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#AssemblyEdition

Quote | #CoLearning Recap | #AssemblyEdition| Opportunities to Listen |  Ujima Time Bank | How to Invest in Ujima | Appreciations | Neighborhood Econ. Study Group | Ujima is Hiring | Membership Renewal | Jobs | Upcoming Meetings 

Fred Hampton

#UjimaWednesdays: Brewing Culture w Crue Brewery, Lamplighter Brewery & Brockton Brewery Co.

Our next Ujima Open Meeting is TONIGHT on Zoom!
Wednesday, February 17th, from 6:00pm-8:30pm.

Time: Wednesday, February 17th, 6:00PM | Location: Zoom Only

  • 6:00-7:15pm #Co-Learn: This Wednesday we're teaming up with Lamplighter Brewing Co. to present Brewing Culture, a panel discussion with Kevin Merritt and Eval Silvera, two Black brewery owners, on history and present of Black folks in the brewery industry and the realities of running a service industry business in the pandemic.
  • 7:15-8:30pm #CoCreation: Anchor Instituition and Investor Outreach Member Teams

PLEASE RSVP. Thank you!

Share on Facebook | Join us on Zoom

Co-Learning Recap: Sit-down Restaurants w Mida & Mei Mei

Last Wednesday we were joined by Seth Gerber of MIDA, and Irene Li, of Mei Mei, about what it took and takes to start a restaurant pre- and post-COVID-19, and the practices they undertake to create great jobs and workplaces for their staff. Click here to watch the full archived video.

#AssemblyEdition

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At Ujima, the assembly is a core part of our decision making and governance strategies. Within schools, faith institutions, government and social movements exist the idea of the general assembly. A popular, or people’s, assembly is a gathering called to address issues of importance to participants. In this edition of the Ujima WIRE, we explore how the assembly has evolved through historical and modern day examples as a means to assert community power and advocate for social change.

Colored Conventions Movement

The Colored Conventions Movement, or Negro Convention Movement, was a series of national, regional, and state conventions held irregularly during the decades preceding and following the American Civil War. From 1830 until well after the Civil War, African Americans gathered across the United States and Canada to participate in political meetings held at the state and national levels. A cornerstone of Black organizing in the nineteenth century, these “Colored Conventions” brought Black men and women together in decades-long campaigns for civil and human rights.

“During the antebellum period, when Philadelphia was home to one the North’s largest free African American communities, the city’s black leaders launched the National Negro Convention Movement to address the hostility, discrimination, exclusion, and violence against African Americans by whites in northern cities. As national forums, the National Negro Conventions held from 1830 to 1864 brought together African Americans to debate and adopt strategies to elevate the status of free blacks in the North and promote the abolition of slavery,” writes Lucien Holness for the Encyclopedia of Philadelphia.

He continues: “Launched during an important period of black political activism, the National Negro Convention Movement created a stronger collective voice among African Americans and a forum for devising national strategies to confront racial hostility. Although the convention movement did not end slavery or gain equal rights for African Americans, by the outbreak of the Civil War some other notable goals were achieved. Delegates established manual labor schools that trained a number of blacks in skilled trades. The convention also created the American Moral Reform Society (1835-1841), an organization headquartered in Philadelphia and led by local businessmen James Forten (1766-1842) and William Whipper (1804-1876). The conventions also united African American communities from across the country into a national network of political activism. Finally, delegates formed a coalition with radical white antislavery activists to oppose movements such as the American Colonization Society (ACS), an organization with ties to slaveholders that encouraged free blacks to relocate to Africa.

During the Civil War the convention delegates began to devise plans for the post-war Reconstruction period. At the October 1864 meeting in Syracuse, New York, delegates created the National Equal Rights League, a national forum to replace the black convention movement, and lobby the federal government for full citizenship rights for all African Americans on the premise of black service in the Union Army and the notion that all men were created equal. With numerous state and local chapters, the league’s members became active in northern and southern politics. Members of the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League lobbied members of Congress to ratify a constitutional amendment in support of black male suffrage. The league successfully pressured the Pennsylvania Republican Party in ratifying the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, while also continuing to demand protection of their civil and political rights in a new era in which white hostility increased and federal and state support for protecting black rights waned.”

