Organize Your Own? White People and the Fight Against Racism

Socialism 2018

July 05, 2018
With Eric Kerl

Heading the call to "organize your own," white activists of the 1960s initiated a number of projects to organize other whites. Student radicals streamed into places like Appalachia and poor neighborhoods in Cleveland, Chicago, and elsewhere. The Southern Student Organizing Committee, the Young Patriot Organization, and other organizations grew out of this “racial division of labor” strategy. Recent formations like Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), The Chicago League of Abolitionist Whites (CLAW) and Redneck Revolt have revived the call to “organize your own.” But, this is a deeply flawed strategy for activists genuinely interested in combatting racism and capitalism. This session will examine the history and politics behind the “organize your own” strategy and make the case for revolutionary, interracial organization.

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