Local Values
The struggle is painful, but struggle is also joyful. It needs to be, or it's not going to work. -Rabbi Brant Rosen
Our chapter's guiding stars are Indigenous Sovereignty and Abolition of Police & Prisons.
We recognize ourselves as settlers who are part of a settler-colonial system throughout so-called Northern New Mexico. We hold awareness that colonization is a process, not an event.
We understand that white supremacy is bound up with capitalism and heteropatriarchy.
We stand in solidarity with the Indigenous, Chican@, Latinx, Black, and other POC movement leaders in Northern New Mexico and beyond. We recognize that there are many, many other individuals and groups doing racial justice work throughout this region and we value their work.
We understand that racial justice is inextricably linked to land sovereignty, water sovereignty, and climate justice. We support the #LandBack philosophies and movements.
As white people, we commit ourselves to examining and dismantling white supremacy as we experience it in ourselves, our institutions, our communities, and our culture. As we strive to dismantle white supremacy, we must work to keep collective community care and healing, collaboration, and healthy interdependence at the forefront, building transformative alliances with BIPOC led organizations.
We strive to incorporate principles of collective leadership, access, and disability justice into our organizing practices. On a practical level, this can look like:
- taking care to create a warm, welcoming space that uplifts what each person has to contribute
- multi-generational involvement
- multiple points of entry and ways to participate
- non-hierarchical approach to leadership
- fostering transparency in decision making
- accommodating people who need rides or childcare
- offering emotional support and different ways to participate for neurodivergent folks or trauma survivors who might find traditional organizing or direct action challenging
- striving to secure wheelchair-accessible meeting spaces and accessible online platforms
- asking folks to come to gatherings fragrance-free
- not assuming anyone's abilities, or access/mobility needs
- generally taking care of each other
There are no experts here. We learn and grow together. Come join the conversation!
