TUPOCC Stipend Awardees

Dear friends:

We're writing to all of you - awardees of the TUPOCC travel stipend for 2011 - to send our warm greetings, and to begin a conversation that we hope to continue with you next week at the NLG Law for the People Convention in Philadelphia.

First, thank you for reaching out to participate in this convention and to share with us your commitment to organizing and eradicating oppression. You represent a group of diverse legal activists of color - law students, legal workers, and recent graduates - from different parts of the country and the world, engaged in organizing and solidarity work in immigration, education rights, self-determination and indigenous rights, human rights, criminal defense, international law, juvenile justice, civil rights, racial justice, LGBTQIA rights, environmental justice, prisoner rights, labor and employment - the list goes on. We are very excited to meet with you at the convention and to give all of you an opportunity to connect with each other and with TUPOCCers who are involved in the same kind of work that you are. Before then, please don't hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions about the Convention, TUPOCC, or the Guild.

Building a Stronger, More Accountable Movement

As you know, part of the travel stipend process this year involves engaging in thought and discussion prior to the Convention about anti-oppression principles to which TUPOCC, as a caucus of legal activists of color in the National Lawyers Guild, is committed. TUPOCC formed as a caucus within the NLG in 2005 at the annual convention in Birmingham, Alabama. At the time, legal activists of color came together out of a pressing need to address racial justice and anti-oppression within the NLG. In other words, the NLG, like other organizations in the Left, must work actively to ensure that the anti-oppression principles we fight for in the courts or on the streets are reflected within the movement and within our organization

The TUPOCC travel stipend is part of changing the fabric of the Guild. Encouraging TUPOCCers to run for positions of leadership is another part of that process. Ensuring that anti-subordination principles are internalized at the national leadership level, during our convention, and in the work that Guilders do is another important part of that movement.

Another very important part of TUPOCC's work involves creating a space for legal activists of color to come together. On Saturday, October 15, from 9 to 12, TUPOCC will be convening our annual TUPOCC session for legal activists of color. During that time, we gather to organize as legal activists of color to connect and heal with each other, build skills that we can use in movement and organizing work, and create a sense of unity amongst each other, so that we can rely on each other, as a network, as we move forward in this work together.

This year, our session is entitled "Critical Race Theory and Community-Based Activism: Building a Stronger, More Accountable Movement." The goal of the session is to help all of us take a closer look at the ways in which we can strengthen our activism through an anti-oppression analysis and practice.

Max Rameau - Take Back the Land
We are very honored to have Max Rameau join us as a presenter and comrade for the TUPOCC session on Saturday morning! Max is a Pan-African theorist and organizer. In the summer of 2006, in response to the severe housing and gentrification crisis impacting low income communities, Max helped form what would become Take Back the Land (http://takebacktheland.org). The organization took over a vacant lot in the Liberty City section of Miami and built a full urban shantytown, housing 150 otherwise homeless people in all, until a suspicious fire burned the settlement to the ground. Afterwards, Take Back the Land shifted attention to vacant government owned and foreclosed homes, "liberating" them and moving families in, without permission from the government.

In 2008, Max authored Take Back the Land: Land, Gentrification and the Umoja Village Shantytown, recounting the experiences and political theory behind the action. In 2009, organizations from across the country began expressing interest in Take Back the Land style actions and the organization went national.

Max will spend time with all of us at the TUPOCC session to discuss his experiences in organizing as an activist of color, with reflections upon the importance of the movement being led by impacted communities.

Critical Race Theory and Critical Coalitions

In addition to hearing and learning from Max, TUPOCCers will also facilitate, in the same session, a discussion of core principles of Critical Race Theory and related movements that have been developed by scholars of color to help identify, examine, and dismantle manifestations of racism and subordination in the legal profession and in the communities that we serve. The core principles, perspectives and tools that we are going to examine during our session include (1) identifying manifestations of white supremacy, (2) the importance of working in critical coalitions, and (3) organizing around intersectionality and multidimensional visions of justice.

These tools lie at the heart of what it means to organize for justice as a radical legal activist of color. They apply to the ways in which we read and dissect the "law" and interact in the legal "profession," the ways that we listen to and receive direction from those we represent, the ways that we identify and develop legal strategies to reflect the needs and leadership of the communities we serve, and the ways that we engage in the movement.

