5781 wakes me with calls to action. Be expansive. Vision expansively. Build expansive relationships, friendships, romances, work partnerships, family and found family. Act. Expansively.

This year is not a new start, it is a deepening of and building off of the dreams, vision, labor, struggle, mourning, and healing of generations past and to come.

Waking up this morning, I feel my hands in the earth. I touch sprouting seeds of an ecosystem of movements, organizations, collectives, unions in deep relationships with one another.

I see us building knowledge and skills and maturing in our ability to both build real power and heal from the dominant culture, heal from white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism.

I see us building power in our work places, schools, spaces of worship. I see undocumented workers leading the revived labor movement, fighting for dignified working conditions for all. I see millions of young voters ready to rush in new members of the progressive squad into congress, elected officials who will vote for the Green New Deal, labor protection, permanent protection for the undocumented community, redistrute resources from the billionaires, and those who profit off of the military and prisons, into education and healthcare. I see continued uprising and boycotts led by Black people calling to defund the police, until the carceral and police state has lost all mainstream support and it is understood to be what it is: a tool of white supremacist violence and control.

I see different organizational structures that can move resources between one another, be it human, material or financial, as the political moment demands. I see both deep relationships between communities and structures, and also shared ideology and goals, even as we work on different campaigns. I hear conversations acknowledging that we will never get free solely organizing for single issues 100% of the time.

I see us sustaining our movements financially and materially in a way that both utilizes and evades the non profit tax system and philanthropic world that was designed to maintain the status quo and give rich people tax write offs.

I see my friends and family in the streets with me this November, this January, and at every moment where the people feel it is our duty to hold politicians accountable to meet our interests, not pander to the desire of billionaires to make more billions.

I see the organizers I’m working with now still doing this work together in 20, 30 years. I see us sharing our depths of knowledge as we continue to practice with the generations to come. I see us all moving slower and deeper as we confront the continued climate crisis. I see us having spent the last 20 to 30 years healing from our internalized white supremacy and patriarchy, and especially learning from Indigenous communities’ wisdom and practices in order to restore our relationship with the earth.

I see a lot of hugs and tears and dancing.

Welcome to 5781, fam. Feeling commitment to grow, ground, and despite the odds, have hope. Expansively.

**Artwork by Becca Lubow**