Project South: The Southern Movement Assembly

The Southern Movement Assembly is an organizing process and a convergence space that centers the voices and experiences of grassroots leadership on multiple frontlines. Organizations coordinate actions locally and regionally to confront poverty, racism, and violence and to build political power in our communities. The Assembly is a movement governance process that is a combination of political education, discussion, planning, action, and synthesis.

The assembly is “largely anchored in the African American grassroots struggles in all of the states in the South creating a movement framework to tie what essentially has been a local organization and local struggles so that there is some sense of strategy and program in people’s understanding of the Southern freedom movement,” co-coordinator Saladin Muhammad told TruthOut.com.

“Each Movement Assembly has built on the one before it and has developed a sense of principles in which people can work together and practice consciousness, vision and strategy in terms of coordinating our activity and ultimately try to build power from the bottom up to end oppression and exploitation of our people in the South,” added Rita Valentini, a founder of Project South.

Cooperation Jackson

Cooperation Jackson is a cooperative network based in Jackson, Mississippi. Cooperation Jackson’s basic theory of change is centered on the position that organizing and empowering the structurally under and unemployed sectors of the working class, particularly from Black and Latino communities, to build worker organized and owned cooperatives will be a catalyst for the democratization of our economy and society overall. They use their general assembly with their members as a means to perform their democratic principles. Each member has one vote, and its governing structures are democratically controlled and are also responsible to the general assembly.

On the subject of assembly, co-founder Kali Akuno has said, “First, it should be known that national/racial diversity is rather limited in Jackson. Jackson is 80 percent Black, and more than 90 percent of the participants in our Assembly are Black. The greatest expression of diversity in the Assembly is class diversity. The overwhelming number of participants is drawn from the various sectors of the working class. But, there are a fair number of participants that hail from the Black petite bourgeoisie, namely small business owners and professionals (lawyers, doctors, and so on).”

“[T]he People’s Assembly is a form of democratic social organization that allows people to exercise their agency, exert their power, and practice democracy in its broadest terms, entailing making direct decisions about the economic, social, and cultural operations of our community, and not just the contractual or electoral and legislative aspects of the social order. The germinating source of the Assembly comes, in the final analysis, from our people’s desire to exercise self-determination.”

Akuno continues, “By weight of its membership, the Assembly has a working-class character, but it does strategically try to represent a broad multi-class people’s front. The reason is that its power is ultimately constrained by the forces of white supremacy that control the economy of Jackson and the statewide political apparatus. White supremacy is still very visceral and apparent in this state, and that creates the imperative for multi-class political forces amongst the Black community in Mississippi.”

The assembly has a long and storied history within many communities, and its legacy lives on in organizations committed to advocating for everyday people to assert their perspectives and make decisions for themselves and their communities. On February 18, 2021 we will conduct our Citywide Assembly, which builds on the frameworks of historical and contemporary assemblies. We hope that you will join us as we work to build a space of community power in Boston and bring values like everyday democracy further into popular consciousness.

More Resources:

Opportunities to Listen

Join the Ujima Time Bank!

Speaking of alternative currency... The Ujima Time Bank is another way to save money and create community connections while creating a new economy in Boston!

What is a time bank?

A Timebank is a system of exchange where the unit of value is person-hours. When a member of a timebank performs one hour of service for another member, they are awarded one hour of credit in the Timebank, which can then be redeemed for one hour of service from another member. For example: Samantha can fix Jess’s blinds, and then Jess can teach Freddie Spanish, then Freddie later gives Samantha a ride, and the Timebank keeps track so it’s fair.

There are over 600 talents available for you to tap into, or join, in the Ujima Time Bank! This week's featured talent is Teaching & Learning. There are 115 people available to help you with personal finances, learning a new language or even assistance with a class or workshop!

Join the time bank to respond and see more! Anyone who lives in Boston can join the Time Bank at www.ujimaboston.com/timebank!

