One book I’m currently reading is Let This Radicalize You, by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba. With authors who have been highly involved in activism in Chicago, I’m learning some local history while also absorbing their wisdom on collective care in times when everything seems to be going wrong. I’d recommend it! A few notes:

“We must help people imagine a world in which we can rely on one another.”

My wife and I were just talking this week about a shift for millennials like us. Our generation tends to be thought of as growing up with the belief that we can and should change the world. Now as are generation is well into adulthood and we've seen a pandemic, right-wine resurgence, climate crisis, genocides and more, many of us are having to reevaluate that inner drive. In a world of growing crisis and threats, we are and must be shifting from “How do we transform the world?” to “How do we take care of each other?”

At the same time, this is how we change the world. Large-scale transformations through policy interventions are a mixed-bag. Some we do need, most are far bigger than the typical individual has much capacity to engage with, and many end up with unintended consequences. It’s good to be engaged and trying to lend our voice to those doing good work to prevent the harms of billionaire takeover of government policy, but that can't be our primary focus. What we can do is form networks of practical care and protection where we grow our ability to rely on one another to survive when safety nets are breaking and repressive state power is looming.

In doing that, we do what the authors of this book say we must - help people imagine a world in which we can rely on one another. A big part of what lets capitalism and exploitation win is the idea that we must be independent, we can't rely on others, and we shouldn’t let anyone rely on us. Experimenting with steps to actually rely on one another starts to break this framework and plant seeds in the imaginations of our community. Those seeds are the hope of another world - the world to come, the world of Jubilee, the Kingdom of God, where all are interdependent and everyone has enough.

As those seeds become young seedlings in imaginations, they begin to bear fruit in new ways of being in the world and practicing community, as well as new possibilities on the policy front as beliefs about the way the world can and should be shift.

“Refuse to abandon each other”

Hayes and Kaba reflect on the core of efforts among Illinois prisoners to be in solidarity with one another and make sure everyone survives. With stories of prisoners looking out for those at risk of self-harm and other moments of resistance, they highlight the concept that these networks actively choose to “refuse to abandon each other”. In the midst of one of the most repressive environments, the temptation is to abandon others to focus on self-survival, but what best allows the self to survive is solidarity with others, refusing to abandon anyone and creating a web of collective care, and collective belief that each person can rely on one another and that doing so is the best way for everyone to make it through.

The authors highlight activist Ejeris Dixon, who shares the struggle many of us do - work towards good involves building relationships and that seems hard when I’m an introvert. She notes that building relationships, however, isn’t about being the life of the party, it's this: “If you show up for people, they’ll show up for you.” How do your neighbors need you to show up to help make sure they survive? Do that, and you’ll be building the relationships that create a web of care that will also show up for you.

“It will take years to recover. We are all rescuing each other.”

This line comes from a text sent by someone in the midst of Houston after Hurricane Harvey and sums up so much of where we are at. The state generally isn’t coming to rescue folks out of crises. We also don’t need grand organizations of charity and charismatic leaders with savior complexes. We need communities of mutual care and solidarity. Hayes and Kaba write: “As fires rage and sea levels rise… we will be called upon to rescue one another again and again. That impulse - to find our boats after a storm and to pull each other from the water on unauthorized, community-led rescue missions - will be key to surviving these times and to the creation of a new future. It is not saviorism, but collectivity and solidarity, that will fuel our best efforts. One of the greatest struggles of our time will be to cultivate a life-affirming political culture that can be enacted in the everyday, a counterculture of rebellious care… Our goal shouuld be interdependence: to be part of a community where rescue is viewed not as exceptional but as something that we owe each other. We do not need heroes. We need people who are committed to one another’s survival, who are willing to act on the basis of that commitment.”

They discuss mutual aid pods, “a model developed by disability activist Mia Mingus in which small autonomous groups of people practice various forms of mutual aid and collective support.” - I'll continue to write more on that in posts to come. It’s exactly what we need.

Political Hobbyists

I think a temptation for me and many is to be what Hayes and Kaba describe as political hobbyists. These are folks who consider themselves engaged but that mostly means following news, posting, debating, and doing small things like a petition signature or a donation, more to satisfy their own emotional needs than to create real change. I definitely can fall into that.

They distinguish hobbyists from activists and organizers actually doing the direct action of building something - movements of people caring for one another and engaged in really bringing change. Hobbyists often are the critics on the sidelines, criticizing the methods of others from the safety of not really doing anything.

