Solidarity not Charity and Collective Liberation

by Mae Beale

The video titled 'Solidarity Not Charity and Collective Liberation,' presented by Mae Beale at RubyConf 2022, discusses how to effectively support and engage with communities through mutual aid and understanding the concept of collective liberation. Beale emphasizes the importance of complex thinking, community engagement, and the necessity of recognizing interconnected struggles against systemic oppression.

Key points include:
- Complexity and Engagement: Encourages viewers to embrace contradictions and engage deeply with community issues rather than approaching them with a binary mindset.
- Building Connections: Beale highlights the value of networking within the conference, promoting the idea of individuals sharing their efforts and collaborating on mutual aid projects.
- Listening First: Advocates for approaching community organizations by first understanding their needs, rather than imposing personal solutions.
- Concept of Collective Liberation: Stresses that all struggles are linked which means everyone is impacted by systems of oppression, encouraging a view of community problems as shared challenges.
- Solidarity vs. Charity: Differentiates between charitable actions that can create a sense of superiority and solidarity which fosters mutual respect and collaboration.
- Learning from Experience: Beale shares personal anecdotes about her involvement in mutual aid during the pandemic, illustrating the importance of creating systems that work efficiently for communal support.
- Encouragement to Participate: She urges attendees to get involved with organizations like Ruby for Good, RailsBridge, and others that focus on inclusive and open-source coding projects.
- Sustainability of Engagement: Warns against burnout in volunteer efforts and suggests seeking a balance that maintains motivation and personal well-being.

In conclusion, the talk serves as a call to action for individuals to engage in their communities through mutual aid while maintaining humility, openness to learning, and a focus on collective struggles. By fostering relationships and supporting marginalized voices, participants can work towards creating a society that uplifts all, illustrating the goal of 'collective liberation.'

00:00:00 Ready for takeoff.

00:00:16 Hi folks, thanks for coming to 'Solidarity Not Charity' and 'Collective Liberation.'

00:00:21 There are a lot of jargon words that we're going to talk about what they mean.

00:00:25 This may include, I'm pretty sure we'll include some hot takes.

00:00:30 I am involved and affiliated with many different organizations and people, and hereby absolve them of anything I say.

00:00:43 The thing I wanted to do to set the stage about these topics and this space is to get into the habit of complexifying our thinking.

00:00:50 This means just for a moment, if everybody could think about any kind of paradoxes, contradictions, or juxtapositions that you can think of immediately—things where two or more potentially opposing ideas are simultaneously true.

00:01:05 Has everybody been able to think of at least one?

00:01:11 Okay, this is going to require some engagement this next part—not require, but suggest, request. If you'd be willing to listen to a nearby neighbor who you're now nearer to, tell you their name and one of those contradictions, and then share the same.

00:01:29 That's what we're going to do for three minutes. Cool? Everybody ready?

00:01:55 Thanks for hanging with each other. Congratulations to all of you for having embraced and thought about contradictions that you can think of and ideally relate to your body, your heart, and your brain.

00:02:11 You are now better attuned to getting involved with your communities. If what you do is start at a very black-and-white binary position of whatever it is that you want to do something about, it's going to be tough for you to do that.

00:02:27 Also, just to call out somatics, which is body-based learning, knowing, and engagement, there's a lot going on with engaging our inner body wisdom into how we do things and how we think.

00:02:42 Congrats to everybody. The reality generally is not simple. Everything that one person may benefit from often is not going to benefit someone else.

00:03:00 So, many really well-intentioned communities and discussions end up having a lot of semantic challenges around proof and disproves that, and straw man arguments.

00:03:17 So, the more that you are willing to be wrong, and the more that you are willing to listen instead of tell, the closer you’re going to be to being able to be of help and of service.

00:03:36 Is anybody here who I’m pretty sure most of you are already involved in your community? If you are, would you be willing to stand up? Cool!

00:04:00 Now, anybody who is willing to talk to some other people at this conference about the work you're doing, please stay standing. Sit down if you'd rather not have randos coming and talking to you.

00:04:28 Awesome! Wave! Yay! Here’s some more buddies!

00:04:36 So, that’s one of the main things. Oh, yeah, you can sit down, thanks! One of the main things is making buddies—being able to know what you're doing and how others can get involved.

00:04:53 If you're here because you're not yet involved, definitely connect with these people. We’re also going to add a channel to Slack and have a lot more discussion after this, a 30-minute session to help give you ideas and encourage you.

00:05:15 Ideally, all of you that stood up, if you'd be willing to join that channel and also share if your organization or efforts could use help—if you have suggestions or want to share something with people here, we might have time to have a couple people speak at the end.

