“I once dated a man who taught quantum physics. I learned two things that night.

The first being that if you ask a quantum physicist to explain how gravity works. Not what it is; not how it behaves; but how it works. He will first talk himself in circles, then wind up crying, then, sometime between entree and dessert, call you a bitch and leave.

The second revelation came as I sat at the bar in morose solitude pondering the cantilevered relationship between bartender’s gut and lower extremities.

Before the big bang,
Before time itself,
Before matter, energy, velocity,
There existed a single and measurable state called yearning.
This is the special force that on a day before there were days,
Obliterated nothing into everything.
It is the unseen strings tying planets to stars,
It is the maddening want we feel,
From first breath,
To last light.”

from In Plain Sight

A few articles of interest…

Van Jones, “Why They Win & Why We Lose” (Summer 1999)
The title is self-explanatory. The Right doesn’t keep winning because they have more guns and media than we do, though that’s part of it. They largely keep winning because the Left doesn’t have a winning strategy or attitude. Van touches on just some basic ways of thinking that plagues the Left and which we must overcome in order to win.

Zack Exley, “The New Organizers, Part 1: What’s Really Behind Obama’s Ground Game” (Oct. 8, 2008)
Obama’s campaign is a fricken machine! And the Left should be learning from it. If we are interested in building a new popular organizations, some of which include an electoral arm, the Obama campaign is a model we can learn from for being innovative and reaching out to new audiences.

George Lakoff, “Don’t Think of a Maverick! Could the Obama Campaign Be Improved?” (Sept. 11, 2008)
We need to be message warriors! Learn from George Lakoff as he points out where Obama, as a case study, is succeeding in winning hearts and minds - and also where he is failing (and why).

Matt Stoller, “Obama’s Consolidation of the Party” (May 7, 2008)
Unless something major happens that propels McCain to a comeback victory, Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States. What does that mean for the Left? Matt Stoller outlines how Obama has consolidated power within the Democratic Party, effectively creating a new tendency with him in charge. He’ll have the power to make policy, a fundraising base that will force Democratic candidates for House and Senate to come to him if they want to win, and all branches of Government behind him. Where will this help progressive forces in the U.S.? Where will it set us back?

Without any doubt my favorite quotation from Karl Marx comes from The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon. He writes:

“The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living, and just when they seem to be revolutionizing themselves and things, in creating something entirely new, precisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service and borrow from the names, battle slogans, and costumes in order to present the new scene of world history in this time honored disguise and borrowed language…. The social revolution of the nineteenth century cannot draw its poetry from the past but only from the future.”

Such eloquent wisdom is unfortunately seldom taken to heart by his disciples. The statement is equally true today: the social revolution of the twenty-first century cannot draw its poetry from the past but only from the future. The theories, strategies, ideas, and methods of the past need to be critically analyzed and, where flawed, revolutionized and not merely amended. A vision of a democratic society must be central to our message to add inspiration to our programmatic demands.

In order to win the war, those who seek victory must organize to build a new revolutionary left in the United States. The tasks of such a Left will be widespread and will require much debate, but some of these tasks can be easily summarized. There certainly might be other things, but a new revolutionary left will necessarily include among its focuses:

Humanism: learning from oppression that exist within past social movements, a new revolutionary left in the United States will seek to fundamentally transform the defining institutions and ideas in the realms of economics, kinship, culture, and politics. It will take each of these areas equally seriously, knowing that victory is impossible without a holistic and comprehensive revolutionary transformation of society.

Vision & Hope: understanding that our generation is overwhelmed with feelings of hopelessness, a new revolutionary left will formulate, discuss, debate, and refine, a vision of what a participatory society could look like, outlining the core defining institutions and social relations of what a participatory economy, feminist kinship relations, egalitarian inter-community relations, participatory democracy, international solidarity, and environmental justice will look like. It will bring this message of hope and positive alternatives to every community in America.

Organizing: actually making the change we want to see, a new revolutionary left is made of organizers, not merely activists, the latter being those who take action while the former being those who organize ever greater numbers of people to take action with increasing commitment and effectiveness. Such a Left understands that change can only occur if progressive forces are intellectually, institutionally, and politically ready to lead humanity to liberation.

