Is the West Experiencing a Left-Wing Drift? (the international left politics activism, news, and strategy thread)

I assumed they already had one!

This is probably the thread to note that Paul Booth has died:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/paul-booth-labor-leader-and-antiwar-activist-dies-at-74/2018/01/19/d36b1884-fd29-11e7-a46b-a3614530bd87_story.html

Badly formulated thoughts here, but this is something I’ve been thinking about off & on:

How much of the popular fixation on protesting in the streets due to the fact that we primarily view the world and history thru media spectacle, and we can really only imagine changing society or power by expressing discontent in that form alone? The last time we had mass movements with any potential change was at the same time as a lot of protests going on, protests that got a lot of media coverage and as such are the historical footage we cut back to whenever these previous eras are talked about. Anybody on the screen talks about social change, we cut to b&w archival vid.

It’s like there used to be(still are) several concurrent ways of trying to build or exercise or display power, but the only tool left in most people’s mind when they consider change is put there because tactics like tense bargaining or decision making sessions, letter-writing campaigns, etc were too visually boring to be filmed by news cameras and thus never were.

Because we don’t have (much) film or video of the labored process of coalition building et al, the only thing many think of is just the most vivid/tangible/superficial/spectacle-feeding aspect that just so happens to be a fairly ineffectual. I mean, you want to have the ability to hold a mass demo when need be, but it’s like just one just aspect incapable of effecting change on its own without a full movement accompanying it, right?

It’s an understandable reaction, I figure, since every other aspect of (American) political culture is barely understood or discussed in the most simplistic and superficial ways, so why shouldn’t everybody without direct firsthand experience of movement-building fall back on the fun spectacle bit?

Brace Belden is interviewed on Moshe Kasher’s podcast about going off to joking the YPG to fight ISIS in Syria.

Hound Tall with Moshe Kasher - I Fought ISIS

<p>Imagine moving to Syria to fight ISIS with a Kurdish militia. You can’t? Well Brace Belden did just that and explains what the fuck he was thinking. With comedic guests: Janeane Garofalo, Todd Barry and Michelle Buteau. Recorded live at SF Sketchfest.

*joining the

Great pod, covers a lot of things don’t get a wide enough audience:

http://unmutetalk.podbean.com/e/episode-031-serene-khader-on-cross-border-feminist-solidarity/

Surprisingly good piece in the Nation:

White Anti-Racism Must Be Based in Solidarity, Not Altruism
-
Altruism is too often carried along by the currents of racist capitalism.

By Jesse A. Myerson
FEBRUARY 5, 2018
-
[...]
“The main lesson most whites absorbed from the Civil Rights Movement,” tweeted sociologist Crystal Fleming, “wasn’t that they have a personal responsibility to fight systemic racism but rather, that they have a responsibility to maintain a public appearance of being ‘non-racist’ even as racism pervades their lives.”

[...]

The baseline matters. Describing human rights as “privileges” uses destitution as the baseline. When people work from that baseline and treat every step above it as another “privilege,” we are affirming the right-wing idea that we naturally have nothing, that we have to ruthlessly compete just to get by. But when we talk of “universal rights,” the baseline shoots way up to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and freedom from want and fear. That is the life we all deserve; that is the life we are owed.

In the “privilege” framework, racist inequality induces white people to feel guilty, which produces inaction. In the “universal-rights” framework, it induces us to feel fury, which inspires action. No longer is it, “I feel bad for even thinking it, but thank goodness I don’t have it as bad as those who are worse off.” Instead, it becomes, “let’s get together and collect our due...”

Anger has never inspired anything in me other than helplessness and bad behavior towards loved ones, I don’t want to be motivated by guilt or fury, this is only slightly germane to the quoted excerpt but people who find anger motivating confuse and surprise me.

Righteous anger can help motivate to act

Yeah "cold anger" is the phrase some organizers throw around. With hot anger we act irrationally and misdirect it toward the wrong people. With cold anger we focus on what we can do to change the things that anger us.

this makes me wonder how much of activism is dispositional, bc I so often run into this distinct zealous political anger but v rarely amongst my friends. I'm with silby, not only do I not feel the anger, I find it offputting and draining to be around. it frequently has no correlation with injustices suffered personally and is more of a general righteous piety and I just don't trust it

There's a variety of experience in that regard, ofc. I'd argue that anger over injustice is tied to compassion, both rooted in a sense of inflammation about a fellow being harmed. The extent to which we can and do extend our circle of fellows to let ourselves be affected by the plights of others, and the extent to which that righteous inflammation becomes a self-serving identity tentpole in itself, will vary. It helps to be surrounded by others who stay rooted in meaningful action rather than expressions of indignation.

from an article about Ernie Cortes, who in my book is over and above Saul Alinsky as the guy who's figured out how to explain how to do this stuff:

When one woman asks him to explain how he “motivates” people to support a cause with actions as well as words, the storm rolls in. Cortés can scarcely conceal his impatience. “Perhaps I prejudge you unfairly,” he begins, “but when I hear your question, what I think you’re really saying is, ‘How can I convince people to do what’s good? How do I get them to do what’s right? How do I get them to follow my agenda?’ ” He pauses, frowning. “That’s not organizing. What I mean by organizing is getting you to recognize what’s in your best interest. Getting you to recognize that you have a child, that you have a career and a life to lead, and that there are some things that are obstacles to the quality of your life. I need to get you to see how you can affect those things through relationships with other people. And it’s only going to happen if you engage in some kind of struggle.”

