Sunday, April 08, 2007

Sunday Casual Reading

On some days every link begets two or three more, and soon my Firefox tabs are overflowing (a lot of my recent posts are really just research archives.) Let's just say it's been yet another educational morning.

I finally realized that WireTap Magazine is the youth section of Alternet.org. I'm also starting to see why everyone's switching from Blogger to Wordpress. The way that block quotes and pasting screws up the format in the new Blogger is pretty aggravating. No matter, in four months this blog will be finished.

WireTap Magazine, "Bigger than Hip-Hop." This article describes the current hip hop political movement: "So, culture, class issues, consumerism and varying degrees of complacency all divide African Americans, as much if not more than generational differences. In fact, to reduce the fragmentation of black politics into a generation gap is to play into the hands of the right."

"Shinin' the Light on White Privilege." A detailed history and time-line of the institutionalization of racial oppression in the United States.

"The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), is a national and international collective of anti-racist, multicultural community organizers and educators dedicated to building an effective movement for social transformation." This group has roots in New Orleans.

Letter of the People of New Orleans to Our Friends and Allies: "The South has been traditionally underfunded and often exploited by institutions, including corporations, the labor movement, foundations, and the federal government. We have faced the legacy of centuries of institutional racism and oppression, with little outside support. And yet, against massive odds, grassroots movements in the South have organized and struggled and won historic, inspiring victories with international relevance." The list of signatories at the end of the letter is a Who's-Who of the New Orleans grassroots social activism community.

New Orleans Network - Web Resources. A database and calendar of social activism in New Orleans; possible model for the new CenLamar.

Southern Human Rights Organizers' Network:
"The primary goal of the network is to develop innovative and practical methods of organizing across the region. Another important objective is to strengthen the capacity of civil rights and social justice organizations in the Deep South."

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. Their most recent publication, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, is described as follows: "In this landmark collection, over 25 activists and scholars describe and discuss the non-profit industrial complex (NPIC)--a system of relationships between the state, the owning classes, foundations, and social service &social justice organizations that results in the surveillance, control, derailment, and everyday management of political movements." This group has been particularly active in New Orleans.

Wiretap Magazine, "New Orleans: Continuing Crisis:"
For many in the nonprofit field nationally, post-Katrina New Orleans has been an opportunity for career advancement. While local residents have been too overwhelmed by tragedy to apply for grants, a few well-placed national individuals and organizations have not hesitated to take their place in line. Although some have no relation to New Orleans, they often have previous relationships with the foundations, as well as resources that translate into easier access to funding, such as development staff, website designers and professional promotional materials

[...snip...]

Foundations are an integral part of the current structure of U.S. nonprofits, a system that INCITE has called the Nonprofit Industrial Complex, to emphasize the intersecting, dependent and corporatized ways in which the system is constructed. It is a system in which organizations are frequently pitted against each other for funding, where organizers are discouraged from being active in their own community, and where accountability to and leadership from those most affected has become increasingly rare.

Update: In the spirit of Easter, the first four of the Eight Beatitudes,

  • Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
  • Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the land.
  • Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.
  • Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.

1 comment:

Shuchin said...

hey bro,

haven't been keeping up with your blog so much, but it's nice to see that you're into ragin' 'gainst the ole machinery, because everything else in life is too easy.

also, your blog is getting better, i can tell you're becoming more aware of how you can communicate and what's worth communicating. good job buddy!

i've been reading this book "rules for radicals" that leah of all people suggested, it's cool cause it was written in the 70s and uses WW2 and the civil war as examples of how america is fucked instead of using vietnam and bush. basically, it's hinted to me the next step in my development as a force of change: make friends with conservatives, or at least conservativism. the way i've done that is by realizing how obnoxious left-wingers can be (justice via hate! yay!).