Read on Twitter
I don't know who needs to hear this, but I recently co-founded a coalition that is very intentionally a non-productive organization. We are coming from a disability justice perspective and in some sense this is about making our small coalition accessible to us, but it is also
about resisting capitalist modes of "productivity" that have become embedded even in nonprofit work. I just wanted to say that you too can do this.
Some days you will have meetings that no one has the capacity to show up to. That's okay! Sometimes no one will have capacity to answer signal messages or emails. That's okay! Being late to meetings? Okay! Feeling sick and wanting to stay quiet in a meeting? Great!
Need to pause what you were saying or ask someone to repeat themselves because you have brain fog or have to simultaneously parent your kids? DEFINITELY OKAY!
Guess what has happened over time as we've intentionally come back to non-productivity as our center. Our relationships with each other have become stronger. We've become a true "coalition" rather than just a group of people with some shared experiences. We've built real trust.
We've started to share deeper and scarier pieces of those shared experiences - moving away from the kinds of stories we think we already know about "people like us" and into stories where our experiences don't always overlap, but we are here for them
I think we've begun to reimagine for ourselves what political work can look like. The things we can't help but build: trust, comradeship, genuine support, caring, both group and individual emotional strength and resilience - are not the kinds of things you put in a grant proposal
But they are the kinds of things that, I believe, help us better recognize and resist ablism, and other interlocking oppressions that each of us face, when we leave these meetings and have to return to the world that too frequently has no room for us
Honestly, I think all organizing would benefit from incorporating at least some non productivity. Scarcity can make it very easily feel as though there is not time for that. But a constant focus on output just makes organizing less accessible both to disabled people and to others
So I am just offering this possibility to you. Try to imagine what it would mean to be collectively nonproductive, perhaps in a small group, while also resisting the consumer role that capitalism offers as its version of non-productivity. I'd love to hear how it goes for you
