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Note by Hunter Bear: [from RBB discussion] I agree that AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka's recent statements about large-scale funding of grassroots organizing at the points of production are certainly encouraging. And I'm hopeful. But, again, we've heard constant talk of "organizing the unorganized" for decades and, while that's certainly happened to some extent, that trend has been on a downhill slide for a long time. If it's going to take a lot of money from the Labor stratosphere, it's also going to require some basic changes further down. Writing in his classic 1948 autobiography, Wobbly: The Rough and Tumble Story of an American Radical, Ralph Chaplin ["Solidarity Forever"], noted that in the flush Labor times of the 1940s, union organizers and business agents were increasingly gravitating away from "coffee, and" to long lunches and dinners with sirloin steaks. [Coffee, and pie are, I admit, a little thin for me. For years, I subsisted on five cheeseburgers and a pitcher of ice water and black coffee -- and I still love that fare.] If the AFL-CIO's new direction is going to bear really significant fruit, it's got to involve hard-working and visionary grassroots organizers who give heart and soul to their campaigns. Bona fide organizing isn't a 9 to 5 job -- it's a many hours Cause. The human race has always had plenty of fiery and spunky idealists within it -- frequently very young -- and, with appropriate training [often simply via on the job apprenticeship], they can do just fine. And, when they're doing "their own thing," they need dependable backup from, say, a regional director -- but, if they're worth their salt, they don't want or need micro-managing. A good organizer needs plenty of creative space. A kind letter came yesterday from Jesse Howard, going back to our several years of organizing on the Chicago South/Southwest Side. Those were very rough times but we accomplished a lot and, although this wasn't Labor organizing, the parallels were many. Jesse, who we hired from the ghetto grassroots, quickly became a crack young organizer. After we completed our grassroots organizing project in a little more than four years, Jesse stayed on with the parent agency, the Chicago Commons Association, in other capacities. His letter: John, I pray that you remember me, Jesse C Howard, from the Chicago Commons Association Southside (1971 to 1973, I worked there until 1978). Just wanted to say thanks for being such a great boss and Jim Richardson and a few others over the years always ask about you. May the spirit that is in and exposes us all, touch you and your family with peace and joy. My job was that of Southside Director. [I've never used "boss" with respect to myself -- but, in the culture of Chicago, that's a broad and not unusual designation.] Had a staff of about two dozen very good people, some university grads and some community people. It was well integrated racially. My roles were several: contributing to vision and strategies, backing up staff, some direct organizing myself, preparation and administration of financial grants -- and keeping our Central Office -- fortunately far, far away on the North Side -- from intermeddling in our work. I always ensured that staff had plenty of creative space. And things went very well. That spirit and ethos have been my basic style all of my life -- wherever I've been. http://hunterbear.org/chicago_organizing.htm So, if AFL-CIO wants to recapture the "old revival spirit" and carry that productively into the future, it's going to have to put up not only plenty of dinero -- but also make some significant "interior changes" in its essentially bureaucratic ethos. In Solidarity, Hunter Bear [paid-up UAW member] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See our new Somewhat Heretical Thoughts -- a mix of some of our recent, favorite posts (2009 / 2011) -- all with a social justice focus: http://hunterbear.org/absolutely_heretical_thoughts.htm See our substantial Community Organizing course (with new material into 2011): http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm And See Outlaw Trail: The Native as Organizer: (updated 2011) http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm [Included in Visions & Voices: Native American Activism (2009) ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
