In our time of widespread crisis\, how do we keep going to transform the world? This is the question that Chris Dixo n&rsquo\;s new book For the Long Haul seeks to answer. At this bo ok launch\, Dixon and veteran feminist activist Pamela Cross will discuss how to sustain long-term involvement in transformative social movements. D rawing on personal organizing experiences and movement histories\, they wi ll talk about developing durable political work. Longtime Kingston organiz er Sayyida Jaffer will moderate the discussion.
\nAbout the book:
\nFor the Long Haul: How to Stay in the Fight for a Better World addre sses the question of how to sustain long-term involvement in transformativ e social movements. It takes up this question with a particular focus on o ur time of compounding crises and widely-felt urgency. This urgency\, the book argues\, is absolutely warranted\; creating a just and habitable futu re requires dramatic social transformation on a massive scale.
\nBut we can&rsquo\;t make this happen instantaneously. Instead\, changing the world will require large numbers of ordinary people moving into action\, b ringing more and more people along with them\, and constellating powerful new collectivities. To win in significant ways\, we will have to build and sustain movements\, propelled by urgency\, that move at a pace that we ca n maintain\, collectively\, for years to come. This is the long haul.
\ nWritten in a compact and accessible manner\, For the Long Haul takes u p the question of activist longevity through five chapter-length propositi ons. Each chapter names a key obstacle to movement durability and then ela borates practical tools for contending with the obstacle and nourishing lo ng-haul organizing. Focusing on the U.S. and Canada\, For the Long Haul is based on interviews with and writings by seasoned organizers\, experience s of past and present-day political formations\, and a broad range of move ment histories.
\nChris Dixon is an activist\, writer\, and educator with more than three decades of experience in radical social movements in the U.S. and Canada. Originally from Alaska\, he now lives in Ottawa\, on unceded Algonquin territory. Dixon is a member of Punch Up Collective and serves on the advisory board for Upping the Anti. Formally trained as a s cholar of social movements\, his writing has circulated widely and he spea ks regularly about strategy\, radical organizing\, left history\, and move ment-based research. His first book was Another Politics: Talking Across T oday's Transformative Movements. Find him at writingwithmovements.com.
\nNovel Idea will be onsite selling copies of For the Long Haul: Ho w to Stay in the Fight for a Better World. \;
\nLight refre shments will be provided.
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