Reading Materials and Resources

In advance of the convention, we ask that you take the time to read the following attached materials. Each of these address, in some way, the principles we highlight above. Also attached is the Alabama Manifesto, TUPOCC's founding document drafted after the Birmingham convention when TUPOCC formed. You'll notice that TUPOCC was committed from its inception to organizing along principles we identify here. We also hope to send to you, in the next few days, some excerpts from Max's writings that also highlight these principles.

These materials are, by no means, an exhaustive list of resources- but they begin a discussion that we will expand upon at the convention. While reading these materials, please think about what they mean to you - jot down thoughts, ideas, or questions. Please feel free to respond to this list with thoughts or ideas about the readings, and to begin the discussion ahead of the convention with your comrades. As always, please feel free to contact us ahead of time with questions!

We will be in touch again as we lead up to the convention, with additional information about how you can connect with other Guilders and TUPOCCers engaged in movement work.

Until then, and in solidarity,

Ranya Ghuma and Malika Chatterji
TUPOCC Co-chairs

APR 30 MAY DAY PARTY (Fundraiser for TUPOCC)

APR 30 MAY DAY PARTY (Fundraiser for TUPOCC)

Date & Time: Saturday April 30, 2011 doors open 6pm, program starts 7pm, party goes to midnight

Location: Space Lounge located at Saturn Café, 2175 Allston Way, Berkeley, California

Suggested donation: $15 (please donate more if you can afford to, NOTAFLOF)

Description:

TUPOCC will host a party and fundraiser in honor of May Day and in commemoration of what is known as International Workers Day. The event will feature musicians, performers, artists, and speakers on the theme of May Day, racial justice, immigration, and workers. There will be DJs, dancing, beer, and kombucha on tap. Raffles for great prizes from local businesses and organizations throughout the night.

About TUPOCC:
Proceeds from the event go to the United People of Color Caucus (TUPOCC). TUPOCC was founded in 2005 by a small group of diverse NLG law students of color. We are dedicated to fostering and supporting the growth and empowerment of all people of color, and particularly
legal activists of color inside and outside of the NLG. We believe that an injury to one is an injury to all, and to this end, believe all forms of oppression need to be dismantled before any of us can
reach true liberation. Since 2005, we’ve grown to hundreds of members.

The NLG was founded in 1937 as an association of progressive lawyers created as an organization working in the service of the people and committed to the concept that human rights are more sacred than property interests.

Solidarity with the UC San Diego Black Student Union and the March 4 Strike to Defend Public Education

With social struggle erupting repeatedly in California, it seems vital for TUPOCC -- The United People of Color Caucus of the National Lawyers Guild -- to step up our organizing of people of color with "left, radical, progressive" (you name it) political principles and commitments to become lawyers and other legal workers who truly "serve the people."

What are the distinctive qualities, sensitivities, skills, etc. that people bring to lawyering when they come from a subjugated community -- whether it be a community shaped by race, gender, sexuality, ability, age, national origin, citizenship, religion or some other salient dimension of social power and identity?

How can our identities help us become the best, most impactful and empowering social justice advocates and community-based lawyers?

How can our identities, imagined and practiced in principled ways that strike against "every possibility of oppression" and cultivate love, joy and community for all our people, help us resist becoming incorporated into the larger system that apportions social justice in for-profit "civil rights" lawyering or the "non-profit industrial complex?"

These are the questions that TUPOCC has been posing for six years now, and 2010 is the time for us to get down in ever more serious ways -- primarily by getting to know ourselves and each other better, so we can share the trust necessary for any meaningful collaboration.

Local TUPOCC gatherings from now until late June, are a must. Our proud beautiful sisters and brothers in the UC San Diego Black Student Union, who have been resisting another outburst of old-style white supremacy, are showing us that we need to get down locally and regularly.

Similarly, all our relations across (and beyond) California, who have marched, rallied and protested vibrantly today against the ancien regime and its myriad vested interests, in order to call for solidarity across the many social differences that divide the people and to demand that the state prioritize our fundamental rights to dignified labor, education, healthcare, liberty and welfare, are calling us to organize ourselves more deeply and thoroughly than ever.

