Thanks for subscribing to WELLREAD. For the last six years we’ve been providing folks with the need to know (NTK) news, calls to actions and resources for how to stay engaged and resourced along the way. But now, we’ve added an option to “upgrade to paid” to help sustain our work. While we will never put our content behind a pay wall, we depend on the support of our community to keep us going. 💛

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The call to go back to some “before state” when everything was fair and equal to all is a lie. The constitution was never intended for most of us. That’s why guns are more protected than lives, profits are prioritized above people and planet, white comfort and control is more valued than bodily autonomy and collective survival.

History has shown us that people in power will react violently to our resistance and fight for liberation. Fear is one of their primary tactics to attack the movement and disrupt our progress. Which means that we have “to act as if it were radically possible to transform the world” as Angela Davis tells us.

It means we must BELIEVE….in ourselves and each other, in doing something different and experimenting with new realities, and in the more just and beautiful future that we all deserve.

Grace Lee Boggs reminds us “You don’t choose the times you live in but you do choose who you want to be.”

May we choose to be who we need to be for each other.

Kerri (she/her)

Art by Democracyatwrk

NTK (need to know)

1. Work requirements have a “long and racist history” stemming from anti-Black ideas with roots in slavery — they have no place in a country that values the welfare of all its people. The devil is in the details of the debt ceiling deal.

2. It's becoming clear that corporate greed is screwing over the US economy. Here is the real monster behind soaring prices

3. "What happened this morning is a terrifying escalation by the state, and a chillingly direct attack on the First Amendment. This is fascist political repression” If y’all are not paying attention to what’s happening in Atlanta, please turn your attention there now.

4. While the Biden-McCarthy deal denies food to hungry families, it increases Pentagon spending by tens of billions. There’s never a debt ceiling for the military industrial complex.

5. For decades, Americans have been told they should love their jobs. But is this a healthy relationship? Why Are We Expected to Love Our Jobs?

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Solidarity

What’s going on in Atlanta? The level of state violence against local people organizing to STOP COP CITY and protect an essential forest from becoming a training center for militarized cops is escalating. This week, three organizers with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund -- the city's largest bail fund -- were arrested this morning at their homes.

This is more than an isolated incident. This is an attack against our right to defend each other, to organize bail funds, to make sure our people have legal representation when their resistance is criminalized. “This is a global struggle against fascism, it’s a global struggle against the militarization of the police and state violence against folks whose dissent is being oppressed,” says Jasmine, an organizer in Atlanta. Here’s what you can do:

LEARN: Check out the latest episode of Movement Memos, where host Kelly Hayes talks with authors Alex Vitale and Stuart Schrader about the frightening trajectory of policing in the United States. Hayes also talks with Chicago activist Benji Hart, and Jasmine, an organizer in Atlanta who is engaged in the struggle to Stop Cop City.

SUPPORT: Support the Atlanta Solidarity Fund as its organizers face targeted political repression. All funds raised here will be used to support bail & legal defense funds of those being arrested & prosecuted in Atlanta.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT: Chicago’s #NoCopAcademy campaign and #StopCopCity in Atlanta are part of the same movement: to end violent policing, protect the environment and defend Black and brown lives.

Art by Dioishh

Practicing Justice

Grace Lee Boggs was a Chinese American civil rights activist whose work spanned over 70 years. Her activism was concentrated in Detroit, where she settled with her husband James Boggs. Her work helped indelibly shape our present-day movements for racial justice. Here are some of the wisdom we carry forward:

“Love isn't about what we did yesterday; it's about what we do today and tomorrow and the day after”

“Movements are born of critical connections rather than critical mass.”

“A revolution that is based on the people exercising their creativity in the midst of devastation is one of the great historical contributions of humankind.”

“You don’t choose the times you live in, but you do choose who you want to be. And you do choose how you think.”

“I think that's a very important part of what we need in this country, is that sense that we have lived through so many stages and that we are entering into a new stage where we could create something completely different.”

“To make a revolution, people must not only struggle against existing institutions. They must make a philosophical/ spiritual leap and become more 'human' human beings. In order to change/ transform the world, they must change/ transform themselves.”

Art by The Big We

Calling all white folks…

White women: please join @here4thekidsaction for a peaceful sit-in in Denver, CO, on Monday June 5 – that is, in FIVE DAYS! – to reclaim our lives and the lives of our children by demanding Governor Jared Polis sign an Executive Order to ban guns and implement a statewide buyback program.

According to Gun Violence Archive, there were at least 20 mass shootings over Memorial Day weekend resulting in 16 people dead and more than 80 injured. Countless more traumatized for life. #Here4theKids prioritizes the safety of historically marginalized and vulnerable populations such as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, non-citizens, and disabled folks whose bodies are often on the front lines fighting for human and civil rights, which is why the movement is inviting white women to participate in this act of civil disobedience.

JOIN ON JUNE 5TH IN DENVER. Details here.

Art by Here 4 The Kids

We-ness

Happy pride y’all.

Art by To Write Love On Her Arms

Thanks for subscribing to WELLREAD. For the last six years we’ve been providing folks with the need to know (NTK) news, calls to actions and resources for how to stay engaged and resourced along the way. But now, we’ve added an option to “upgrade to paid” to help sustain our work. While we will never put our content behind a pay wall, we depend on the support of our community to keep us going. 💛