dear radicalblogs,
i’ve found another blog site. sorry.
its not you, its me.
from now on you can get me here:
http://joshuakahnrussell.wordpress.com/
love,
josh
we may face a scorched and lifeless earth.
but they’re accountable to their shareholders first.
thats how the world works.
- Propagandhi
I got to spend the last week touring with a band called Propagandhi.
( check out some video clips here: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMYXXg3lffc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1nh_1dKQ5g
They just released a DVD to benefit an indigenous community in Canada struggling for autonomy called Grassy Narrows. Grassy is a community in resistance. The current face of the ongoing colonization and genocide they face is a company called Weyerhauser - the world’s largest logging company - who is trying to clearcut their traditional land area that sustains their entire way of life. Grandmothers and high school students from Grassy have been blockading the logging road and shutting down Weyerhauser using Direct Action for the last 5 years. So inspiring. They have been asking for support from RAN in running a campaign in the US and Canada against Weyerhauser to help give indigenous organizers space and breathing room up north to organize their own communities. And I got to go on tour with the band and speak and rant and rave and hopefully inspire at least a couple folks to take action and get involved in the campaign.
I first heard Propagandhi in middle school. Their early 90s LPs taught me to question things like gender roles and patriarchy, and taught me not to pledge allegiance in my 6th grade homeroom class every morning. Eleven years later, the down-to-earthness of the band was refreshing and inspiring. I crowd surfed like I was 15 again. It’s been so long since a punk or hardcore band has inspired the kind of catharsis and meaningful connection and release that meant so much to me growing up. The tour was a kind of reconnection to what made my life meaningful growing up, and reaffirmed my faith in punk as an entry point into organizing and social change. I guess getting to talk to a sea of 500+ sweaty, excited kids per night, with one of the most popular independent political punk rock bands of all time can help do that.
Propagandhi hasn’t toured the U.S. since before 9/11, so a lot of the kids who came out to see them have come from all over - many having driven up to 17 hours (Boston to Kentucky) just to see one show. The average night goes like this: all the other bands play, and then Propagandhi comes on. They tune up, look like they are about to start rocking.and then introduce me to talk first. What a tease. The kids, thoroughly itchy to see their favorite band - and fully betrayed by the fact that there is someone to talk politics with them instead - often seem ready to burst. I expected to be heckled out of existence.
The first night I mostly mumbled awkwardly as I tried to get a feel for it all.
The heckling was somehow all POSITIVE - though a little over the top. Kids would shout things like “LETS GO CLEARCUT WEYERHAUSER’S HEADQUARTERS!!!.RIGHT NOW AFTER THE SHOW! LETS DOOO IT!” But after the first night of experimenting I had my messaging down - keeping it super simple, focusing on romantic direct action and ways to plug in, peppered with dumb jokes and profanity, was surprisingly relatable. By the second night, things got pretty great.
The latent energy from people was amazing to work with - and by the third night, there were hundreds of people flailing their fists yelling such nuanced and thoughtful singalong style chants as “FUCK STEVE ROGEL! FUCK STEVE ROGEL! FUCK STEVE ROGEL! WOOO! WOOO!” I learned that depending on the dynamic, you could get a crowd of 500 people to shout cheering no matter what you are actually saying, just based on the intonation of your voice. So fun. If there is one thing I learned, its that kids across the midwest now REALLY hate Weyerhauser, and totally love RAN.
After the set, the RAN table - which is not so popular during the beginning part of the night, gets flooded with kids. This is also, in no small part due to the props that Propagandhi and the other amazing bands - Hiretsukan and GFK - give RAN during their set, asking kids to come check out the table.
Hiretsukan is a band I have been wanting to see for years and years. Getting to see them for a week straight was such a privilege. Those folks are so sincere and wonderful, too.
The shows, as one would expect, were mostly attended by white punk boys - but what is fascinating is the kind of cross section of white punk boys that Propagandhi attracts. The crowds are often rather intergenerational (for punk shows), and turn out people who would otherwise never be caught in the same room together.
