• The housing activists were stumped -- they couldn't get people from the local housing project to come to their meetings. Nobody there cares enough to do anything! they said.
• A welfare-rights group couldn't get political leaders to their events -- even politicians from their own community wouldn't show. These politicians are hopeless! they said.

• An environmental group trying to clean up a riverbank in a working-class area were shocked when the neighbors weren't excited about the campaign. Nobody around here cares about the earth! they said.

These were experienced activists. But like a lot of organizers, they didn't have an awareness of the power of class. As a result, they experienced frustration with other groups and their organizing was less than effective.

This workshop gives activists a hand learning about class dynamics. The goal: stronger activism for deeper social change.

Social class influences our lives subtly yet powerfully. It affects how we feel about ourselves and how we treat each other. It influences how much money we get in our lifetimes -- and how long our lives will be. It's also influencing our activism, probably more than we realize.

Like racism, class prejudice gets in the way of effective coalition-building. Like sexism and homophobia, it can deprive our activist groups of the contributions of all. Unlike those forces, classism is rarely brought out in the open. That makes it even more powerful!

Struggles for economic justice have often been divided from social goals such as environmentalism or peace. That's because the activists themselves are divided -- by class. Now a new generation of activists is learning to bridge the class divide. The outcome: coalitions across the labor, peace, welfare-rights, environmental and other movements -- groups that have too often worked in isolation or at odds. Come to Class Matters and learn why it doesn't have to be that way!

Class is everywhere. But from an early age, most of us were trained not to see it. We were taught that our society is "classless," or that we're all middle class. That training can make the effects of class hard to spot at first.

This workshop is designed to help us notice the effects of class on our lives. At Training for Change, we've designed a series of experiential exercises that let people explore their class backgrounds at their own pace and without the burdens of judgment, blame or guilt-tripping.

Starting with registration on Friday at 5:30 p.m. and ending on Saturday at 9 p.m. As with all our workshops, we ask for full participation from everyone. Learning about class dynamics raises important issues, and we always like to remind folks that emotions may surface in the course of this 2-day workshop.