How to Become a Co-Investor in the Ujima Fund

Another Boston Is Happening. Now You Can Invest in It.

www.ujimaboston.com/invest

  1. Read Ujima's Offering Memorandum. This document describes the risks, regulations, and background of the fund. The Offering Memorandum should be read in it's entirety, with careful attention to the Risk Factors (page 11), Description of Notes (39), and Subordination Agreement (77).
  2. Consult the personal finance worksheet if you are unsure of how much to invest.
  3. Invest online (multiple payment options available):
    1. Choose the option next to the type of investment you are making.
    2. Complete and sign all forms via Docusign (Investment Agreement, W-9, and Demographic Information).
    3. After submitting, select your payment option. (You will see instructions on how to send a check if that is your preferred payment.)
  4. OR: Invest via mail:
    1. Choose the option next to the type of investment you are making.
    2. Select the print option on Docusign.
    3. Complete and sign all forms manually (Investment Agreement, W-9, and Demographic Information).
    4. Write a check, payable to the Fund, for the amount you wish to invest in the applicable Notes.
    5. Send the Investment Agreement and your check to the Fund [PO BOX 180310 Boston MA 02118].
  5. Email invest@ujimaboston.com or call 617-446-3863 with any questions

Please contact invest@ujimaboston.com with any questions or issues that arise!

Ujima Appreciations

Thank you to...

  • Seth, co-owner of Mida Boston, and Irene, co-owner of Mei Mei, for their sharing their presentations for our feasibility study at #UjimaWednesdays.
  • Dzidzor and the Black Cotton Club for opening We Be Knowing with a riveting music program, Meditations on Love!
  • Seona, Yvette, Somala and Louise for sharing their member stories at our Open House!
  • Alex, Kelsey, Somala, Charlene and The UNESG Member Team for co-designing and facilitating our Neighborhood Needs Workshop!
  • To our We Be Knowin' partners: Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA), Boston Teachers Union, Boston Impact Initiative, Boston While Black, CommonWealth Kitchen, Cooperative Fund of New England, Design Studio for Social Intervention (DS4SI), Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Fairmount Innovation Lab, Foundation for Business Equity, King Boston, Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity, Matahari Women Workers Center, Lamplighter Brewing Co., U.S. Haitian Chamber of Commerce and YW Boston!
  • All of our new members who have joined Ujima!
    • Alma
    • Paul
    • Troy
    • Hayyim
    • Kayce
    • Paul
    • Ashley
    • Angel
    • Mark
    • Helen
    • Marie-Frances
  • All of the members who have renewed their Ujima memberships!
    • MJ
    • Trina
    • Stephen
    • Mark
  • All of our recent investors!
    • Arlo
    • Cecilia
    • James
    • Rose
    • Corey
    • Stephen
    • Rachel
  • To Peers, Partners, and Community Members who are doing their part to keep us informed, safe, and loved during this time. 

Ujima Neighborhood Economic Study Group

We are excited that the Ujima Neighborhood Economics Study Group is underway, continuing to explore the feasibility of projects that address our community-wide needs. The group meets the second Wednesday of the month, and the next meeting is Wednesday, March 10. This study group is co-coordinated by Ujima members and staff. Some participants will focus on a specific area of study and some writ-large. The group will build on the learnings from the exploration that Ujima members have already done, and will carry this research forward to get even closer to implementation and investment in projects that meet our needs.

The topics include:

  • Community Land Trust
  • Community Owned Internet
  • Community Owned Energy
  • Urban Farming
  • Creative Economic Placemaking (Black Market)
  • Community Space
  • Arts/Cultural Organizing Space
  • Childcare

There is also space for members to coordinate study groups on additional topics of interest. Please email cierra@ujimaboston.com if you are interested in getting involved or want more information!

Internship Opportunities

We need your help to find great interns to grow our team. Ujima is offering these internship opportunities on an ongoing basis. Please share widely!

To apply, email intern@ujimaboston.com to express interest and get further information. 

Ujima Membership

Help us reach our goal of growing our membership to 750! Renew your membership with Ujima today and help spread the word about our network and activities!

Jobs in the Ujima Network

The Ujima Jobs Board has moved! Click here to access all of the job listings in our network.

If you are hiring and would like to be included on our biweekly newsletter, send your listing to comms@ujimaboston.com!

Upcoming Ujima Meetings

We hold Open Meetings every Wednesday at 6pm, on Zoom! Check out our February Calendar below!

6:00-7:15 - Community Building + Financial and Political Education.
7:15-8:30 - Member Team Meetings (Based on rotating schedule; See calendar above)

www.ujimaboston.com

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