In Which Winning Workers Remind Me Of Troubled Kitties....

Session 2 of the" No Shortcuts" sessions began with some technical glitches(guess the phone system wasn't prepared for so many active callers!) and some discussion of why the person with the biggest title, or even the biggest commitmenr to attending organizing meetings, may not be the biggest leader for your union campaign.(Not to slight those people...we will need them all to achieve the super-majorities needed to win in a "high-fear" environment in this country, but in these kind of campaigns the true leaders are the ones people already trust to ask...my mother was this person in many of her employments.)

McElevey outlined the many ways that workers could check for leaders and test for organizational success.  She called them "structure tests" and they begin with comparatively low-risk, private activities such as signing a workplace petition.I had read "No Shortcuts" after seeing Ms. McElevey on television, but that isn't where I remembered this concept from.

.  Honestly, it reminded me of feline behaviorist Jackson Galaxy's concept of a cat's "challenge line" and how they usually feel better from pushing past their comfort zone. 
(Much as with the worker, as the timid cat ventures out from under the bed, the challenge is expanded and repeated--the cute metaphor does break down when one considers that there is not an organized fear campaign of ads and threats to convince Fluffy to hide under the bed and stuff.) It did give me a visual to hang on to during the presentation as "structure" is not a Bohemian crip's favorite  concept, but in this usage, refers to grouping that you don't neccessarily choose, such as a school district or electoral precinct.
Groups such as Progressive Democrats of America or Democratic Socialists which I actively joined, are self-selecting activist groups but we need to work outside the groups to other parts of the community to achieve our biggest goals.