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Next Left Notes Is A News Magazine Devoted To Direct Action
By Jim Macdonald
Have you ever been in a place where everyone seemed happy and engaged, and the
happier and more engaged they seemed, the more you felt like oozing into the
center of the earth never to be seen from again? That's the way I felt last
night at the UFPJ DC organizing meeting.
On the face of things, it was a great meeting. Over 70 people came to organize
and listen to Ray McGovern and Tia Steele. I can't say that Ray or Tia were
disappointing speakers at all, and they not only meant well, they spoke well.
But, you see, by that point, I was already feeling way off.
The meeting was in the Communication Workers of America building. The room was
set up in a large square with seats at a square table with another row of seats
outlining three corners of the square around the perimeter. Besides being cold,
the room felt something like a board room. It was pretty clear where the front
of the room was and where the hotshots would be sitting.
In my own strange characteristic defiance, I came straight from work wearing
shirt and tie. Usually, I stick out like a sore thumb, which often amuses me,
since in the activist setting I'm accustomed to, there's an air of rebellion in
wearing the tie. I don't always wear the tie, and it's not my costume of
choice, but I resent the thought that I should have to change after I leave
work and that I can't feel comfortable in any skin I find myself. Well, last
night, while no one else was wearing a tie, I somehow felt a lot more like my
clothes fit the occasion. That's not really so bad. And, that's not the point.
Yes, the demographic was different, a little wealthier, but so what? If people
are themselves, let them be themselves. What I think it was really was the
context of it all in terms of UFPJ. Over and over, those of us who have been
working on opening up UFPJ's process and making it more democratic have been
criticized relentlessly for not being diverse enough as a group, lacking a
significant number of people of color, especially, and the veiled suggestion
that UFPJ needs its hierarchical structure in order to make sure that voices
that have been traditionally silenced have a chance to step up to the plate.
If you open up the process, the assumption is that you only open up the process
for people who have been traditionally empowered. Yet, looking around, I
didn't see a lot of diversity except that at the front of the room, you had
two people of color leading the meeting. While by some definition, that's
diversity and re-balancing the power equation, I think many would simply call
that tokenism. And, looking in this room, knowing the criticisms that have been
levied against efforts that I and others have been a part of, I no longer felt
comfortable in my own clothes.
If numbers are any indication, UFPJ's organizing should be a success, but at the
cost of movement empowerment. The meeting after the presentations, which I will
reiterate were pretty good, consisted of a series of report backs, a call for
volunteers, and a pitch for donations. At a few moments, people edged in with
clarifying questions. However, there was nothing to decide, no way to plug in
creatively, and no sense of ownership. The people who spoke in some ways owned
the event, and even some of them were less owners than others.
People seemed genuinely energized by this, perhaps sensing the numbers, sensing
that Cindy Sheehan's vigil had given people a sense that a turning point was
near, but I continued to feel a real sense of distress. Here a local movement
had been co-opted effectively by the promise of bigger numbers, by the
celebrities, by the name recognition. It promised little slices of pie to people,
often in the name of an endless series of tents, if only we can come together
to stop the war, which now seemingly must come to an end. The big problem with
this big tent was that voices were lost in the process. There is a horrible
contradiction in working toward lifting up the voices who haven't been heard
when there is no process in place that guarantees that those voices will be
heard. So, what you end up having are the dominant patriarchal (patriotic)
sections of society wreaking a kind of unwitting havoc on anyone who dares
to be different.
What do I mean by that last sentence? Let's look at some concrete examples.
UFPJ, through a long and arduous process, had promised legal support for
nonviolent direct action planned for the weekend of September 23-26, even
if it wasn't part of the action that UFPJ was organizing. That was all
fiction last night. When the question of legal came up, it was clear that
UFPJ was providing for legal support only for actions on September 26. Those
who had rebelled had been quietly pushed aside when the sham process reached
a sham decision (much like many of the decisions of UFPJ's national assembly
in St. Louis). What about a convergence center as a means of supporting and
showing solidarity with those actions? UFPJ's stock answer was that it was
likely that the tents would serve as a convergence center. Under whose control?
UFPJ's. Would housing be allowed there? Absolutely not. Would UFPJ then help
provide money? Probably not. Talk with Leslie Cagan. Okay, what about Operation
Ceasefire, that great event that is being put together to support UFPJ and DAWN.
Well, don't look now but DAWN isn't mentioned much anymore in Operation
Ceasefire. I guess money talks. And, capitalism is alive and well in the peace
movement, where return for investment must correlate to amount of investment
a group can offer, and any attempt to rectify the power dynamics to something
more equitable and more in line with grassroots organizing is out the door
whenever it is convenient. Expect the peace groups with resources to have even
more, and those who don't to have the nothing but human volunteer power that
they started with. But, damn it, after all of this, volunteer! Give money from
deep inside your pockets! Stop the war (in Iraq)! Put the Palestinians off in
Farragut Square? sounds like a winner! In other words, daring to stand up
against the hierarchies of decision-making leads you to be pushed aside,
ignored, dropped away, tokenized, or highlighted somewhere else. Who can stop
this (anti-)war machine?
I'm really glad I went last night, but I won't be coming back. I'm angry.
I'm mad. I'm mad because I find myself having to work for the movement, and
right now working for that movement means supporting all the options possible,
and that means helping bring people to this event. Since people coming don't
give a damn about UFPJ, ANSWER, MGJ, DAWN, or anyone else, and are (to use Ray
McGovern's talk last night 'unreasonably patient' with the voices in the
movement) looking for a voice, I'm going to have to work like mad to give them
that opportunity. I have to help them find housing, help getting around, the
best information on actions, the best anti-war and global justice literature
that I can find. But, I'm mad as hell because the big lie is that all this is
not even close to what it should be, and we are propping up hierarchical,
disempowering processes in order to fight them. The contradiction is maddening.
The evening finished with breakouts into working groups. Many of us harassed
our friend Jose about the issue of a convergence space. It was comedy of the
absurd. Jose has no power over the issue and no influence on it. But, we let
our poor friend have it because there was nothing else to be done. To get stuff
done you have to schmooze the right person, and I think all of us going there
knew that in advance. But, we don't have endless hours of the day to play
political games. These meetings are billed as organizing meetings, and that's
when we can come. We can't go to New York, can't be on the phone all day, and
many of us are increasingly disgusted with dealing with the feudal lords who
are in power.
This is not sustainable.
So, I felt sunk, and I left early, wanting to get home as soon as possible.
This weekend I will go to New York, and we will be talking about the weekend
and working on the alternatives, not just in terms of action, but in terms of
organizing and empowerment. I hope we consider this seriously, and consider
not allowing ourselves to be co-opted ever again.
Frustrated,
Jim
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(c) 2004,2006 Thomas Good
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