Excerpts from a Canadian activist glossary compiled by Anna Carastathis & Anna Feigenbaum with the assistance of Betty Sparks.

Aa
activist training - Giving people concrete tools that they need in order to organize or protest. Before the
anti-choice group Lambs of Christ invaded Fargo in 1991, for instance, staffers from the Fargo Women's
Health Clinic trained volunteer escorts in decoying (that is, pretending to be a woman coming into the
clinic while the real patient was brought in through another entrance), nonviolent confrontation, and how
to avoid getting arrested.

agency – the capacity to act rationally (through exercise of an individual or collectivized will, to
externalize desires or to meet needs), especially with respect to self-definition or self determination.

alienated labour – labour performed under capitalism and other systems of expropriation in
which workers do not have control over the conditions under which they labour, and in
which the products of workers' labour (material or immaterial) do not belong to them

Bb
binary thinking – a way of conceptualizing reality that divides it into two mutually exclusive
sets of categories (“binaries”, “dualisms” or “dichotomies”), the terms of which are asymmetrically
valued (e.g., white/black, reason/emotion).

blockade - a kind of direct action which physically cuts off access to a road or area, usually as an
emergency measure. For example, the Six Nations blockade of spring/summer 2006 attempted to
block a development on expropriated indigenous land, after the Canadian state refused to negotiate.

boycott - refusing to participate in, or support, a particular event, practice, or institution. For example,
indigenous activists are currently organizing a boycott of the upcoming winter Olympics in Vancouver
in order to draw attention to the ongoing condition of colonized aboriginal communities.

Cc
canvassing - going door-to-door providing information and raising awareness about an issue, or trying
to get people to take action. For example, getting out the vote in communities with low voter turnout.

capitalism – an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production. It is
structurally characterized by the expropriation of the products of labour of the working class
(or, “proletariat”) by the capitalist or ruling class (or, “bourgeoisie”) in exchange for wages. The
working class produces “surplus value” (profit) for the capitalist class – also known as “capital”.
Capital has two tendencies: the tendency to expand into (or produce) new markets (through
imperialism and colonization) and the tendency to concentrate in fewer and fewer hands. As a
result of the latter, capitalism is typically characterized by an extreme disparity (or “gap”)
between the rich and the poor.

civil disobedience -an umbrella term for nonviolent, socially disruptive actions which aim to transform
institutions, social relations, or practices, andwhich reveal the repressive power of state violence.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. are two well-known theorists and practitioners
of civil disobedience.

class – the relation of a group of people to the means of production. In capitalist political economies, there are two classes: proletariat, or working class, and bourgeoisie, or capitalist class. The latter (bourgeoisie) owns the means of production whereas the former (proletariat) does not.

coalition - different groups coming together around a particular issue or with a particular purpose, while
remaining independent.

commodification – the process through which in capitalist political economies, land, nonhuman
animals, products of labour, ideas, and workers’ labour-power are assigned economic values
(“exchange values”) and bought/sold on the market as commodities. Also sometimes used
figuratively to refer to the encroachment of the market and capitalist values into non-economic
relations or regions of life.

commodity – anything that is bought or sold (“exchanged”) in a capitalist political economy.
The product of alienated labour performed under capitalism.

consciousness-raising (CR)- a method of building political solidarity between similarly situated individuals and of generating oppositional knowledge, through the sharing of experiences in an informal
group discussion. First innovated by feminists in the1970s, to build knowledge about the effects of patriarchy on women’s lives.

consumer boycott - the use of “consumer power”to protest the practices of corporations, which are
typically indifferent to public opinion. For example, the movement to boycott products made in sweatshops
in order to put pressure on corporations to abide by existing labour law.

colonization – a violent process through which one nation-state takes political and economic
control over another nation-state or indigenous society, expropriates its resources, administrates
or governs it locally, and actively populates theregion with its own citizens.

cultural domination – the process through which a socially powerful group defines or diminishes
the culture of another, denying that  group autonomous self-definition.

Dd
deconstruction – the critique of binary oppositions that have structured western thought (e.g.,
nature/culture, mind/body, form/meaning, inside/outside, male/female). To “deconstruct”
these oppositions is to reveal them as constructions, a function of the discourses in which they
operate. The “father” of deconstruction is French philosopher Jacques Derrida. [See also
post-structuralism]

disciplinary power – a concept of power that tries to connect macroscopic institutions (especially
punitive or regulatory institutions) with microscopic relations and individual practices. Power, on this view, is diffuse, productive, and multi-directional; rather than operating in anobvious way or originating from a   single source, it “disciplines” subjects into exercising surveillance and control over their own selves; that is, power is internalized by the very subjects it disciplines.

domination – the exercise of power by one social group over another.

drag – assuming the dress, mannerisms, and gender performance of a different (“opposite”)
gender. Used as illustration of theory of gender performativity.

