Anti Oppression and the USAS Caucus system

Good morning everyone! Or good evening, or good afternoon whenever you happen to read this :).

Each of the Provincial action committee is to write a post to put up on the blog to get it started. I've decided to write a few words about the caucus system that United Students Against Sweatshops uses to try to battle oppression internally within our organization. Many people in USAS consider our anti-oppression structure to be a great strength and of real lasting value. I know SYC is starting to do more anti-oppression work and questions about this have come up a few times.

I won't go into much of a description by what I mean by the broad topic of "oppression". Those of you out there who have taken any anti-oppression training will know what I mean. In the context of USAS internal workings one may ask things like: people of color less willing to run for election because of the social climate? Are women's voices overall less listened to then men when they present good ideas? Do people in the queer community feel unwelcome or welcome to contribute? There are many more, but hopefully this illustrates the point. If groups are discriminated against because prejudices are allowed to stifle them this will drive the organization apart at these points and make it weaker. Oppression can cause tensions, fights, makes it difficult to work with related organizations and suppresses much needed good ideas, opinions and participation.

For USAS, dealing with internal oppression is especially important because our express purpose is to fight social justice that stems from prejudices and imbalances of power that things like racism, and classism bring. Performing internal anti-oppression work is a great big admission that these things are all around us, including in ourselves and our organization; we are not perfect and have to continue to work on this!

Now, on to the details. USAS has four main Caucuses:
-People of color (POC)
-Working class
-Immigrants
-Womyn and gender queer
-Queer

Of course that is not to say that these are the only historically oppressed groups! However, especially with the work USAS does they are traditionally groups that have been discriminated against in many, often subtle and difficult to deal with, ways. One may belong to any number of the caucuses, and self-identification is the only requirement. Identification with some groups is not as clear as others. I have seen (and experienced) some confusion over belonging or not to the working class for example.

During conferences, a substantial amount of time is set aside for caucus meeting times. Caucuses meet one at a time, with other events for the conference in between (all the caucuses at once would be a bit much!). While caucuses are meeting those who do not belong to the caucus attend an Allies meeting where they discuss the issue from their point of view. After these meetings are finished the groups join and try to discuss points that came up in each and turn that into action. This Unity time can be the most challenging to get meaningful and doable action out of but it is important.

The idea behind having Allies is very important. Having no Allies meeting sends the message that it is break time for those that do not belong to the caucus; that this is not their problem but rather something the caucus has to deal with. This is not the message we want!

Leaders from each caucus are elected by the people of the caucus. These sit on USAS's 16 member governing board the Coordinating Committee. BTW, at least half of the governing board must be people of color. At least half of it must be female as well. The board is elected so people must keep this in mind during election time.

This caucus system is not perfect. It takes substantial time, and has been contentious because some feel that having caucuses is sending people away and emphasizing division. Yet, having separate meetings provide a safe space where groups can meet in private.

The queer caucus time has been a bit different from other caucus because some people may not be "out" yet and be uncomfortable going to the queer caucus. An idea that has been put into practice recently by that caucus is to have a secret queer lunch instead. Caucuses are free to make changes like this to the structure/meeting times etc.

I have always been on the allies side, so this article has been biased that way but perhaps someone out there found it useful! To read more in depth check out the USAS manual.

James Douglas, Regional Organizer for Ontario with United Students Against Sweatshops. James@usasnet.org 613 878 4053