organizing

[joanna bujes]

At 09:26 PM 04/24/2002 -0400, Yoshie wrote:
>It's that simple, as far as mobilization is concerned, but this
>simple and yet hard work of collecting phone numbers/e-addresses of
>leaders & members of likely constituencies, networking with them in
>person (and not only immediately prior to big events, but also
>regularly), attending their social functions (dinners, picnics, etc.)
>when appropriate (especially when invited), sending out
>announcements/invitations/etc. in a timely and respectful fashion,
>making it easy for large numbers of people to participate, (if
>possible) winning over intelligent, articulate, and attractive
>individuals from targeted constituencies to your politics, etc. is,
>alas, *not* the normal practice of leftists (if it were, the left in
>the USA would be bigger, I think).

You're mostly right Yoshie, but let's admit that it's not "simple." My 
office mate put together a campaign to stop the execution of Mumia 
Abu_Jamal, which mainly consisted of getting 300 Bay area writers to sign 
their name to a petition on his behalf and then publishing that petition in 
various magazines. He also organized a benefit concert for Mumia. This took 
a solid year of full time work: I know, cause I watched him do it. 
Political/organizing work is incredibly hard, detailed, and unrelenting.

Joanna