00:05:32 But if not, and regardless, please be involved in that Slack, and we'll make some other opportunities available as well.

00:05:49 Is everybody in the comp Slack? Cool. Here’s the basic TL;DR of community involvement: start by finding people or organizations that you care about and what they are already doing.

00:06:01 Number one memo: don’t just come in thinking, 'I know how to fix XYZ problem.' There’s a long history of many of us, including me, doing that and it’s generally not super effective.

00:06:25 Ask them how your skills might be of use—maybe it’s coding, maybe it’s serving some food. If you’re willing to do what is needed and become a part of what is happening, you’ll likely have a better idea of how to engage later.

00:06:51 If it involves code, make sure to listen to their answers. You can suggest options but follow their lead. Amplify their work and create opportunities for others to join the effort.

00:07:09 Bonus points if you start by identifying things that are led by people who are historically marginalized or oppressed. They definitely could use your support.

00:07:21 Here’s a key memo: don’t assume you know everything. Always humble yourself to be able to ask and invite others.

00:07:38 This might seem not entirely relevant to the jargon-packed title of this talk—'Solidarity Not Charity' and 'Collective Liberation'—but they are definitely tied together.

00:08:07 Collective Liberation is a phrase that doesn't have a great definition anywhere. We are leaning into our complexities, and that is okay.

00:08:25 One of the goals is to be interdependent, not to encourage every person or community to be completely independent.

00:08:43 Another piece of it is to focus on how to have all humans thrive. Much of what happens in the world benefits only a specific segment, so we want to work towards things that benefit many.

00:08:56 In terms of the principles of Collective Liberation, all of our struggles are inextricably linked within systems of oppression; everyone suffers.

00:09:16 Obviously some more than others in some ways, but it impacts everybody negatively.

00:09:28 So when you are thinking about becoming involved in communities and helping them, if what you do is only think that they are the ones suffering and you are not part of that, you're going to approach it from a different angle.

00:09:39 Instead, approach it knowing we are all a community and this is a problem for all of us.

00:09:52 There are lots more definitions of Collective Liberation out there in the world. I read this awesome 'People and Planet's Collective Liberation Guide' that I highly recommend.

00:10:16 I’ll include several references in the Slack channel after this talk. There’s a lot of really great work and thinking that’s been shared.

00:10:39 'Solidarity Not Charity' means if you are only thinking about being charitable, it’s a way to separate and can create a sense of superiority, which you want to avoid.

00:10:58 As my mom used to say, 'There but for the grace of God go I.' Any of us could be in any of these situations.

00:11:15 Certainly, there are probabilistic considerations around who ends up in what situation and why, but another piece of solidarity not charity is working to change the systems that create inequity.

00:11:32 Focus more on the systems as the target of the problem, as opposed to individuals and their supposed inadequacies.

00:11:52 You need to be ready to accept help. If you need help in life, it’s not ideal to go out trying to help others without being in touch with where you could use support. All of us can use all kinds of support.

00:12:11 It’s too often that we close ourselves off to the things we’re trying to uplift by thinking we are somehow immune.

00:12:27 As a white woman, I am speaking from my experience. Please take what I say from that perspective and I would love to hear from people of different identities and how you disagree.

00:12:40 I want to know how we can get more information out to more people about becoming involved—be my buddy!

00:12:56 Here’s why I care: my belief is that we all perpetuate oppression, including to our own identities. We can work to mitigate it and see it, but it takes a lot of work and a lifetime commitment.

00:13:14 Many have created space for me, and I want to be doing that for others. Oppression operates as a zero-sum game.

00:13:32 Every amount of success can often be extracted from the backs of others. We are going with complexity, so this is true and not true.

00:13:55 What I’d really like for us to do is build a 'pie factory.' We do not need to have it be zero sum, but we need to understand that when one group is oppressed, another gains benefits.

00:14:10 Figuring out how to redistribute some of that is essential, but let’s also create more to go around.

00:14:29 A lot of how I came to think about these things is due to my dad. He’s a pretty radical guy who wants to support his community and many other things.

00:14:40 He is there to listen and learn, not to debate, but that has not entirely been my experience with him.

00:14:58 I want the rainbows of the world and people to come together. During the pandemic, when it started, I became involved with and heard about different mutual aid efforts.

00:15:10 I had people I knew, or who were one degree removed from me, who were working in that space, and I started with several programmers to build software for mutual aid.

00:15:33 They were using a lot of spreadsheets, which included people’s personal identifiable information in a way that made it hard to sleep at night.

00:15:54 When my dad had heart problems, I went to live at his biker bar. I was simultaneously doing that work and conducting racial justice education for white people from this biker bar in Upstate New York.