In June 2010, the US Social Forum will gather gente de corazón y conciencia (people of heart and awareness) across the United States of America. We will gather in Detroit -- Motown, Motor City baby -- in order to know each other better and build principled, powerful multi-dimensional social movements for justice.

TUPOCC must be there. What say you? Digame (talk to me).

How to vote for Teague as Exec. VP of NLG

UPDATE

The National Office is in the process of sending post cards (not mail ballots) to current NLG members who did not vote at the Convention. The postcards contain instructions on how to vote online, or to request a mail ballot if preferred.

Many of us voted at the plenary in Seattle, but with the Executive Vice President election being contested, voting goes to all membership to be completed by mail-in ballot. Only current, dues-paying NLG members are eligible to vote. If you haven't received your ballot in the mail yet, you should receive it from the NLG National Office by November 17. If you believe you are a current, dues-paying member and have not received a ballot by mistake, please contact the National Office at nlgno@nlg.org.

It's hard to find an exact description of how this election-by-mail works, but here is the appropriate excerpt from the NLG By-laws:

Section 8.3 Mail or Electronic Ballot Voting Procedure

The following voting procedure * * *

(a) Mail or electronic ballots shall be mailed or electronically posted within 30 days of the last day of the National Convention to current dues paid members at their last address, electronic mail address (email) on record at the National Office (NO), or posted on a secure section of the NLG website created for voting purposes by the NO.

(b) Ballots cast must be returned to the NO by First Class U.S. Mail postmarked not later than the 21st day after the date the ballots were mailed to the membership or when
electronically posted to email or on the NLG website. The ballot shall prominently specify the date by which it must be postmarked returned or replied to the NO to be counted.

(c) The NO shall be responsible for vetting ballots to ensure they were cast by current dues paid members only.

¡En La Lucha! Endorsement of Teague Briscoe for NLG Executive Vice President

Greetings comrades:

¡TUPOCC is endorsing the candidacy of Teague Briscoe and calling on all allies to do the same!

TUPOCC endorses Teague Briscoe for the following reasons:

Teague has the experience, passion and intelligence to lead the Guild in the second decade of the 21st century. President of the SF-Bay Area NLG Chapter, the largest staffed NLG chapter, for the past year, Teague has proven her dedication, strength of character, and ability to lead. Teague has national experience, having already served two years on the NEC--and on its Executive Committee--as Student National VP (SNVP) from 2005-07. The year before her election as SNVP, she raised $8,000 as the Law Student Vice President of the NLG-SF. As NLG-SF president, she helped raised $20,000 in foundation grants for her chapter's strategic planning process.

Appealing broadly to a diverse array of constituencies, Teague has the charisma, coalition-building skills and know-how to make the NEC, and its EC, become the cooperative efficient collective that we need at our highest leadership in the Guild. She has the vision to grow new membership in innovative and principled coalitions that will realize the relevancy of the NLG in the 21st century, helping us chart its way to truly become the legal servant of a massive people's movement working towards the eradication of injustice and the liberation of us all.

In deciding on candidates, you may hear discussion about "experience" and "ability." Teague brings both to the table. She has spent two years as part of a strategic planning committee: first raising funds and then selecting a consultant. With that consultant, she has spent a year contemplating the relevancy of the NLG. Where are we? How have we gotten here? Where do we want to go? Teague believes we need to ask these questions at every level of the organization. The skills and lessons she has learned as president of the NLG-SF chapter can and need to be applied at the national level.

We urge you to also consider her creativity, passion and commitment to people's movements. She is active in the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Defense Committee, was part of coalition to stop cut to welfare in Alameda County, was one of the first members of the Oakland City ID Card Coalition which saw Oakland City Council pass legislation so that all its residents can carry identification, and sits on the San Francisco Homeless Rights Project with the ACLU, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Bay Area Legal Aid, East Bay Community Law Center, and the Coalition on Homelessness.

Finally, we ask you to consider the principles to which this organization has committed itself as it moves towards supporting and developing young leaders of color in the NLG. Teague is part of a movement of young, radical legal activists of color coming from the community and serving the community. She is a dedicated member of TUPOCC. She believes in the power of a radical, legal activist organization standing in solidarity with sisters and brothers who oppose injustice, and that belief and love shines in everything that she does!

