>This is an important thing that the Left has overlooked--we just
>don't do a good job of creating community. Those of us who spend
>lots of time trying to create alternative institutions such as
>infoshops are berated for being lifesylists. What my critics don't
>understand is that I've been operating on a strategy of
>counter-insitution-building for the past decade based on my reading
>of what the labor movement had available to it a century ago. You
>can't make social change without resources and community. Meetings
>are not resources and community. The radical movements in the USA of
>a century ago were able to stand on a network of radical cultural
>institutions that ranged from union halls to free schools to
>cooperatives. In many big cities today, we are so lacking in
>resources that our activist groups meet in restaurants and people's
>homes.
>
>The right wing has churches, thinks tanks, and much more. What do we
>have? Some people can diss me on my fucking infoshop, but at least
>I've worked with activists in Kansas City to put together one
>radical space!
I'm with you on this. There was an interesting fight inside the Brecht Forum in NYC as it was about to move into its new space. Some wanted a cafe/bar, and some thought that distracted from the "political" mission. At their Xmas party, they couldn't just have a party - they had to have an excruciating program with bad singing and bad readings. (Even Yoshie, who was there, had to concede the awfulness.) As Bob Fitch once said, socialism should be social.
Doug