Chris Crass
Encyclopedia
Chris Crass is an anarchist
organizer and writer from San Francisco, California
. He is an organizer with the Catalyst Project, which is a center for political education and movement building. The Catalyst Project grew out of the Challenging White Supremacy workshop. Crass worked with Challenging White Supremacy after the 1999 WTO mass actions
in Seattle, Washington to help strengthen anti-racist politics and practice in the mostly white
sections of the Global Justice Movement
. He is involved with other anti-war
and anti-racist work through the Heads Up Collective.
and develop anti-racist analysis and practice in white communities. As a white anti-racist/anti-imperialist organization they prioritize working in mostly white sectors of the left to develop and strengthen white anti-racist leadership to move mostly white organizations to an anti-racist framework. For Catalyst Project, an anti-racist framework includes a historical analysis of white supremacy
and capitalism
in U.S. society and the legacies of resistance struggles coming from communities of color and working class
communities. They believe that this history helps lay the foundation for a systemic approach to social change
and an understanding of the leadership and power of oppressed peoples to advance social justice
for everyone.
Catalyst Project believe that white anti-racist leadership, with women, queers and working class people at the center is crucial to building mass based, popular left organizations in white communities. They work with mostly white organizations to form principled and accountable multiracial alliances to advance an overall left agenda for justice for all people. They believe that multiracial organizing to end patriarchy
, white supremacy, capitalism, heterosexism
and imperialism
is key to a rejuvenated and powerful left.
, anti-authoritarian
leadership and movement strategy. His writings have appeared in Left Turn
, Clamor
, Onward
and HeartattaCk. He is a columnist at Infoshop.org
, a popular anarchist website and many of his essays are on the Colours of Resistance website. In May 2000, Kersplebedeb Press published Collective Liberation on My Mind, a short collection of some of these writings. He has been published in the following anthologies: Globalize Liberation edited by David Solnit; Race, Ethnicity and Gender edited by Joseph Healey and Eileen O'Brien; and the Global Activist Manual edited by Laura Raymond and Mike Prokosch.
in Whittier
and San Francisco, California. Crass helped organize the 1995 Food Not Bombs International Gathering in San Francisco and the 1998 West Coast Regional Gathering. During this time, the San Francisco Food Not Bombs played a leading role in supporting the formation of new Food Not Bombs groups around the world. Working with others in the group to deepen its politics, he wrote "Towards a non-violent society: A position paper on anarchism, social change and Food Not Bombs" in 1995, which was widely distributed throughout the Food Not Bombs network.
Chris Crass was also a member of the United Anarchist Front in Whittier in the early 1990s, which was part of the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation
and the Anarchist Youth Federation. The United Anarchist Front mobilized against the Gulf War
in 1991 and played a leading role organizing other white people to stand for immigrant rights and Ethnic Studies in Orange County, California
. They worked in alliance with Chicano
students from MEChA and Crass worked with David Rojas on the underground student newspaper, the Molotov Cocktail.
Crass, with Catalyst Project members Clare Bayard, Ingrid Chapman, Josh Warren-White, Amie Fishman and Molly McClure have worked with the Unitarian Universalist youth movement, the Ruckus Society
, United Students Against Sweatshops
, the National Lawyers Guild
, and the War Resisters League
developing anti-racist strategy and leadership.
Crass is also a Unitarian Universalist.
About Catalyst Project
About the Challenging White Supremacy Workshops
Essays by Chris Crass
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
organizer and writer from San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. He is an organizer with the Catalyst Project, which is a center for political education and movement building. The Catalyst Project grew out of the Challenging White Supremacy workshop. Crass worked with Challenging White Supremacy after the 1999 WTO mass actions
WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity
Protest activity surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, which was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations, occurred on November 30, 1999 , when the World Trade Organization convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington,...
in Seattle, Washington to help strengthen anti-racist politics and practice in the mostly white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
sections of the Global Justice Movement
Global Justice Movement
The Global Justice Movement is a network or constellation of globalized social movements opposing what is often known as the “corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of economic resources.-Movement of movements:...
. He is involved with other anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
and anti-racist work through the Heads Up Collective.
Catalyst Project
Catalyst Project has two primary focuses: build the leftLeft-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
and develop anti-racist analysis and practice in white communities. As a white anti-racist/anti-imperialist organization they prioritize working in mostly white sectors of the left to develop and strengthen white anti-racist leadership to move mostly white organizations to an anti-racist framework. For Catalyst Project, an anti-racist framework includes a historical analysis of white supremacy
White supremacy
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...
and capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
in U.S. society and the legacies of resistance struggles coming from communities of color and working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
communities. They believe that this history helps lay the foundation for a systemic approach to social change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...
and an understanding of the leadership and power of oppressed peoples to advance social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
for everyone.
Catalyst Project believe that white anti-racist leadership, with women, queers and working class people at the center is crucial to building mass based, popular left organizations in white communities. They work with mostly white organizations to form principled and accountable multiracial alliances to advance an overall left agenda for justice for all people. They believe that multiracial organizing to end patriarchy
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
, white supremacy, capitalism, heterosexism
Heterosexism
Heterosexism is a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination in favor of opposite-sex sexuality and relationships. It can include the presumption that everyone is heterosexual or that opposite-sex attractions and relationships are the only norm and therefore superior...
and imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
is key to a rejuvenated and powerful left.