Ee
embodiment – the lived experience of having/ being a human body.

epistemology – used variously to refer to (1) the philosophy of knowledge (which is interested in
questions like, what counts as knowledge? what criteria do we (implicitly) use to distinguish true claims from false claims? how does knowledge differ from opinion? etc.) and to (2) the process or method through which we come to know or believe something, or the standards we use to assess knowledge.

essentialism – the belief that individuals orgroups have inherent, unchanging characteristics
(biological, cultural, or metaphysical) that fundamentally define them or explain the way in
which they are socially treated, the kinds of activities they should be engaged in, and the rights
that should be afforded them or denied them.

eurocentrism – the ideology that represents western culture (e.g., conventional practices,
customs, religion, ideas, philosophy, medicine, knowledge, etc.) as superior, more advanced,
more “enlightened” or more “democratic” than  those of other societies, civilizations, or cultural
groups.

everyday racism – also known as “occasional racism” or “personal racism”, this term refers to
the mundane beliefs, prejudices, acts, and practices of individuals located in a racist society
which perpetuate white domination. See also institutional racism and scientific racism.

exploitation – strictly, the extraction of profit from waged labour. More generally used to refer
to any relation in which one party or group benefits unfairly from the work or activities of
another.

Ff
fascism – an authoritarian, nationalist system of government which stresses the organic unity of
subjects of the nation-state by deploying xenophobia and racism. Characterized by violent state
repression, overt social control, and attempts to achieve racial, cultural, and ideological “purity”.
First emerged as a distinct political form in the 1920s in Italy and Germany. Used figuratively
to describe other political phenomena which exhibit some characteristics (especially systemic
violence as a tool of repression), though this usage is contested.
 
Gg
gender – the social relation through which “masculine” and “feminine” embodied subjects are
produced. Sometimes opposed to sex [see also sex/gender distinction] – on such a view gender is
the constellation of cultural norms (expected roles, behaviours, relationships) which are assigned
to biological sexes. This conception of gender (and its presumption of a pre-cultural,
biological body) has been criticized for failing to account for the ways in which bodies themselves
are culturally constituted into binary sex/genders.

global south/global north – a political designation for nation-states, regions, societies, communities,and populations which are different located vis-à-vis imperialist power. Replaces and augments the distinctions between “Third-World”/“First-World”, under-developed world/developed world, etc. Unlike those distinctions, this one tracks a flow of resources and labour from the Global South to the Global North, and is able to capture the sense in which the Global South exists within the Global North – for
example, in the form of the reserve, the urban ghetto, or the industrial prison.

Hh
hegemony – the power achieved by that set of authoritative ideas that dominate in a given cultural
formation; “hegemonic” ideas or practices appear natural and are taken for granted (that is,
they go unquestioned or are questioned only by marginal social actors).

heteronormativity – the social enforcement of heterosexual relations to the occlusion of all
other possibilities for sexual desire and expression.

heterosexism – discrimination based on the presumption that heterosexuality is superior to
other forms of sexual expression/desire or affective and/or kinship relations.

historical materialism – a method of reading and telling history which emphasizes the actual
lived practices (as opposed to the “great” ideas) of concrete human subjects, in particular, the
way in which they socially organize their productive activities. A method first articulated by
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

homophobia – fear or hatred of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people and/or acts, practices, desires
normatively classified as “homosexual”.

Ii
identity politics – an umbrella term used to describe various approaches to political resistance
which, in one way or another, depart from the experience of oppression shared by members
of a particular social group (e.g., black women).

ideology – a body of assumptions, ideas, knowledge, and epistemic practices which reflects and
maintains the social position and interests of a particular (usually dominant) social group (e.g.,
scientific racism is an ideology which justifies and reflects white domination).

imperialism – a global system of domination exercised through private property (capital), military
power, and global institutions (such as the WTO or the IMF), through which wealth is drained from the labour and resources of people in the Global South to the systematic advantage of capital (i.e., the capitalist class) in the Global North. A nation-state is imperialist if its ruling class and state apparatuses perpetuate and systematically benefit from this system of structural global inequality.

