1. At a public talk someone asks you, "okay, I understand what you reject, but I wonder what you are for? What institutions do you want that you think will be better than what we have, for the economy, polity, gender, race, ecology, or whatever you think is central to have vision for?

I’m for workers owning and controlling their workplaces, as well as a ‘universal toolbox’–healthcare for all, educational for all who want to learn as far as they’re able to go, a living social wage for all who create value, work for all who seek employment. Public ownership makes for better public stewardship and equity, by the structures of class, race and gender privilege will have to be taken down by a government, by political power that mobilizes and educates and that has no interest in maintaining them.

 

2. Next, someone at the same event asks, "Why do you do what you do? That is, you are speaking to us, and I know you write, and maybe you organize, but why do you do it? What do you think it accomplishes? What is your goal for your coming year, or for your next ten years?

Why? Because it’s part of who I am, my core values and my social nature. You’re life is like skipping stones on the water. Eventually, you sink into the mud, but the waves and ripples go on after you, touching other people’s lives.

3. You are at home and you get an email that says a new organization is trying to form, internationally, federating national chapters, etc. It asks you to join the effort. Can you imagine plausible conditions under which you would say, yes, I will give my energies to making it happen along with the rest of you who are already involved? If so, what are those conditions? Or – do you think instead that regardless of the content of the agenda and make up of the participants, the idea can’t be worthy, now,or perhaps ever. If so, why?

I’m not interested in any organization that starts as an international.  I’m more likely to work on local, regional and national projects. The world social forums are fine for exchanging ideas for now.
 

4. Do you think efforts to organize movements, projects, and our own organizations should embody the seeds of the future in the present? If not, why? If yes, can you say what, very roughly, you think some of the implications would be for an organization you would favor?

Yes and no. We need organizations around immediate demands that can unite a majority. But we also need organization of a militant minority pushing structural reforms that will contains seeds and bridges to the future.
 

5. Why did you answer this interview? Why do you think others did not answer it?

Because Iwas asked to answer, and because I’d like the project to have a successful outcome, as best as it can.

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