Strategy: seeking maximum effectiveness, a new revolutionary left will study the art of strategy, learning from successful progressive social movements as well as from military, business, and rightwing strategy. It will train a generation of critical thinkers and thoughtful strategists.

Study: not wanting to replicate past mistakes and seeking to learn from past lessons, a new revolutionary left will be articulate, well-educated, and committed to on-going study, both of historical and current events. It will build programs of internal education for existing members and programs of external education to break down the dominant ideology.

Critical Thinking: loathing dogma, a new revolutionary left will train itself in the art of intellectual self-defense, emphasizing critical thinking, logic, reason, critical self-reflection and collective reflection, and summation of experiences. Instead of following old formulas and strategies, it will analyze the current situation and formulate appropriate strategies and methods relevant to the present day.

Numbers: in order to maximize participatory democracy and ensure eventual victory, a new revolutionary left will seek to build both a growing core of revolutionary organizers and a vibrant majoritarian progressive coalition aimed at breaking the rightwing domination of society. It understands that in order to win a new world, we will need tens of millions of people on our side committed to transforming society.

Raising Social Costs: understanding that hierarchical institutions are built upon the consent of the governed, a new revolutionary left will create dilemma situations whereby elites must choose: give into our demands or lose legitimacy and, as a result, aid in the growth of the Left. It will raise the social costs that elites must pay to carry out unjust policies, forcing them to give into our demands or pay infinitely more than they had expected.

Counter-Hegemony: since it has its fingers on the pulse of the nation, a new revolutionary left will seek to do everything in its power to break through the dominant culture and ideology. It shall seek to build a counter-hegemony, taking serious the task of education, cultural revolution, and revolutionary leadership.

Liberatory Practices: with its commitment to actively combat internal movement oppression, a new revolutionary left will develop thoroughly liberatory practices which develop and elevate the leadership of every individual in the movement, combating past oppressive norms of sexism, racism, heterosexism/homophobia/transphobia, class inequality, and authoritarianism. A new left will seek to embody the seeds of the future in present to the highest degree possible.

Effective Communication: embracing the power of language, a new revolutionary left will carefully craft its message so as to communicate effectively and precisely to the constituencies we want to win over. It will understand that our actions, words, slogans, and attitudes all convey a message to the public and that these messages are vital to our success.

Democracy and Participation: because it can’t win by using undemocratic means, a new revolutionary left will maximize democracy and participation within all of its organizations. It will understand that democracy and participation are dependent on access to knowledge, equal distribution of empowering work, and liberatory practices which level the playing field in a world which thrives on vast inequality. It will involve an ever growing number of people and, eventually, being to build new institutions based on democratic values, especially workers’, neighborhood, and kinship assemblies which will be the nuclei of the new society.

Leadership: following its commitment to democracy, a new revolutionary left will understand the responsibility of leaders to pass on their knowledge, skills, and lessons to an ever expanding core of revolutionary leaders. It will be a left that trains thousands of new leaders each year, preparing them for the challenges they will face as political organizers.

Relevancy: being in tune to the concerns, hopes and aspirations of large numbers of people, a new revolutionary left will orient its efforts towards being relevant to diverse communities who don’t yet identify as progressive, left, or revolutionary. It will build its program based on what the majority of the population cares about, what will most strengthen, expand, and prepare the movement for future gains, and what will make the most tangible difference in people’s lives.

Beloved Community: because it knows it can be better than the world outside, a new revolutionary left will be a warm, welcoming, and empowering Left. It will seek to embody all of our values to the highest degree possible. It will empower its members to grow. It will take seriously our internalized oppression and the need for each of us to heal the wounds inflicted upon us by the authoritarian society, by racism, by sexism, by homophobia, by gender binary, by alienation from work, by exploitation and oppression, and by detachment from our natural world. It will be a Left of love, of hope, and of compassion.

These are just a few tasks. When learning from the past, its useful to practice STORM’s principle of “take the best, leave all the rest.” We should take the best of theory, strategy, vision, and organizing methods, while leaving all the irrelevant stuff behind. In analyzing our own efforts, we should not merely seek to tweak what needs revolutionizing.