00:16:10 During the days, I spoke with the patrons, and in the evenings, I talked with others. What I found was that most people want to help; they believe they are preserving something.

00:16:30 They help people out of love, but my assessment is that they focus on their own circles, while my circle includes everyone.

00:16:42 I share this because it’s relevant to trying to find the good in others, even if things they say are not necessarily positive.

00:17:00 To create an alternative good in the world, I believe we need to figure out how to come together more.

00:17:14 People who have privilege, and that's less dangerous for others, are the people we should send in first.

00:17:27 So, I listened to people about the ammo they bought and their thoughts during the pandemic, and they appreciated my willingness to listen and show them respect.

00:17:40 This isn’t for everyone; not everybody could do that for various reasons, but it’s something I did and how I ended up here.

00:17:56 I encourage you all to think about who is in your circle. It doesn’t need to be every single person.

00:18:11 The larger your circle, the more likely you can help others and move closer to collective liberation.

00:18:25 Cultural change requires all approaches; there is no one right way. This part is why it’s confusing and hard to figure out how to get involved.

00:18:34 I want to highlight organizations that have inspired me and recommend folks here consider becoming involved in Ruby for Good.

00:18:42 It’s a nonprofit that holds at least one conference a year. Not a hackathon, but more of a weekend retreat. Essentially, we build software for free for nonprofits and maintain it throughout the year.

00:19:01 You don’t have to go to a Ruby for Good conference to be involved in any of those projects. There are repositories on GitHub, and you can pick up any issues at any time.

00:19:23 You could become a core team member, and the crews in the Ruby for Good community meet regularly on Zoom.

00:19:37 You could also do a drive-by PR; you don’t need to commit much to do something beneficial.

00:19:53 They engage effectively with organizations, and one of their flagship projects helps hundreds of diaper banks now using software built by Ruby for Good coders.

00:20:13 There are tons of open source projects available. If you make a buddy, which is why we started there, they likely have a way for you to get involved too.

00:20:29 I’ve found that’s easier than cold calling someone, especially since organizations might not be ready to accept help.

00:20:45 Definitely want to shout out all the people, past, present, and future, who work toward good for all. I’m grateful that all of you are here and applaud each of you for showing up.

00:21:01 Please think about how to engage in a way that's regenerative for both you and others. A lot of people get involved and then burn out.

00:21:14 I certainly have burned out multiple times, so I have handed the baton to others on many projects.

00:21:26 Be yourself, if that is your way—like me going deep, then burning out, and then circling back later.

00:21:35 If your way is steady and small, or you can only join in once a year, do that.

00:21:49 The hacktober will feature many opportunities on how to find coding-specific projects, so let’s definitely set up that Slack and continue connecting.

00:22:05 I’d love to engage with you and help others we know also get involved. It’s my very favorite thing in the world to collaborate for good.

00:22:22 I do some of it alone, but my preference is discussing code with people and mixing that with good.

00:22:42 RailsBridge is another organization that teaches programming for free to women, people of color, and others underrepresented in tech.

00:23:05 You could become a mentor for Code the Dream, or there are endless options. While some options may feel paralyzing, consider what type of engagement you want.

00:23:20 Engagement that you can sustain and that inspires you would be rewarding to you.

00:23:38 Also, think about how and where others can help you—where do you feel weak, insecure, or vulnerable? Try to find ways to share that.

00:23:56 Definitely don’t want to go all out as a unidirectional giver. I also want to shout out the healers, activists, artists, and weirdos of the world.

00:24:12 Music festivals I attended created space for everyone to feel free enough to be themselves and think about how to create alternative good.

00:24:30 If any of you are involved in projects you’d like to shout out, I’d love to share the mic.

00:24:45 Does anybody want to share something that others here might join?

00:24:50 One person shared that they work for Libro FM audiobooks, supporting local bookstores and putting money back into communities as an alternative to Audible.

00:25:07 Also, someone shared about Hack for LA, which has an open-source project site where you can contribute about one to three hours a week.

00:25:27 Code for America brigades also exist in many cities, providing platforms for local projects addressing issues such as food insecurity and homelessness.

00:25:44 Now that my 30 minutes are up, I can return to speaking for my employer, Rap Book, who is hiring.

00:26:04 What attracted me to them was their interest in running the company transparently and honorably. They are doing that so far, and that's why I joined.

00:26:29 At a previous conference, a talk discussed successfully increasing the percentage of women and non-binary candidates in recruitment from 11% to 35%.

00:26:45 I highly recommend that talk if this is something you’d like to discuss!

00:26:53 I think that’s it!

00:27:02 Thank you!