There is one way I’ve been trying to avoid this and two ways I’m hopeful to lean into more:

First, I've tried to get more deeply involved on a particular topic that hasn't had a lot of organizing on it - gambling addiction and policy. I looked for what already existed and there wasn’t much, so I’ve personally started developing conversations with legislators on policy around this. I don’t really have the skills for a lot of what needs to happen, but I look for the areas where what I can do may apply and be helpful.

Second, I’m hopeful to find the folks in my area doing more direct and meaningful work and to learn and participate in what is already happening. So many are doing so much that is good, and I don't need to have the answers, I just need to find who is already acting and sacrifice time and effort to be part of their work.

Third, I’m hopeful to engage in that work of showing up for people that will contribute to networks of care and aid that will help my neighbors and me to survive and thrive in the time ahead of us.

Relying on Tech

One other great note from the first part of the book was their highlighting of the dangers of reliance on technology in organizing. Tech has allowed quick communication across a broad range of people and that helps make events and movements happen. However, it also creates risk when those tools are under surveillance, create profit for bad actors, or may disappear at any moment, and potentially undermine more resilient, embodied, local forms of connection.

This section sums it up: “If you are a young person, you will surely see evolutions in technology that will both aid and impede your work in the coming decades… it’s important to be suspicious and observant of the forces that control and profit from it… [and] the precarity of its usefulness. We're not saying you should take the time to learn every skill that technology has spared you the trouble of acquiring, but we do advise you to think critically about what services and platforms you rely on, what could be taken away, and what you would do in their absence.”

If social media and digital messaging were gone tomorrow, what have you built today that would keep you connected and part of mutual efforts to help one another survive?

Let this Radicalize You - Haymarket Books
Heading photo by Patti Black on Unsplash

Taking Action: Youth Parole in Illinois

From Restore Justice:
Recent bipartisan reforms in Illinois have recognized children’s and young people’s brains are still developing and, therefore, have substantial capacity to mature and change. The youthful parole laws passed in 2019 and 2023 ensure no person 20 and younger can receive a life without parole sentence; they also extend parole consideration to most people 18-20. However, the youthful parole laws were not retroactive. People who were sentenced as children and young people before 2019 are still serving life without parole sentences.

Illinois is spending millions of dollars incarcerating people whose sentence no longer reflects the current understanding of a fair sentence.

House Bill 3332 would create a limited opportunity for people 20 years and younger at the time of their offense to petition the court for their sentence to be reviewed. This bill is important to ensure people receive individualized consideration on whether their sentence serves the interests of justice.

In Illinois? Send a quick letter to your legislators through this template.

Update on other Restore Justice Legislation in Illinois

These Restore Justice bills passed out of committees by the deadline this week:

• HB 3332 - would create retroactive resentencing opportunities for people convicted as children and youth. Learn more here.

• HB 1858 and SB 248 - would create a narrow exception to the Post-Conviction Hearing Act for people sentenced as youth. Learn more here.

• HB 3713 HA 1 - would protect the right to receive original, physical mail for people who are incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Learn more in the attached fact sheet.

• HB 2546 - would amend the Youthful Parole Act with a timing and technical change, correcting a drafting error and clarifying the timing of youthful parole hearings to reflect the legislative intent. Learn more here.

Historical Heroes: Óscar Romero

I'll regularly highlight historical heroes, often in the week of their birth or death. This Monday is the anniversary of the assassination of Óscar Romero. Here's a bit of his story:

Oscar Romero of El Salvador (15 August 1917-24 March 1980) was an activist archbishop murdered for his prophetic witness. He was trained as an apprentice carpenter then studied for the priesthood. He was studying in Italy during World War II, and returned to El Salvador after he was ordained. He served in parish ministry and was later made bishop and then archbishop. He was not expected to offer much challenge to the powerful government interests and injustices happening at the time. In the midst of the conflicts leading to the civil war in El Salvador, his friend Father Rutilio Grande, who was deeply committed to seeking justice for those in poverty, was assassinated. This led to Romero's increased participation in seeking justice and challenging the government. He criticized the far-right military regime that came to power in 1979 and United States aid to that government. He broadcast his weekly sermons which had a huge following and provided information and inspiration, as well as challenge to the regime's policies. He was deeply committed to personal piety, confession, and spiritual disciplines. He was assassinated for his political stances in the midst of celebrating mass, and there was also a massacre at his funeral. We thank God for Oscar's life and ask the Holy Spirit to form us to be like Jesus, leveraging privilege for justice.