(Part Four coming soon…)

Much, much more to come later. Here’s what I have so far…

Organizing

• Comments to New SDS Regional Meeting by Robert Ross
• Organizing vs. Activism in 1968 by Mark Rudd
• Remembering Tomorrow: From SDS to Life After Capitalism by Michael Albert

Communication

• Simple Framing by George Lakoff: An introduction to framing and its uses in politics
• Don’t Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate by George Lakoff
• Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think by George Lakoff

Envisioning the Future

• There Is An Alternative by Michael Albert
• Government in the Future by Noam Chomsky (audio talk)
• Parecon: Life After Capitalism by Michael Albert: A book exploring participatory economics - an equitable economic model. How could we organize economic life in a more just, equitable, and solidaristic manner?
• Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century edited by Chris Spannos
• Realizing Hope: Life Beyond Capitalism by Michael Albert

Nonviolent Action

• Strategy for a Living Revolution by George Lakey
• From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp
• The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part One: Power and Struggle by Gene Sharp
• The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Two: The Methods of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp
• The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Three: The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp

Social Epidemics / Tipping Points

• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Strategy

• The Art of Warfare by Sun Tzu
• Start Making Sense: Turning the Lessons of Election 2004 into Winning Progressive Politics edited by Don Hazen and Lakshimi Chaudhryx

Power

• The Matrix

Race

• The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere: Making Resistance to Antisemitism Part of All of Our Movements by April Rosenblum
• White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise

GI Resistance & Dismantling the Military

• Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War by David Cortright
• Democratizing Defense Resource Archive by Liberty Tree, Foundation for the Democratic Revolution

Environmental Justice

• “Communicating our Vision for National Climate Policy” by Green for All
  • Podcast
  • Talking Points
  • Media Tool Kit: “Using the Media to Frame the Debate”

Education

• Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

U.S. Civil Rights Movement

• I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Summer by Charles M. Payne

Revolutionary Theory

• Unorthodox Marxism: An Essay on Capitalism, Socialism, and Revolution by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel

History

• A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn

Publications and Websites

• ZNet
• Z Magazine
• Democracy Now!
• Left Turn
• Liberty Tree
• Monthly Review
• Real News Network
• Rockridge Nation
• Wiretap

Blogs and Sites

• Joshua Kahn Russell
• Michael Albert
• John Cronan
• Madeline Gardner
• Pat Korte
• Meaghan Linick-Loughley
• Aric Miller
• Aaron Petcoff
• Becca Rast
• Mark Rudd
• Matt Smucker

Organizations Promoting: Leadership Development, Political Education, Vision, Strategy, and Capacity Building

An ongoing compilation of Organizations Promoting: Leadership Development, Political Education, Vision, Strategy, and Capacity Building. I will soon add links to their websites and descriptions of what they do. In the mean time, you can find them by googling their name. Want to help build the movement? Donate these groups and support their work - they are the people who build the capacity of the movement’s best organizers and leaders! Enjoy!

Beyond the Choir - Beyond the Choir is an analysis, strategy and training project serving groups and campaigns struggling for social and economic justice, peace and the environment. We are a collective of organizers, trainers and designers who seek to spread tools, skills and strategies to build movements strong enough to realize the change we imagine.

The Brecht Forum - The BRECHT FORUM is a place for people who are working for social justice, equality and a new culture that puts human needs first. Through its programs and events, the Brecht Forum brings people together across social and cultural boundaries and artistic and academic disciplines to promote critical analysis, creative thinking, collaboartive projects and networking in an independent community-level environment.

Campus Camp Wellstone - (a project of Wellstone Action) Campus Camp Wellstone trains students nationwide on how to run energized, community building, winning campaigns. We focus on campus and community organizing and young voter engagement.

The Center for Political Education - The Center for Political Education is a resource for political organizations on the left, progressive movements, the working class and people of color. It is anchored by a collective of individuals active in day-to-day struggles in the Bay Area. Our political approach is non-sectarian, democratic, and committed to a critical analysis of local, regional, national and global politics.

The Change Agency - The Change Agency is a collective of activist educators and researchers. We work with community organisers to help people clarify their purpose and develop plans that will enable them to be heard, focus their energies and achieve social and environmental justice outcomes. We research social change, activism and advocacy. What is successful and what isn’t? How can people organise and work together more effectively? Based on our ongoing research we facilitate workshops for activists and community organisers and also share many of our resources on this site.

