The world is on fire.

When I fled my home this weekend as the Palisades Fire rapidly approached our neighborhood, I recalled something my friend Michelle Cassandra Johnson said to me: the world is on fire.

And in that moment, I felt the full brunt of this inferno. The fire that rages between Israel and Palestine. The fire of infectious disease that continues to mutate and spread around the world. The fire of systemic racism that targets, oppresses and kills brown and black people every day. And the fire that is the climate emergency that is threatening all of our survival.

It’s no wonder we are burned out.

But fire is also a powerful element of transformation. Mama Indigo reminds us that “the best thing you could do is master the chaos in you. You are not thrown into the fire, you are the fire.”

We, humans, started this fire. And we are the first responders that can stop the spread and allow for healing and repair.

Practice and actions below.

Kerri (she/her)

Art @arte_de_gustavo_

1. A year after America’s racial reckoning, little has changed. Americans have learned to talk about racial inequality, but they’ve done little to solve it. [click to tweet]

2. Can Palestinian Lives Matter? George Floyd’s death penetrated the American imagination. Now Palestinians fight for the right to be human. Will the world see them? [click to tweet]

3. The Supreme Court’s decision Monday to hear a case about a Mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks could end up weakening or even overturning Roe v. Wade. Here’s what you need to know. [click to tweet]

4. The U.S. must stop being an apologist for the Netanyahu Government. Bernie Sanders on why we must change course with Israel. [click to tweet]

5. The push to “get back to normal” was, and remains, nothing less than capitalism demanding that the workers be stuffed back into their roles regardless of the peril. We can’t just tell people to “Go Back to Work.” We have to improve workplaces. [click to tweet]

This week we’re lifting up the economic activism of courageous citizens from around the world who are leveraging people power in the face of systemic oppression:

PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY: This week, in a show of unity, Palestinians strike across West Bank, Gaza and Israel. And while Israel may have agreed to a cease fire, Palestine remains under threat. Here’s a tool kit in support of taking action in solidarity for freedom, justice and equality for Palestinians from our friends at Beautiful Trouble.

WORKER SOLIDARITY:  McDonald's cashiers and cooks in 15 U.S. cities will strike on May 19—a day before the fast-food behemoth's annual shareholder meeting—to demand McDonald's pay all of its workers at least $15 an hour amid a national labor shortage in the fast food industry. Striking cashiers and cooks say there's an easy solution to McDonald's labor shortage: a $15 minimum wage. (Read more on Vice here.) Stand with workers and demand $15 and a union.

What I hear most often from people who feel stuck and resistant to showing up is that they don’t feel like they have the power to make change. Kazu Haga spoke to this in the CTZN Podcast episode “Can our movements be healing?” when he said:“just the act of being in resistance spaces is incredibly liberating for the person who's involved, right? Because these institutions of power have told particularly marginalized people that they don't have power. That we just have to accept the realities that we're living in and to cut through that delusion and say, "No, we actually have power to change our own conditions that we have." And what we’re seeing this week is proof of that. People coming together in collective action to say “enough”. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians stopped working for the day to protest their shared treatment by Israel (a move that preceded todays cease fire). And McDonald’s workers around the US walked out to demand $15 and a union. According to Beautiful Trouble, strikes can be a powerful weapon for shifting the balance of power in workplaces and points of production. By withholding their labour and stopping work from continuing, generations of workers over the last 150 years have won better wages, improved working conditions, and basic bargaining rights. And consumers can show solidarity by boycotting companies that are explicit or complicit in oppression. Building collective power takes all of us. Here are some activism best practices from the Beautiful Trouble toolbox:

Tactic: General Strike

Principle: Put Your Target in a Decision Dilemma 

Theory: Capitalism

Methodology: Pillars of Power

Don’t forget to Breathe. Breath work helps train your nervous system for resilience over the long run. And we need everyone for the long run. Inhale…

Art by @mindfulmag

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