Photograph by Taahirah Hoosain (BU Photography Project & Youth Mobiliser)
Dear Comrades
The global turn toward fascism and right-wing nationalism is a sure sign of the failures of neoliberalism and the false promise that focusing on economic growth and tightening up state budgets would result in a trickle-down of benefits to all.
Decades of privatisation and austerity budgeting has rather resulted in the rich getting richer and the poor being driven into even deeper levels of poverty. In the face of this many people all over the world are seeking change. Unfortunately, many are also willing to accept any kind of change that shakes up the existing order but not all change is for the better.
The change we are now witnessing and that is being driven by an elite billionaire class and tyrannical leaders, who violently wield chainsaws as they speak of slashing any moderately progressive reforms and stir up racial hatred, is not the kind of change we need. Now more than ever, there is a need for a critical education that invites reflexivity and is capable of cultivating alternative imaginations about how we may live and flourish together.
Bottomup continues to be active in schools through our work with student councils (or representative councils of learners), which is currently facilitated by our team of youth mobilisers, most of whom have come through the programme when they were in school and who remain involved as they pursue their own study and work journeys. They are supported by a large community of seasoned facilitators who contribute to the work, as well as by our board. At the end of the third school quarter, we bring these young leaders together at our annual summit where they engage with community activists and radical scholars in an intergenerational community committed to imagining how we can cultivate better social relations and organise for better social arrangements.
The workshops we offer are not typical student leadership workshops. We dive deep into understanding how social systems really work, exploring the interconnected nature of education, power and inequality. Student council leaders engage with critical frameworks that help them see beyond surface-level challenges, developing the analytical skills to understand complex social dynamics and the practical tools to create lead meaningful change initiatives in their schools and communities.
At present Bottomup is entirely volunteer-run. We offer workshops to student councils on a less frequent basis than we would like and we want to shift to a more regular offering whereby our mobilisers are able to provide further support to high school student leaders. One two-hour session costs us about R600 and is co-facilitated by two of our mobilisers. We have a team of 12 mobilisers who would like to be in the field more but we do not have the resources to enable more regular engagements.
In order to accelerate this programme we are seeking contributors who are able to make a regular monetary gift to funding these school-based workshops. For about the monthly cost of buying a daily latte in Cape Town you could probably fund two workshops per month (which is crazy isn’t it?). We know all of our comrades are positioned in different ways, so rather than making a specific ask, we’re asking you to consider what you are able to commit to from the surplus you have.
The movement will not be funded by the typical channels of giving and so we count on your generous support to keep up the work.
Forward to a future in which we all have access to the social and material means necessary to live flourishing lives, and to a future where our thriving is not built on the exploitation of others or the destruction of our planet!
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If prefer classic style (less fees!), use our banking details:
Bank: FNB
Account Name: Bottomup Social Development
Account Number: 62165761422
FNB Universal Branch Code: 254005
Swift Code(for international deposits): FIRNZAJJ
Thank you for your generous support! ✨