The tabling let me talk to all sortsa folks - from young kids who would say things like “I am so interested in this kind of stuff but have no idea how to plug into activism in my town? Can you help me?” to know-it-all arrogant self-righteous anarcho dudes, to the guy in a purple mohawk who carefully looks around and discreetly whispers that he is a bigtime financial consultant and supports what RAN does.
I got to visit lotsa friends and mentours on the road. I also got to tour with Joe, which was really nice.
More updates soon…
(thanks to dave and michelle from hiretsukan for these photos!)
This morning we shut down the port of Oakland. The ships that had supplies bound for Iraq sat idle.
At 6:30 am group of various antiwar activists, teachers, and union members went to the SSA Terminal at the port of Oakland. Lucky for me, it was only a 10 minute bike ride from my house. I was part of Bay Rising Affinity Group (BRAG!) - that’s us with the giant dove - and was rockin with UCLA and Bay SDSers. We set up a picket line, which the Longhshoremen Union (ILWU), had agreed not to cross.
Why? SSA (Stevedoring Services of America) has profited in an ugly way from the war in Iraq– privatizing Iraq’s main port in a no bid Halliburton-style deal, and has led efforts to bust the ILWU locally. And, it was at the gates of SSA that peaceful protesters were attacked by police on April 7, 2003.
After a couple hours the Union Arbitrators showed up. It is their job to determine if our picket is legal or not. If it’s legal, then the workers get to go home and still get paid time and a half. If it’s not, then the union is supposed to cross it. The arbitrators ruled against us.
In a staggering act of solidarity, the ILWU decided to STILL refuse to cross it. The workers upheld our picket and all went home - knowing that it would mean losing the time and a half weekend pay. It was a huge victory and a huge demonstration of the power of community support and unity. We had successfully shut down the port for that day with only about 100 people and no arrests.
The next shift was slated for 6pm. Activists that were able committed to returning in the evening (I couldn’t come back). Organizers went back to the port….and we won again. Those ships aren’t going anywhere.
Jonathan Knack, from the Port Action Committee explained it this way:
Key to our success yesterday were too unions - ILWU local 10 and the Oakland teacher’s union, the Oakland Education Association (OEA). The OEA played a major role in the Port Action Committee and were very important in lining up the political support we needed from local elected officials. As a result, numerous elected officials, including Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums expressed their support.
The political and policing situation that existed yesterday was a naturally a product of many years of struggle. After the police
brutality of April 7, 2003, the community forced the City Counsel to promulgate a new set of protocols for the Oakland police for their tactics in dealing with crowd control at non-violent political protests. This was in large measure due to successful law suits against the City by the ILWU and protesters which cost the City millions of dollars to settle.
Port Action will be working on how we can turn our one day success into a sustained campaign
If we really want to do all we can to end this war and shift spending from the war machine to schools and social services, actions like these are going to be critical. For them to be successful, they need to be carefully organized. We spent months laying the groundwork for this. And our tactics on the picket line were smart. Had we done certain things, the police would have moved to shut us down. And if the picket line had been shut down, the workers probably would have had to report for work.
The majority of the population in this country wants to stop the war in Iraq. They want to be heard and felt , but are frustrated and confused about how to accomplish that. Given the chance, they will seize the opportunity. One longshore worker told me yesterday, “[w]e have to stop this war. I’m a third generation longshoreman. My family has children in the Oakland schools. If they think I’m crossing this picket line, they’re crazy.” The task of organizers is to figure out how to allow them to express themselves and have an impact. Ports and other shipping facilities are a weak spot in the War Machine, because people can impact
the flow of material. In other locales, organizers may find their are other weak spots that can be the focus of direct action.
for more information see:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/05/13/18415810.php
Happy May Day!