Teague's candidate statement is below. Please join us in supporting her candidacy!

In solidarity,

• Karen Jo Koonan, past NLG President, Past Legal Worker VP*
• Barbara Dudley, past NLG President*
• Marjorie Cohn, past NLG President*
• Russell Bloom, NEC member/NLG Executive Vice President*
• Tory Gavito, NEC member/TUPOCC Co-Chair*
• Marc-Tizoc Gonzales, NEC member/TUPOCC Co-Chair*
• Renee Quintero Sanchez, NEC Member/Far West Regional Vice President, LA-Chapter Board Member, Founding TUPOCC Co-Chair*
• Ranya Ghuma, NEC Member/ Mid-Atlantic Regional Vice President, Maryland NLG Chapter Co-Chair, Founding TUPOCC Co-Chair*
• James M. Branum, NEC Member/ Texoma Regional Vice President, Military Law Task Force Co-Chair
• Carl Williams, NEC Member/Northeast Regional Vice President*
• Azadeh Shahshahani, NEC Member/Southeast Regional Vice President & International Committee Co-Chair*
• Dan Spalding, NEC Member/National Vice President, Former Legal Worker Representative, Midnight Special Law Collective Member*
• Michael Flynn, NEC member/Anti-Racism Committee Co-Chair *
• Garrett Wright, NEC member/Anti-Racism Committee Co-Chair*
• Aliya Karmali, NEC member/Anti-Sexism Committee Co-Chair, NLG-SF Board member, Former Law Student Vice Present (NLGSF)*
• Stephanie Morin-Taylor, NEC member/Anti-Sexism Committee Co-Chair, NLG-NY Board member*
• Nikhil Shah, NLG-LA Board member*
• Steve Bingham, NLGSF Board member*
• Brenna Bell, Former NextGen Co-Chair*
• Ashlee Albies, Former NextGen Co-Chair*
• David Waggoner, NLG-SF Vice-President member, Former NEC member/National Queer Committee Co-Chair , Former co-Student NVP*
• Anne Befu, Former NEC member/National Queer Committee Co-Chair, Former TUPOCC Co-Chair, Former NLG-SF Chapter Board Member*
• Matt Nelson, Former NEC member/Past TUPOCC Co-Chair, incoming NLG-SF board member*
• Zafar Shah, Former NEC member/Past TUPOCC Co-Chair*
• Sara Sturtevant, Former NEC member/Past National Queer Committee Co-Chair*
• Robert Bloom, NLG-SF chapter member*
• Maunica Sthanki, Former NEC member/Past Student National Vice President, Founding TUPOCC member*
• Kerry Mclean, Former NEC member/Past Anti-Sexism Committee Co-Chair, Africa SubCommittee Founder and Chair, NLG-NY Board member*
• Christina Alicia Varner, past NLG-SF board member*
• Christine Stouffer, NLG-SF Immigration Committee Co-Chair, past NLG-SF board member*
• Katy Schuman Clemens, Former NEC member/Past Queer Caucus Co-Chair*
• Laura Raymond, Past NLG National Student Organizer*

*For identification purposes only.

Teague Briscoe, Candidate for Exec. VP of National Lawyers Guild

Teague Briscoe, Bay-area Chicana Activist/Lawyer and former NLG Student VP, is running for Executive Vice President of the NLG. Below is Teague's candidate statement.

"At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. . . . We must strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force." – Che Guevara

Sisters and Brothers:

I humbly submit my name as a candidate for the position of Executive Vice President of the National Lawyers Guild. I do so out of a space of great love – love for the struggle, love for those who oppose injustice, and love for the NLG’s history. I believe in the importance of a national organization of legal advocates embodying that struggle by challenging and inspiring ourselves to be better advocates and activists. My commitment to you is to honor the past, present and future of the NLG by approaching the EVP position with perspectives informed by my experiences as an activist and with an eye towards promoting solidarity amongst our members, so that we may advance in our mission to work tirelessly as the legal arm of the movement.

