What is the Radical Encuentro?
Our Mission:
The Radical Encuentro camp organizes to build solidarity amongst diverse communities, grassroots organizers and activist groups in Tejas and beyond. Through the use of popular education and connecting our struggles, we are developing skills, strategies and tactics to further our movements in general moving us from resistance to revolutionary consciousness and actions.
The name comes from two powerful concepts as words.
RADICAL
1. Arising from or going to a root or source: proposed a radical solution to the problem
2. Departing markedly from the usual or customary:radical opinions or education
3. Favoring or effecting fundamental or revolutionary changes in current practices, conditions, or institutions: radical political views
4. Slang:excellent:wonderful
ENCUENTRO
The Zapatistas ,since their 1994 uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, have held numerous encuentros(literally "encounters") where locals and international people have gathered to discuss and implement grassroots democratic ideas. Through this they have called for other members of civil society to similarly discover the local challenges and possiblities for social transformation in the places where they live and struggle against neoliberalism.
"It will fundamentally be a revolution that is the result if struggle on various social fronts, with many methods,under many social forms, with varying degrees of commitment and participation..."
- E.Z.L.N. January 20, 1994
OUR HISTORY(so far) 2000-2007: DRAFTv1
The Radical Encuentro Camp began as the Radical Education Community by activists and organizers Houston in 1999 who saw a need for trainings that focused on skills and analysis about complex issues to develop grassroots organizing in the region. Rene Feltz and Scott Crow became the main co-organizers in 2001 changing the name to Radical Encuentro (spanish for encounter or gathering) to reflect more of what was happening at the camps. REC has become more than just the original training grounds, it has become a space where people from different communities in the regions gather to share ideas, struggles, hopes, skills and even failures. Gatherings where people can feel and are connected to the social justice movements outside of their own cities, towns or regions.
REC has held 8 camps, which in the early days they, were literally camp-outs, since 2000. We have held spring/summer and fall/winter camps about every six months since then. The camps are typically a weekend event starting on Friday night and ending on Sunday afternoon. They consist of workshops and skill shares on social justice, environmental issues, strategies and topics. The purpose has been to ‘educate to liberate’: by activists and groups sharing tools to organize themselves more effectively, as well as sharing information on regional issues. Between 150-300 participants attend each of these weekends. They have been hosted in various cities across Texas including, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Huntsville and San Marcos.
The Radical Encuentro Camp has been funded and run on small donations and by the poeple who come to the camps. Over the years our fee for the weekend (including tasty vegetarian/vegan meals ) has been $15 per person (with no one turned away for lack of funds) on a sliding scale to make it affordable to all who are interested. Through this we have been building networks with groups and activists all across Texas. The overarching analysis has been radical and grassroots from the beginning and continued until today. On a couple of occasions we have made the camp themes around a specific campaigns that lead to a day of action (ex. exxonmobil shareholders meeting in 2002)
REC is about people learning to exercise their power to make change in society.