Organize Training Center

10/20/2017

Blog: REPORT FROM GREECE: PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS

"What I know about Greece and Greek politics can be put in a thimble, and probably a small one at that...it is very difficult to apply lessons learned in the United States to anyplace else without contextualizing them in the new setting. That requires intimate knowledge of what is happening on the ground—so what follows are friendly speculations."

http://www.organizetrainingcenter.org/blog/report-from-greece-preliminary-thoughts

10/20/2017

Blog: DETROIT, THE MOVIE

"Talking about Detroit, the movie, Kathryn Bigelow’s devastating and deeply moving film on the city’s violent summer of 1967..."

http://www.organizetrainingcenter.org/blog/detroit-the-movie

10/20/2017

Blog: A SMALL "d" DEMOCRATIC REFLECTION ON HURRICANE IRMA

"Trapped in the airport with nothing to do but deal with airlines and stress, and talk with others who were in the same boat as, you created a community—a group of people who shared intense and meaningful experiences, and who knew their interests were in some way connected with each other."

http://www.organizetrainingcenter.org/blog/a-small-d-democratic-reflection-on-hurricane-irma

10/20/2017

Blog: DIVIDE AND CONQUER FROM BELOW

"As long as these two groups—white elites and white working class—are treated as indistinguishable, there is little hope to divide them—which is what people who want racial and economic justice have to do."

Preface Dr. Carol Anderson is a professor of African American history at Emory University. She was recently awarded the National Critics Circle Award for her book White Rage: The Unspoken Truth...

10/20/2017

Blog: THINKING THROUGH "RESIST DEPORTATION": WHAT'S THE END GAME?

"If we don’t have a direct shot at the corner pocket, is there a bank shot on the table? (Or, if you don’t know pool, are there other targets?) I think the possibility for those other targets lies in the private sector, in businesses or business associations that were public supporters or Trump, in general, and of his immigration policy, in particular.

Of course we should resist Trump (and Obama and all those who preceded him) in their efforts to deport “illegals”, most of whom came to this country because U.S. negotiated “free trade”...

10/20/2017

MIKE'S 80TH BIRTHDAY EBOOK: Click on the link below to access Mike's 80th Birthday Ebook, which includes all the speeches from his birthday party (with special commentary by Mike), a list of party attendees, additional birthday wishes, recollections and tributes, a link to the birthday party photo gallery, and an appendix that will introduce you to the work of Robert Linthicum, one of Mike's "non-blood brothers."

Please help Mike celebrate his upcoming 80th birthday (January 24th, 2017) by sharing your birthday wishes in the comment section below. Also feel free to share your favorite memories of Mike over...

10/20/2017

Blog: A REVIEW OF FRED B. GLASS, "FROM MISSION TO MICROCHIP"

Fred Glass does for this history what Taylor Branch did in his trilogy account of major portions of the civil rights movement, The King Years. From Mission to Microchip is filled with stories, analysis, history and data. It is a good and important story, well told.

(To download the full text of this blog: "A Review of Fred B. Glass, From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement ." Oakland: University of California Press, 2016.) In...

10/20/2017

Blog: TALKING WITH TRUMP VOTERS

"There is a large, alienated white working class part of the electorate with whom “progressives” have no relationships. To rebuild those relationships is the pre-condition to turning these voters away from Trump’s politics."

(For a more in depth conversation on this topic, see "Response to 'Resistance to Trump Will Separate Progressives from Neoliberals,'" by Peter Olney & Rand Wilson, Stansbury Forum , February 5,...

10/20/2017

Blog: THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS ABOUT THE TIMES

"Why haven't people taken the problems of white, working class people, males in particular, seriously for the past 50, or at least 40, years? Yes, I know about white privilege. But it's pretty hard to convince someone whose job has been shipped to some low-wage market, who sees on TV news (however erroneous it may be) what he believes is "everything is being done for women and minorities", that he's "privileged". And it's even harder to convince those who never had good union jobs—like Appalachian whites where there is now a decline in life-span, and rampant drug and alcohol abuse, that they're privileged. Plus, unlike women, GLBTQ and racial/ethnic minorities, these "whites" had no social movement of which they could be a part so they would have a feeling of solidarity about their circumstance, as well as solidarity with others."

The outpouring of anger and frustration in the present period is understandable, and necessary. It provides a sense of solidarity that, one hopes, will help people for the long march through the...

10/20/2017

Blog: WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO AVOID THE

"Van Jones' new Facebook video series aims to humanize political adversaries through in-person interactions. Jones said he was trying to prevent what he calls the “ ” by engaging with a family supporting Donald Trump in their living room."

http://www.organizetrainingcenter.org/blog/what-it-will-take-to-avoid-the-nextcivilwar

10/20/2017

Blog: RESPONSE TO "TRUMP, BREXIT—THE WEST IN CRISIS"

"...the people who are now voting for the right as an expression of their powerlessness must claim power so that they can act on the best of their values and an understanding of their interests that evolves from the conversation that takes place in democratically constituted organizations."

In the article, “Trump, Brexit – The West in Crisis” (in “Symposium/America After Trump,” Democracy – A Journal of Ideas , Winter 2017, No. 43), Ed Milliband, defeated British Labor Party...

10/20/2017

Blog: ARAB SPRING (AND MORE) REVISITED

"I share Achcar’s hope for 'a collective emancipatory and democratically pluralistic project that champions the image of the new society to which we aspire.' I caution against thinking demonstrations in Tahrir Square, the Capitol Mall, Tiananmen Square, Puerta del Sol Square or its counterparts throughout the world are sufficient to reach that goal. No, the organizing task is a more complicated one than that. Everyday people and their everyday institutions (unions, centers of worship, clubs, interest groups, sports teams and more) need to own the effort so completely that society cannot move forward without their aspirations being taken into account."

Writing in the Arab Studies Journal, Gilbert Achcar offers a moving reflection on the meaning and tragedy of Arab Spring. His views echo those of many who participated in defeated revolutions or...