Class Matters Workshops
Download this brochure for more information on Class Matters workshops.
If you're interested in hosting a workshop, please click here for a brochure, or contact me about booking an event.
Order Class Matters
Order Class Matters: Cross-Class Alliance Building for Middle-Class Activists by Betsy Leondar-Wright (New Society Publishers, 2005).
Press Coverage of CM
- Tim Harris interviewed me for Real Change: Read the interview
- Marc Cooper interviewed me for The Nation magazine's Radio Nation: Listen to the interview (MP3 file)
- Ben Merens interviewed me for Wisconsin Public Radio: Listen to the interview (Real Audio file)
What Do We Mean by "Class?"
Resources
Learning more about cross-class alliances...
Classist Comments
What's the most classist thing you ever heard someone say?
(I'm not talking about someone like Bill O'Reilly or your right-wing uncle. More specifically, what's the most classist thing you ever heard a liberal or progressive person say?)
Read five interviewees' answers — and my own.
Class and Other Identities
How do you experience class differently because of your race, ethnic group, religion, gender, age, or other identity? What class dynamics do you notice within your identity groups?
Here's how a few ClassMatters.org visitors answered those questions:
- White women from working-class backgrounds
- White middle-class women
- Middle-class women of color
- White male labor activists
- White middle-class activists
- Christians and class
And answers from the Class Matters book:
Tips from Working-Class Activists
Put Relationships First
Middle class people are often not in the room except on their own issues. A sense of community is not a priority, just whatever their goal is. That's a different perspective than my experience with low-income people who think the community is the main thing, that you're always there for each other.
People always told us that if you spend all this time telling stories and doing class caucuses, you won't have time to get anything done. But skipping that part is a big mistake. Always make time for telling stories. Piedmont Peace Project was successful because we built relationships and trust as we did political work.
— Linda Stout
Whether in Puerto Rico or the U.S., the more educated someone is, the more they tend to be educated in white culture, logical and linear, and the more they move away from indigenous and African ways of thinking. So the models of struggle tend to be "What's the strategy, get down to the tasks," with less attention to relationships and less tolerance for circular thinking.
— Raúl Quiñones Rosado
It's all about relationship building. Until you start reaching out to people very different from you, until we reach outside comfort zones, nothing's going to change. We can't afford to assume anyone is our enemy. People can grow and change.
— Natalie Reteneller