Anti-Oppression 101: Alliance building, and tips for a liberatory organization

I'm doing some reassessing and research. Below is an excerpt from a piece I'm reading, and may be of interest to some of you:

Anti-Oppression 101: Alliance building, and tips for a liberatory organization

Working for Social Justice in Everything We Do

Confronting privilege or ways you’ve been duped because of a group you belong to is a complicated, lifelong process, but there are things you to can do to confront these issues head on. There is no comprehensive guide for how to be an ally, but here are some things we can all work toward:

Become an ally to yourself. If you can’t stand up for yourself, how are you going to stand up for anyone else?

Work with the perspective that social, economic and environmental issues are interconnected and interdependent. People currently have unequal access to clean and healthy food, air, water, homes and land. These are historic inequalities, and they continue to be largely based on race, class, gender and sexuality.

Understand and learn about systems of oppression and challenging the power structures which support those systems and create injustices.

Understand that we all have multiple and fluid identities. There are no pure cultures or identities. One’s gender, race, class or other identifier may change over time, or one person may embody multiple races, genders, cultures and ethnicities simultaneously. Don’t box people in. It’s suffocating. ( Read more... )

neighborhood watch or similar organizations?

So for a variety of reasons I'm looking into the possibility of starting a neighborhood watch group in my community. Does anyone have positive/negative experiences with such groups?

I'm not married to a police-community alliance, or a traditional watch program, so alternative suggestions are welcome. The chief problem my community is facing is violent crime. We've also had problems with harassment, bored youth and racial profiling. My community is ethnically, and religiously diverse, and there's been conflict along those lines (neighbor to neighbor cold wars and gang violence) in the past, although it's not as serious now.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions for me (reading, research tips, experiences), please do share.