first, the radical left is pretty fucking small. it never worries me when some of us elect not to join in the fun. as carrol always says, he votes. he just doesn't get involved in the whole brouhaha and likes to lecture us about how we shouldn't either. Go ahead and vote. Whatever. Just don't fancy that its going to do much to move a radical left politics ahead. we are so fucking small it just ain't gonna make a difference whether we contribute money, knock on doors campaigning for politicians, or write two articles a week designed to persuade peole to vote for this or that candidate. I never understand why Carrol gets his manties in such a twist when some folks get all into the horse race on the list. 9 times out of 10, the people yakking up a storm about the election aren't doing jack shit. They donate a few bucks and sit around and watch. I'm basing that on the last year divisible by four in which no one rooting for Oblamarama described how they got involved in the great youth movement to change the world back in 2008. :) (IOW, the composition of this list has changed since then, so anyone who's joined since may have a different idea of what people do who support dem politics.... Plus, it may just be the case that no one had time to reply....)
second, the reason why he doesn't like to see people expend energy is that he thinks that people should expend energy on other forms of organizing. Now, here's where I am talking. but i seem to recall my joshing him about 18 months ago when it became clear that he has, finally, after all these years of sparring, persuaded to my point of view! LOL
what is that POV? That what we should do to "organize" is to pick what ever cause we want and get involved in it to whatever degree we feel comfortable, in whatever contributions make sense, using whatever skills we happen to bring to the table. Joanna's work with teachers. Chuck's work with the disabled. Gar's work on alternative energy. Joe Catron's work in the ME. You can lick envelopes (boy, am i old!), write HTML for email newsletter, give speeches, make cookies and hot chocolate for the protesters freezing their butts off in Wisconsin. Whatever. Just pick something that pumps you up and work on it.
The reason why you do this is that, when the day comes that something happens - that fucking wild ass day when everything just snaps, when people have to take sides on some big issue -- that is the day when all that small scale seemingly pickyass "organizing" (licking envelopes, writing HTML, making speeches) comes into play.
they are already organized, networked, connected. they know how to get shit done! normally, they get the word out about, say, the latest critical mass ride or meeting of the transportation alternatives advisory board. But today, something happened that's sorta related to their main issue, and they don't care whether it's about alternative transportation: they're going to start influencing people in that group to get out there and do something, make a choice, take a stand.
basically, you've established a solid set of resources: people, time, money, communication, and various levels of ability to work through disagreements. These are resources that have been mobilized for, say, domestic violence, localvorism, green alternatives, wind energy, what. the.fuck.ever.
these people got skillz, man. And these people are gonna be the ones who will form the core of whatever radical social movement is gonna emerge when the shit hits the fan.
the organizing of that social movement? those details will be worked out later. these people have been to the rodeo before! Let's ride that bull! Unless your issue was animal cruelty, natch! (hi Ravi)
The virtue of this approach, seems to me, is that it's really hard to get depressed about politics. I keep my goals small in terms of what I want to happen substantively. I keep my eye on the prize: building that community of activists, making friendships with people, creating solidarity and sustaining it through disagreement. I get to see small scale things happen around me. I get to learn from others and they learn from me. I get to work with people to make things happen, and feel down and dejected when it seems like nothing is happening.
If you're of the mind that the shit's gonna hit the fan someday, probably long after you are dead, you don't worry so much about the details. You know it's gonna happen, and you know you're building something that will matter when it does. What matters is that you know you've created something, with others, that will be there when the shit does finally hit the fan. Yes, there's a bit of 'faith' there - though for me, that feeling is just based on the experiencing of watching something like that happen.
Who can be distraught about the future of radical social movements when you think that way. So, not in your lifetime will we, ahem, be the change we want to see. *smirk* But maybe for our great grandchildren.
And, for me, I know this is gonna happen because, well, I saw it happen in a community that, to most people who studied it, was politically comatose. That's because they didn't realize that the shit was getting done in the quilting circles, at the YMCA Romance Book Club, at the Elk's Club, etc. When the time came to mobilize, those quilting circle ladies knew how to write a damn newsletter lemme tell you!
Now, go out there and get shit done - a phrase I really must use because last time I got on that rant, Carrol got pissed at me! ha ha.
shag
p.s., anyone into conventional party politics could easily say, "Yeah, that's what I'm doing when I get involved with dem party politics in the u.s. " Yup. That's where I depart from Carrol. Let them get shit done with the democrats. When the time comes, they'll have the political resources to mobilize too.
At 12:08 AM 7/6/2011, Marv Gandall wrote:
>On 2011-07-05, at 4:41 PM, Dissenting Wren wrote:
>
> >> We need not wait for a viable third party option to appear in order
> to build an organized left.
>
>Maybe this is the crux of the matter: How would an "organized left", which
>you counterpose to a political party, actually be organized? How would you
>begin to build it, starting tomorrow? What would be it's goals and
>activities? Perhaps you can draw on Carrol's writings to assist you. I
>have found much angry moralizing and exhortation but little that is
>concrete and specific in them.
>
>In fact, my sense is that yours and Carrol's idealized "organized left"
>would be no more organized than it is today: a loose collection of
>self-described socialists of varying hues who periodically come together
>at meetings or online to plaintively ask themselves "what is to be done?",
>who demonstrate from time to time on behalf of other people's causes and
>who, if they are really ambitious, come together for a short time to issue
>revolutionary manifestoes and other material circulated mostly within
>their own academic and professional milieus. This is not the kind of
>sustained and focused activity which historically characterized the
>organized left based in the working class.
>
>As far as I can gather, Carrol also effectively rejects participation in
>electoral politics, considering this to be the antithesis of political
>action, rather than another expression of it, complimenting strikes,
>demonstrations, and other forms of action in the streets with the
>intention of converting demands into legislation.
>
>I'm not an anarchist, and can't conceive of an organized left other than
>one which organizes itself as a political party or, in unfavourable
>conditions, as a political tendency within a larger party supported by
>trade unions and working people, in each case with a clearly defined
>program and engaging in political activity at all levels of the political
>process. The historic split between Marxism and anarchism has turned on
>this issue, which is why I consider Carrol and not a few other embittered
>former Democrats on the US left to be anarchists in spirit if not in
>theory, whatever their protestations to the contrary.
>
>
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