Dear UFE Family,
Take a deep breath with us. Inhale... Exhale...
This is a hard moment we are in. Not only are we being called to acknowledge the violence and racism woven into the very fabric of this country’s founding, we are being called by all those who have been targeted to imagine a just world.
Imagine with us...
Imagine a world where all people lead lives of joy and fulfillment, where everyone can live in a community that is healthy and safe.
Imagine a world where healing is prioritized, specifically from the ongoing trauma of anti-Blackness.
Imagine a world where our communities have adequately funded resources that help prevent a virus before it becomes a pandemic.
Imagine a world that values people over profits and property, where some do not amass wealth off the suffering of others and where a system of inequality is not violently held in place by police, military and other institutions of violence.
In the last few months, over 100,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19, while a handful of billionaires looted $434 billion and at the same time 40 million people have lost their jobs.
“Since the moment of its inception and for every single moment thereafter the US legal system has been designed to harm Black and Indigenous people. Commit this to your memory and don’t ever forget this is how we got to today.”
–Jonathan Gramling (UFE Collaborator)
The latest round of police lynchings includes George Floyd in Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Tony McDade in Florida, and countless other Black and Brown people who have lost their lives at the hands of law enforcement in the United States.
One of the four officers responsible for George Floyd’s death would never have been charged with murder if not for these movements. We stand with the call to arrest every officer responsible for brutality and murder. And this action is not enough without the creation of a whole new system.
“Liberating Black people from racist violence requires the complete transformation of the US as a racist, colonial state – not selective outrage at individual manifestations of racism or piecemeal reforms of police departments.”
–Kristian Davis Bailey
This latest round of rebellions draws on a beautiful history of pushing this country forward through agitation. People across the nation are protesting a white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist system. We are protesting a ruling class, white power establishment, whose law enforcement has for centuries routinely committed state-sanctioned murder of Black People with impunity.
Long before the pandemic, the corporate elite paired with organized forces of white supremacy and fascism to enforce a system of oppression. Police were created to stop slave revolts and help white slave owners oppress Black people. To this day, wealthy white elites use police militarization to protect their interests internationally.
Each year, corporate elites and their political allies direct over a hundred billion of our dollars to policing, and hundreds of millions more dealing with the resulting police misconduct lawsuits.
But there was a time before police...
We are inspired by Black leadership that is calling on decision makers to invest in real community-led solutions to health and safety, and divest from police and prisons. For us, this is an essential piece of what it means to create a fair economy.
A fair economy can only exist when Black Lives Matter.
Another world is possible. Now that we have imagined and reflected together, will you act with us?
There are many ways to be involved that don’t require your physical presence: If you have the means, donate to bail and other funds supporting front line organizers and activists. Or spread the message by taking to the airwaves, TV stations, and newspaper opinion pages. Reach out and let your friends and family know you support the protests. Contribute how you’re able to. Below is a list of resources that UFE and others have to offer in this moment:
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Resources:
- State of the Dream 2016: Black Lives Matter
- Governmental Boosts and Blocks to Building Wealth Timeline
- Get in Touch with our Popular Education Team
- Movement for Black Lives Policy Platform
- BLVC Reclaim the Block: Tell Minneapolis City Council to Defund the Police
- A Timeline of Events That Led to the 2020 'Fed Up'-rising – The Root
- Resources for responding to racialized trauma
- Critical Resistance: Resources on Police Abolition & Alternatives
- The Answer to Police Violence is Not 'reform'. It's defunding. Here's why.- The Guardian
- Of Course There Are Protests. The State Is Failing Black People- NYT OpEd
- Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide- Slate
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Donate:
- National Bail Fund Network: Directory of Community Bail Funds
- The Movement for Black Lives
- Reclaim the Block (MN) Fund our Broader Movement List
- Resist
- Ways to Engage / Take Action:
In solidarity,
United for a Fair Economy
Boston, MA – Twin Cities, MN – Durham, NC