Organize Organizers First & Then Expand Outward Re: Fw: Why I'm leaving the NY Coalition for Peace and Justice

[Nathan Newman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
>Without first creating large bases of committed organizers, or
>"herding the cadre" as Doug puts it derogatorily, your anti-war
>movement doesn't have enough thick-skinned & experienced individuals
>who have time, energy, skills, knowledge, and commitment to go out on
>their own and organize broader communities, rain or shine, come hail
>or high water.

The original letter posted was about the number of organizers shrinking,
since the folks who were showing up at the original large meetings were
mostly activist/organizers from constituencies across the city. The problem
was that the tone-deafness of many antiwar folks drove even many of the
potential organizers out of the coalition, which left even fewer folks to
do broader outreach.

There is no question that the initial strong energy in organizing post-S11
has largely collapsed in NYC and this predated the rout of the Taliban two
weeks ago.  It was pure failure on the part of the antiwar organizers.

-- Nathan Newman