Building Solidarity In An Era of Silos

Jun 18

Written By With Chloe Studio

A graphic describing the June 2024 Solidarity Is This special episode: Building Solidarity in an Era of Silos. The panelists are pictured against an ombre background of blue and purple, and there's a graphic of a dandelion flower in its puff stage. — Fractures are widening. In an age of increasing polarization and division, how can we build bridges across lines of difference and strengthen solidarity? What strategies do we need to sustain connections across the growing chasms of ideology, experience, power, and privilege?

Join us for this special episode to explore the challenges and opportunities of building solidarity in our current social and political climate. This episode is a lightly edited recording of our April 2024 State of Solidarity, featuring our colleague Adaku Utah in conversation with Darakshan Raja, Muslims for Just Futures; Woods Ervin, Critical Resistance; Xochitl Bervera, Near Future Farms; Rachael Lorenzo, Indigenous Women Rising; and Yvonne Yen Liu, Solidarity Research Center.

ABOUT THE EPISODE GUESTS

Darakshan is an abolitionist whose work focuses on divesting from systems that criminalize Muslim communities and invest in working-class communities. She made her way to organizing through the anti-violence movement working with survivors in NYC. Currently, Darakshan serves as the founding executive director of Muslims for Just Futures (MJF) and leads the organization's national advocacy and movement-building efforts, local Chicago power-building programming, and the organization's DC Guaranteed Income program. Darakshan previously worked as a researcher at the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center and served on the DC Government's Street Harassment Advisory Committee. She also serves on the Nominations Network for the Emergent Fund, and formerly served on the board of trustees for the IF Foundation. She is passionate about building power, bringing organizing visions to life, and figuring out ways to build a strong infrastructure for movement work.
Woods Ervin is a black non-binary trans-femme organizer that has been working for over a decade in movements both for trans self-determination as well as prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition. Woods has most recently worked with TGI Justice Project in the Bay Area. They engaged in research on the PIC at Interrupting Criminalization, a recently launched abolitionist research project. They are currently staff at Critical Resistance, an organization dedicated to prison industrial complex abolition.
Xochitl Bervera is a queer, mixed race, Latinx organizer, oyster farmer, and water and land steward based in the Gulf Coast of FL. She is the founder and Director of Near Futures Projects, an experiment in creating vibrant, delicious, sustainable, and inclusive local food systems centered in the wisdom and legacies of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities.
Prior to oyster farming and water/land stewarding, Xochitl spent 25 years building community power and waging campaigns to dismantle the criminal legal system.
Rachael Lorenzo (Mescalero Apache/Laguna Pueblo/Xicana) is a queer, nonbinary parent of two and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They were born in Las Cruces, New Mexico to young parents and were raised on their father's ancestral land in Laguna, New Mexico.
Currently, Rachael funds abortion through an Indigenous-led reproductive justice organization, Indigenous Women Rising, and served as Assistant Commissioner of Cultural Resources at the New Mexico State Land Office.
Yvonne Yen Liu (she/her) is the Co-Founder of Solidarity Research Center, a worker self-directed nonprofit that builds solidarity economy ecosystems. She is also the Director of Research for the Maven Collaborative.
She is a practitioner of research justice, with over 20 years of being a nerd for social movements. Yvonne serves on the board of the Institute for Social Ecology, New Economy Coalition, and US Solidarity Economy Network. She is a Research Fellow with the Transnational Institute.