institutional(ized) racism – refers to the social structures, macroscopic social relations, and
institutionalized practices which reproduce systems of racialized domination (e.g., racial profiling
by police, unequal access to legal system, anti-terrorism laws which target particular racialized
communities, etc.). Also known as “structural racism”. [See also everyday racism and
scientific racism]

intersectionality – a term used to refer to the relation between systems of oppression (based
on race, gender, class, nation, ability, etc.) which are understood to constitute each other, rather
than being discrete or separate social phenomena.

intersubjectivity – relations between subjects.

islamophobia – the fear and racialized hatred of Muslim people, Islam and/or Islamic societies.
Sometimes used more broadly to refer to marginalization and persecution of Arab and/or
Middle-Eastern people generally, especially after 9/11.

Jj, Kk, Ll
juridical – [adj.] broadly refers to law-governed practices (where “law” does not necessarily refer
to the state legal system).

liberalism, economic – opposition to trade barriers, laws, or conventions which limit or restrict
the flow or operation of capital across or within national borders.

liberalism, political – a political philosophy, and modes of organization based on this philosophy,
which understands itself to emphasize individual autonomy to determine “the good” for one’s self. Values include “tolerance” and formal equality of citizens.

Mm
means of production – these are the things which are necessary to produce whatever is produced by a particular society (e.g., natural resources, machinery, land, etc.)

mode of production – this is the particular way in which a given society produces whatever it
produces (and reproduces itself). It involves the means of production and the social relations of production.

meritocracy (myth of) – the idea that the outcome of our lives is a function of merit (or lack
thereof) as opposed to structural relations of oppression and privilege, and therefore wealth
(or poverty) is deserved.

Nn
normative – [adj.] refers variously to something which is socially expected or prescribed, or to
something which points to implications for action.

Oo
objectification – making something into an object. In the context of relations of oppression,
that which is being objectified is actually a subject (i.e., a person).

oppositional knowledge – knowledge produced, in the course of transformative struggle, to foster
the self-determination of an oppressed group.

oppression – the constellation of structural economic, political, and psycho-social relations that
systematically confine or reduce the life-choices of a social group, often through presenting members
of the oppressed social group with a set of “double binds”: that is, choices between equally
problematic outcomes. [See also privilege]

outsider-within locations – social locations or border spaces marking the boundaries between
groups of unequal power. Individuals acquire identities as “outsiders within” by their location
in these spaces.

Pp
paradigm – literally, an example. Used more loosely to refer to an interpretative framework
used to explain social phenomena, which has currency (or explanatory power) at a particular
historical moment.

performativity – a way of theorizing how gender is produced on the micro-level; that is, how individual
subjects come to embody genders. First proposed by Judith Butler, drawing on J.L. Austin’s
speech-act theory. A performative speech act is one that does what it says (e.g., “I sentence
you to life in prison”); similarly, according to Butler, gender is produced through performative
acts – rather than merely expressing an existing gender identity, our acts bring gender into
being. This implies, paradoxically, both that gender “goes all the way down” (that is, that
there is no causal core which originates gender performance – biological or psychological), and
that gender is a surface phenomenon (it doesn’t have the depth or intractability that is normally
imputed to it), and is therefore radically malleable.

petition - a list of signatures in support of a certain demand or resolution, for example, to free a political prisoner, or to stop rainforest clear-cutting. In the digital age, many petitions have moved online,and are either circulated through e-mail or are posted on websites.

picket - an action often undertaken by striking workers and their supporters at the entrance of their workplace to prevent the entrance of “scab” (replacement) labour. More generally a protest with signs at a fixed site, in order to raise awareness about an institution or issue. For example, the Montréal-based groups Solidarity Across Borders and No One Is Illegal picket the Immigration and Refugee Board to stop deportations of nonstatus people.

post-colonial theory – a diverse body of theory which is concerned with understanding the effects
(social, cultural, political, economic) of European imperialism, colonization, and their aftermath.
Much of post-colonial theory interrogates the relation between knowledge and
power, and the effects of power relations on the formation of subjectivity. It is the inheritor of a
critical tradition of early- and mid-twentiethcentury anti-colonial and antiracist thought, and
is jointly influenced by, and in turn influences, post-structuralism, Marxism, and feminism.

