> And it's not as if some of this hasn't been tried before. In the late
> 1960s, Bob Fitch and Bob Avakian (among the co-founders of the
> Revolutionary Union) moved out of Berkeley into a working-class town
> to organize the masses, and the strategy flopped. Some of that
> Berkeley crowd moved to Detroit and started Labor Notes, an effort
> you sound contemptuous of. In the 1970s and 1980s, the SWP tried
> industrializing, and it flopped. Maybe there's a problem when people
> parachute in from outside, in both the geographical and social senses.
One of the famous leftists who many of you know moved to Kansas City as part of this program, as he mentioned to me in a private email last year.
I agree with Doug that you just can't move leftists to working class cities in order to commune with the working class. I was reminded during my visit to NYC last weekend that there are 8 million people in that metropolis who are unfamiliar, for the most part, with our ideas.
I would like to see a transfer of some leftist resources to the hinterlands. Perhaps leftists in big city leftist ghettos could make an effort to subscribe to lefty magazines published in cities and towns without many leftists. Or people could adopt a project.
Our infoshop in Kansas City is moving to a new space where we will have over 1000 square feet with a rent of $500/month. We are looking for financial sustainers, donors, and donations of books and materials. If we can build and sustain this project, it will help us organize in the region, in addition to being a resource to leftists in Kansas City.
Chuck