In case you are curious, here is the Incomplete, True, Authentic and Wonderful History of MAY DAY
http://www.midnightnotes.org/mayday/green.html
Yesterday I found myself in San Francisco’s Dolores park, marching behind the “gringos para la justicia inmigratoria” banner. Thousands marched in the Bay - in SF, Oakland, and San Jose. For more info see: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/05/01/18408028.php
here are some photos
(Bob Avakian LOVES immigrants*)
(*denotes joke)
The Department of Justice plans to build power plants on the sacred Natural Medicine Lake Highlands near Mt. Shasta. These are spiritual places for the Native peoples of California, and are just another instance of the colonialism and genocide that continues to this day against Indigenous people in the U.S. and beyond.
Could you imagine if they wanted to pollute and destroy Jerusalem to build power plants over the Churches, Synagogues, and Mosques in the area for a quick buck? Why does that seem ridiculous, and this kind of destruction of sacred sites so commonplace? Our government still doesn’t recognize the right to self determination of Native peoples, nor do they acknowledge their beliefs as legitimate religion.
On Friday, April 6, 2007, I joined Native activists and other Environmental Justice allies for a rally at the Department of Justice Office. The Rally itself was beautiful. An intergenerational and multi-racial group of activists stood in a circle. Rather than simply gathering around to see a couple hand-picked speakers, the megaphone was passed around to give each person an opportunity to speak and meet one another. Some people gave fiery and rousing speeches, while others simply said they were here to support.
The demonstration and rally was organized by Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites, Seventh Generation Fund, International Indian Treaty Council, Indigenous Environmental Network, Citizens of the Pitt River Nation, and Redding Rancheria Cultural Department. And involved allies like Rainforest Action Network.
Some background from Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites:
On 2/21/07 the US Department of Justice (DOJ), acting on behalf of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service (FS), requested that the 9th Circuit Court review the issues involving the proposed plans to build geothermal power plants in the Medicine Lake Highlands, a mountainous region held sacred to many Native Nations. In November 2006, a panel of the 9th Circuit unanimously ruled that the agencies not only violated the cultural rights of the Pit River Nation but also failed to uphold provisions of the National Environmental Protection and National Historic Preservation Acts. In their ruling the Court of Appeals found that the above Federal Agencies had never adequately considered whether the Highlands should be developed for energy at all. As a result, the Court rejected the leases that would have allowed Calpine Energy Company to build geothermal plants.
With DOJ’s recent request to the 9th Circuit Court, the department may try to claim that the issue brought by the tribal government and supported by a panel of the 9 th Circuit is irrelevant. They may argue that the Native peoples who traditionally use the Highlands did not protest a new 40-year lease agreement that superseded the previous lease agreement.
In the 1980s, BLM decided to lease the Highlands for geothermal development, but did not go through the required tribal government consultation process mandated by U.S. law. Pit River, Modoc, Wintu and other Native peoples have been opposing these plans ever since they learned that their holy place would be violated. From a Native rights perspective, Medicine Lake Highlands is essential to the free exercise of Tribal religious beliefs and the encroachment of the proposed electrical power generating plant, represents a gross infringement of their constitutional and civil liberties. Native Peoples have never endorsed energy development in this pristine and sacred region nor will they ever. In fact, as far back as June 5, 1970, the late Mickey Gemmill, a distinguished cultural leader of the Pit River Nation issued a “Proclamation: To the President of the United States and the American People” that stated “We are the rightful and legal owner of the land. No amount of money can buy the Mother Earth; therefore, the California Indian Land Claims Commission has no meaning. The Earth is our Mother and we cannot sell her.” From this statement it is clear that the Native peoples that hold the Highlands sacrosanct would never support the pollution and money generating plans of the federal government and energy companies that would cause irreversible damage to the sacred and natural Medicine Lake region.
“Clearly, DOJ, BLM, FS, and Calpine energy company are grasping at straws with their latest legal argument to try to open up the Highlands for energy development,” said Radley Davis, Co-Chair of the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites.
