<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:o = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1 = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2722" name=GENERATOR><o:SmartTagType name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:SmartTagType> <STYLE>  </STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY lang=EN-US vLink=purple link=blue bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV><B>From:</B> <A title=sawicky@epinet.org href="mailto:sawicky@epinet.org">Max Sawicky</A> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><st1:place w:st="on"><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">-Kos</SPAN></FONT></st1:place> is a fine fellow, but he has become a campaign consultant and media entrepreneur, </DIV> <DIV>-and their business is to figure out -how to <U>manipulate</U> public opinion.  </DIV> <DIV>-He has never been an organizer, as far as I know.  <FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">But all of that is utterly </SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">-divorced from what is involved in building a radical movement that </SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">-puts forward <U>new ideas</U> and that <U>engages</U> and <U>changes</U> hearts and minds.  </SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">-That's not his business.</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>Max, Kos is definitely not an organizer in the traditional sense, although his work has been far more than traditional media.  He has used technology to create a community of people in constant dialogue who are organizing day-to-day with each other for social change.  He has nearly a million people visiting his site every day, with thousands posting messages, discussing strategy and planning actions in response to that discussion.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>A whole range of organizations and organizing efforts have spun off directly from his site with his assistance.   Folks around the site are holding a massive founding convention next year, the Yearly Kos, and other organizing campaigns have been launched not just for political candidates but for a range of other campaigns were legislators have been lobbied or corporations targetted.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>There goal is explicitly not merely information but to influence action in support of their agenda.   </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>So why doesn't Kos and his compatriots count as organizers?</FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>And the idea that media has nothing to do with "new ideas" or engaging "hearts and minds" is kind of bizarre.  Not all of organizing is about the media, but many people saw the marches on Saturday were about influencing the media and the public through the media.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>Kos's whole orientation on providing alternative information on the war has been to effect that public "hearts and minds."  Information is a key part of organizing, so creating some complete separation between media work and organizing makes little sense.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>At Bard College, where I'm teaching a couple of course this semester, the big banner recruiting people to the march said, "The Iraqis watch TV, let them know we care."  That's a nice reformulation of public opinion but it's still a media strategy.  And many people going to the march-- as was evident afterwards by comments discussing how the media treated the march -- were oriented to effecting the media.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>Kos doesn't want to run any particular organization -- he's not a bureaucracy builder, which I think is a problem in some ways for his goals, but he's definitely an organizer in the sense that anyone who brings together people who had not been together before, and encourages them to take action with greater unity-- that's an organizer.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>Nathan Newman</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>