He pauses to let it all sink in. “We organize people not just around issues, but around their values,” he says. “The issues fade, and people lose interest in them. But what they really care about remains: family, dignity, justice, and hope. We need power to protect what we value.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/39208/social-justice-ernesto-cortes-jr

h00s, my impression of you is that you're a happy warrior. in my tradition we venerate joy and marginalize anger. a 'cold anger' would seem to have merit over a 'hot anger' in that it can be better directed but ultimately 'coldness' is a problem and 'anger' of any sort seems to me to not create in the world the sentiments that we are seeking - even if it is somehow related to compassion/hope/joy it is not synonymous. i fear sometimes that the "pro anger" contingency is more concerned w/ justifying their own emotional turbulence as valuable than in actually seeking what is good. in general the celebration of negative/hurtful affect troubles me about the left in 2018.

not to take us too off topic but since i read this passage in w+p last night and it seems germane maybe i can share it here to some worthwhile end?

Talking of my family affairs he said to me, ‘the chief duty of a true mason, as I have told you, lies in perfecting himself. We often think that by removing all the difficulties of our life we shall more quickly reach our aim, but on the contrary, my dear sir, it is only in the midst of worldly cares that we can attain our three chief aims: (1) Self-knowledge—for man can only know himself by comparison, (2) Self-perfecting, which can only be attained by conflict, and (3) The attainment of the chief virtue—love of death. Only the vicissitudes of life can show us its vanity, and develop our innate love of death or of rebirth to a new life.’ These words are all the more remarkable because, in spite of his great physical sufferings, Iosif Alexeevich is never weary of life though he loves death, for which—in spite of the purity and loftiness of his inner man—he does not yet feel himself sufficiently prepared.

the context is too long to quote but Pierre has just advocated for his lodge to engage more with the politics of the people around him and they respond v poorly. his mentor is unsympathetic seeing his pupil's desire to change the world as an abdication of his obligation to change himself. which isn't to say that i see zero value in engaging the world to change it (or really i shouldn't be posting on this thread at all), but that certainly if our mission *is* to change the world around us and not just ourselves (and i believe it is), it must come from the right place entirely, selflessness and compassion that brokers no anger.

i fear sometimes that the "pro anger" contingency is more concerned w/ justifying their own emotional turbulence as valuable than in actually seeking what is good. in general the celebration of negative/hurtful affect troubles me about the left in 2018.

― Mordy, Thursday, February 8, 2018 3:32 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i share this

I had a long exchange on FB a few weeks ago with a young woman who accused me of exercising privilege by leaving Twitter (!) -- she, with her new-car-smell-fresh Twitter account, argued that by choosing to withdraw from the "stories of pain" people told on Twitter, I was just taking advantage of my white-presenting-maleness & cloistering myself from a world going to shit. I think I succeeded at explaining where I diverged from her view, but she seemed set on the idea that there's a righteousness in subjecting ourselves to the torrent of others pain and sort of bathing in the rage it induces, and I just think that's deeply unhealthy.

I think celebrating anger is the wrong move--but I'm not sure that makes disclaiming it the wisest move either. It's about the intentions and motivations that the anger's raw energy can be channeled into.

that is a bizarre argument re: leaving twitter. imo there is nothing bad about leaving twitter

This is a person who seems to revel in publicly sticking her finger in the eyes of people she thinks have affronted someone somewhere. She's harmed & hopeless--a difficult sort with which to make a real exchange.

She's going to fucking love Twitter then.

brratbrrat

*swish*

Nice lengthy history here getting into what happened to union organizing in the 70s and how that differs from the popular conception:

https://www.thenation.com/article/organized-labors-lost-generations/

she seemed set on the idea that there's a righteousness in subjecting ourselves to the torrent of others pain and sort of bathing in the rage it induces, and I just think that's deeply unhealthy.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, February 8, 2018 10:45 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

reminded me of this thread:

problem with taking twitter break for mental health reasons is that the granularity of information you see here can't be found anywhere else

— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) August 13, 2017

haha i faved that tweet at the time

nicely drawn history lesson at the nib today on 20th century black socialists & their relevance today:

https://thenib.com/black-and-red

and again, can't recommend Robin Kelley's Hammer & Hoe enough, which was one of last year's life-changing reads for me and is available online

Thanks for the link, that was good

http://progressivearmy.com/

Anyone know anything about this group? Legit? Astroturf? I feel like a couple of the staff names look familiar, maybe Ben Dixon?