Albert Einstein Institution - The mission of the Albert Einstein Institution is to advance the worldwide study and strategic use of nonviolent action in conflict. The Institution is committed to:

• defending democratic freedoms and institutions
• opposing oppression, dictatorship, and genocide, and
• reducing reliance on violence as an instrument of policy.

This mission is pursued in three ways, by:

• encouraging research and policy studies on the methods of nonviolent action and their past use in diverse conflicts
• sharing the results of this research with the public through publications, conferences, and the media, and
• consulting with groups in conflict about the strategic potential of nonviolent action.

Electoral Action Training (EAT) - (a project of the United States Student Association and Campus Camp Wellstone) The United States Student Association and Campus Camp Wellstone have teamed up to offer a comprehensive training to give students the skills to register, educate and mobilize their campuses for the 2008 election and beyond. With a combination of workshops, exercises, and discussions students will be equipped with tried and true electoral organizing skills (plus creative new tactics) and a sophisticated understanding of student power.

Grassroots Organizing Weekend (GROW) - (a project of the United States Student Association and the Midwest Academy) USSAF’s GrassRoots Organizing Weekend (GROW) is a comprehensive three-day training for student organizers. The GROW teaches students how to be more strategic in their fight for justice on campus and in the community. The training is a series of presentations, exercises, and discussions that teach a set of skills and concepts, which will increase the effectiveness of your student organizing. The GROW trainers are seasoned student organizers from around the country who teach by using their own personal organizing experiences. Usually 20-40 participants attend each GROW. As a participant of the GROW you will learn how to:

Highlander Research and Education Center - Highlander serves as a catalyst for grassroots organizing and movement building in Appalachia and the South. We work with people fighting for justice, equality and sustainability, supporting their efforts to take collective action to shape their own destiny. Through popular education, participatory research, and cultural work, we help create spaces — at Highlander and in local communities — where people gain knowledge, hope and courage, expanding their ideas of what is possible. We develop leadership and help create and support strong, democratic organizations that work for justice, equality and sustainability in their own communities and that join with others to build broad movements for social, economic and restorative environmental change.

Hollyhock Leadership Institute: A School for Social Change - The Hollyhock Leadership Institute empowers current and emerging leaders to create high impact social change. We build alliances, catalyze new visions and re-kindle inspiration.

Paul Kivel - Paul Kivel’s work grows out of three decades in community education, engaged parenthood, political writing, and practical activism all focused on one overriding question: How can we live and work together to nurture each individual and create a multicultural society based on love, caring, justice, and interdependence with all living things? Paul believes we each have a responsibility to help create a world worthy of our children. As Rabbi Tarfon wrote many centuries ago: “It is not upon you to finish the work. Neither are you free to desist from it.” This web site offers you Paul’s articles and books, links and exercises, bibliographies and videographies, all to support personal growth, community education, progressive activism, and effective organizing.

Labor/Community Strategy Center - The Labor/Community Strategy Center is a multiracial “think tank/act tank” committed to building democratic, internationalist, Left social movements and challenging the ideological, economic, and political domination of transnational capital. The Strategy Center’s work encompasses all aspects of urban life in the United States: it emphasizes class-conscious labor organizing and fighting for environmental justice and ending climate change, immigrant rights, and first-class transportation, as well as actively confronting the growing criminalization, racialization, and feminization of poverty. The Strategy Center synthesizes grassroots organizing-The Bus Riders Union and Community Rights projects-with education, policy development, and artistic culture production-Strategy Center Publications, The National Center for Transportation Strategies, the National School for Strategic Organizing, Voices from the Frontlines radio show, and AhoraNow periodical-to generate a creative and aggressive response to the growing power of the corporate-led political Right in the United States. The Strategy Center is committed to multilingual organizing, including the development of multilingual publications, productions, and visuals arts.

The Midwest Academy - Midwest Academy is a leading national training institute for the progressive movement. The Academy advances the movements for social change by teaching a strategic, rigorous, results-oriented approach to social action and organization building. The Academy provides training (introductory and advanced level) and consulting, equipping organizers, leaders, and their organizations to think and act strategically to win justice for all.

