To Care is to Struggle: Support in Radical Movements

17 February 2013 @ 5pm

Minnehaha Free Space – 3747 Minnehaha Ave. Minneapolis, MN

A talk by Kevin Van Meter of Team Colors.

How do radical movements respond to personal crises, trauma, care as well as issues that flow through our everyday lives?  Beyond seeing politics as a simply a set of issues and positions, how do we begin to construct new relationships, activities and projects that address issues such as mental health, care, trauma and grief, sexual assault, and interpersonal violence?

This discussion seeks to address some of these questions in two ways: in the specific sense of developing harm intervention systems, creating communities of care, addressing sexual assault and organizing around issues of mental health; and in the general sense of creating movements that don’t see such projects as appendages but rather as a core element in reconstructing our lives, creating movements that self-reproduce themselves, and to forge projects that challenge the social reproduction of capital and the state-apparatus by constructing new forms of life and new social relations.

About the Event:

The event will consist of a short talk followed by a facilitated discussion based on a recent article by Team Colors Collective member Kevin Van Meter called “To Care is to Struggle” published in Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.  Copies of Perspectives will be available at the event and can be obtained from AK Press here: http://www.akpress.org/perspectivesonanarchisttheorymagazine.html

About the Speaker:

Kevin Van Meter is a member of the Team Colors Collective and has just relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota to complete his doctorate in Geography. Van Meter, with Team Colors, co-edited the collection Uses of a Whirlwind (AK Press, 2010) and co-authored Winds from below (Team Colors / Eberhardt Press, 2010).  Van Meters’ collaborative and single-authored work has appeared in various radical publications. 

Alexis Pauline Gumbs writes, “It is possible to call on each other (and to call each other out) instead of calling the police, and… healing justice is not merely a salve for overworked activists or a sparkle decorating our movement, it is a tangible resource for longevity and resilience against the state.” In recent years, there has been an upsurge in activists talking about and working through how to operate outside the state. Disassociating activist communities from the police by creating alternative forms of care and accountability is one crucial component of that process, especially amongst populations who face increasing levels of policing and incarceration. In this panel, we talk with an array of activists about how such efforts have unfolded in Minneapolis and throughout the U.S., what challenges they’ve faced, and potentials for future organizing. 

Friday, 2/15, 6:00pm-8:00pm @ MFS

About the Speakers:
Philly Stands Up! is a small collective living and working in Philadelphia. We work with people who perpetrate sexual assault by leading them through processes which aim to hold them accountable for their actions and meaningfully change their behavior. We embrace harm reduction, transformative justice and anti- oppression frameworks as a means to strengthen and transform our communities and Movements into self- reliant, safe and dynamic spaces.  For more info see http://www.phillystandsup.com/

The Trans Youth Support Network is a partnership of youth and community members working together to support trans youth in Minnesota. We were founded as a community response to a series of incidents of violence targeting young transwomen of color in the Fall of 2004. Today, our work continues to be shaped and directed by trans youth.   For more info see http://www.transyouthsupportnetwork.org/

Book release event for Breaking Free: A facilitator’s guide to participatory action research practice by Timothy Pyrch, a Professor Emeritus of Social Work at the University of Calgary. He has been a practicing popular educator in the radical tradition in the adult education movement for 35 years. He is devoted to democratizing knowledge-making processes through participatory action research (PAR).

Pyrch is a historian by conviction and education. He focuses on historical precedents where peoples everywhere have endeavored to improve their lot through collective learning and direct social action. Historians are skilled story tellers as well as disciplined inquirers. Pyrch is particularly keen on encouraging everyone he connects with to share their stories in a safe and trusting place.

“Not only is Breaking Free is a practical guide to facilitating self-directing educational processes into participatory action research (PAR) enabling average people to contribute what they can as active participants in research projects (as it says on the book web site), but also full of examples that might be of interest to all popular educators. And it is a good read.”  – Larry Olds

Come out for a fun dance party and to support two good causes: The IWW Work Peoples College and the Minnehaha Free Space

Featuring beats from:
– the Pleasure Principle DJ Team
– DJ Trash Talk
– and more!

Please note that this is at a different location from previous MARS Attacks: 740 E. Lake St., Minneapolis (above Robert’s Shoes at corner of Chicago and Lake)

When: Friday, June 29th – 9pm-1am

About the IWW Work People’s College:
From 1921 until it’s closure in 1941, the Work People’s College trained hundreds of workers on tactics of the class struggle, nourishing a tradition of working class radicalism in Minnesota that lives on today.

In 2006, the Twin Cities IWW began reviving the Work People’s College with a series of workshops, one-day educationals, and presentations. In summer 2012, we are inviting IWW members from across North America to a six-day intensive training at Mesaba Co-op Park designed to give a new generation of leaders in the IWW all the tools they need to build union branches, and fight and win the next battles of the class struggle.
– from http://workpeoplescollege.org/

The Minnehaha Free Space is a project of the MARS (Minneapolis Autonomous Radical Space) collective. To strengthen cultures of resistance, the Free Space is a social and political activity hub offering meeting space, a radical library/infoshop, event space, regular workshops and skillshares, and more. In our organizing, we aim to actively challenge heteropatriachy, white supremacy, economic injustice, and other forms of domination and oppression.

The Free Space is currently in the process of moving three blocks south to 3747 Minnehaha Avenue, Minneapolis MN.

For more on the Minnehaha Free Space, see:
https://minnehahafreespace.org/

Update: We’ll be re-opening for regular open hours starting Wednesday, April 25. Sorry for the inconvenience of the last few days!

MFS is still having plumbing problems today (Tuesday), so we’ll be closed again today.  Sorry!  The plumber is coming this afternoon and should have it fixed by tomorrow.

To those who have organized or attended concerts, art nights, meetings, panels, discussions, dinners, workshops and classes at the Free Space,
To those who have checked out library books, played pool, had political discussions, used the computer, listened to music, plotted resistance, played with toys, watched movies or just hung out,

You are invited to the Minnehaha Free Space Open Forum!
The Minnehaha Free Space, run by the Minneapolis Autonomous Radical Space collective, has been open for almost a year at our location on 35th and Minnehaha. This past year has been a time of learning, growth, building, successes, mistakes, making connections and much more. The MARS collective and volunteers have often had discussions about the direction of the space, what goes on inside, and what the future could hold. But we realize that we are not the ones who make up the living breathing creature that is the Free Space. The Free Space is made up of every person who walks in our door, and so at this juncture we are coming to you (yes you!) to help us decide how to move forward with this project.   We will be having a moderated open discussion.

We will be having TWO open forum dates so that people with differing schedules can attend:

Saturday, April 21st from 1:00-3:00 p.m.

and

Thursday, April 26th from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

at the Minnehaha Free Space
3458 Minnehaha Ave S.

Some potential topics of the discussion include:

What have been the experiences at the Free Space you have most valued?

What do you wish you would see more?

What has made you not want to come to the space or feel uncomfortable or unwelcome?

Our lease is ending at the end of June, should we renew at our current location? Move to a new one? Squat? Blast off in a spaceship to Mars?

Do you think that the organization of the space is transparent and accessible?

How do you feel MFS does or doesn’t promote the resistance, revolution or transformation that you are fighting for?

Hope to see you there!

In struggle,
The MARS collective