Contact Information, Etc. Re: Corn transcript

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Thu Nov 21 13:16:06 PST 2002


At 3:35 PM -0500 11/21/02, Chuck0 wrote:
>>Right. Organizing cannot happen without a spontaneous rise of
>>interest in action on the part of potential constituencies for
>>organizing; at the same time, potential constituencies have nowhere
>>to turn without experienced national organizers with time, energy,
>>dedication, access to resources (money, facilities, lawyers, etc.),
>>know-how, and most importantly, _a current (i.e., not outdated!]
>>list of contact persons who are themselves good local organizers
>>with good phone trees and mailing lists_. This last part -- a good
>>and current list of contact persons who are skilled local
>>organizers -- cannot be developed overnight. It has to be
>>patiently developed over a decade or so (through trials and errors,
>>through what may look like many failures) with constant updating.
>>That's what WW/IAC/ANSWER has and NION, United for Peace, etc. have
>>yet to match. Any "coalition" who fails to inform preexisting
>>local organizers -- who have contact information of local liberal
>>and left-wing organizations (churches, ethnic orgs, student orgs,
>>community orgs, etc.) and activists -- of an upcoming nationwide
>>action at the very least a couple of months ahead of time cannot
>>hope to achieve a big turnout.
>
>I'm sorry, but one can achieve a large national turnout and use
>democratic processes.

Yes, you can, but using democratic processes doesn't automatically endow you with what you need, most importantly, _a current (i.e., not outdated!] list of contact persons who are themselves good local organizers with good phone trees and mailing lists_. That's what you must work to develop, _whatever your political persuasion or process_, reformist or revolutionary, anarchist or socialist or Green or Christian pacifist or whatever.

At 3:35 PM -0500 11/21/02, Chuck0 wrote:
>Here in Washington, DC, the Mobilization for Global Justice and the
>Anti-Capitalist Convergence operate on anarchistic principles and
>direct democracy. Both groups are capable of turning out large
>national protests. Unfortunately, this isn't alway evident, as last
>year's IMF/WB protests were washed out by 9-11. Prior to 9-11, the
>police were estimating that 100,000 people would be protesting and
>those of us involved in the activism were confident that tens of
>thousands would turn out.

I commend more than 2,000 anarchists who showed up for direct action in September last year. Liberal NGOs and unions reacted to 9.11 as you expect them to react, that is, by retreating, and that's no surprise. Anarchists can't count on them to be their constant allies.

At 3:35 PM -0500 11/21/02, Chuck0 wrote:
>Of course, we are measuring the effectiveness of organizations here
>by how well they can turn out a mass national mobilization. Not all
>activists agree that this is the smartest strategy.

What's most desirable and what's possible in the USA today are different. We can't hope for a general strike against the war here and now, to take just one example. Mass national mobilization is not the only method to be used, but left-wingers of any stripe should not neglect it either.

At 3:35 PM -0500 11/21/02, Chuck0 wrote:
>Having phone trees and databases of local contacts are important,
>but perhaps Yoshie doesn't understand that other activists using
>more current techniques can use mailing lists, websites, and so on
>to do outreach and organize. I'll take a national decentralized
>network where each person involved is an organizer over a
>centralized organization any day of the week.

Mailing lists and websites are not useful without databases of local contact persons who are themselves organizers (not just activists) scattered nationwide. You have to get people to sub to your mailing lists, and you have to direct them to check out your websites. Otherwise, you are simply putting your ware on the cyber-shelf, just hoping that folks will happen on it. That's too passive. -- Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list