Chris Crass

Chris Crass is coordinator of the Catalyst Project: a center for political education, strategy development and movement building. He is a member of the Heads Up collective, an anti-war/economic and racial justice group in San Francisco.

Forging a Movement on Shifting Ground': reflections on anti-racism as a catalyst for global justice organizing

The main question throughout the gathering was, "What are barriers to forging a movement on shifting ground?" Responses included: "The need to actively engage with race, class and gender politics" and "The need for open dialogue about different styles of organizing and discussion of entirely new ways to organize."

But We Don't Have Leaders: Leadership Development and Anti Authoritarian Organizing

Leadership and leadership development can play important roles in moving forward with our commitment to equality in organizations, movements and society. Leadership development, as defined by organizer Dara Silverman, is working with others to build skills, analysis and confidence. Anti-authoritarian organizing, as it relates to this essay, is building the capacity of people and their organizations to challenge illegitimate authority – which includes capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, heterosexism and the state.

Building Movements For Collective Liberation

How do we build broad-based, anti-racist, multiracial, feminist, class-conscious movements capable of challenging global capitalism and US imperialism? What can we learn from the largest anti-war mobilization in the history of the world that took place this past year? What does it mean for community based racial justice struggles when the AFL-CIO announces immigrant rights as it's #1 priority and actively supports the historic Immigrant Worker Freedom Rides?

Still We Rise: conversations with organizers on building global justice movement and ending war

"We don't have much time, we need to slow down." The first time I heard this was at an antiwar coalition meeting shortly after the bombing of Afghanistan started. The African American organizer who said it was talking about the need to hold on, to think about our possible actions and to prioritize what would be the most strategic use of our limited time and resources. She was talking about patient, reflective action in the midst of chaos.

We Organize With Love In Our Hearts: building an anti-war movement

I was getting ready to leave for DC. The mass mobilization was gaining momentum as the IMF/World Bank meetings approached at the end of the month. I was excited about heading out early to do 'Anti-Racism for Global Justice' workshops and get involved with the organizing. I woke up like millions of other people on Sept. 11 to the news of tragic violence. Like you, I was horrified. And like you, it has weighed heavy on my mind and spirit every since.

Beyond Voting: anarchist organizing, electoral politics and developing strategy for liberation

Presidential elections are often the terrain on which radicals and anarchists debate the merits of electoral politics. This election season is no different. Social movements around the world and in the United States are declaring Bush's defeat at the ballot box a top priority.

Going To Places That Scare Me: Personal Reflections On Challenging Male Supremacy

"What do you mean I'm sexist?" I was shocked. I wasn't a jock, I didn't hate women, I wasn't an evil person. "But how can I be a sexist, I'm an anarchist?" I was anxious, nervous, and my defenses were up. I believed in liberation, for fighting against capitalism and the state. There were those who defended and benefited from injustice and then there's us, right? I was 19 and it was 1993, four year after I got into politics.

We Can Do This: Direct Action against Global Capitalism and US Imperialism - An interview with Ingrid Chapman

Ingrid Chapman has been involved in direct action organizing for the past 4 years. At 23, she has helped pull off successful mass actions, worked with thousands of activists around the country and bases her work in the question, "How do we build broad based movements capable of challenging global capitalism and US imperialism?"

Finding Colours of Resistance: An interview with Pauline Hwang and Helen Luu

What lessons have we learned since the anti-WTO actions in Seattle? Can those lessons be applied to anti-war organizing? Can local struggles challenge global capitalism? How do we build movement for global justice that is anti-racist, multiracial and feminist?

Organizer as a Catalyst: An Interview with Laura Close

Laura Close moves fast. I first met her at a student activist conference when she was on tour with Call to Action giving workshops around the country. In between leading workshops on group decision making and strategic planning she would stop for a minute to talk with other young activists. I'd hear her say things like 'We need to learn the skills, to build our movements, to build our power, to win concrete demands and stick with it for the long haul'.

Let's Build Liberation: A Conversation with Chris Crass on Anti-Racism and Revolutionary Struggle

I got into politics in high school when I was 15. My best friend, Mike Rejniak introduced me to politics and punk rock. We had a group at our high school called the United Anarchist Front (UAF) and we handed out flyers, did an underground newspaper, put on anti-corporate and anti-war protests. The Gulf War in 91 and the Rodney King verdict had a major influence on us. I was involved in student organizing at my community college in Orange County.

For a Democratic Vision to Fight Empire

How do we use the Presidential election to not only advance our politics and build our organizations and movements, but also deliver a measurable blow to US imperialist power? This is the question I hear over and over again.

Grounding Power: An Interview with Nrinder Nindy Kaur Nann

Nrinder Nindy Kaur Nann is fiercely dedicated to equality in her personal life, in her community based organizing and through her work in Ottawa, Ontario, as the National Representative on Youth Issues for the Canadian Labour Congress, the national umbrella group of unions in Canada.

Interview with Max Elbaum

Max Elbaum is a longtime activist and author of Revolution in the Air, crucial reading for all of us who want to build movement for collective liberation. Elbaum uses his experience, knowledge, research and passion for social change to give us a critical examination of the New Communist Movement of the 60s-80s. Looking at the political discussions, debates and organizing of the time, he gives us a detailed list of lessons drawing from the mistakes and the successes. As an anarchist who believes that neither anarchism nor Marxism hold the exclusive rights to the truth, I think we can move forward if we have the courage to look at our movements honestly, evaluate and strategize accordingly. Elbaum's book is a useful tool to help us get there.