Dixon used to be on the Ring of Fire Network & i guess this is his new thing, everybody out here starting their own podcast networks now what a world

the democratization of graphic design & brand conscious copywriting makes it impossible to tell the difference between actually resourced projects & shoestring distributed operations anymore which lets anyone at least appear credible which makes me feel insane

maybe not that new, started in 2015 says

As I remarked long ago, you could format Time Cube like a Medium post and it would seem pretty credible

hm

https://i.imgur.com/fhijc13.png

:o

Oh shit I love cheap Aussie sci-fi I'm in

new Electoral Strategy guide from Metro DC DSA

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pa9qqalJ6dqy4w6s_ts9ijVh5Yo27za2gvFExJ_Sm6s/edit

and hey while we're at it here's DC's Stomp Out Slumlords anti-evictions manual:

https://mdcdsa.org/content/Anti-Eviction-Manual.pdf

that is REALLY good stuff

a little disappointed that the "how to beat a landlord" section doesn't contain actual fightin' tips though :)

anger is an energy, claimed that punter John Lydon

I get sensitive when I see folks online complaining repeatedly about DSA and ”electoralism.”

It’s like, motherfucker, what else you GOT? It’s not the only hook that the chapters are staking their hopes on, and there’s shit-tons of other work done by the groups nationwide. All the electoral criticisms I see launched seem like refuse from either the early 70s when a thousand sects splintered or the early 80s when Harrington first formed the group.

They never seem to take into account that shit is materially way fucking different from 35 years ago where you had a Dem-controlled Congress and a vast majority of state houses held by Dems. That’s all gone. Need to carve out some room just to stave off the constant attacks.

I agree that there’s not a little bourgeois spectacle to American electoral politics, but at the same time, it’s seems like there exists a tendency just to use that line an excuse not to do anything. Hell, at least *try* in some of these races, esp in non-Dem strongholds, while you work on building power and coalitions elsewhere. DSA-supported candidates lost in Brooklyn and Seattle, but they sure as shit won in VA and AL.

Some of my comrades might disagree but I think their electoral strategy is sound and, as you say, just one plank of a broader movement-building strategy. Like one of the slates' docs said, falling prey to electoralism vs. having an electoral strategy is the key distinction to be drawn.

Yeah, I think that distinction gets flattened, and you get some held-over 90s political thinking where any and every attempt to go for any sort of power is to be violently scorned.

The time for that thinking is over, if it was ever valid.

loving the expansion of this campaign, and also this ad

Having an out tail light is one of the most common reasons people are pulled over. Unfortunately, in @miamidadecounty this is enough to get you deported. #Miami @demsocialists are here to fix your lights for free. @MiamiHerald @newtropicmiami @MiamiNewTimes @tomaskenn @GeoffMiami pic.twitter.com/A8WsVoByEB

— Miami DSA 🌹 (@MiamiDSA) February 19, 2018

Seeing a lot of these today (plus one on here too :))

Thank you Wayne LaPierre, you have said the right things to make me finally become a due paying member of @DemSocialists . Any group that is keeping you up at night must be doing the right thing. I look forward to receiving my card in the mail. @pghDSA keep me posted on meetups!

— Michael 🌹 (@nekorook) February 22, 2018

Coverage of the W.Va teachers: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/20955/west_virginia_teachers_strike_wildcat

that article's pretty light on research or quotes

Trillbilly Workers' Party did a special episode interviewing some of the teachers:

https://soundcloud.com/user-972848621-463073718/bonus-episode-voices-from-the-west-virginia-teachers-strike

and, predictably, Jacobin has a bunch of stuff on the strike.

The primary source of striking teachers’ dissatisfaction is the state’s meager offering of a “task force” to fix the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA), West Virginia’s health insurance program for public employees. Tax cuts have resulted in changes to the insurance plan, sending co-pays and out-of-pocket expenses through the roof as teacher pay remains among the lowest in the country. One projection shows premiums under PEIA rising as much as 11 percent per year starting in 2020.

“This has been a huge issue, causing problems for years,” said one striking teacher. “They’ve been cutting our health insurance over and over, making it really expensive to survive.” Throughout the strike teachers held signs that read “Will teach for insurance” and “I’d take a bullet for your child but PEIA won’t cover it.”

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/03/west-virginia-teachers-strike-medicare-for-all

Teachers looking with trepidation at Janus have much to learn from our colleagues in West Virginia. They didn’t passively wait for “the union” to act on their behalf; the strike was not called from above, it was built from below, in part through social media, where workers were able to organize escalating actions independent of the union leadership. As one striker told me, “Leadership was largely based on communities and not always directly tied to the unions themselves. Communities looked to local leadership as to what to do, how to organize, when to hold votes, and when to hold impromptu walkouts.” Workers need strong unions, but they also need to organize independently in the workplace and learn to rely on their own power. Building durable rank-and-file networks and union caucuses is a crucial next step in revitalizing American labor.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/03/west-virginia-janus-right-to-work-unions

and it only took a week

WV Teacher’s strike finally being covered on @chrislhayes show right now.

— MitchellCares (@MitchellCares) March 3, 2018