Honors Global Challenges 11/9/21:

Ben Danielson:

● Resistance is joyful

Alexes Harris:

● book: A pound of flesh: Monetary Sanctions as a Punishment for the Poor

● Northwestern African museum: celebrating MLK 60 yr anniversary talk at UW
○ https://www.washington.edu/mlkweek/

Dean Spade:

● book: Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the next)
● CAAV https://caaav.org

How to deprofessionalize activities related to social justice?

● Professionalization and capitalism go hand in hand

○ ie hiring a person to come talk about race in response to civil unrest
● Climbing to the top, promoting yourself (becomes about you, not about the actual work)
○ What is your North Star?
● Young people being pushed to professionalize, might dim the radical desire,
○ End colonization movement after WWII (ex: US anti-Vietman demonstrations,
anti-colonialism) —> backlash: growth of non-profit sector designed to capture
that movement energy and neutralize
■ FBI COINTELPRO documentary on YouTube (stick approach)
■ Rich people fund non-profits to neutralize, not get to the actual root of the
problem (carrot approach)
○ Most of the work that will transform the system will be unpaid
■ The Revolution will not be funded (book)
■ http://www.deanspade.net/2016/02/28/queer-dreams-and-nonprofit-blues/
● Mutual aid is a rejection of charity which still houses a belief that some people deserve
the situations they are in
● Work within the system but keep your bearings with community outside
○ Remember when to break the rules (carefully)
○ “The only just relationship with a university is to steal from it”
Solidarity is the key to safety

● Capitalistic desires does not guarantee safety (money, the perfect body, etc)
● Community is safety

Resources:

● Democracy now (independent news)

● Decriminalize Seattle Fights
● Seattle Solidarity Budget
● Converge Media
● Joy Ann Williamson, Ileana M. Rodríguez-Silva books
● The cops off campus movement