Love, Care, and Solidarity in the Wake of the Election
LOVE & CARE
We hope that each of you are taking care of yourselves, taking the time to breathe, drink water, and rest. We also hope that you are spending these days processing what has happened and preparing for what is to come.
Please remember that University Health Services offers confidential mental health and wellness counseling free of charge to enrolled graduate students. UW-Madison also has a number of community centers on campus for particular groups who have been marginalized and targeted during this election. The Multicultural Student Center, the Campus Women’s Center, and the LGBT Campus Center are among those who are providing specific resources.
SOLIDARITY in the TAA
For us, organizing for greater change starts with organizing within our workplace. The greatest way for any union member to help out is by becoming a steward within your department. Stewards are a primary channel for communication and on-the-ground organizing within the university. For more information about the role of a steward, please read the member resources page. If you would like to become a steward, please reach out to the Stewards’ Council Chair or attend the next Stewards’ Council Meeting (November 21, 11:00am–12:00pm, in Sterling 4421).
If you or any other graduate student is facing discrimination, harassment, or other workplace issues, please contact Beth Miller, the acting chair of the Contract Enforcement Committee. This committee serves to help graduate students manage these issues through facilitating discussions, processing grievances, and organizing action.
The Political Education Committee is our union’s primary group devoted to political and social action on campus and in the community. We have been engaged with the recent election through voter registration and canvassing. In the past two years, we have devoted ourselves to aggregating budget cut info, sending postcards to state officials denouncing budget cuts, setting up a forum on contingent university work, sending questionnaires to candidates in city and county elections, and leading teach-ins about workers’ rights, and supporting racial justice work on our campus. The dates and times of PEC meetings through general membership emails, but you should also contact Jess Mullen and Rob Timberlake, the PEC co-chairs, if you have any questions or if you would like to get involved.
SOLIDARITY in the GREATER COMMUNITY
We offer this partial list of local social justice organizations for those who want to become more involved in community action. The only way forward is together.
As you have time and energy to devote toward organizing and advocating for progressive change, we hope that these organizations help you burst the bubble around campus as you work alongside other comrades in the community:
- Freedom Inc. [website / Facebook] — “Our mission is to achieve social justice through coupling direct services with leadership development and community organizing that will bring about social, political, cultural, and economic change resulting in the end of violence against women, gender-non-conforming and transgender folks, and children within communities of color.”
- Centro Hispano of Dane County [website / Facebook] — “Dane County will be a community where Latino families can aspire upward, to reach their personal goals and dreams because they feel engaged and strengthened with the tools for success.
- Voces de la Frontera [website / Facebook] — “Voces de la Frontera is Wisconsin’s leading immigrant rights & low-wage workers center.” Although they are based in Milwaukee, they frequently have events in Madison and need volunteer work that can be done from a distance.
- Young, Gifted, & Black Coalition [website / Facebook] — “The Young Gifted and Black Coalition is a circle of young leaders determined to end state violence and raise the voice of communities of color. We are young Black women, queer folks, straight folks and feminist men who are fighting for Black Liberation. Our focus is on the low income Black communities that our core members call home. Our strategy is centered on direct action and community organizing.”
- Groundwork [website / Facebook] — “Groundwork is a community organization of white people working to achieve racial justice and equity in Dane County, Wisconsin. Our three main goals are: (1) Engaging white people to work for racial justice; (2) Working in collaboration with organizations led by people of color; (3) Deepening our members’ own education and leadership development.”
- LGBT Books to Prisoners [website / Facebook] — “A trans-affirming, racial justice-focused, prison abolitionist project sending books to incarcerated LGBTQ-identified people across the United States.”
- Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice [website / Facebook] — “Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice advances a sustainable world free from violence and injustice by connecting, engaging, and strengthening member groups and serving as a catalyst for community organizing and education.”
- One Wisconsin Now [website / Facebook] — Voters rights organization / “Working for a Wisconsin with equal economic opportunity for all.”
- Many other organizations are members of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.
This list excludes many organizations doing wonderful work in our community; we apologize for any specific omissions. Please let us know of other organizations doing solid work toward political and social change in our community. Send your suggestions to pec@taa-madison.com. We will continue to update this page with resources.