The People Draft a Manifesto for Change and introduce Community Reparations
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by Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia, co-teacher, poverty scholar and daughter of Dee Herstory was made on Juneteeth (june 19th) 2009 at POOR Magazine's Race, Poverty, & Media Justice Institute's Revolutionary Change Session. Through art, poetry, theatre and performance redefined as education, seminar and experience, we deconstructed the lie of the budget cut, the harm perpetrated by the Non-profit industrial complex (NPIC), introduced a new definition of philanthropy that includes community reparations and revealed the The Manifesto for Change , a new vision for thrival and the taking back of and control of resources by indigenous and landless peoples all across the globe! |
It was a Beautiful event! Peoples enmeshed in academia and the NPIC were schooled by poverty, race, disability, youth, migrant and indigenous scholars about hundreds of years of repression, scarcity models based on the deserving vs undeserving poor and conceptualized a new dream for Thrival - not just Survival!
On Monday, June 22nd, over 1,200 people converged on City Hall in San Francisco and patiently waited to speak on the destructive and far-reaching effects of the Mayor's proposed budget cuts. Many powerful advocates, scholars and revolutionaries organized to make sure folks came out to speak about the murderous blow of these Cuts on our collective lives. Hundreds more, organized by CAP and LIFETIME marched through the streets of Oakland yesterday, Wednesday, to protest the proposed state budget cuts to welfare, healthy families and elder services.
These struggles and acts of resistance are all entwined- a woven quilt of revolution; the profit from pain at the NPIC and Prison Industrial Complex (PIC)- the pursuit of budget justice- the care-giving of our landless elders and children and the struggle for poor mamas and daddys as they struggle to keep a tenuous hold on survival in Corporate and Capitalist Amerikkka...where do we go now?...... Yes ....keep up the struggle for budget justice but let's look at another frame based in our own gifts, our thrival- not just Survival......a plan of action to move off of the grid of philanthropy pimps, globalization pimps, non-profit pimps, to reject the lie of budget cuts, to reclaim our land and resources stolen from us so long ago!....explore the The Manifesto for Change which includes the control of our own resources through multiple sweat -equity housing projects, micro-business projects, schools, own food growth and localization of food production, reclaim our own care-giving, work, art and media.
For more information click here to read The Manifesto for Change
If you are an organizer or poverty scholar fighting the lies of the budget cuts just to keep your family, your community or your organization alive, consider an alternative. POOR Magazine will be co-hosting a Potlatch for Pacha Mama in September. This gathering will explore and implement models of thrival not dependent on capitalist systems of abuse like the Prison industrial complex (PIC) and non-profit industrial complex (NPIC) for poor communities of color, urban indigenous communities and landless peoples across the globe.For more information email deeandtiny@poormagazine.org
If you are a donor, or conscious person with access to resources, land or equity.. interested in learning about Community Reparations, a truly revolutionary model for giving and equity distribution for all peoples, please email deeandtiny@poormagazine.org
for more information about participating in Community Reparations as a Revolutionary Giving Ally
