I recently received a plea from Z in my email: "Please Participate!!!!"

 

The contents were something like, "we’ve busted ass preparing the soil, clearing the weeds, planting seeds, slammin code, but this will only work if y’all take root, and start growing."

 

So why haven’t I written anything yet? I’ve had this soap box for almost a year now, and yet nothing has come out of my mouth. Invariably, there have been rather stressful and difficult material conditions I’ve found myself in. Whether it’s working 60 hours a week, or moving around the world like a rolling stone, and just plain being exhausted, it largely has been difficult to produce decent writing in a public forum. The public nature of the forum has also, sadly to say, intimidated me a little. I write plenty in journals, but they are largely private. I can make mistakes, develop half-baked ideas, etc. Further, there is no risk of criticism, except for my own which is quite ruthless, or misunderstanding of my language. Some of my expressions, I fear, will not always be soft and gentle, or perhaps even purposely ambiguous. But that is the nature of things. Enough dipping my feet in the water (I had a slightly gruffer expression in mind, but decided against it), time to make a splash.

 

This blog will generally have random observations on life that I hope will be of some interest, and utility, to our community. I will generally avoid drawing clear lines in the sand, constructing false dichotomies and the like, and instead use this like I use my journals. If I say something dumb, I ask for your forgiveness in advance. Further,  because I am more or less wearing my heart on my sleeve with the personal nature of this blog, I ask that everyone try to meet me at least half-way. Try to understand what I’m saying in its own terms, and thoughtfully reply. I want to tend to avoid the tendency to unpack all the semiotic baggage associated with my linguistic flaws (and trust me, you probly wouldn’t want to go there anyways. Who wants to smell funky gym socks?), or the tendency to untie Gordian knots with a scalpel. No philosophy gunslinger showdowns at high noon please.

 

So now that the disclaimer preamble is out of the way, what do I want to say?

My first piece, as the title indicates, is about the importance of coolin it for organizing. I was thinking about the stickiness problem the left has had the other day, and I think one of the problems is activist meeting culture, and moreover, the overuse of formal meetings in activist circles. Most people’s first taste of deeper left movement is going to a meeting. They’ve gone to an event or two, or perhaps saw some people tabling, and wanted to see more. They wanted to get more deeply involved, and their next step is attending weekly meetings. The activist meeting is the way most have to participate at a deeper level. Moreover, the way many groups function is a weekly meeting, where we plan events and actions.

Well, whats the problem? The world is ran by those who show up. We need to plan, strategize, get organized, otherwise get things done. How can we do that without the weekly meeting?

Here’s the problem, meetings are hella boring. In fact, I think I am somewhat allergic to meetings. Some are better than others, but in general, most are stale. Anyone who has actually attended a lot of activist meetings knows this. If the predominant mode of participation is boring meetings forever, we’re in trouble.  Also, many meetings, especially when a new person comes, are rather awkward. There might be a sit in a circle and introduce yourself section, but thats not quite enough. How many times have a new person come to a meeting, and decided, this is not for me? Moreover, the conversation is largley dominated by people who are more comfortable talking about the issues, in other words, already committed activists who already know each other do most of the talking. And, any situation where only one person talks, is a terribly in efficient way for people to actually get to know each other, to build the personal relationships that are the foundation of a movement.

Now this is certainly an exagerated description, but I think it does throw light on a tendency in our movement. I argue that often, it is easy for activist groups neglect coolin it with each other. Moreover, I know personally that I have done better organizing in the bars after the meeting, at the "debriefing" session. I try to make a habit of taking any new people who come to the meeting to the bar afterwards. This has multiple effects. First, we can get to know each other. We can take the time to talk to each other about or lives, philosophies, build trust in a comfortable environment (that doesn’t have flourescent prison lighting like most school rooms), and have fun. Building this level of trust and solidarity, if not even love for each other, is of the utmost importance if you are considering doing anything like direct action.  Moreover, once people will be comfortable with each other meetings get more shit done, and aren’t painfully awkward. I repeat, movements are built on personal relationships. Also, look at the different structure – in the bar/potluck/party, little groups form, everyone talks, travels back in forth, loosens up, and can efficiently get to know each other. If there is a less than social person, the outgoing organizer can make them feel part of the group. It is not just one person talking in a serious tone about mass murder or the like, and twenty listening. Even if everyone takes a chance to talk, as long as only one is talking, the net amount of conversation is necessarily less. Think about it like this, if you have twenty people, who each talk 6 minutes, thats a two hour meeting, taking place at the end of an already long day. Also, because you’re in a public place, its easier to rope in other people to your group, reach people that you would otherwise not meet. Also, I think groups should organize potluck offensives or other non-political events like parties. It is a lot easier to get people to come to a party than it is to protest. Then, when its time to protest, you can mobilize the social networks that are already in place. You have already built a community that can make political demands. In this vein, having cool events with local bands and artists is also a good idea. Its fun, and it connects art to real social issues. Art as Activism. Also, a party and potluck offensive can be an excellent way for two different groups to get to know each other, and for intergroup organizing to occur. Do you know every group working in your community? If you do, do all of your groups members know everyone in the other groups in town? Invariably the answer is no, and weekly potlucks are a great place for people to get to know each other. Moreover, as an organizer in a group, what do you really know about the people in your group as people? The best organizers I’ve met know everything about everyone around them, within certain limits. They know the things the people have struggled with in their lives, where they’ve lived, their hopes and aspirations, frustrations, little brother’s name, etc.

This is not to say that we shouldn’t meet to plan, strategize, and otherwise create revolution. Of course not, we still need to get things done. In fact, I’m a real big fan of getting things done. However, there are many ways to accomplish this goal that are less painful than meetings forever. I’m not arguing for the abolition of activist meetings, even the formal ones (though we could probably get the things we need to get done – who’s making signs, tabling, talking at the teach in, writing the press release and contacting the media, etc. at the end of a potluck or even during dinner … just think of the possibilities). What I am saying is that if those are the main things we’re doing (think about total activist time spent – there are generally at least three meetings for every event. Maybe not that exact number, but you get the picture), we’re gonna bore people to death, and that meetings can be very inefficient for building the personal relationships that everything is based on.

Anyways, those are some random observations, not well composed in a tightly knit piece of prose. But, that’s whats cool about blogs. And, if I had to heavily edit everything I wrote, I’d write less. I could have added more description of activist meeting culture (especially involving race/class/gender power dynamics…), and admittedly this draws on a bit of my experience with student meetings (though I have a feeling old fogey meetings might be even more boring) but, I feel I made my point somewhat concisely and clearly. Perhaps I’ll put together a well polished composition on the subject later. Hope that helps.

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