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.

When a Touche is Not A Touche...

Even in the midst of catching up with "Married With Children", (would call it a rewatch, except that I don't really care about canon), I am aware that some of these online confrontations are my "A fat woman came into the shoe store," but I need to tell you this one.
 Somebody made a point about antisemitism with me yesterday, which, although not new...is one of those things that looks different from the inside, I think. Being a Gentile who jokes about hating herself and would follow a whole subculture around all "Like your work!" if that were  in any way not a wacky thing to do (it is...I'm kidding...please don't really do that!),is not being at risk for a synagogue shooter.
.  Even when the people running Israel piss me off a lot, which they do.
But then, this guy thinks he has a clincher with "If they stopped making places accessible, I don't have a disability, but I'd be offended." There is a joke in there somewhere, but basically, I said "get ready to be offended."

But it's not his fault that he doesn't know.  Lack of access is totally covered up with videos like "Wal-Mart Employee Gives Manicure, Makes Day", or "Shop Class Makes Wheelchair" and people go aw...and that's it  for most Americans, until they get hurt or their kid has a disability(and some people never do fully see past their own experience anyway,)

DSA call With Jane McElvey--Author of No Shortcuts

Labor organizer Jane McElevey grew up with workers’ rights being part of a package with a lot of other social movements.Her father was also a union organizer and later a politician who was elected due to his strong union ties. The movements that she herself had started working with seemed like they working with smaller goals and were not as eager to name the capitalist class as a common enemy.

Through this smaller, more Establishment-oriented approach, individuals won some short-term gains, but worker power has become more and more diluted since the early 1970s.  “I think it was a fundamental misunderstanding of power,” McElvey told approximately 100 Democratic Socialist members from most of the 50  states on Saturday.

“We didn’t understand the extent to which, once the ink was dry on our wins, The Right would try to take them back.” This led to the decline of worker power and the rise of neo-fascist activity, including that that helped elect Donald Trump.  

 

Still, she sees many reasons for hope in the teachers’ strikes that happened in many states last year.She specifically referenced the LA teachers’ strike because it had 100% participation across such a large district, and unity is a big key to worker success and getting more power than you might have even dreamed at the outset.   

“The key to unity is not to shy away from divisions and difficult topics, but to get into them and not let them derail our opportunities.” She pointed out that some divisions arise naturally, and some are fed, or even provoked by outside forces.

This call was the first of three training sessions based on material from Jane McElvey’s book “No Shortcuts”