FAQ about the Academy
The Working Families Academy was created by a resolution of the Working Families National Committee at the end of 2016. It has been developing as a pilot project since that time.
What is the Working Families Academy?
The Working Families Academy consists of a series of platforms designed to stimulate critical reflection including meetings and trainings, international exchange, and online sharing of ideas. It has been running over the last year as a pilot project. The Academy is not be a “bricks and mortar” facility, but rather a method and an opportunity to critically analyze the key issues facing Working Families as we attempt to build power and ultimately change society.
Why create the Academy?
A lot has changed for our organization — and in the politics of our country — since Working Families was founded in 1998.The WFA will be a space for leaders, activists and staff to think about the intersectional, ideological, strategic, and tactical questions that shape the current moment. By allowing us to occasionally step away from the day-to-day and to reflect on the bigger picture, it is designed to complement the important work going on in our organization. Also, we envision the WFA as an undertaking that can and should be done in collaboration with movement partners who are engaged in similar educational and cohort development projects.
Why have an international component?
It is a cliché, but there is some truth to it: “a fish doesn’t know it is in water.” International exchange allows us to step outside of ourselves and view our work through a new lens. In fact, the WFA was originally inspired by the much more robust culture of political education that we have seen done by parties and social movement formations in other countries. Also, our global partners are often fighting the very same corporations and international institutions of neoliberalism; certainly this is the case with partners in Europe, and we imagine we would find it too if we expanded this effort in the future to connect with partners in Latin America (and even beyond).
What is the on-line component?
We have set up this Medium page as a place for various stakeholders (board, staff, active members) within Working Families to formulate opinions on some important questions facing the organization, and provide space to debate them. Once a month, we will circulate a piece of writing — published or unpublished — by someone within this community. Everyone will be encouraged to respond. (Note: some posts will not be listed publicly on the Medium page, but will rather be left unpublished and circulated internally. The goal of this is to provide space for contributors to submit frank analyses of the issues we are facing without fear it will end up circulating publicly on the internet.)
We want to address two main questions: what kind of organizations do we want, but also what kind of country we want. The first question might include discussions on the challenges of getting the balance right between institutional and non-institutional voices in decision making; different models for the formation of chapters and state organizations; the role of members and volunteers; methods for building effective candidate pipelines; lessons to be learned from electoral formations in other countries, etc.
The second question, that of what kind of country we want, would include, for example, discussions of the realities of national and global economic forces in the 21st century; the intersectionality of race, gender and class; and the types of issues we could call “game changers” that might be electoralized in order to alter the present realities.
If all goes well, this process will help to clarify both where there is consensus about strategic direction, and where there is not, and could help form the agenda for serious internal discussions about just those questions.
