Monthly Meetings: The last Thursday of every month 7-8:30pmEST (Aug. 31, Sept. 28)
Mission
The mission of SWAC is to: (1) Create clear pathways for individual social service and social change workers to connect with power-building organizations in their areas of interest/specialization where they can engage in radical political education, and contribute to the collective movement to shift the field of professionalized social-service work to a solidarity-focused model, and (2) Create a platform for sustained, radical dialogue and joint organizing actions on the issues confronting all of human services that, at present, are not being met by mainstream organizations. This includes building capacity for a rapid response network against fascist policies.
History
The Social Work Activist Collective (SWAC) is an alliance among organizations led by workers (i.e., students, practitioners, and social work faculty) within the field of social-service work. These organizations engage in various forms of movement work within the profession, and all share the same goal of transforming the social, economic and political conditions that shape how social work and those who labor within it are perceived, funded, and legitimated.
Caminante, no hay camino / Traveler, There Is No Road
by Antonio Machado
Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship’s wake on the sea.
"Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar."
"We Make the Road by Walking"
The creation of this collective is an organic process that came out of the need for collective action towards liberation. We know that this collective is not all inclusive and we invite you to join us as we knit together a repository of resources, training, base building, and action. Collectively we can be a resource for groups and individuals that want to do this messy and important work. We believe that freedom can be achieved through the intersection of creativity and action. To this end we take on the call from Horton and Freire and stand alongside each other as “we make the road by walking.”