Movement Strategy Center - The Movement Strategy Center brings a cohesive plan to strengthen these emerging efforts and build the progressive social justice movement. They do this by supporting individuals, organizations, alliances and sectors to be more strategic, collaborative and sustainable.

New Tactics in Human Rights - The New Tactics in Human Rights Project, led by a diverse group of partner international organizations, advisors and practitioners, promotes tactical innovation and strategic thinking within the international human rights community. Strategic and tactical thinking, long used by business and military strategists, is an effective means for the human rights movement to expand options and possibilities of what can be done. Innovative tactics are emerging that may more effectively advance human rights and end persistent human rights problems. Many innovations have been valuable, yet are not well known outside their regions.

The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond - The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), is a national and international collective of anti-racist, multicultural community organizers and educators dedicated to building an effective movement for social transformation. The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, affectionately known in the community as The People’s Institute, considers racism the primary barrier preventing communities from building effective coalitions and overcoming institutionalized oppression and inequities. Through Undoing Racism™/Community Organizing Workshops, technical assistance and consultations, PISAB helps individuals, communities, organizations and institutions move beyond addressing the symptoms of racism to undoing the causes of racism so as to create a more just and equitable society.

Project South - Project South is a leadership development organization based in the US South creating spaces for movement building. We work with communities pushed forward by the struggle to strengthen leadership and provide popular political & economic education for personal & social transformation. We build relationships with organizations and networks across the US and global South to inform our local work and to engage in bottom-up movement building for social & economic justice.

RANT Collective (Root Activist Network of Trainers) - RANT is a small collective that formed in February of 2001. Our primary purpose is to provide training, education, and information to local, national, and international organizations, groups, and individuals working for global peace and justice. We are consensus based, non-hierarchical and collectively oriented.

Rainforest Action Network - Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is made up of 43 staff members in San Francisco, CA and in Tokyo, Japan, plus thousands of volunteer scientists, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens around the world. We believe that a sustainable world can be created in our lifetime, and that aggressive action must be taken immediately to leave a safe and secure world for our children. Dubbed “some of the most savvy environmental agitators in the business” by the Wall Street Journal, RAN uses hard-hitting markets campaigns to align the policies of multinational corporations with widespread public support for environmental protection. We believe that logging ancient forests for copy paper or destroying an endangered ecosystem for a week’s worth of oil is not just destructive, but outdated and unnecessary.

RESIST Grants - RESIST funds activist organizing and education work within movements for social change. As a foundation, RESIST is unique because we are part of the movements we fund. We do the work individual donors don’t have time to do: reaching out to activist organizations and researching their campaigns and projects. We operate on a national scale and know the big picture, and we challenge grantees to connnect their own issues with the concerns of other activists. Our frequent funding cycle means we can respond to time-sensitive organizing campaigns. RESIST is more than a foundation. We’re also a resource center, providing grassroots organizations with technical assistance and information about other funding sources. Finding Funding: A Beginner’s Guide to Foundation Research gives progressive activists a quick entry-point for grant-writing. Resist also publishes a highly respected Newsletter.

The Rockridge Institute - The Rockridge Institute is committed to the democratization of knowledge about politics. Our mission is to deepen and broaden the public’s understanding of the political world. Rockridge studies the worldviews, values and ideas behind conservative and progressive policies, issues and political discourse. Using the tools of neuroscience and cognitive linguistics — combined with decades of practical political experience — Rockridge promotes the effective articulation of progressive values. We do this by monitoring public debate and suggesting both long-term and short-term options for framing that offer a progressive perspective. We work primarily at the level of values and ideas across specific policy areas. At the level of language, we point out ineffective word choices and suggest argument forms and phrasings that better express progressive values.

Rosenberg Fund for Children - The Rosenberg Fund for Children was established to provide for the educational and emotional needs of children whose parents have suffered because of their progressive activities and who, therefore, are no longer able to provide fully for their children. The RFC also provides grants for the educational and emotional needs of targeted activist youth. Professionals and institutions will be awarded grants to provide services at no or reduced cost.

