>Many Americans just don't want to hear or know about the nasty
>things our government does. On some factual level they might
>actually "know" - but that knowledge is compartmentalized. They want
>to believe in the deep, fundamental goodness of the USA and avoid
>information to the contrary. Analagously, they're quick to believe
>that all America's "enemies" are one in the same, whether it was the
>Bolsheviks through the 20th century (a catch-all term that included
>labor militants, immigrants, and queers) or the "terrorists" of the
>21st (Saddam = al Qaeda).
The sort of Americans who "just don't want to hear or know about the nasty things our government does" definitely exist. They heckle us in the streets ("Fuck you!" "Kill Them All!" "Get a Job!" "Go back to Afghanistan!" etc.) when we hold vigils and protests. They put up resistance or withdraw into sullen silence or complain to the management when they encounter some of us in educational settings. Etc. That said, they probably aren't the majority of Americans, and certainly not the majority of critical constituencies that we want to reach. The population of the United States: 292,873,861, according to <http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/popclock>. Can we find 29,287,386 Americans who are already on the broadly defined left side of the political spectrum in their opinions but who may not be very politically active now? How we may find and engage them is the question for political organizing, for any social movement that can make 30 million Americans (about 10% of the US population) active is one that has a winning chance.
>Yoshie's partly right about the absence of institutional memory, but
>that brings up a serious chicken-egg problem - how do you revive or
>create the institutions of memory with such a pervasive will to
>ignorance?
One hopes that creating and re-creating the institutions of memories and building social movements will go hand in hand, in a sort of progressive spirals.
Cf.
***** Freedom Schooling by Grace Lee Boggs
. . . In the 1960s, activists had to create Freedom Schools in the South because the existing school system had been organized to produce subjects, not citizens. People in the community, both children and adults, needed to be empowered to exercise their civil and voting rights. A mental revolution was needed. To bring it about, reading, writing, and speaking skills were taught through discussions of black history, the power structure, and building a movement to struggle against it. Everyone took this revolutionary civics course, then chose from more academic subjects like algebra and chemistry.
All over Mississippi, in church basements and parish halls, on shady lawns and in abandoned buildings, volunteer teachers empowered thousands of children and adults through this community curriculum.
One of the best current models of this kind of radical education is Detroit Summer. Calling itself a multicultural youth program and movement, Detroit Summer combines intergenerational dialogues and skills workshops with concrete, visible neighborhood projects. Youth volunteers organize themselves to turn vacant lots into playgrounds and gardens, to work with community people (including gang members) to paint murals, and to explore new ideas about economics, transportation, education, and social change. Detroit Summer recently completed its ninth session and added fall, winter, and spring sessions to its curriculum.
Much of its success comes from combining the experience of making a visible difference in the community with discussions of ideas and issues. As young people develop confidence in their capacity to make decisions about how to design a mural or create a garden or a playscape, they also develop confidence in their ability to make decisions about their own development and the development of their city.
The beauty of Detroit Summer as a model of Freedom Schooling is that it can be organized by all kinds of grassroots community groups in their neighborhoods. Wherever they are- in churches, community centers, or lodges-people can begin working with young people on community- building activities while also engaging them in the discussions and dialogues that give them a sense of the vision and commitment that go into building a movement to create a new society. As they work to transform their physical environment, young people are also transforming themselves into leaders in the struggle. And as young people transform themselves, the adults working with them are also transformed. . . .
GRACE LEE BOGGS has been a contributor to Monthly Review for over thirty years. With her late husband James Lee Boggs, she co-authored Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century (1974). Her autobiography, Living for Change (1998), is in its second printing. For more on Boggs, visit www.boggscenter.org. For more information on Detroit Summer call (313) 832-2904.
<http://www.monthlyreview.org/1200boggs.htm> ***** -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>