post-structuralism – an umbrella term used to refer to a diverse set of theoretical discourses
which, in one way or another, perform a critique of knowledge, totality, and the subject. That is,
they criticize the idea that we can have objective knowledge; that subjects are self-transparent, or
entirely known to themselves; and that we can arrive at total or systematic knowledge of social
reality. A theoretical offspring of structuralism. [See also deconstruction]

praxis – unity of theory and practice; in Marx's terms, “sensuous human activity” which transforms objective reality; “practical-critical” or “revolutionary” activity.

privilege – unearned advantages which are conferred systematically to members of a social group, in virtue of their group-membership. [See also oppression and myth of meritocracy]

protest - a gathering of people to disrupt the status quo or to publicly interrogate or delegitimize
an institution. For example, in 1903 Mary Harris (Mother) Jones led children working in factories in
Pennsylvania on a 200-mile march to then-President Roosevelt's house on Long Island, with
their maimed fingers held high in the air to protest the exploitation of child labourers.

public/private distinction – a (gendered) distinction between two spheres of social life: the
(masculinized) public sphere of work, government, and economy, opposed to the (feminized)
private sphere of home, family, and reproduction. Feminists deconstructed this distinction
in part by politicizing the so-called private sphere (this is one meaning of the feminist adage
“the personal is political”).

Qq
queer theory – a theoretical offspring of poststructuralism, feminism and gay/lesbian theory
which radicalizes the insight that heteronormativity is constitutively related to gender and gender
performance. It deploys the epistemic resources of the margin to analyze the cultural construction of the centre, with the end of denaturalizing or decentering (“queering”) normative heterosexuality.

Rr
racialization – the process by which a group is produced as “raced”. Implicit in this term is a
denaturalized conception of “race” which understands it to be a socially constructed category,
and not a biological reality.

radical – literally, “to the root”. In the context of political theory and practice, radical are those
movements, theories, strategies which seek to transform society in a fundamental or profound
way, as opposed to merely reforming certain aspects of society while maintaining its basic
structure.

reformist – usually contrasted with radical, in the context of political theory and practice those
strategies, movements, or theories which while preserving an existing social structure seek to
change some aspects, improve certain conditions, or extend certain rights.

revolutionary– [noun] someone engaged in transformative social struggle with emancipatory
ends; [adj] a theory, practice, strategy, or struggle which seeks to bring about radical social
change, and ultimately produce a completely new social formation.

Ss
scientific racism – the systematic ideological production of “knowledge” which justifies racialized
domination and imperialism (e.g., anthropological or biological accounts of “races” and
acial difference; attempts to locate the “race gene”, etc.).

separatism – a political strategy which advocates eliminating or blocking the access that a privileged group has to the labour, energy, or social spaces of an oppressed social group.

sex – sometimes used interchangeably with gender (esp. by non-Anglophone feminists) and
sometimes opposed to gender. In the first case, sex refers to the “class” relation through which
men and women are normatively produced. In the latter case, sex is understood as the biological
body on which cultural scripts (gender) come to be inscribed. [See also sex/gender distinction]

sex/gender distinction – on this conception of the relation between sex and gender, sex is to
gender as nature is to culture: sex is understood to refer to the pre-cultural, pre-social, prepolitical
body, which is taken up in a given social formation and inscribed with socio-cultural meaning (gender). First articulated explicitly by Gayle Rubin, this way of construing the relation between sex and gender is much-debated in feminist theory.

sit-in -- this is a form of civil disobedience that brings into question the way in which spaces and access to spaces is socially constructed. In Alabama in the early sixties, lunch counters at Woolworth’s were integrated after sit-ins by black men who demanded to be served in what were “white-only” spaces.

social group – a collective of persons who are similarly located vis-à-vis another such collective
in structural social relations of privilege and oppression; a group exists only in relation to at least one other group, and is characterized by a shared experience of privilege/oppression. Individuals are “always already” members of a social group and are constituted as such by their group membership.

social relations – patterned interaction between social groups (e.g., racism, class, and sexism).

speak-out -a public meeting or protest that features personal testimonials, such as often happens at a Take Back the Night march, or at a memorial for the Montréal Massacre. Speak-outs are generally used to break silence about a taboo subject and to demonstrate the urgency of a particular issue.

standpoint theory – an epistemological theory which argues that a shared location in hierarchical
power relations produces shared angles of vision or knowledge about the social world. [See also ideology]

Stitch-‘n-Bitch- the CR groups of the Third Wave, these are crafting circles with a feminist edge. Participants share skills, discuss experiences of oppression and develop resources for resistance.
 
