[lbo-talk] The Rapture Index & "white trash"

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Fri Feb 25 13:40:38 PST 2005



>Chuck0 wrote:
>
>>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

I'm completely with Doug and Chuck on this. I used to think, whenever Doug complained about the quality of left-wing entertainment, that he must be exaggerating. In New York City, a city of artists the majority of whom must be somewhere on the left, could left-wing entertainment possibly be as bad as Doug said? My Brecht Forum experience says that it can be. :-0 -- Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * 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/>



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