MISSION STATEMENT
The Burrow is an all volunteer-run social center in downtown Durham. It is a space to experiment in autonomous self-organizing and experience anti-hierarchical ways of being together. It is a container for our community to organize together for our collective liberation.
OUR VALUES
AUTONOMY
We are anti-authoritarian. We believe in horizontal, egalitarian, decentralized and malleable organizing structures. We believe in freedom of association. We do not believe that the individual should be subservient to the collective but that the collective enriches the individual. We work against specialization and the de facto hierarchies that arise from expertise. Whenever possible, we should make our work, process and projects legible and reproducible, to share our skills and put our resources in common.
MUTUAL AID
We practice solidarity, not charity. Against the logic of capitalism and the nonprofit industrial complex, we believe in showing up for each other in a reciprocal process of collective support and empowerment. We give freely without expectations of compensation. We support people in the struggle for liberation by creating a space where we can work towards meeting our basic needs together. We help each other survive. We help each other struggle. The greatest gestures of mutual aid, are those which undermine the systematic exploitation and inequality of the status quo.
ACCESSIBILITY
We seek to be a multi-racial, multi-cultural, intergenerational space, that is accessible to as many people as possible. We value equality, diversity and intersectionality, as part of a strategy to overcome the social divisions and hierarchies that stand as barriers to collective liberation. We hope to aid in the empowerment of those impacted by systems of oppression and welcomes all who struggle for a more just world.
ABOLITION
We oppose the oppressive forces of policing and the carceral State and understand them as components of racial capitalism and class oppression. As anti-racists, anti-capitalists and anti-imperialists, we seek to undermine the logic of these institutions and work toward their end.
ACCOUNTABILITY
We value autonomy while recognizing that we all have a responsibility to each other and our community. We work toward inclusion and transparency. We prioritize open, direct communication and expect good faith engagement. We believe in addressing conflicts in a timely manner, as productively as possible. We strive to live according to our principals and to work to help each other do this.