Working Groups

Mass Movements

The mass movement working group focuses on collective action to disrupt white supremacy in white St. Louis. This work sometimes takes the form of campaigns and more often, of participating in and mobilizing for campaigns and actions led by people of color.

We believe that collective action is an important part of the struggle for liberation. Moreover, we believe it is important for us to interrupt white supremacy in both ourselves and in majority white spaces. Direct action, through AROC and with other organizations in St. Louis, is one way to do exactly that.

Want to get involved? Lots of people are involved in mass movement and not all of them are members of AROC. If you are interested in joining AROC, the mass movement working group is a great place to start.

Workshops

AROC’s workshop group aims to help build analysis so that white folks can act more effectively to dismantle racism and white supremacy. Without analysis, white folks, regardless of their good intentions, inevitably fall into racist patterns that replicate white supremacy. Knowledge of these patterns, support to resist them, and practice in dismantling them is essential in order for white folks to be accomplices to people of color in the struggle to end white supremacy. Ongoing discussion and analysis is essential to counter the insidious ways that racism affects our daily lives and our work for justice.

Our workshops seek to reach a broad range of people, and so our content varies from workshop to workshop. Our 100-level content seeks to expand foundational awareness of how racism operates, exploring white privilege, implicit bias, etc. Our 200-level content explores racism on a systemic level, exploring the very real manifestations of white supremacy, the specifics of how structural racism operates, the dynamics of oppression and intersection of race with other identities like class, sex, ability, and sexual orientation to name a few. Our 300-level content is focused on moving people to action – facilitating role plays for confronting personal racism and contributing a more nuanced level of analysis.

Our workshops are often a mix of these different levels — beginning with foundational information and moving towards structural analysis and action. We seek to make our workshops accessible and welcoming to people of all identities – working class folks, parents, queer folks and others who are often excluded from participating in these types of events because of finances, fear of exclusion, or history of disenfranchisement. We invite you to attend a workshop and add your voice to the conversation.

Criteria for Facilitating Outside Workshops and Sharing Workshop Materials

Criteria for Facilitating AROC Workshops for Outside Groups

We’ll generally consider requests in the Workshop group on a case-by-case basis. We don’t want to compete with other groups that do workshops professionally. (On the next page there is a list of these groups to offer people who ask)

We don’t have materials, facilitators or accountability structures to do multi racial groups. If they are interested in having us do a caucused space with your white folks, this can work.

This is when we will generally say yes: 

  • When groups really cannot afford paid training (tiny budget, small/no staff, etc.)
  • When it’s an opportunity to move white people into political action (not just about understanding).
  • When we are providing something other groups are not (e.g. Racism in Social Justice work, Racism & Capitalism, other 202s)
  • When groups are committed to action after, and not just using the training as a “check box”
  • When it would be beneficial for a targeted training, rather than the group coming to one of our regular workshops

Sharing Workshop Materials

  • General criteria: Is there someone knowledgeable to facilitate it? This is long-term work, not a box to check. This material can do more harm than good if facilitators are not capable/trained to support it
  • Case by case basis for folks who have anti-racist perspectives and experience
  • Especially if they’re local, check in with the workshop group before sharing
  • If they’re national anti-racist organizers, go ahead and share but inform others since it’s nice to know our work is getting out  there!