Organizing for Social Change – A Mini Resource Library

Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

So many of us and those we love face state and other sanctioned forms of violence. Fascist impulses threaten our lives and take those of people near to us. In the face of these powerful structures, we feel helpless. Our defeatism amplifies in the face of overwhelming negativity and weighs us and those around us down. Moreover, the global COVID-19 pandemic, increasing financial and other insecurities, and exploitative labor conditions burden our body-minds. Often, an effect of such subjection to power is isolation. This context effectively denies us vital sustenance in challenging times: community and collective struggles against structural violence.

In disciplinary contexts such as German Studies, there is sometimes this sense that the type of intellectual and community work we have to do is singularly confined to our programs. In fact, the work we have to do to sustain our programs already surpasses our labor capacities. And so, no wonder that we have “no time” for any work outside of what is immediately connected to nurturing German Studies. We might resign to the powers that be and accept that if the work we have to do is not “connected to German” and thereby to our immediate labor context, it is outside of the purview of what we can and should do in the academy and beyond. 

The all-consuming demands projected onto us by our institutions then do not provide us with the time and space to connect to our communities when they need us and we them. What we deem “professional necessities” interfere with the bonds we could forge by letting what we do in our programs dictate the form of living. 

Community is then all too often burdened by the tyranny of professionalization. Because professional relationality is quite limited in the types of bonds it sanctions (“you can do this, because that is what German Studies is, but not that, for that is not German Studies”), those of us who seek more generative bonds never quite feel at home in the academy. Many people I have met through the DDGC have shared this sentiment. They are torn between a type of professional expectation to “stay in their lane” and the often neglected urge to connect to people across and between disciplinary and non-academic worlds. 

Here, it is important to acknowledge that the received professionalization scripts in German Studies are flawed, at best, and harmful, at worst. In fact, the type of relationality required to change the violent conditions under which we live cannot be born under the auspices of professionalization. Those yearnings for community so many of us feel and struggle to realize are not a waste of time—no matter how much the academy and its value structures insist they are. Community impulses are vital but also require time and energy to nurture. Consequently, the most meaningful forms of community will never be sanctioned by the institution, no matter how many policies change allegedly in order to help academic workers get “recognition” for their community work. 

But that should not stop us. Why seek permission from structures that have been so harmful to us and those around us? Why aim to get recognition from structures that have long burdened relations so urgent to sustain us? Instead, we could be unprofessional together. Let’s neglect received scripts dictating what is and is not sanctioned “work” in German Studies. Forging a community for social change might just be the best way to go about this. 

Community organizing often hinges on a driving event or circumstance as well as persistence. In this regard, all it takes to form a collective are three people (technically two count, too) motivated to spend time together. Following the initial gatherings, they help develop an infrastructure for their collective that helps them come together with an aim. What work you need to do varies according to your aims. But coming together is an important initial component. In conversations and through mutual support you will negotiate what “the work” is that you have to do. Sometimes this will be challenging, because hostile structures are always at play and burden those with whom you seek to be in community. Be patient with them and yourself and know that struggling through challenging situations is part of community work.  

The list of resources below is not exhaustive. However, it offers a good start for you to learn more about community organizing for a cause and provides various models that could help inform the formation of your own collective. As such, these resources are excellent means by which to unshackle yourself from the burden of professionalism and start organizing for change at your institution, in your neighborhood, or nationally/internationally. 

On this note, if you would like to join existing organizing efforts in German Studies, reach out to us in the DDGC Collective. We have a number of initiatives to which we hope to recruit people. Write to any of the DDGC Steering Committee members and they will put you in touch with the right people. Or, if there is an issue you care about and for which you would like to form a DDGC Working Group, we would love to collaborate! 

Resources for Grassroots Organizing in your Local, Regional, National, and International Contexts

Community Tool Box

University of Kansas Center for Community Health and Development

“Millions of people use the Community Tool Box each year to get help taking action, teaching, and training others in organizing for community development. Dive in to find help assessing community needs and resources, addressing social determinants of health, engaging stakeholders, action planning, building leadership, improving cultural competency, planning an evaluation, and sustaining your efforts over time.”

Incite! Resources for Organizing

Feminist of Color Collective 

“INCITE! is a network of radical feminists of color organizing to end state violence and violence in our homes and communities.” There are five toolkits available. “Law Enforcement Violence Toolkit,” “Gender Violence & Race Reader,” “Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex,” “Community Accountability,” “Anti-Militarism Resources.” 

Introduction to Community Organizing Toolkit 

Michelle Xie

Open Access Published Toolkit

“At its core, community organizing is the coming together of people to reimagine what is possible and shift power to the people in order to generate transformative change. The Introduction to Community Organizing Toolkit was created by Michelle Xie (she/her) with three main goals: 1) to resist the gatekeeping of knowledge by making a publicly available community resource, 2) to dismantle the elitism within organizing spaces that can often feel overwhelming and inaccessible, and 3) to empower folks to take action in their communities by cultivating spaces rooted in care, collective liberation, and the onboarding of new people to build long-term capacity.”

Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)

Dean Spade

Verso, 2020

The DDGC Mutual Aid Network organizing guidelines by Kiley Kost are quite instructive here. 

“This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout.”

The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence within Activist Communities (PDF here)

Ed. Ching-In Chen, Jai Dulani, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

AK Press, 2016. 

“The Revolution Starts at Home is as urgently needed today as when it was first published. This watershed collection breaks the dangerous silence surrounding the “secret” of intimate violence within social justice circles. Just as importantly, it provides practical strategies for dealing with abuse and creating safety without relying on the coercive power of the state. It offers life-saving alternatives for survivors, while building a movement where no one is left behind.”

Towards an Abolitionist Horizon: A Guidebook for Young Organizers

Project NIA

Based on We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice

Mariame Kaba, ed. Tamara K. Nopper

Haymarket Books, 2021.
“What if social transformation and liberation isn’t about waiting for someone else to come along and save us? What if ordinary people have the power to collectively free ourselves? In this timely collection of essays and interviews, Mariame Kaba reflects on the deep work of abolition and transformative political struggle.”