Essays
Crass has written a number of essays in recent years on anti-racism, men working against patriarchyPatriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
, anti-authoritarian
Anti-authoritarian
Anti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism, which is defined as a "political doctrine advocating the principle of absolute rule: absolutism, autocracy, despotism, dictatorship, totalitarianism." Anti-authoritarians usually believe in full equality before the law and strong civil...
leadership and movement strategy. His writings have appeared in Left Turn
Left Turn
Left Turn is a bimonthly activist news magazine that focuses on international social justice movements. Based in New York and produced by an all volunteer editorial collective, the magazine promotes anti-imperialism and anti-authoritarianism....
, Clamor
Clamor (magazine)
Clamor was a bi-monthly magazine published in Toledo, Ohio. The focus of the magazine was alternative culture , often from a politically left-wing perspective....
, Onward
Onward
Onward may refer to:*Onward, Indiana, a town in the United States*"Onward "*"Onwards", a song by the Afro Celt Sound System from the album Volume 3: Further in Time*Onward Victoria, a musical*"Onward, Christian Soldiers"...
and HeartattaCk. He is a columnist at Infoshop.org
Infoshop.org
- History :Infoshop was founded in January 1995 as the Mid-Atlantic Infoshop by Chuck Munson. Having previously co-founded an online archive of anarchist texts, the Spunk Library, in 1992, Munson established Infoshop as a general resource on anarchism, moving to the domain name Infoshop.org in 1998...
, a popular anarchist website and many of his essays are on the Colours of Resistance website. In May 2000, Kersplebedeb Press published Collective Liberation on My Mind, a short collection of some of these writings. He has been published in the following anthologies: Globalize Liberation edited by David Solnit; Race, Ethnicity and Gender edited by Joseph Healey and Eileen O'Brien; and the Global Activist Manual edited by Laura Raymond and Mike Prokosch.
Activism
Throughout most of the 1990s he was an active member of Food Not BombsFood Not Bombs
Food Not Bombs is a loose-knit group of independent collectives, serving free vegan and vegetarian food to others. Food Not Bombs' ideology is that myriad corporate and government priorities are skewed to allow hunger to persist in the midst of abundance...
in Whittier
Whittier, California
Whittier is a city in Los Angeles County, California about southeast of Los Angeles. The city had a population of 85,331 at the 2010 census, up from 83,680 as of the 2000 census, and encompasses 14.7 square miles . Like nearby Montebello, the city constitutes part of the Gateway Cities...
and San Francisco, California. Crass helped organize the 1995 Food Not Bombs International Gathering in San Francisco and the 1998 West Coast Regional Gathering. During this time, the San Francisco Food Not Bombs played a leading role in supporting the formation of new Food Not Bombs groups around the world. Working with others in the group to deepen its politics, he wrote "Towards a non-violent society: A position paper on anarchism, social change and Food Not Bombs" in 1995, which was widely distributed throughout the Food Not Bombs network.
Chris Crass was also a member of the United Anarchist Front in Whittier in the early 1990s, which was part of the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation
Love and Rage
The Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation was formed in the United States in 1993 out of the remaining groups in the Love and Rage Network.-Background:...
and the Anarchist Youth Federation. The United Anarchist Front mobilized against the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
in 1991 and played a leading role organizing other white people to stand for immigrant rights and Ethnic Studies in Orange County, California
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
. They worked in alliance with Chicano
Chicano
The terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
students from MEChA and Crass worked with David Rojas on the underground student newspaper, the Molotov Cocktail.
Crass, with Catalyst Project members Clare Bayard, Ingrid Chapman, Josh Warren-White, Amie Fishman and Molly McClure have worked with the Unitarian Universalist youth movement, the Ruckus Society
Ruckus Society
The Ruckus Society is a nonprofit organization that sponsors skill-sharing and direct action training camps for activists from impacted communities working on social justice, human rights, and environmental justice...
, United Students Against Sweatshops
United Students Against Sweatshops
United Students Against Sweatshops is a student organization with chapters at over 250 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In April 2000, USAS founded the Worker Rights Consortium , an independent monitoring organization that investigates labor conditions in factories that...
, the National Lawyers Guild
National Lawyers Guild
The National Lawyers Guild is an advocacy group in the United States "dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . ....
, and the War Resisters League
War Resisters League
The War Resisters League was formed in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I. It is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International.Many of the founders had been jailed during World War I for refusing military service...
developing anti-racist strategy and leadership.
Crass is also a Unitarian Universalist.
External links
- Interview with Chris Crass
- Towards a Non-Violent Society: a Position Paper on Anarchism, Social Change and Food Not Bombs
- Interview with Catalyst Project organizers Chris Crass and Clare Bayard
About Catalyst Project
- What If they Gave An Empire and Nobody Came by Matt Meyer and Sara Steele
- Combating Oppression Inside and Out by Elizabeth 'Betita' Martinez
- Catalyst Project website
About the Challenging White Supremacy Workshops
Essays by Chris Crass