The Ruckus Society - We are living in a time of extreme challenges: stopping the war in Iraq, thwarting climate change catastrophes, reclaiming the commons from corporations, conquering our addiction to oil, and protecting human rights. In order to effectively meet these challenges, now, more than ever, environmental and social justice organizers must develop winning strategies that are creative, nonviolent, and take their lead from impacted communities. By building on the traditions of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., we, at The Ruckus Society, provide our partner organizations and activists with the tools, training, and support necessary to tackle these problems and achieve their goals.

School of Unity and Liberation - SOUL is working to lay the groundwork for a powerful liberation movement by supporting the development of a new generation of young organizers - especially young women, young people of color, queer youth and working-class young people. We believe that – in order for young organizers to build an effective movement for fundamental social change – they need support to develop the nuts-and-bolts organizing skills they need to mobilize their communities and to deepen their political analysis and their visions for fundamental social change. SOUL is a training center designed to support the growing youth sector of the social justice movement. We run political education and organizing skills training programs, designed specifically to meet the particular needs of our generation of emerging movement leaders.

smartMeme - The smartMeme collective is a group of skilled, creative and dedicated change agents who work to support grassroots movements with strategy and training resources, values based communications tools, and meme campaigning. We work to build a culture of strategy, vision, and change, connecting struggles for democracy, peace, justice, and ecological sanity.

Tools for Change - Tools for Change has been providing consulting, training, mediation and facilitation services nationwide for over 15 years. Founder Margo Adair formed Tools for Change to promote the integration of spiritual and political perspectives to promote personal, spiritual and political transformation to help bring about a just society. She and other associates around the country, have forged multi-cultural and multigenerational alliances in many different settings.

Training for Change - Since 1992 Training for Change has been committed to increasing capacity around the world for activist training. When we say activist training, we mean training that helps groups stand up more effectively for justice, peace and the environment. We deliver skills directly that people working for social change can use in their daily work.

War Resisters League - The War Resisters League has been resisting war at home and war abroad since 1923. Our work for nonviolent revolution has spanned decades and been shaped by the new visions and strategies of each generation’s peacemakers.

Z Education Online - ZEO stands for Z Education Online. It is an offshoot of the Z Media Institute that operates entirely online - and it is a component of Z Communications and ZSpace that includes (or will include in the future):

• do it at your own speed instructionals with associated forums for discussion…
• text and audio lectures
• special presentations and chat sessions
• and extensive faculty-taught courses in ZSchool with associated forums, etc.

Z Media Institute - Z Media Institute was started in 1994 by the cofounders of Z Magazine (1988) and South End Press (1977) to teach radical politics, media and organizing skills, the principles and practice of creating non-hierarchical institutions and projects, activism, and vision and strategy for social change. Classes are held around Eel Pond in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

The following is a draft, perhaps a poem, making the political personal, inviting you, and all, to be part of the movement for a democratic society, addressing the question of exclusion, expressing a beginning of the vision.

***********************************************

We’re a movement of activists, forever young, students of life, for a democratic society, international, intergenerational, inter racial, interesting: students, seniors, survivors, seekers, strugglers, sisters, singers, speakers, scholars, sociologists, socialists, scientists, saints, savants, satirists, soldiers, sailors, slackers, scriveners, scribblers, smiths, semites, whoever you are, from wherever, for a democratic society,

all who would like to join, please do, respond to this invitation.

we are a union
an unarmed army embracing all humanity
to affirm and represent the rights of the common people, the oppressed, the multitude,
all who have been voiceless, and in the struggle to find our own voices.
challenging the old order and building the new

joining the global movements,

of popular democracy, liberation theology, peace education,
non-violence, direct action, civil disobedience, insistence,
for justice, where ever we are and everywhere,
for a transforming of patriarchal power to a true sharing of authority
in partnership and cooperation
between women and men
and all the genders and races and workers
a new social contract
a world labor contract

to affirm human responsibility

to turn around the impending climatic disaster of global warming
and the consequences of the oil and fossil fuel based industrialization of the past age,

and to do what we can to stop the bloody wars,
and putting down the guns
and making peace
and creating a culture of peace
and non-violence
for the children of the world,
that the next generations, to the seventh generation,
should not have to live through the wars and oppressions that we, and our fore-bearers have seen and suffered.

