Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by Kelly Hayes

Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care Reviews

• 
  Sean

  This is a wonderful book for our moment. It’s not only a love letter to what historians of the left will come to understand as the new Chicago way of organizing, it’s a distillation of the 2020-and-after moment and its lessons. It’s a book about collective self-reliance rather than deference to saviors. This is the kind of book that will be a guidepost for decades.
  
  There is definitely a focus on the small here: small actions, small groups. And although it does not take up larger social movement organizations and unions like the CTU, its focus on relationships and movement culture are a core part of what makes this book such an effective broadside against cynicism.
  
  No book can be everything to everyone, and I don’t take this one as a comprehensive guide to all organizing or a definitive manual for building global power. Instead, I’m confident this book will be a solid and sober contribution to a movement becoming conscious of itself and its history. I’ll certainly be coming back to this many times in the coming years.
• 
  Sarah Jaffe

  I'm not unbiased: I'm honored to call Mariame and Kelly friends. I'm also an old nerd when it comes to reading about organizing, and yet I found this book invigorating and surprisingly emotional. I cried when it came to the conclusion. I expected this to be a book targeted at young organizers, but I also think it contained an awful lot of advice for more experienced people, and for journalists as well as organizers, as the skill sets of both have an awful lot of overlap.
• 
  Mary

  So much wisdom & open-hearted encouragements regarding organizing in this catastrophic political context. Many, many specific campaign examples, primarily out of Chicago, which is affirming to have a written history of, and illustrative of the multiplicity of the movement. Highly recommend for any folks trying to organize their way out of despair.
• 
  Ella Quainton

  one million stars out of five!!!!!!!! one of those books i was devastated to finish but know i will return to ongoingly in my life
• 
  Jasmine

  Great read! It captured a lot of the lessons and feelings I have been processing over the past few years. I loved the organization of the chapters/concepts. Going to reread before adding more to this review.
• 
  Antoinette Van Beck

  i really enjoyed this book. there are so many delightful and hope-building quotes throughout, paired strikingly with facts and anecdotes about the movements of recent years. honestly, i can't summarize the scope that this book covers bc it's so large-- a perfect balance of specificity and generality. so much of our survival as a human race consists of us relying on each other and this book does a wonderful job of highlighting the joys and most vital aspects of community- and movement-building while acknowledging the hard realities of life with other people. a very conversational and simultaneously well-sourced read.
• 
  Anne

  This book is amazing! I wish this framework was available when I got into activism and organizing 25 years ago. A must read for old and new folks to the social justice movement.
• 
  Gayatri Sethi Desi Book Aunty

  There aren’t words adequate to convey how timely & essential this book is for all of us.
  Every page invokes new hopes, ideas & questions. Overflowing with wisdom, insights & invocations to collective liberations, this is the kind of book that inspires sharing & actions too. It’s not one to study alone. It is a read that I imagine added to syllabi, book clubs, celebrations & conversations everywhere.
• 
  Laura

  Absolutely incredible, 100% recommended to anyone who is part of, or wants to be part of, movements for social justice.
  
  I've followed both Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba on social media for years - they always have brilliant, thoughtful insights about the way our current system of interlocking oppressions functions and how we can work together to dismantle it and build something better. So I was excited to find out that they were co-writing a book about the lessons they've learned from decades of organizing, and it was everything I hoped it would be!
  
  Literally every page is full of gems about how to build community, care for ourselves and each other, dismantle death-making systems, and continue to find hope in terrifying times. I'm sure I will come back to this book again and again, and I want to give a copy to everyone I know.
• 
  Shannan Harper

  A powerful and moving book geared towards those that are organizers, but has several lessons for those that are not. For anyone that is or wants to be in the fight for social justice. IT's a timely and very emotional read. Anyone that cares and is passionate about social justice needs to pick up this book. The way the authors pull you i and give you much needed advice and recommendations is like no other. Wonderful job.
• 
  Frederic

  This book is for you if you’ve been wondering what you can do to “cast aside the limitations of individualism” and “continuously build worlds worth fighting for, even as the worlds we have known collapse all around us.”
  
  A grounded yet visionary guide on political organizing, mutual support, and active practices of hope, because “hope isn’t a substitute for action; it is a basis for it”
• 
  Laura Harrison

  This will be a great classroom text for those of us who teach feminist activism and those who are organizers!
• 
  Kyle Potter

  21st-century organizing and political action require disciplines and loving practices of community-building. Here are some ways its being done.
• 
  Mx Phoebe

  If you are looking for ideas to inspire your own group this is the book to read. If you want to find that drive inside you and a way to tap into it - this book is for you. If you want to start a group and have no idea where to start, look no further for inspiration and ideas.
  
  Check out the rest of my review at Mx. Phoebe’s Viewpoint. Link in bio.
  
  
  I received a free copy of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.