Through interactive exercises, lectures, readings and discussions, activists will deepen their understanding of economics, alliance building, effective organizing models, and messaging. The course will culminate in an all-day workshop where participants will create new printed posters supporting labor and community campaigns for justice.  Throughout the course and following its conclusion, activists will have opportunities to apply their new skills and insights to Jobs with Justice’s ongoing work.

Short reader compiled from different sources. One article or excerpt per session.

The JwJ Monthly Educational Institute is being offered as a free, non-credit CCSF class.  We encourage activists to enroll in CCSF and the entire 6-month series.  For each class session, activists not enrolled in the entire series will be accommodated, space permitting.

Download the class syllabus HERE:  https://docs.google.com/file/d/1lekaBXj6KRyYuuAhiURR8Ur55YZNd_rmY5XnNT1BtX5crKHi6Gksz-anuOuW/edit?pli=1

How does the market economy work in the 21^st Century? What rules are made about who thrives, survives and sinks, and who makes those rules? We will break down the basics of economics and learn tools to talk about the economic crisis and ideas for fixing it. The history of progressive taxation and current efforts to “tax the rich” will be discussed as an example.

Direct action is a political tactic outside of the formal electoral and legislative options. The Occupy Wall Street movement has reinvigorated the use of direct action in social movements.  How has direct action been used in the past to further economic and racial justice? From San Francisco’s 1934 general strike, auto industry sit-down strikes, Freedom Rides to anti-globalization protests, we’ll consider four important movements which relied on direct action.

Most organizers assume that multi-racial unity is necessary to win long-lasting social change. Building this unity is especially difficult in a society with distinct differences (racial, migration, gender/s) within the working-class. We’ll explore case-studies of significant multi-racial coalitions and analyze their successes and failures.

How does organizing workers compare to organizing tenants? What’s different when we organize domestic workers, government workers, or construction workers? Let’s strengthen our cross-sector alliances by understanding different organizing models used by community and labor groups. We’ll discuss their commonalities and differences and learn more about the different contexts that shape our models.

We’ll close our series by asking the big picture questions: what is our vision for Jobs with Justice? What future do we want for local working-class communities and what is the potential for a labor and community alliance to realize that future? Our discussion will also examine the vision and agenda of oppositional forces. We’ll work on developing strategic and sharp messaging to convey our vision.

Celebrate the finish of our course with fellow students and JwJ activists. This workshop will be an opportunity to learn how to silk-screen and print posters, apply any new insights and skills and just have fun. We’ll pick a relevant JwJ campaign to support, craft our message, and create something useful and beautiful.