we, of course, serve to overturn the old order of power and war and greed,
and are completely subversive to fascism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, top down centralization of power
and most of what passes for government these days

we are inclusive, non exclusive,
there is room at the table for everyone with an open heart

agents and vanguardists and recruiters and opportunists enter at their own peril.
our task is to turn your heart
that you become an agent of the movement,
in whatever organization you serve,
to undermine hierarchy and totalitarian purpose
to transform itself and themselves
to serve instead
the grass roots, bottom up, horizontal, work democracy
insurgent movement and movements in every institution of the old order
joining the union for global partnership, the big we

we take on the nsa, cia fbi, rcp, iso, plp, dlc, ,
and any other initialed new-speak contraction of complex reality into simplistic ideology obedient to some old authority

our message is:
give up the old order, the old politics, the old wars
join the new order of the ages
our undertakings are favored.
democracy is what it is about
for everyone
even the minority of one

for justice
for respect
for freedom

for healing from the wars and traumas of past time which we have inherited, and our mis-leaders perpetuated.
and which we must do all what we can to stop now,

in iraq, afghanistan, columbia, darfur, all of them,
and the heart of the war, longest bleeding, in palestine and israel.

the entire war system must be transformed
no more war
economic conversion of the war economy is our common cause
we are workers in building a peace economy

our task is to work together in an artistic harmony
blending our strengths,
meeting our needs also in mutual aid
using the knowledges we have
teaching peace
doing
revolutionary evolutionary actions changing history integrating national groups

r e a c h i n g

for quality public education available for everyone
for quality public health available to everyone
for redirecting resources for ending hunger and poverty
for creating new work
for reclaiming the public commons from the privatizers and usurpers
for putting more minds to curing aids and alzheimers and malaria and all the other dread diseases
for restorative justice, rebalancing what is out of harmony
for cultural survival
for the abolition of nuclear weapons totally
for mother love and apple pie and better days to come
there are many principles of organization in this association
we are a center-less circle with its circumference everywhere
we are an underground army of nurturers, arising
we are a network of affinity groups
we are a chorus of caucuses
we are a solidarity deeper than differences
we are veterans of past struggles, intent to affirm our continuity
we are your best friend and your worst nightmare
we are keepers of the dream

we are intent on change, and changing ourselves as well

we are each of us, you, a center of power
each with unique capacities to reach out
to family and friends, lovers, partners, teachers, coworkers, neighbors, acquaintances
compatriots from by-gone barricades and student days
all who know us.

we are encouragers of one another to mobilize our power

you are a center of power, send the call out,
put it in your own words, to all who know you, try again.

we are discovering what we can do together.

we combine many ideologies and analyses,

we are promoting human solidarity and effort for authentic relationship.

like students for a democratic society
we seek to create a sustained community of educational and political concern
maintaining a vision of democratic society where at all levels people have control of the decisions which affect them and the resources on which they are dependent, increasing democracy in all phases of our common life, promoting participation
we seek relevance through continual focus on realities and on the programs necessary to affect change at the most basic levels of economic, political and social organization.
our urgency is to put forth a radical, to the roots, democratic program whose methods embody the democratic vision
this is an initial statement of mds/movement for a democratic society

if you would like to join,
to acknowledge your membership
which is in your heart

please respond

alan haber

answer please, 2 questions:
the beginning of dues

what do you need?
what do you have to offer?

A great talk Van Jones gave at the National Conference for Media Reform in 2007. He talks about the politics of togetherness, avoiding defeatism, realizing when the Left is actually winning on issues. He uses superb language and themes that all leftists should take up. He’s a great orator and motivational speaker. Feeling down? Need some inspiration? Check it out!

The following is a review I wrote for ZNet on April 21, 2007. It’s one of my favorite books and super relevant for building powerful movements for social change. Check it out:

Remembering Tomorrow: From SDS to Life After Capitalism, a memoir by Michael Albert, published by Seven Stories Press, is a must read for every young organizer serious about winning long-term, systematic change in the world. It critically analyzes the social movements of the past with the goal of building the stronger, more explosive and powerful movements of the future. Rather than ignoring persistent movement problems, it asks the hard questions that far too many experienced organizers avoid. Its look at the sixties and decades since, addressing culture, political events, and especially activist organizing, presents history not only honestly, but as we need it. Its focus on vision and strategy challenges our current over emphasis on only critique. Its exploration of what type of society we really want by way of historical examples and experiences is truly remarkable.

