Sisters, Brothers, and Kin,
We are living in challenging times. We write to you amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with its consequent violence and displacement of so many, on top of the pandemic, the police murders of African American men, the surge of violence in our communities, inflation, and frustration over political gridlock from St. Paul and Minneapolis to Washington, D.C. If we relied on the news media alone, it would be hard to avoid despair.
Whatever spatial metaphor you may prefer—the margins, the shadows, beneath the surface, and others—the East Side Freedom Library brings to light the stories and perspectives that provide a fuller picture of our world’s possibilities. These stories provide us with hope and inspiration. We encourage you to tune in to the programs listed on our events page that we are curating in the first half of March.
We also want to encourage you to visit the videos of programs we have hosted in the past month and discover the stories therein. At the end of January, we convened a panel of bookstore workers who have unionized four Half Price Bookstores in the Metro area. Rank-and-file workers told how they responded to the challenges of the pandemic when management did not respect their health and safety needs, their quest for predictable schedules and economic stability. One after another, they explained that organizing was about building relationships and about how their participation in the organizing process had already enriched their daily work lives. They emphasized how important their relationships with customers have been, in receiving recognition for their intelligence and their participation in nourishing the discussion of books, ideas, and learning, and in the support customers gave to their organizing. They discussed their experiences bargaining with management about workplace COVID protocols, about humane staffing levels and work schedules, before they actually sit down to formally negotiate a first contract. Watch this video for some inspiration.
A month later, we hosted a conversation among union activists in the entertainment industry. They told us about their efforts to protect the health and safety of actors, stagehands, set and scenic designers, musicians, and broadcast journalists, and to work, amidst chaos, for economic stability and security. Not only did we learn of individual unions’ creativity and commitment, but we also learned of a developing project to build solidarity among the industry’s many unions. We learned about the roles that ticket buyers and audience members can play, and, again, we found reasons to be hopeful. You can watch the video of this conversation.
There is important work going on in communities, too, whose practices and accomplishments also remain under the radar of our mass media. When ESFL convened a conversation among activists about the aftermath of the defeat of the “police reform” ballot initiative in Minneapolis, we expected to hear criticisms of the police, on the one hand, and political officeholders, on the other. Instead, we heard about grassroots work in which knowledge was being shared, built, and put into practice about de-escalation, problem-solving, and, yes, building relationships. We learned that, across the Twin Cities, there are projects in which activists are working with neighbors to resolve conflicts and problems without calling the police. You can watch this conversation here.
Please take advantage of videos of our programs archived on our YouTube page. Please join us for our upcoming programs. If you join us in real time, you can take part in the conversations and add not only to our exploration of stories which lie beneath the radar of our dominant narrative, but also in the production of new knowledge, knowledge which can be the source of hope.
Love and Solidarity,
Beth Cleary and Peter Rachleff