Accountability Statement
What does accountability mean to SURJ Toronto?
Black, Indigenous and racialized organizers have long fought for liberatory futures. As an organization that seeks to organize white people for racial justice, and centres the leadership of Black, Indigenous and racialized community organizers, SURJ Toronto recognizes that accountability is essential to our role in realizing collective liberation. To us, a group mostly made up of white settlers, accountability is being consistently answerable to communities who directly experience racism and colonization. While our work answers a long-standing call from Black, Indigenous and racialized organizers to undermine white supremacy within white-dominated institutions and in white communities, and is grounded in our own shared interest in dismantling racial capitalism and settler colonialism, we recognize the long-standing tension that is inherent in organizing around racial justice as white people. As much as we seek to “show up” for racial justice with integrity and humility, it is likely that we will make mistakes and cause harm. In this context, accountability is striving to minimize harm and maximize effective resistance to white supremacy. Our accountability process is guided by our values.
How do we practise accountability?
Relationship-building and practising a culture of care are central to our accountability process. We aim to build accountability with groups that we work with by cultivating and nourishing relationships that are grounded in mutual respect and a shared vision for collective liberation. We seek to build and earn trust with groups that we work with through shared long-term struggle, transparency, clear and open communication, inviting feedback on our direction and strategy, self-reflection and bold action on our part. We are committed to repairing harm and doing our own political education and course correction when needed. SURJ Toronto seeks to avoid a one-dimensional approach where we feel unable to make principled decisions about our organizing and where groups that we work with feel obligated to micromanage or monitor how we work. We instead strive to take bold collective action and build meaningful relationships to advance multi-racial and cross-class movements for racial justice.
Who are we accountable to?
SURJ Toronto centres the leadership of, is answerable to and receives direction from groups that we work with. We are not primarily accountable to individual Black, Indigenous and racialized people, but ground our accountability in ongoing relationships with community organizations and groups with whom we are working toward racial justice. We recognize that white supremacy affords us financial and social benefits for our racial justice work and commit to consistently redistributing resources to Black, Indigenous and racialized organizers and uplifting their work, expertise and initiatives.
We work with grassroots community organizations that are:
Led by Black, Indigenous and racialized community members
Made up of majority Black, Indigenous and racialized members
Aligned with SURJ Toronto’s political values of anti-racism, decolonization, anti-capitalism, feminism, disability justice, queer and trans liberation and abolition
Doing on-the-ground, in-community work in the Greater Toronto Area
Engaging in organizing (i.e. political education, mobilization, campaign work, etc.), service provision (i.e. summer camps, harm reduction, etc.), and/or resource redistribution within communities (i.e. mutual aid, etc.)
Underfunded or “hard to fund” (we prioritize organizations without government funding)
Queer, trans, femme and sex-worker friendly