James Hayward Sr., Co-Chair of the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites, said “If the Creator wanted such development in that area there would not be large amounts of dangerous arsenic and mercury in the ground to contend with. A panel of the 9 th Circuit and a lower court have already spent a great deal of time and other resources reviewing the case and it is time for developers to leave the Highlands alone. “
My neighborhood is struggling for something most folks take for granted: a place to buy food.
West Oakland has no grocery store. But not because grocery stores don’t want to be here. There’s actually an Oakland Food Justice collective called Mandela Foods that wants to start an organic, affordable, community cooperative grocery store. But like most cities undergoing gentrification, the folks who hold the purse strings want to lease spaces to the junk stores and chains that will eventually give way to fancier establishments and lofts.
Currently a space is up for lease - it’s a space called the Mandela Gateway and is funded by our tax dollars. The Oakland Housing Authority, which ultimately says whether the landlord can lease or not, wants to allow a chain 99 Cent junk store in its place. All we have in West Oakland is Liquor Stores and 99 cent junk stores…we only need one: the one legitimate, community owned and controlled Marcus Garvey Dollar store, which everyone wants to support.
My neighbors and community organizers have been getting together to challenge and pressure the Oakland Housing Authority to say NO, and allow the community food cooperative a chance to let West Oakland develop in a way that is self sustaining and autonomous - one that will give our community good sustainable jobs, local pride, healthy food, and invest its money back in the community.
The above and below photos were from an Oakland Housing Authority meeting we went to about a month ago. We went to another one tonight. Aint no no power like the power of a community cuz the power of a community don’t stop….
I spent the last weekend in Dripping Springs Texas at the 9th Radical Encuentro Camp (REC). This year Rainforest Action Network cosponsored it with some amazing anti-authoritarian Texans and community groups. It was a meeting of about 200 activists around the state to share skills and ideas. The theme this year was “climate justice.” We saw panels of amazing women fighting coal companies from native reservations in the Four Corners, to mountain families in Kentucky. Workshops were led by community groups resisting environmental racism, by spiritual leaders about staying spiritually grounded in the struggle, about skills such as media and legal defense, presentations by Rising Tide (radical roadshow on tour educating about climate change), and lots of other fun stuff.
The location was a ranchy type place near Jacob’s Well, one of the deepest underwater caves known - no one has found the end!
The trainings, workshops, and panels were accompanied by a three act Emma Goldman play, and the Afro-Cuban hip hop group Krudas.
see some videos of Krudas here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snk9KYKEwqQ
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31P6ie047b4
or
http://www.myspace.com/3krudas
I met lots of amazing and inspiring folks, and learned a whole lot about the logistical considerations in putting together an Action Camp. As SDS gears up to do our Action Camps this summer, we sure will need a whole lot of people workin. Events like this seem to be the focal point of the development of vision, strategy, and skillsharing on regional or statewide levels. Once SDS develops a template for Action Campin’ we really should have them as regularly as we have capacity for.
After a weekend of learning about climate change and coal, folks did an action against the coal plants and TXU.
It reaffirms my thinking that the organized, radical Left really really really needs to seriously take on the implications of Climate Change as a major issue. The rest of the country is getting organized around it, and most of us are dragging our feet. In a few days I’ll post up a proposal for more cooperation between the antiwar and climate change movements, the uniting piece of the puzzle being oil…
DYING FOR COAL.
(Adi Nochur from SSC)
People hacked up black tar. They cried black tears. Paramedics in biohazard suits desperately tried to save their lives. It was a lively day for the financial district of Boston. We left major banks and financial institutions nervous, scared, and on their toes.
Here’s a video of the carnage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xoaoNm7hVE
(cut it and paste it in your browser, its not a link)
Last Wednesday across the country in major cities from Dallas to New York, Rainforest Action Network activists stormed branches of Merrill Lynch to hold them accountable for funding TXU, a corporation trying to build 11 coal-fired power plants.
I had the privilege of coordinating the Boston action.
