the tragedies of the civil-rights movement was because the civil-rights movement became so court-focused, uh, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change.
Has anybody ever examined this? What does that look like? How do you build a coalition of power on the ground? Well, let's consult freely available writing. In the handbook for a group called STORM: Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement - their handbook is titled "Reclaiming Revolution" here is what they write:(pages 19 and 21)
Looking around us, we didn't think it was possible to build an explicitly Marxist organization. And after the previous period of division and power struggles, it seemed risky to bring new people into our but recently - and delicately - cohered group.
To deal with these issues, STORM adopted a two-tiered membership structure with a leadership "core" and a "general membership". All core members had to be explicitly committed to revolutionary marxist politics. General members did not, although they could not be hostile to red politics either. Instead, general members had only to support STORM's Points of Unity, which were not explicitly marxist. (PGA Note: Page 8 for 1994 points of unity)
Got it? So what are they doing? Using non marxists to build a marxist organization, building their group numbers greater by being less than honest. Between their 'studies' and educational efforts(as noted in the handbook) they indoctrinated them into marxism. It continues on page 21:
STORM members were building organizations that were growing and becoming important forces in the movement in their own right. STORM never orzanizationally directed or intervened in the work of these organizations. But, because STORM members founded and led them, they came to be seen as "STORM-affiliated." Furthermore, these projects promoted politics quite similar to - indeed, at times indistinguishable from - STORM's.
For example, Bay Area PoliceWatch was expanding to become the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBC).
What just happened? They laundered the radical PoliceWatch into a respectable center for human rights.(This is Van Jones' group) They didn't give up on what they believed. They just made it look different. It's been laundered. Progressives do this to individuals as well. How do you take a man who bombed the pentagon and make him respectable?(rhetorical question)
Who reading my blog remembers Jay Bennish? Before and after his laundering:
So who laundered him? Who took a rough high school propagandist and polished him into a respectable, tie wearing victim? I suppose that doesn't really matter, what's important is that we study and remember the tactic.
People laundering. One potential piece of the puzzle of "the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change."
Another is being less than forthcoming about the goals of an activist group, then laundering it(or it's sister organizations) later on into something it isn't. Didn't ACORN change it's name?(multiple, depending on regions) Same people, same missions, and in some cases, even the same adddon't ask me. Ask themresses. They've been laundered.
I can't say anything for certain, but there's no doubt the shoe fits.
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