Doug has been asking about how to organize. You cannot organize masses of
people now for socialism. For to many, socialism is an extension of the
Russian gulag. My own LIMITED experience in organizing has taught me that
you begin with small goals that can be reached. I recall in my Berkeley
days, Michael Lerner standing on Sproul Hall day after day -- we are
talking about behavior not ideas here -- rallying the troops to get
arrested, then showing up next week for an entirely different issue with no
mention whatsoever of the cost of the last operation. Continuity is
essential. You have to get as many people involved as possible --
collecting information, setting up means of communication.
You cannot be overly reliant on a single figure. It has to be collective.
This collectivity would be key if somehow the reins of government were to
fall into the hands of the people.
You cannot tell how everything will progress. As a result, recipes are
worse than useless. But you must learn from the experience of other
places. Marx never touched on how socialism would be organized until the
Paris Commune, which gave him the first clues about what could be --
although he was critical of what they did.
So right now the important thing is not to determine how the ministry of
nuts and bolts will be organized, but to develop the practice of working
together, struggling together ....
Jim Devine once told me that organizing anything on pen-l -- we were
discussing the possibility of creating a textbook -- was like herding
cats. I would love to prove him wrong.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