(Mike Da Cruz and Will Lambek of Brown SDS)
It’s hard to describe how big of an impact these coal plants would have. First of all they are planned to mostly be built in rural Texas communities, and I shouldn’t have to outline the class implications of building toxic dumps in low income communities and giving their children asthma. The local connections ran deep, as a similar company is trying to build a power plant in a low income community of color nearby in Chelsea. The power plant is being built right across from an elementary school.
The global impacts are staggering. These plants will release 78 million tons of greenhouse gases. That’s more than many countries. More than 21 combined U.S. states. More than 14 million new cars on the road. More than all of BP releases. More than Japan’s entire commitment to the Kyoto protocols - this one project would cancel out the Kyoto Protocols for the country of Japan. It’s one of the biggest steps backwards our country could take in the fight against climate chaos.
(Carly Huebner and Heidi Cooper)
We saw we had about a 3 month window to either stop or seriously scale back the project. So we went for it.
RAN’s strategy is to follow the money. Crazy how so often captialism’s at the root of things, isn’t it?. Some activists were challenging TXU on legal grounds, others through community pressure, others were trying to block their permits, other people were even activating the business community. But we know that even if TXU got it’s permits, they couldn’t function without financial backing. Three major banks were funding TXU: Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and Merrill Lynch. So far we have secured 20 banks who won’t mess with TXU. Merrill Lynch was the strategic target.
There were actions across the country, but no standing RAN chapters in Boston yet. Most of the folks who came out were various friends, allies, and SDSers (from chapters in Providence, Boston, and New York). SDSers in Portland Oregon had a demo in PDX, and SDSers were rocking in the big New York Action too (from chapters in NYC, and New Jersey), which had a “Billionaires for Coal” meme (an amazing action that got really major media. Look for accounts of it elsewhere!).
Pictures of that action here:
http://www.digitalrailroad.net/astern/Production/PhotoGroupView.aspx?pbid=4&msa=1&pgid=7690967
In ours, people violently died and hacked up pollution that was really hot fudge. We were going to originally splatter charcoal around and smear it all over ourselves, but we figured that with it being ash Wednesday and all, the messaging might be confusing. Then we were gonna sling brownie batter around, but didn’t want to waste brownies (or potential-brownies).
(Will Lambek and I)
After the climate change murders, we marched inside to deliver a letter from the RAN executive director to the CEO of Merrill Lynch. We were told that Merrill Lynch had briefed security that we’d be coming, and under no circumstances would they come down and chat with us.
(Will Chalmus and I)
Turns out they were feeling the heat though. Breaking news has it that TXU is crumbling, and the 11 power plants have now been scaled down to 3. Amazing. We’re still waiting for details and the dust to settle; and I imagine we cannot fairly take credit for this…but collectively in the last few months across the country activists took down 8 of these disgusting things. It gives me more inspiration to gear up for bigger fights.
We can’t stop here. No new coal. Period. Congress isn’t gonna regulate carbon. And as long as Wall Street continues to fund this stuff, we gotta fight.
Global warming is increasingly becoming THE issue of our generation. Everyone in our society is talking about it…except for most radical folks on the Left, for some reason. Al Gore is telling people that if they turn off their lights then they are doing their part. That’s not true. This is real, its looming and dramatic, and there are real power structures and people who are making it happen. It’s going to affect people in our generation the most; it is a youth issue. The people fucking the world are gonna be dead before they see the full effects of this….and then we will be dead, if we don’t do something. It disproportionately affects people who live in the Global South and folks of color in the US (Katrina, Stan, Tsunamis…).
We need to radicalize and polarize this issue. Its one of the most fertile vehicles to build a multi-issue mass movement in this country that can also confront the war, immigrant rights and other pressing issues. The emerging post-issue groups like SDS really need to take this seriously I think…
The action made the front cover of the Boston Metro, IndyMedia, was in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Spare Change News, and some local TV and radio. Maybe Newsweek too, we’ll see.