I currently serve as President of the NLG’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter, the country’s largest staffed chapter. I was instrumental in securing $20,000 in foundation grants for strategic planning. Our chapter has embarked on a process that brings members across generation, class, and race together.

As President, I work closely with executive director, Carlos Villarreal, to advance our deficit reduction plan. Like the national office, the NLGSF chapter is experiencing the effects of a depression economy. At Finance, CLE, Strategic Planning, membership, and Board meetings, Carlos and I abide by the principles of effective meetings. In doing so, we foster a board culture that is productive and non-hostile. I look forward to bringing these skills to the NEC.

During my presidency, I worked diligently at assembling a diverse board. Prior to serving as President, I was Vice-President of the chapter from 2007-2008 and Secretary from 2006-2007. My NLGSF EC experience has taught what an EC can accomplish as a strong unit, embodying the diversity of communities that are resented in our organization. I also bring to the table experience representing the interests of NLG students at the national level. From 2005-2007, I served on the NEC EC as National Law Student Vice President. In 2004-2005, I was Law Student President for NLGSF. That year, I won Board approval to raise $8,000 to send students to the convention.

If elected, I will continue to increase and broaden our membership and ally our organization with other folks pushing for radical, progressive change in the law. I will promote and foster communication and solidarity on the EC. I will assist in efforts to raise money for, and awareness of, the NLG. And I will always remain mindful of why we are here: to act, and struggle, with love, in the service of the people and towards the elimination of all oppression.

Back from Seattle

It was uplifting to meet up with so many legal activists of color as the NLG Law for the People Convention went down last weekend. Among others folks, I ran into Loyola New Orleans law student Adrienne Wheeler, who researched race and social movements while doing her masters degree. Adrienne dug up this short bibliography on the topic. "There are a number of sociological studies on race and social movements," she says. "There are compelling arguments that [people of color] put energy into local activism and that white folks put energy into 'saving the world.'"

Here's a mid-decade list:

Brown-Nagin, Tomiko. 2005. “Social Movements, and the Law: The Case of Affirmative Action.” Columbia Law Review, 105(5), 1436-1528.

Cable, Shery and Tamara L. Mix. 2003. “Economic Imperatives and Race Relations.” Journal of Black Studies, 34(2), 183-203.

Chong, Dennis and Reuel Rogers. 2005. “Racial Solidarity and Political Participation.” Political Behavior, 27(4), 347-374.

James, David R. 1988. “The Transformation of the Southern Racial State: Class and Race Determinants of Local-State Structures.” American Sociological Review, 53(2), 191-208.

Jenkins, J. Craig, and Michael Wallace. 1996. “The Generalized Action Potential of Protest Movements: The New Class, Social Trends, and Political Exclusion Explanations.” Sociological Forum, 11(2), 183-207.

McVeigh, Rory and Christian Smith. 1999. “Who Protests in America: An Analysis of Three Political Alternatives—Inaction, Institutionalized Politics, or Protest.” Sociological Forum, 14(4) 685-702.

Polletta, Francesca and James M. Jasper. 2001. “Collective Identity and Social Movements.” Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 283-305.

Tsutsui, Kiyoteru. 2004. “Global Civil Society and Ethnic Social Movements in the Contemporary World.” Sociological Forum, 19(1), 63-87.

Winant, Howard. 2000. “Race and Race Theory.” Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 169-185.

Seattle's DJ Daps1 will be breaking it down at our Breakin' Bread party 10/16

Big update on the TUPOCC Breakin' Bread event, scheduled for this Friday, Oct. 16, starting at 8pm. With the help of Prison Law Project's Ian Head and the generous support of the Hidmo restaurant, we will have DJ Daps1 on hand to make sure the night is fabulous.

To cover the cost, we will ask that everyone in attendance donate $5.

TUPOCC administrative matters will be squeezed into 8-9 PM. After 9, friends and allies are more than welcome to party down.

More info on the location and the event below.

You can check out Daps1's summer mix here.

TUPOCC Breakin' Bread, Friday 10/16 8pm

Each year at the NLG Convention, TUPOCC holds an "administrative meeting" where we vote for a new co-chair and discuss "administrative" matters pertinent to the committee. This year, we are doing things a little differently.