How can we bring more people into our movements; even make our movements gravitationally attractive and compelling? How can we make it easier for people in the movement to lead normal lives? How can we relate to new and broader audiences? How can we frame reforms in a radical context, and direct them towards future social gains? What role should militancy play in the movement? What might a revolution in the United States look like (and how can we get there)? All of these pressing questions, and many more, are addressed at length and in depth in the book. Albert walks readers through decades-worth of practical lessons that can be immediately applied to their own grassroots organizing; whether in schools, in workplaces or communities, or in youth and student organisations such as the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) or Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

He explains how by thinking strategically and focusing on vision, we can provide the inspiration needed to overcome cynicism, counter critics, and draw masses of people into the movement- retaining instead of losing them, with an ever growing commitment.

Remembering Tomorrow is a true gift to young leftists- providing the knowledge they need to begin a life-long journey of political organizing and radical change. It is a timely addition to left organizing- at a point when the need for energetic young organizers to join in the development of vision, not only within the economic sphere, but also for kinship, culture, politics, and education, is greater than ever before. While each lesson from Remembering Tomorrow can be a powerful tool in and of itself, the central message of the book- that vision and strategy can give people the inspiration to fight and as such should be central to movement organizing- is a lesson that each of us should bring to broader audiences. Michael presents this theme perfectly, saying:

“If a person thinks a society promoting solidarity, diversity, equity and self-management is potentially attainable, then for him or her to say it should be morally off the agenda and therefore that people should not try to define it, explain it and forcefully advocate for it, would be to say that humanity should stop progressing…”

The memoir follows Michael Albert’s life, from his college experiences as a young organizer with Students for a Democratic Society, to his work as a founder of South End Press, and finally to the creation Zmag and Znet, and the development of Participatory Economics (Parecon)- the visionary post-capitalist economic model- with Robin Hahnel. It incorporates lessons not only from Albert’s life, but also from the lives of his friends, classmates, and fellow organizers. Drawing on his experiences at each stage of his life, Michael explores the positives and negatives of many trends in activist organizing- with an eye towards improving how we build movements. Analysing how we could forge a powerful Left formation- and what that would look like and require from us- is something that we do far too seldom.

While exploring the book, readers are engaged with diverse organizing experiences- from student organising at MIT, UMass Amherst, and the Harvard Education School, to teaching in schools, prisons, and eventually at Z Media Institute (ZMI)- a leftist summer institute. They will gain tremendous insights in the field of independent publishing and media, following Albert’s major role in South End Press, Z Magazine, ZNet, and Z Media Institute. Albert brings readers into his life, taking them around New England, the United States, and the globe; from his life as a student organiser, to his work as a lifelong author, activist, movement strategist, and visionary anticapitalist- at each step along the way, sharing with them his successes and failings, his insights and uncertainties.

Remembering Tomorrow provides countless examples of where strategic action could have yielded vastly different outcomes- from what was learned organising with SDS to that organisation’s tragic death; from the civil rights movement to the movement against the War in Vietnam; and from the Women’s Movement to advocacy for an entirely different form of visionary economic system. Albert is always up front where the movement could have acted more strategically, and his role in those actions, be they successes or failures.

Taking it further, Michael explores how Participatory Economics could be the economic basis for a future society; a society whereby humans could organize an advanced industrial society in a manner which promotes solidarity, diversity, equity, self-management and efficiency. Weaving together issues of sex, gender, race, and class, of what has been and of what could be, of people and their lives, places and their conflicts, and events and their implications, all culled from personal experiences, makes for a wonderfully human book that is also inspiring and edifying.

All-in-all Remembering Tomorrow: From SDS to Life After Capitalism sheds light on many of the movements of the past; renewing debate on many so-called “settled” issues, and starting new discussions on the issues that many leftists fail to address. It serves as both an extraordinary introduction for new leftists and a sobering wakeup call for experienced ones. I recommend it for all those who are serious about struggling to win a better world.

Note: Readers who enjoy Remembering Tomorrow and wish to further explore the need for our movements to develop vision and strategy, should also consider reading ParEcon: Life After Capitalism, and Realizing Hope: Life Beyond Capitalism and visiting Zmag.org