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NOTE FROM IIMAY HO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF RG
I first joined Resource Generation in 2013 because I wanted to be part of ending the harm of racial capitalism. I have been a member ever since.
Being a member of Resource Generation over many years has deepened my accountability and commitment to wealth redistribution and helped me feel connected and grounded in this moment where stress and uncertainty is bringing up feelings of scarcity.
It's an understatment to say COVID-19 has laid bare the inherent violence, cruelty, and inequality of racial capitalism. But I hope that if you are someone like me with access to class privilege and wealth, you are feeling massively uncomfortable right now. Because that’s the part of ourselves that knows this system isn’t right. It’s not right for human dignity, health, and safety to depend on access to money.
It's with ^this^ truth in mind and our commitment to practicing abundance that we step into RG's Spring Giving Pledge and Membership Drive.
-- Iimay Ho, RG Executive Director
Read the rest of Iimay Ho's blog post, Practicing Abundance, here.
UPCOMING RG WEBINARS & MORE!
On May 28th, join us for "Asian American Culture and Healing: Telling Our Stories," an online discussion session for young Asian Americans with wealth and class privilege to get a chance to share stories, talk about our relationship to culture, and share ways to heal. Virtual discussion will take place on May 28th at 5:30 pm PT/8:30 pm ET.
Register for 'Asian American Culture and Healing: Telling Our Stories' here.
On Monday, June 8th, join us for 'Rejoining the Whole,' an hour long virtual workshop on the urgency of wealth redistribution in these times. We’ll explore the need for wealth redistribution, the difference between reparations and redistribution, and invite people into action.
This workshop is designed for people with class privilege and wealth but is open to all who are interested. Invite your family, your friends, your ex, etc. :)
Register for 'Rejoining the Whole' on June 8th 7:30pm ET/4:30 pm PT.
CHAPTER & STUDENT UPDATES
RG Student Fellows
In collaboration with RG student (and newly graduated!!) organizers across the country, college organizing fellows are holding the first ever Virtual College Praxis Group this spring and summer. We will meet every other week for six sessions starting in the last week of May, and as of now we have 10 facilitators and 24 students total participating!
We’ll be covering a lot of the same material as the other virtual praxis group, in addition to content specially tailored for college organizing such as student class privilege cards, and a panel with movement partners about the history and ongoing role that universities play in maintaining the racial wealth divide and wealth inequality. For more info contact [email protected].
RG Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Ann Arbor chapter had a few things going on this past month. We had a care call on March 29 (a bit over a month ago but ya know) with 9 members joining. We had 8 members participate in the #sharemycheck campaign and moved $10,000. We signed onto our first thing as a chapter: Huron Valley Labor/Community COVID-19 Demands (https://huronvalleycovid19.wixsite.com/demands) and have been working in coalition with a number of other local groups around those. We wrapped up our chapter's second round of praxis this month.
RG Bay Area
With over 500 individual donations, we have raised a total of $1,073,389 for 84 grassroots organizations serving the needs of our community members. This includes $90,185 for our campaign partner Mujeres Unidas y Activas. #Moms4Housing- after their historic protest for housing justice, the houseless mothers who created Moms 4 Housing reached a deal to buy their home, and BARG played a huge role in raising the money towards that goal! Together we raised $550,000 towards the $590,000 purchase price. We also held a rad virtual event for RG members and their moms and families to meet the Moms 4 Housing organizers. #ShareMyCheck: We surpassed our goal of 60 pledges to redistribute their $1200 stimulus checks in one week!
RG Boston
Local lobster feed coming up! #ShareMyCheck MA pledge & toolkit has 40+ signees and over $80K moved to the mass redistribution fund and national/global funds.
RG New York
The New York Chapter is doing our best to use the extra capacity our collective privilege is giving many of us in this crisis to be as active and responsive as we can while staying connected and caring for ourselves and our communities. To give a few examples, our Climate Justice circle helped transition the Earth Week NYC campaign to digital actions, the Base Building circle held a training on "How to talk about RG in the age of Covid and Climate Crisis," the Moving Money circle launched a #sharemypaycheck campaign to encourage folks to give from their incomes along with redistributing stimulus checks, and we just held an all chapter leadership meeting to celebrate our accomplishments, share learnings and build relationship between leaders.
RG Triangle Area, North Carolina
Over the last month, we raised $8,000 to support the first planting season for Handèwa Hemp Farms -- an Afro-Indigenous-led farming cooperative in Oxford, NC -- as part of our chapter's 2020 commitment to indigenous land repatriation. We also held a giving circle to redistribute over $50,000 to local and national Covid-19 mutual aid efforts in alignment with RG's #sharemycheck campaign, participated in a Radical Investing Workshop led by Kate Poole of Chordata Capital, and (thanks to our regional organizer on RG national staff, Beck!) our chapter leaders are beginning to build relationships and share resources with other chapters in the South.
Emergent chapters
Along with the national trend, the emerging RG chapter in Northfield, MN specifically among Carleton students, has activated during the pandemic. A few weeks ago, we launched our second praxis group, this time with students leading the way and facilitating! We have also formed a base-building pod, to lead on meeting and absorbing new folks; and a new action pod is figuring out ways to show up in solidarity with low-income students and working class community members. A final major highlight is that a few weeks into this crisis we did a virtual giving circle and raised almost $4000 to support low-income, first generation students at Carleton! We look forward to all that comes next and continuing to build power!
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***RG has 16 local chapters across the U.S. and growing! If you are interested in connecting with your local RG chapter or community to support local mutual aid efforts (and the long-term fight for social justice!), please check out the RG intake form.
#SHAREMYCHECK UPDATES
Thanks to all who pledged to share their check getting this campaign to more than 1670 signatures and over $4.5 millon pledged to grassroots movements!
Now join RG and our campaign partners in demanding a #Recovery4All: write your representative for the next stimulus bill to be a People’s Bail Out!
FROM PARTNERS
- Monday, May 18, join Highlander staff for "Becoming a Middle Class Class Traitor", a conversation about class, capitalism, and the role of the middle class in either maintaining or challenging the status quo. We will grapple with how to become class traitors, from immediate actions like #sharemycheck and strategies to #useyourprivilege, to deeper personal transformation and long-haul organizing. We will explore what we can do to support radical work that challenges capitalism, creates alternatives, and moves us toward the kind of society we all deserve. Register here.
- On Thursday, May 21, at 1 pm ET (10 am PT / 11 am MT / 12 pm CT), join Third Wave Fund for a virtual briefing, Frontline Resilience: COVID-19, Sex Worker Movements, and the Sex Worker Giving Circle. We’ll be in conversation about the Sex Worker Giving Circle, our 23 powerful sex worker-led grantees, and everything that these groups and Third Wave Fund are doing to help their communities to survive, organize, and thrive.
- Please mark your calendars for Tuesday, June 2 at 5pm EST for an exciting launch event for the Cypress Fund! Come to learn more about what Cypress Fund, a new social justice fund for the Carolinas, is building to support justice and freedom for our people. We’ll have live performances, discussions about the state of movement work in North and South Carolina, and information on how you can plug in to the work now and into the future. Speakers will include movement partners, staff, and supporters of Cypress Fund. Please register here to receive the Zoom information.
RG WEBINAR RECORDINGS & RESOURCES
RG BLOG POSTS AND BEYOND
Learn more about RG membership here!
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