Values

Values

CRYM’s values underpin how it operates and takes action in the community, they also continue to be reflected on and adapted and extended.

CRYM’s values written out:

  • Decolonial
    • First nations solidarity (minus tokenism)
    • Individual + collective cultural decolonisation
      • Which looks like more than just academia
  • Equitable and Safer spaces
    • Non-dominating behaviors
      • Be aware of how much space you’re taking up
        • Sharing knowledge/experience isn’t always the same as taking up space
    • Actively anti-bigoted and anti-discriminatory
      • Opposing oppressive systems – racism, sexism, queerphobia, classism, ableism, colonialism, misogyny and the patriarchy. **
    • Accessibility
      • Actively making spaces less disabling to engage and interact with.
      • Making our community inclusive
    • Good facilitation practices
      • Everyone deserves to feel heard, but should not dominate other voices to do so
      • Self facilitate **
    • Open organising & Vouching **
      • We value the balance of these two things, and strive to find a good balance
      • Open organising should be balanced with and feed into vouched organising
      • Open organising alongside vouched spaces
      • Open organising weighted against the importance of secure spaces
  • Anti-Hierarchical
    • Need to know where necessary BUT not where it becomes gatekeepy
    • In matters of safety, lived experience/expertise may grant you more authority, but every individual should retain autonomy
      • Transparency, consent and reflection around when this happens
    • We’re also humans (in a flawed society) and are sometimes selfish
      • How do we have compassion but accountability, how do we encourage reflection?
    • There is a difference between hierarchy and leadership
      • Step up, step back
      • Participatory empowerment
  • Learning + Skillsharing + Growth
    • Step up, step back
    • Actively share and learn practical skills, theory and ideas
    • Expanding our comfort zone
    • Creating community around radical skills and knowledge
  • Strategic reduction of barriers to entry
    • Make it easier to get involved, regardless of your experience *
    • These barriers could be mental, physical, ideological, financial, etc
    • (talk about adding a point about being disabling later)
    • Keep it radical still
      • Our tactics and values should not be diluted to appease people who don’t support radical action ** (passive)
    • Open organising <–> Vouching
  • Creating a sustainable a movement
    • Community
      • Building collective identity and connection
      • Creating connection in safe environments, and not just relying on hectic situations to create it *
      • Always valuing community despite facing the crisis we’re in
    • Affirm community in the face of disagreement
      • Always challenge the idea, not the person
    • No arrests for the sake of arrest
    • Build strong resilience and capacity – avoid burnout *
  • Deconstructing/dismantling Privilege
    • Reflecting on how your privilege allows you to interect with the space in a way that others can’t
    • Recognise when you can use / weaponise your privilege against the system
      • Recognising the impacts of doing so is important
    • Create space for others, rather than just taking up space because it’s easier for you as a result of your privilege
  • Movement is effective until its not
    • Form attachment and connection with people not the collective identity **
    • Create new movements rather than transforming what exists
  • Staunch and Strategic Direct Action
    • Solidarity
      • Mutual aid
    • We’re here to defy and disrupt *
      • No solely symbolic actions
      • No arrests for the sake of arrests
    • The resources we put in should be proportional to the disruption it causes
    • Open organising <–> Vouching
  • Harm minimisation
    • We are resisting for the preservation of life ***
    • There’s a line between needless violence that reduces harm – ie. self defense *
    • Radical trust in the network as to where that line is *
  • Consensus
    • Freedom to make informed decisions based on consensus *
      • So long as it doesn’t become hierarchy *
    • You don’t have to assent to consent *
      • Having radical trust in the group to make decisions *
    • Affirm community in the face of disagreement
      • Always challenge the idea, not the person