Longing and Looking Ahead
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From Yahya Alazrak, Executive Director |
I have to admit, figuring out what to write about for this month’s newsletter has been a struggle.
First of all, this is the first newsletter for us this year and y’all haven’t really gotten to know me yet.
But more importantly, there is so much I could share about.
Like, my vision for RG (more to come I promise). Or, how over 50 Starbucks locations have filed to unionize, and REI is not the most supportive of their NYC workers trying to as well.
I’m sure I could summon a hot-take on NFTs, the metaverse, and techno-capitalist nihilism.
All of those would be timely and important pieces to write for this newsletter.
Others in the movement are doing an amazing job telling those stories, and what I have to share isn’t about them. It’s about a piece of the work that comes before we read the news, or analysis, before we figure out what action to take.
Lately I’ve been noticing all I want to do is hibernate, be slow, cook things that take time, be with loved ones and community in warm places. I want to play board games and sing songs in groups. I want to reflect and plan and be ready for the spring. I want my people to feel safe being together again.
It is significant to remember I am a being of longing. To notice what it is I am longing for right now, even if it seems distant or impossible, and so I must also notice grief alongside the longing.
It is significant, and dare I say necessary to achieving the world we want, to notice we are beings of longing.
UPDATES |
Strategic Planning |
Our Board, Staff, and Member Strategic Planning Committee has been meeting every two weeks. We are working with our consultants, Dragonfly Partners, on a series of conversations getting into some BIG questions. Such as: Who is RG for? How can we be protagonists in the movement? How do we want to be in conflict together?
By this summer, we hope to have a Strategic Framework for the next 5 years, and can move to applying the framework to questions about strategies and tactics, and building excitement across the organization for the direction we’ll be going in.
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CHAPTER UPDATES |
North Carolina - Triangle Chapter |
This month our chapter was featured by local NC newspaper INDY Week! The article includes interviews with two chapter members and a partner organization. In it our members discuss what brought them to the work of wealth redistribution and why people with class privilege have a critical role to play in dismantling systemic oppression.
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Colorado Chapter |
The RG Colorado chapter held a November Redistribution Event in which we had an amazing and inspiring guest speaker, Bryn, a RG member from Ohio. Thank you, Bryn, for sharing your in-depth plan and answering our chapter's many questions! Raisa, a Chapter Leader, also shared her redistribution plan and there was a general discussion on the different organizing efforts that chapter members are involved in. We also want to extend a warm thank you to Sophie who has been a huge help to the RG CO Chapter Leadership team while they were on the team.
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Maine Chapter — New Chapter Alert!! |
Maine Resource Generation is going official! After meeting as a group for 18 months as well as hosting a praxis group and several giving circles with local grassroots organizations, the Maine folks of RG are excited to become an official chapter! We are continuing to form and develop our work together and are excited to grow.
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Austin, TX Chapter |
We finished our praxis group in December after extending it one month (because we just couldn't say goodbye yet, and because we wanted to plan out our 2022 together). This year we are committing to monthly meetings starting in February (omicron made it very hard to meet in January). Excited to grow and solidify our base this year!
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Connecticut Chapter |
RG CT has had a wonderful winter season! In conjunction with the membership drive, we hosted RedistributionFEST in December, an evening in which returning and new RG members shared stories and escalated their redistribution or worked on redistribution plans for the first time. In January, we launched our first Praxis group which will meet biweekly until April. We are excited to bring more people into the work of RG with a focus on our Connecticut partners and Connecticut organizing more broadly.
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Chicago Chapter |
Riding the waves of covid and winter, the Chicago chapter has been finding new ways to connect. An online praxis group finished in December and is working on a collective redistribution plan that puts power into the hands of rad local orgs like Good Kids, Mad City. At the end of 2021, we distributed 70 books on radical organizing, movement history, and the world of philanthropy to our members!
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(Emerging) Hawai'i Chapter |
While emerging Resource Generation Hawai'i continues to look for constituent chapter leaders who can carry the work forward, we've been active with two major developments.
We had a recent relationship milestone: RG, Solidaire and Hawai'i Peoples' Fund cohosted a powerful panel "Hawai'i Rising: Resourcing the Resistance Against U.S. Imperialism," and it was well attended and momentum building!!
Secondly, and as a call-to-action for our national allies, we've been mobilizing to #ShutDownRedHill because the U.S. Navy recently poisoned the aquifer on Oahu through leaking oil and jet fuel. We are asking for continued pressure against POTUS and SecDefense, and for folks not to vacation to Hawai'i during a water crisis within a pandemic. More information follow Kaʻohewai, Oahu Water Protectors, and Sierra Club HI.
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UPCOMING EVENTS |
Sign up for National College Praxis! |
We’re super excited to announce that National College Praxis is back! Run by Eva & Olive, two of RG’s student fellows, college praxis will meet for four sessions, every other week, from early March through mid-April. Register by February 14th at bit.ly/collegepraxis.
College Organizing is such an important piece of the work RG does! College campuses in the US are places where there are large concentrations of young people with wealth, and young people who are in training to go into fields where they will earn wealth wages.
Praxis is open to college students and recent grads both new and familiar with RG.
If you have any questions, please email Olive (she/they) and Eva (any/all).
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FROM OUR PARTNERS |
Center for Economic Democracy: Social Movement Investment Report |
Check out this great supplement to RG’s Transformative Investment Principles that several RG community members were thought partners and reviewers on. “Drawing on frameworks from both social justice organizing and impact investing fields, Social Movement Investing (SMI) explores and proposes movement-aligned capital strategies that help build the power necessary to address our many challenges— from economic and racial injustice to climate and migration crises. In addition, the paper also includes tools that investors of all types can utilize in the service of a just, equitable, and sustainable future.” Learn more and read more here.
Apply to LIFT’s Next Economy MBA Program |
LIFT Economy’s The Next Economy MBA program is launching a new program March 29th. Some amazing regenerative organizations are represented in the MBA Alumni network - from orgs that hire immigrant refugees, to Islamic Finance groups, to a Black Farmers Fund, and Honor the Earth (who is leading in the resistance to stop Enbridge’s Line 3). If you have questions and/or want to learn more you can sign up for a free 1:1 chat with a member of the facilitation team.
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MEME ROUND-UP |
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We encourage you to consider joining RG as a dues paying member, and if you would like to get involved in your local chapter, please fill out this intake form!
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Resource Generation
1216 Broadway
New York, NY 10001
United States
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