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I want to own that we have NOT done enough to bring attention to the crises in Sudan and Congo. Sudan and Congo are suffering from long standing conflicts with devastating humanitarian and environmental consequences. And yet these crises have received considerably less coverage and support around the world (despite the severity of suffering). According to @SudanInGermany

“It’s really sad and heartbreaking to see how unnoticed the pain of the people of Congo and Sudan goes. It’s sad to see how no one seems to hear, see or listen of what’s going on. For context: Selective activism refers to the tendency of individuals or groups to focus on specific issues or causes while ignoring others. In the context of the wars in Sudan and Congo, selective activism may manifest as disproportionate attention given to certain conflicts while others receive less awareness or advocacy.”

Responding to the accelerating and accumulating crises around the world requires that we go to the root to see how the threads of white supremacist colonial patriarchy binds us together. There is no liberation for any of us as long as people around the world are suffering at the hands of western power and greed. Our struggle like our resistance is intertwined. Together, we can build a collective capacity to hold all of the world’s pain and imagine a future big enough to care for us all.

Kerri (she/her)

Art by @RedMaat

NTK (need to know)

• For many American Jews protesting for Palestinians, activism is a journey rooted in their Jewish values. Powerful piece by the brilliant Atalia Omer

• No more excuses: The ICC prosecutor’s decision to seek arrest warrants against Israeli leaders puts it beyond doubt: It’s time to cut off the weapons.

• Massachusetts taxed the rich. Now they have an extra $1.8 billion to spend. This tax-payer approved hike can now pay for free public school meals, free community college, and public transit.

• The participants in the student encampments “have rejuvenated us after months of militant protest, taking bold action for our transgenerational, collective vision of liberated peoples and lands across the world.” A Love Letter To the Student Encampments.

• Why school segregation is getting worse. Seventy years after the Brown decision, many students are divided by their race and socioeconomic status.

Solidarity (pt. 1)

Sudanese people are experiencing the largest displacement crisis in the world featuring genocide, famine, mass rape and ethnic cleansing. It is estimated that 5 million people have been displaced to date and 20,000 people are forced to leave their homes everyday by the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. According to the World Food Program 19 million people are facing extreme levels of hunger and very little international humanitarian aid is reaching the country. Here’s how you can support:

SUPPORT SUDANESE FOOD KITCHENS including the Khartoum Kitchen appeal,

PROVIDE HUMANITARIAN AID to 100 displaced families in Kassab camp and help bring sustainable aid to Sudanese families in Cairo.

EMERGENCY FUNDS Here are local and international organizations and campaigns that need your donations to help provide emergency aid to the millions affected by the ongoing war in Sudan:

BOYCOTT: The United Arab Emirates is a major player in the destruction and genocide happening there, and you have the power to impact their involvement. Start by boycotting all UAE merchandise, products, and tourism.

CONTRIBUTE TO ACTIVE EVACUATION CAMPAIGNS here.

FOLLOW THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW THE WAY: @red_maat
@bsonblast @foreverjuicebae @project.taghyir @nasalsudan @yousraelbagir @sudanese_american_physicians @sudansolidaritycollective @womenofsudan @forsudaneseliberation

Resources: @lovediaraist @sudanupdates, Art by @sudan.zaman

Solidarity (pt 2)

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is considered one of the ‘richest’ countries in the world. That same country suffers from extreme levels of poverty while the country’s valuable natural resources are being looted from imperialist powers. The region’s vast mineral wealth (Cobalt and Coltan) fuels western technology industry and consumption trapping the Congolese people in a vicious cycle of exploitation and modern day slavery since 1996. What’s happening in the Congo is one of the most brutal and overlooked crises in modern history, with over 6 million people murdered, millions more severely injured and nearly 7 million displaced. While in the hands of capitalist greed and imperialist investment, there is no justice for the Congo. Here’s what you can do:

WATCH “When Elephant’s Fight”, a film documenting the illicit mineral trade in the DRC and the story of complicity that multinationals and global tech corporations don't want you to know about.

READ: Cobalt Red: How the Blood of Congo Powers our Lives, an unflinching investigation reveals the human rights abuses behind the Congo’s cobalt mining operation—and the moral implications that affect us all.

CHECK YOURSELF: The crisis in the Congo is tied directly to all of us and our gross consumption of smart phones, laptops and electric cars since 70% of the world’s cobalt is minded in the DRC (mainly by children). It is one Check out this tutorial and this one for more information on this environmental and human rights crisis.

DONATE: Here are some of the organizations that are doing amazing work and that know exactly what’s going on and what people need: @gomactif @panzifoundation @iheartafricadotorg @congofoodweek @congoliciousfoundation @congofriends

FOLLOW: @freecongodrc @congofriends @pappyorion @congoleseactionyouthplatform @focuscongo

Art and Resources: @freecongodrc

Digging Deeper

What does decolonizing look like as a practice and not just an idea? Education and conversation are important. But we must also ask ourselves if we are living into a decolonized way of being in our lives. Decolonization is an everyday practice of unlearning, divesting, reimagining and embodying another way of being. Here are some ways to engage:

DIVEST: One of the key strategies in decolonization is divesting from systems and structures that maintain and reinforce colonization and oppression. Turning away from systems of harm demands that we deprive complicit corporations and systems our support including consumer goods, voting, financial institutions, academia, gender norms, fast fashion, celebrity culture, policing, respectability politics and more.

INVEST: Building alternative systems of care and mutuality is also how we can untangle ourselves from the traps, addictions, attachments to colonization. This includes getting organized, building power and exploring new ways of being together and taking care of each other. This could include investing in community based medical clinics, education and daycare, affordable housing, indigenous leadership, alternatives to policing, mutual aid, cooperative economies and more.

NATIVE SOVEREIGNTY: Essential to the process of decolonization is returning land and restoring sovereignty to indigenous people. This includes centering indigenous wisdom (without appropriating it), deferring to indigenous leadership, fighting for the protection of indigenous land and land stewardship, and land back.

RECOVER YOURSELF: White western bodies should also focus on their own healing through ancestral healing and accountability, recovering lost culture and medicine, unlearning dominant patterns of separation and supremacy, and recalibrating our lives around interdependent values and action.

Resource from @theindigenousanarchist, Art and words by @NikkiBlak

We-ness

Be grateful you can feel…

Art by Laura Matsue

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. 💛

Upgrade to paid