street theatre -using performance art to protest something, or to raise consciousness about an issue.This activist strategy is popular among activists with few resources, because it tends to attract a lot of media coverage.

strike -the organized withdrawal of labour-power in a workplace (e.g., factory, university, grocery store) to force management to accede to a particular set of demands (e.g., a wage increase, health insurance, better working conditions, or the implementation of a sexual harassment policy). A “general strike” mobilizes workers in many workplaces or industries at once to achieve broader social demands, as for  example in the historic Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.

structuralism – designates a group of theories elaborated by French thinkers in the 1950s-1960s who were influenced by linguist Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory of language. These theories, spanning anthropology, literary/cultural studies, psychoanalysis, history, and political theory, are interested in uncovering the underlying (and often unconscious) structures that make meaning possible. [See also poststructuralism]

subjectivity – embodied consciousness; selfhood; the interiority of conscious embodied subjects.

subjugated knowledge – knowledge generated by oppressed groups, which typically remains
hidden from or is marginalized by dominant groups. Subjugated knowledges that aim to resist
oppression constitute oppositional knowledges.

surplus value – value produced by waged workers under capitalism, which is expropriated
by the capitalist class; the exchange value of a commodity less what is paid to labour. Also
called “profit”.

Tt
tabling - public education through pamphlets, handouts, and a person fielding questions at a table, usually taking place at an event like a punk-rock concert, or a space like a student union building. An inexpensive way to raise consciousness on a particular issue.

teach-in - a public “crash course” in an urgent political issue, making up for gaps or bias in media coverage. For example, since 9/11 many teach-ins have been happening on university campuses and at community centres across Canada and the U.S.about the effects of Islamophobic and structurally racist “anti-terrorism” laws and backlash on Muslim civilians and people of Arab or Middle Eastern origin.

transgender – an umbrella term used to refer to various modes of gender performance which
eschew normative gender distinctions between masculine/feminine, and their naturalized correspondence to male/female bodies. [See also transsexual]

transnational – a way of conceptualizing the world that analyzes how, in a globalized world,
 political interests (be they the interests of capital or of the oppressed) transcend the borders of
nation-states, and that believes that, correspondingly, transformative struggle should also
take a global form.

transsexual – a person who identifies as a gender which differs from his/her gender assigned
at birth and who usually (by surgery, known as sex reassignment surgery, and/or drug therapy) acquires
the physical characteristics of the so-called “opposite sex”. Transsexual people are usually distinguished as male-to-female (MtF) and female-to-male (FtM); and two “stages” are often indicated: pre- and postoperative, though these are contested for their tendency to privilege surgical transformation. [See also transgender]

Uu, Vv, Ww
universal– something which is all encompassing in its scope; without exception. Usually opposed to the particular, the local, or the specific.

white supremacy – a system of racialized power, articulated with a class system, that systematically
confers privilege in some form to white people of all economic classes, genders, and sexualities.

white settler state – a term used to refer to contemporary colonial nation-states which have
not been decolonized, but are still populated and controlled by the descendants of European
colonists (and more recent white arrivals) and which exhibit racialized class relations typical of
a white supremacist social formation (e.g., Canada, Australia).

womanism – black feminist humanism which is committed to a universal struggle for emancipation,
while simultaneously allowing some space for autonomous movements of selfdetermination.
Elaborated by Alice Walker. Inspired by African and Afrocentric traditions of connecting women's liberation to human liberation.

Xx, Yy, Zz
xenophobia – literally, fear of the “strange”. Used to refer to exclusionary or discriminatory
attitudes and practices toward foreigners, migrants, and immigrants in “multicultural” as well
as in culturally or ethnically “homogeneous” societies.


SOURCES

Baumgardner, Jennifer and Richards, Amy. Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism. New York:      
Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2005.

Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of
Empowerment. New York/London: Routledge. Second Edition. 2000.

Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: a very short introduction. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
1997.

Marx, Karl. Selected Writings. Lawrence Simon, ed. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett. 1994.

McNally, David. “Canada and Empire” in New Socialist 54. Nov-Jan 2005/2006.

Safe Space Working Group. McGill Safe Space Program Workshop Manual. Montréal: McGill Equity
Subcommittee on Queer People. Second Edition. March 2006.

Wilmot, Sheila. Taking Responsibility, Taking Direction: White Anti-racism in Canada. Winnipeg: Arbeiter
Ring Press. 2005.