Holler.
The NYC and other actions made the New York Times, a million financial journals, and city papers across the country.
If you are hammering away at the brand of a company and need to increase the pressure and public visibility of your campaign, coordinated, publicized street theater works. plain and simple.
(Ivy)
here is some of the Boston media:
IndyMedia:
http://boston.indymedia.org/feature/display/198290/index.php
Wall Street Journal:
http://blogs.wsj.com/energy/2007/02/26/billionaires-for-coal-group-skeptical-of-txu-deal/
PDF of the front cover of the Boston Metro:
http://metropoint.metro.lu/20070222_Boston.pdf
Internet version of the Metro article:
http://boston.metro.us/metro/local/article/Protesting_Merrill_Lynchs_support_of_coal_plants/7105.html
the Herald:
http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=184301
more pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainforestactionnetwork/sets/72157594549323351/
(Will Chalmus, Mandee Schwartz, Jenny Venezia, Carly Huebner, and Heidi Cooper)
(Neena Pathak and Will Lambek)
(Will Lambek and I)
(Grace Yasamura from Rainforest Action Network)
(Heidi Cooper)
*All photos by Jonathan McIntosh
On Thursday at noon Neena Pathak and I gave a workshop / presentation at Brandeis University in Waltham.
The title was “Zapatismo and the Anatomy of Solidarity”
And the stated description was:
Ever wanted to do activism abroad? Fascinated by transnational social movements? Thought about power and privilege and how that plays into folks from the Global North doing work in the Global South? How do we navigate our privilege and travel in an ethical and reciprocal way? What is Zapatismo? Come join Neena Pathak ( ‘08 ) and Josh Russell ( ‘06 ) in a participatory workshop about the challenges and complications with doing “solidarity work” abroad, that draws on these two Jane’s and Karpf Grant awardees’ experiences with the Zapatistas and other indigenous rights groups in Chiapas, Mexico. We will use Theater of the Oppressed tools and other games, so come ready to move around!
(Neena!)
About 20 students showed up. The games and involvement were interesting and I was really impressed with the depth to which folks wanted to engage these issues. Given the way Zapatismo and that movement is romanticized and idealized by people up North, people had a really grounded and serious approach. The issue of folks who have the privilege to travel abroad often go with the pretense of activism and “helping,” cuts through so many lines and legacies of imperialism, colonialism, racism, etc etc. Its only going to increase as neoliberal globalization pushes forward; more universities are going to find ways to give students grants, stipends, and fellowships to go abroad in the Global South, and unless we develop models to make that process look a lot more like solidarity and a lot less like charity, students will probably keep perpetuating the process of unconsciously taking a lot more than they give.
(me!)
A lot of what we talked about were our own struggles in confronting these issues within ourselves; we certainly had our share of hypocrisy and embodying our own critique. A lot of these issues seem to be simply irreconcilable to some degree. We drafted a pseudo-coherent document of what we learned in our research called “The Anatomy of Solidarity” that shares some ideas, but not answers. I wish we were on top of our shit enough to have answers! (I don’t actually think there are hard and quick “answers” to these things). It may get published as a workshop manual later in the Summer.
For folks interested in this kinda stuff, my friend Bruin is putting together an anthology that deals with the contradictions and problems with being someone from the North going to the South. It’s called Less Than Settled, and feel free to email me if you’d like to contribute a chapter.
p.s. - a great scam: Dominoes Pizza has this giveaway where if you are a reporter they will deliver free pizzas. As long as the place you need them delivered is not a residence (i.e. an office or a school) you can just call up and say you are a reporter from anywhere and get free pizzas. We scored 4 free larges with toppings! Hott.
(Unfortunately this site won’t let me embed videos, so there will be links to fun youtube videos throughout the article. click on them!).
