[lbo-talk] activistist boots riley channels comrade cox

[shag carpet bomb]

At 08:28 PM 1/11/2012, Joseph Catron wrote:
>On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 1:48 PM, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com>wrote:
>
>I think that if you're an academic writing published critiques of modern
> > day mass movements, the only way to be honest and scientific in your
> > critique is to be involved, on a day-to-day basis, in organizing some kind
> > of mass movement.
> >
>
>I think I agree with everything you say here with the possible exception of
>"mass." I'm not sure how you're defining your terms, but to me, some of the
>most valuable movements in which to participate are decidedly non-mass:
>little organizing nodes from which a mass movement may eventually grow, or
>around which another might someday coalesce. But if we fetishize "mass," we
>run the risk of encouraging others to run after whatever happens to be big
>at the moment - which isn't always (usually?) the best choice.
>
>--

it was written by boots riley who has a decidedly communist / wobbly 
approach to his activism. you'd have to ask him directly what he means by 
mass. not being big on the latest in commie party, what's the word, 
sectarian uses of terms like "mass" and etc., I'd have no clue what he 
means. I do know that, in an interview years ago, he was big on the CPUSA 
(i think) work during the 30s. He argued that they went into neighborhoods, 
looked at what people needed, and figured out ways to  get what people 
needed. The party, to paraphrase, "did stuff for people" so that it simply 
became part of the background of daily life, so that commies weren't 
especially notable, no one was shoving papers in your face, or blasting 
party rhetoric at you, you just picked it up around the neighborhood. I'm 
too lazy to find the quote I posted here from that interview, but it was 
back in 2006 or so.

Still, he's pretty accessible, so if you're interested, I'd facebook or 
twitter ask him.

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