It's the five-year anniversary of the United People of Color Caucus. This Friday, as the NLG Convention really hits its stride, we are coming together not just to vote for a new leader to join the inestimable now-senior co-chair Tory Gavito, but also to really break bread together -- to have a great time in solidarity and companionship. We'll talk about what we really want to do five years after the birth of this project. Where is our mission going, how far has our vision come.

There will be cheap drinks and great food, as well as a local Seattle hiphop deejay (TBA!) on the decks. The locale is Hidmo restaurant on 2000 S. Jackson Street, accessible by bus (15 minutes) or cab (4 minutes). See map below.


View Larger Map

Also, updated TUPOCC Seattle Highlights schedule (download PDF from Google)

Where will the color be in Seattle?

As TUPOCC gets set to convene at the National Lawyers Guild convention in Seattle, we also mark our committee's fifth anniversary and the tenth anniversary of the "N30" WTO demonstrations in Seattle. We have the most opportune moment to re-examine questions that many of us, both whites and POCs on the left, were asking about anti-capitalism movements at the beginning of this decade.

Four months after N30, the anti-capitalism movement reconvened in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2000. ColorLines magazine asked, "Where was the color at A16?"

While Seattle is a relatively white location, D.C. promised a far better opportunity to mobilize people of color: its majority African American population has a long history of international action and other large East Coast populations of color are nearby.... Indeed, a significant number of people of color participated in the D.C. actions, as they had in Seattle. Still, A16 was probably proportionately even whiter....

Writing for the Village Voice, Andrew Hsiao captured the erupting class/race tension after N30 and A16, as the Republican National Convention loomed.

While the demonstrations electrified activists across the country, the fact that the ranks of protesters were overwhelmingly white has itself sparked protest. As radical black scholar robin d.G. Kelley, puts it, 'the lack of people of color involved in these demonstrations is a crisis.' *** [S]ome have groused that activists of color are missing the global point, or that their complaints are based in an identity politics that has been transcended by the all-inclusive politics of economics. Framing the issue this way, however, misses what's distinctive about new activism in communities of color.

I marvel at how that framing -- race politics doesn't get it -- continues to thrive. We saw it last fall, at the Detroit convention, when NLG members formed an ad-hoc "Marxism and the Law" committee. Following a pattern identified in Hsiao's July 2000 article, the predominantly white organizers of the "Marxism" committee never reached out TUPOCC -- or the Anti-Racism Committee, Anti-Sexism Committee, or Queer Caucus, for that matter. Why would they bother reaching out to the "identity politics" contingent?

For TUPOCC, coming into this convention, we can intuit that unless POCs raise the problematic issue of whiteness in anti-capitalism movements, it is doubtful our white "Marxist" allies will examine it. My doubts are not entirely borne of cynicism. "Where was the color" was a question never fully answered with respect to Seattle and the demos that came afterward. Bush v. Gore happened. September 11, 2001 happened. The invasions of non-white nations happened. Out of necessity, we shifted the object of the "where was the color" examination from anti-capitalist activism to anti-war activism. With the election of an African American president, neo-liberal corporate welfare and war continue to escalate. One cannot but assume that these trends add a certain myopic substance to the argument that "race politics doesn't get it."

If anything, this year's national convention should demonstrate that "race politics" does get it. TUPOCCers and other activists of color already know that race consciousness and class analysis have never been distinct politics. We also know that institutions that espouse anti-capitalism and other class analyses operate within immutable structural racism that only handcuffs their capacity to address economic justice issues. Often we only hope that our allies "get" these realities. At some of the events at the Seattle Convention, we will have the opportunity to speak to these realities concretely.

• The TUPOCC/ARC training Racial Justice and Equity will set the stage for a true reckoning between anti-racism and color-blind marxism as we establish an institutional assessment of racism in the NLG and work toward new visions for the NLG's anti-racist work.
• The major panel Police Occupation of Communities of Color also presents an opportunity to speak to the value of race conscious political organizing.
• The "hot topic" event Post-election Crisis in Iran: What Role for the U.S. Left? will likely explore the tension that arose this summer when anti-imperialist critics took issue with Iranian Americans' support for the reformist movement.