The Ohio University campus has been rocked this year by a decidedly anti-democratic, unaccountable administration, pushing unpopular policies without any student input whatsoever. “Free Speech Zones” on campus attempt to shut out discourse and protest. Arbitrary fees around popular student parties and holidays, the sudden cuts of Athens Varsity Sports teams, and indulgent pay bonuses for Administrators have left students feeling alienated and without control of their college. Ohio University is being run like a corporation rather than an educational institution.
SDS has risen up to advocate for student syndicalism and a radical vision of a democratic university, and built an impressive coalition in the process. The SDS free speech demonstration on Friday, Feb 2nd, was attended not just by activists, but students most activists groups wouldn’t think to try to organize – including athletes and Frat boys.
I was invited to come to OU in Athens by their SDS chapter and the umbrella activist group InterAct, to do workshops, trainings, and other action support, both as an SDSer and also as an organizer from Rainforest Action Network (RAN). Trainings with SDS ranged from sustainable organization building to campaign strategy, while I got to connect with InterAct about collaborating on a few RAN-related projects including shutting down a corporation called TXU building dirty coal fired power plants (but that is a separate entry entirely).
We woke the morning of the demo to a new blanket of snow coating the campus. It was beautiful. We met in a nearby coffee shop early to tie up loose ends. Somehow a PBS news crew found us an hour early and interviewed Olivia and Sarah.
The snow was falling as students gathered around the civil war monument – an area NOT in a free speech zone. A student read the plaque outside the monument - one that discussed liberties that we’re supposed to have in this country, and about 150 students gathered around the SDS banner hanging from the monument.
Initially, energy seemed low. Some folks didn’t even want to chant. I soon realized this was a good thing; about 90% of the people there had likely never been to a demonstration before. Despite the lack of racial diversity, in other respects the diversity of students there was staggering. SDS managed to mobilize a wide cross section of campus, including students with a wide range of interests and backgrounds - people who would have never come out to a demonstration if it werent for Athens SDS’ strategy to simply be relevant.
After the president of the Graduate Student Union spoke, Will Klatt gave a speech about the corporatization of our universities:
( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6yrstQEac8
I was also invited to speak about Free Speech Zones:
( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8UqyFd_yiI
After which I convinced folks that chanting can be fun and it doesn’t make you a hippy:
( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYcsRGtxhuo
Rosemary Esch announced SDS’ demands on the administration:
( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKzVC3lQ1dw
And Dylan spoke about SDS being inspired by Malcolm X and organizing students AS students:
( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn2nY1J4nUw
People were fired up and marched to the presidents office. Energy was high, people were dancing and chanting and whoopin and hollerin.
We reached the chief of police and demanded entrance.
And got it.
The cop actually turned out to be a pretty nice guy. Most of his background in stopping “civil disturbance” had been shutting down KKK rallies, so he seemed pretty down that we were actually trying to do something positive. Always important to remember to try to get inside the head of the police if you confront them - on campuses at least, they usually just don’t want to look bad in front of their bosses. If you can challenge their power and authority and get what you want, while still making it so they can play it off to their superior like they had control over the situation, then not only do you win and alter the power dynamics, but you usually eliminate the chance of arrest.
When we found out the president was in hiding, we decided to have a spokescouncil to see what to do next.
Strategically, it was useful for a lot of reasons. Not only did we want to democratically decide what to do next, but it helped all the participants in the demo - people with very different backgrounds and experience levels in activism - feel ownership over the march. Part of the strategy of the demo was to engage and activate people as much as possible. It worked (I’ll explain how in a minute).
( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhchlJCEyMk
We decided to march to a meeting of Vision Ohio - where administrators were proposing additions for the campus to business leaders, without student input.
We danced:
( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=044vliYDgM8
And went inside the new student building and shook things up:
( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5z-6-Oe0Hc
And tracked down the Dean.
A student issued the demands:
( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i_xgwpEWEw
And he pinkey-swore Sarah that they would be responded to by the president before the deadline that SDS issued.
( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow4TtcHuWpQ
Afterwards we found out where the Vision Ohio meeting was, had a spokescouncil, and headed down there. The cop asked us to not be disruptive, and we thought that was appropriate. We pinkey-swore that we wouldn’t, and we kept our end of the bargain. Tactically, it was a great move, as in any action you need to make sure to exit on your own terms. We had already gotten what we wanted, and we decided to push it further - but if we had ended up getting kicked out it woudln’t have been useful to us at all. It would have killed the energy and disheartened all the new folks involved. Instead we just ate all the cookies and soda at the Vision Ohio meeting and did interviews with lots of press.
Like I said, SDS is trying to be relevant. It’s actually quite a revolutionary thing to do, given how most “radical” groups on campuses are content to build exclusionary, elitist subcultures and regress into them (and then wonder why all the other students are “apathetic” since they can’t relate). Building on the anger from the recent sports cuts and other assaults on campus, the whole demonstration was cultivated to activate people and give them a sense of ownership over the demo.
At the end, we pushed that idea even further. We announced that we were going to have a strategy session workshop, and it wasn’t just for SDS - everyone was invited to come shape SDS’ strategy. If SDS is supposed to be building a student movement, their vision and strategy has gotta be shaped by real students, not just a small section of them. We wanted it as participatory as possible.
I was asked to facilitate the training/workshop. Some of the best ideas came from people who had not only never thought strategically before, but had never thought about activism period before. In the session we identified clear concepts about what it means to strategize campaigns – differentiated between campaigning for change or simply protesting it, between specific goals, broader vision, and the difference between being guided by a strategy rather than a random assortment of tactics. We identified power holders in the administration, how they were related to other power holders, what their points of weakness were, and how to leverage our own power to target them. We identified what the different kinds of tactics are, how to build and escalate them, and brainstormed on how to use them to connect with allies, be accountable to other students and student groups, build power, and win concrete victories each step of the way.
I left the strategy session feeling like Athens SDS is really experimenting with models of organizing that are pretty new for our generation. The push for genuine participation by the general student body in their strategy - indeed thinking strategically at all - is a welcome change to the alienating subcultural elitist bullshit that seems to confine a huge part of the student left (the mostly-white sections of it at least). The need to be open minded, to be positive, to build up rather than tear down, and to be open to other “nonactivist” voices is a huge step in the maturity and sophistication of the activism at OU.
Until we can organize students in their own interest as students, we will be stuck in the thoughtlessness of doing self-congratulatory actions simply to “piss people off.” OU activists are realizing that militance is about strategy, vision and goals, about being serious, grounded, thoughtful and long-term. Often times young radicals get confused, thinking that tactics themselves can be militant or not. Tactics are only as militant insofar as they are strategic to achieving radical goals - and often “fucking shit up” is the clear road to marginalization and impotence. Athens SDS is building power on campus for real, being relevant for real, and being in it for the long haul. And they are doing it with concrete victories.
Nothing builds a movement like winning.
We live in a generation of cynicism. Students nowadays are perhaps (legitimately) more skeptical than any other generation in history. It’s not “apathy” so much as its grounded in an assessment that ‘we don’t have the power to make change’. When you organize on campus and you WIN - you show people that they are powerful, that they can make change, that win is enough to shatter the illusion of impotence. The shattering of that illusion is often a radicalizing process. It so deeply rocks the way we have been taught to view the world that it forces us to shift our perspective just to make sense of the things around us. That’s the process that I saw in Athens, Ohio. While SDS chapters across the country are thinking about how they can radicalize their campuses, Athens is providing a useful (if situationally specific) model.
As is important with every victory, its crucial to celebrate. So after the punk rock dance party, activists were gonna head over to the fraternity house, to which everyone was invited by a frat boy in the march. Unlikely alliances indeed!
(here is a little bit of media around the event. From Speakeasy Magazine and The Post:
http://speakeasymag.com/index.php/campuslife/article/news_020407_001 http://thepost.baker.ohiou.edu/articles/2007/02/02/news/17457.html )
