Upping the Anti 7: Confronting Capitalism
I just got the new Upping the Anti in the mail and wanted to post that first, they published my review of Stephen Duncombe’s “Dream: Re-imagining Progessive Politics in an Age of Fantasy.” Yes, I know I talk about that book a lot.
Although I wish UTA was published more frequently, and I wish they were a little more organized with their process, I respect that each issue is thoughtful and thorough, and as a journal (and not a magazine) the articles, reviews, interviews, and editorials are quite indepth.
This new issue includes content on Palestine, Six Nations, migrant labor, and sex work to name a few–as well as letters and several long book reviews. I just read the editorial from the UTA collective and was interested to note a discussion the root of the word “catastrophy”–a similar discussion is included in the afterward of “Re:imagining Change,” the smartMeme reader released last month–that the word literally means “to overturn.” What follows is a critical discussion of two critiques of capitalism–Naomi Klein et al’s “disaster capitalism” and John Zerzan and Derrick Jensen’s primitivism. The editorial collective saying that these critiques focus on the production part of capitalism (either reforming it and making it better or getting rid of it all together) and are not sufficient. For one, they concentrate too much on ownership and labor, and not enough on the relationship with the natural world. Is that relationship always one of domination? They ask, “What sort of production might redeem both human and natural history?”
Sean Penn’s Brilliant Milk, and thoughts on Historical Dramas
Earlier this afternoon I saw the new film “Milk,” where Sean Penn portrays Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to hold a major political office when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the late 197os.
A few weeks ago, I had gone on a bicycle tour of San Francisco with Chris Carlsson, part of the Counterpulse/Shaping San Francisco series of tours - one of the first stops was San Francisco City Hall, where Chris recounted much of Harvey Milk’s story, so a lot of the details were fresh in my mind. The bicycle tours, by the way, are not to be missed.
I am normally skeptical of biopics and historical dramas, because so much of it is left to the interpretation of writers. I believe that these types of films sometimes give viewers false impressions of actual events, of conversations that may or may not have happened, of actions that are recreated based on the biases and agendas of people who didn’t experience the events. A perfect example of how this falls flat is the Battle in Seattle movie, where the writer/director didn’t actually talk with any activists before writing the script. In Milk, however, it is clear that the script more closely follows actual events, and that most of the main characters are based on real individuals. In both films, actual film footage of the events is mixed in with scenes from the new, fictional movie.
There are several reasons why I loved this film. First of all, Penn is truly brilliant. USA Today calls his performance “breathtaking.”
Remembering Seattle, 9 years later – and looking toward the future.
I am a few days late, but I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the passing of the 9th anniversary of the WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999.
While I was at home in Ohio with Jason Kucsma, finishing up the very first issue of Clamor, many friends were in the streets of Seattle protesting the World Trade Organization meeting. We featured the protests on the cover of our premiere issue.
This year, David Solnit wrote a bit of a reflection, and it was posted on Infoshop.org – “Seattle WTO Shutdown 9 Year Anniversary: 5 Lessons for Today” where he talks about the need for new tactics, strategic organizing, and a systemic analysis. He says, “There is actually no global justice movement. “Global justice” instead is a common space of convergence—a framework where everyone who fights against the system we call corporate globalization (or capitalism, empire, imperialism, neoliberalism, etc) and its impacts on our communities can make common cause and make our efforts cumulative. This anti-systemic framework helps diverse groups and movements to come together for mobilizations or to support each other. This is the movement of movements that fights for global justice, often winning, and has become stronger over the last nine years.”
Fundraising Appeals (Who I’m Giving to This Year)
I know, like me, every year you get appeals at the end of the year from all sorts of organizations asking for your money. This is a good opportunity to talk about how each of us needs to support the activists and organizations in our communities – whatever those communities might be. While other periods in social movement history have included an responsibility for funding our movements, the radical community has seemed to have moved away from feeling this sense of obligation for giving our hard-earned dollars to social movement organizations, no strings attached.
I know I seem to talk about money endlessly (see here and here for example), but imagine the impact on social justice movements if each of us gave away just 1% of our income. I feel it’s part of my responsibility, as a relatively privileged person who cares about the world, to do everything I can to make positive change – and that includes thinking of money less as “mine” and more as a tool with which things are accomplished. My writing and activism are tools, but so is money.
So, I’d like to share five of the organizations that I have given money to, because in the sea of appeals from liberal organizations with bandaid solutions, I want to think about truly radical organizations that are often overlooked in this fundraising season.
How to be Creative: Oakland 1946!
Last Friday, I attended a really creative action in Oakland, California – a reenactment of the 1946 Oakland General Strike – the last general strike in U.S. history, where about 100,000 workers walked off their jobs in support of striking retail workers at two downtown department stores.
The interactive performance, called Oakland 1946!, was an original script, written by a bunch of activists, and the play is performed outdoors at the location where the strike actually began – Latham Square, where Broadway and Telegraph meet in downtown Oakland. Actors move in and around the crowd, and audience members are recruited as strike picketers or otherwise encouraged to participate in the show (when workers are winning, what do we do? We cheer! When the boss is winning, what do we do? We boo!). On Friday, about 150 people attended and the crowd was so anti-boss that at times it was difficult for the actor, radical theater professor Larry Bogad, to get his lines out! Read the rest of this entry »
Re:Imagining Change: a Huge Contribution to Movement Organizing
I am very proud to say that I have been working with smartMeme for the last six months or so, primarily on finance stuff but also miscellaneous other projects. Both Patrick Reinsborough and Doyle Canning have proved to be brilliant movement thinkers, who have continually shown their passion and dedication to the movement(s) for social change.
Their new manual, Re:Imagining Change: An Introduction to Story-Based Strategy is the culmination of 5 years of dedicated work into how groups use messaging and stories effectively to define their struggles, frame issues, and create visions for the future. This booklet is essentially a written version of their basic training that they have done with many groups.
The manual is an essential tool for any activist in any movement – there are concrete tools and exercises such as the Battle of the Story Worksheet, or defining and giving examples of the different Points of Intervetion – understanding these concepts will help further any movement work.
They have also included several case studies which bring together all of the concepts and show the ideas in action, really helping readers understand how all of these various concepts work in actual political campaigns.
This is an amazing contribution to movement organizing, and I’m proud of Doyle and Patrick for prioritizing passing on their knowledge to others so that more people can benefit. Please download this PDF today, and consider making a generous donation to smartMeme so they can continue this important work.
