The What and Why of Liberation School
A collaboration between the Basil Al-Araj Revolutionary Mobile Library and other local organizers
Organizing is nothing without political action. As we have learned from the past, the most effective movements for justice are those composed of disciplined and critical organizers who understand how we got here and can imagine a way to a new world!
Applications are OPEN NOW!!! Please apply at the link here, we do unfortunately have limited space (sessions will be recorded and posted afterwards with anonymity of students assured): Liberation School Application Form
The syllabus is public however, and you can see it here (without locations and times of meetings, saved for those in the first cohort) Living Syllabus of Liberation School. It is maintained as a living document, which was a format we learned from mentors of ours, in particular Dr. T. Elon Dancy and Dr. Sabina Vaught, we who can not thank enough. It will be added too and changed over time as we progress and build knowledge together!
Set-up as an active reading group, the focus and intention are to help organizers become more critical and capable + confident to mobilize and build a new world with others!
Organizing requires political education, and our political education informs and invigorates our organizing. As Fred Hampton said ‘Theory’s cool, but theory with no practice ain’t s**t’
We aim to help everyone who wants to build the tool belt of a critical thinker and doer, one who is prepared to analyze their conditions and help build the path to liberation for all.
All of this must be done together. Study is not an individual act, but a communal one. As we discuss social structures and systems of violence and extraction (settler-colonialism) we build understanding of how we got were we are and where we can go. We read together, we grow together, WE GET FREE TOGETHER.
The first iteration of Liberation School, built in partnership with the Basil Al Araj Revolutionary Mobile Library, is an exploration of numerous topics in their interconnectedness. Main goals of this first series is to develop critical, confident, and knowledgeable organizers. While we ready and think together, we will also reflect on our current conditions in the steel city and what our future can look like! We build knowledge and praxis together, and we will liberate ourselves together.
Reading beforehand is not necessarily required but is highly encouraged as during the sessions we will read portions together/in small groups.
You want to be an intellectual? Then you must resist. Otherwise, you and your education are useless. – Basil Al-Araj
Part of our work at the library is resource archiving and sharing. Below are some of the links to resources we have gathered for Liberation School.
Many pdfs of books and zines, ebooks, printable flyers!!! If you have made anything you want archived please share with us and we can help digitize and preserve, while also sharing your knowledge widely!
Recordings of Classes for Public Education:
Here we will upload videos of each education series so that you can listen to the main discussion parts and learn alongside those in the cohort (just on a delay)