From The Road: Snapshots of Living Resistance - a zine for liberation by Sonja S. and Jennica B.

The advancements of US imperialism got you down? Looking for inspiration to keep your passion burning for building mass based anti-racist, multiracial, feminist, queer and trans liberationist, anti-capitalist movements working for collective liberation? You should read this zine. The editors, who "were feeling disillusioned and uneducated about what amazing work we knew must be out there," traveled the country for seven months and interviewed people from over 50 organizations working for social change in 20 states in the Southwest, Midwest, Northeast and the South of the US and Northeast Canada.

Tools for White Guys who are Working for Social Change and other people socialized in a society based on domination

Practice noticing who's in the room at meetings - how many gender privileged men (biological men), how many women, how many transgendered people, how many white people, how many people of color, is it majority heterosexual, are there out queers, what are people's class backgrounds. Don't assume to know people, but also work at being more aware - listening to what people say and talking with people one on one who you work with.

Looking to the Light of Freedom: Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement and Thoughts on Anarchist Organizing

When thinking about organizing, about the possibilities for movement building, about the potential of challenging injustice and fundamentally altering the relationships of power in this society - my mind turns to the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 60's.

Towards Anti-Racist Politics and Practice: a racial autobiography

As I walked that picket line, in front of the administration office, I could feel the anxiety and tension growing. I knew that it would be unpopular to protest for Chicano Studies at Fullerton College in Orange County, California. But I wasn't prepared. I didn't know what to expect. I had been to countless protests and actions over the years. Politicized at 15, I went to protests against McDonald's and factory farming, Shell Oil and apartheid, the Gulf War and militarism. But this was different and I wasn't entirely sure why.

San Francisco Urban Politics and Food Not Bombs

Food Not Bombs is a social justice movement that challenges militarism and the systems of inequality that create violence and poverty in the pursuit of profit. There are over one hundred FNB groups in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia. FNB groups are volunteer run, anti-authoritarian collectives that distribute free vegetarian food at community meals in public spaces to facilitate building a cooperative society and to challenge the current economic structures that create poverty and the political structures which criminalize those who are poor.

White Supremacy On My Mind: Learning To Undermine Racism

Growing up in California and coming of political age in the 90's, race has been a central factor in my develop as a person and as a radical. California elections have been the battle ground upon which fights over immigrant rights, bilingual education, affirmative action, criminal justice, labor rights and queer marriage have been fought.

Confronting the Democratic National Convention and Working to Build a People's Movement for Justice

Going to Los Angles for the Democratic Nation Convention was an amazing experience. The actions and events themselves were generally speaking, very powerful. More than the actions themselves, the questions about organizing, tactics, strategy, anti-racist practice and movement building have been profoundly challenging as well as exciting.

Confronting Global Capitalism and Challenging White Supremacy: thoughts on movement building and anti-racist organizing

One of the most exciting developments that has come out of the mass actions in Seattle against the WTO and in Washington DC against the IMF/World Bank is the movement-wide discussion about racism, white supremacy and organizing strategies to build a multiracial movement opposed to global capitalism. Elizabeth 'Betita' Martínez's widely distributed essay, "Where Was the Color in Seattle", put forward the question - why, if global capitalism has the greatest negative impact on people of color around the world and in the United States was the protest against the WTO so overwhelming white (about 95%)?

Controlling Gendered Immigrants and Racialized Populations: overpopulation, immigration and environmental sustainability

The Sierra Club election: debating immigration in the environmental movement In April of 1998, the Sierra Club membership rejected a plan to limit immigration as a means of protecting the environment. The Sierra Club is one of the largest, oldest and most influential environmental groups in the United States. Through previous debate in the Club about immigration and in response to grassroots support in the group, the Sierra Club's Board of Directors decided in February of 1996, to "take no position on immigration levels or on policies governing immigration into the United States," and to remain "committed to environmental rights and protection for all within our borders, without discrimination based on immigration status."

Beyond Welfare Queens: developing a race, class and gender analysis of Welfare and Welfare Reform

In 1996 the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act became law and dismantled the 61 year old program of federally guaranteed Aid to Families with Dependent Children or what is common referred to as welfare. The debate surrounding welfare reform was dominated primarily by white male politicians and journalists and focused predominately on Black women and their families living in poverty.

Towards Social Justice: Elizabeth 'Betita' Martinez and the Institute for MultiRacial Justice

"Elizabeth 'Betita' Martinez is a national and international treasure. Her life and work provide a model of internationalism and solidarity, as well as local organizing. 'Think globally, act locally' was her practice long before the slogan was created. From work for decolonization at the United Nations, to the Civil Rights Movement, to pioneering the women's liberation movement, to local organizing in New Mexico and California, to top-rate journalism and political theory, Betita continues to blaze trails and create priceless legacies, mentoring countless social activists, young and old, male and female, people of all colors, gay and straight, always with astonishing patience and intelligence." This is how Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz describes her friend of 30 years.

OLDER ESSAYS

Voltairine de Cleyre, the Anarchist Tradition and the Political Challenge

Organizing for Radical Social Change: Voltairine de Cleyre and anarcha-feminism

Arrest that Soup! Police order Food Not Bombs to put down the ladle

"The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender and Freedom" by Barbara Smith

The Civil Rights Movement and the Struggle Against White Supremacy: Learning From Anne Moody's Autobiography "Coming of Age in Mississippi"

San Francisco Food Not Bombs - FNB and supporters speak out!!