealth disparity in the U.S. and that the continued exploitation and criminalization of those communities upholds the racial wealth divide. We believe that well-resourced Black and Native Left organizing is a critical part of how we all get more free.
We believe social justice movements need to be led by communities most directly impacted by injustice. As young people with access to wealth, we choose to undermine the pattern of funders dictating the work and instead choose to follow the leadership of transformative social justice movements and communities, led by people who are: poor, working-class, Black, Indigenous, of color, women, disabled, queer and trans.
We work towards eradicating classism and towards wholeness. We believe that all classes and communities are interconnected and interdependent and that classism has been used to wedge and divide us. We know that much is lost communally in the name of wealth accumulation and that people with wealth have a lot to gain from returning wealth to the collective and transforming our economy. We know that the current economic system is untenable, and we work to build a solidarity economy.
We believe that people ages 18–35, with wealth and class privilege, are at a pivotal stage in life to make a lifelong commitment to social movements. Youth movements and organizing are, and have been bold and visionary. We are building on the legacy of those who came before us, and we are working for a better world for those who will come after. Young people with access to wealth and class privilege need to be organized as protagonists—actively engaging in and seeking out ways that leverage and redistribute our access to power and resources within our control, and redirect resources and power within the networks and institutions we are connected to. We are committed to resisting ageist norms of people acquiring power and holding on to it and constantly doing leadership development to bring about new leadership.
We believe personal and structural change are deeply connected, and every person has the ability to heal and grow. We are committed to working towards transforming ourselves, our organizations, our communities, and society as a whole through our work. We bring our full selves, our experiences, our stake, and our strategic thinking to build cross-class relationships in working for a just and livable world.
We believe in collective and individual growth, groundedness and interdependence. We know that tensions will arise, and we will approach these with curiosity on behalf of our personal and collective wants. We will work to see tensions as generative rather than destructive and finite. We welcome principled disagreement and will strive to keep conflict generative in service of our broader goals and mission.
We believe in the power of collaboration across class, race, and movements. We know that our vision depends on our relationships with communities, organizations and people across our movement ecosystem, with whom we share similarities and differences. Through our organizing work we also seek ways to invite our families, communities, and other people with access to wealth to this work.
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