This is a continuation of my previous post - a thunderstorm apparently moved up from Indiana and discouraged me from trying to go anywhere tonight, so lots of time for blogging. I attended two sessions today, both relating to organizing. The first was Strengthening Organizing in Asian Communities. Half the presentation was in Mandarin Chinese, with continuous translation the whole time between Mandarin and English. We started off with some small group introductions, and I have to admit I was proud when we broke into small groups by region and the West Coast had more people than all the other regions combined—proof that it is, indeed, the best coast.
Presenters at this session described their experiences and challenges with educating low-wage Asian immigrants (mostly Chinese and South East Asian) on their rights, and of trying to convince people to come forward and speak out against violations when many of their home countries have a history of oppressing and punishing such activities. Equally distressing was the description of co-ethnic exploitation. One presenter from the Chinese Progressive Association in San Francisco described a group of workers that were owed ten months of wages from the Chinese restaurant they worked for, which was also owned by a Chinese immigrant. The organizers thus had to spend time encouraging solidarity among immigrant communities in addition to all the other challenges of cultural isolation, language barriers, and geographic dispersion. They also expressed a desire to tie in the struggle for immigrant rights to larger racial justice, LGBTQ, and progressive movements. The session ran a bit long, and when I approached one of the panelists and started my proper sociological interview I made the unfortunate discovery that I was missing half the questions (one copy was double-sided, one wasn’t - guess which one I had handy? Right, half of the non-double sided one) and was too flustered to think up some logical substitutes, especially since there were other people waiting around to talk to this panelist. It also didn’t help that I was pressed for time before my next session, so I spluttered my way through a thank-you and ducked out with my half-interview…so suave.
Presenters at this session described their experiences and challenges with educating low-wage Asian immigrants (mostly Chinese and South East Asian) on their rights, and of trying to convince people to come forward and speak out against violations when many of their home countries have a history of oppressing and punishing such activities. Equally distressing was the description of co-ethnic exploitation. One presenter from the Chinese Progressive Association in San Francisco described a group of workers that were owed ten months of wages from the Chinese restaurant they worked for, which was also owned by a Chinese immigrant. The organizers thus had to spend time encouraging solidarity among immigrant communities in addition to all the other challenges of cultural isolation, language barriers, and geographic dispersion. They also expressed a desire to tie in the struggle for immigrant rights to larger racial justice, LGBTQ, and progressive movements. The session ran a bit long, and when I approached one of the panelists and started my proper sociological interview I made the unfortunate discovery that I was missing half the questions (one copy was double-sided, one wasn’t - guess which one I had handy? Right, half of the non-double sided one) and was too flustered to think up some logical substitutes, especially since there were other people waiting around to talk to this panelist. It also didn’t help that I was pressed for time before my next session, so I spluttered my way through a thank-you and ducked out with my half-interview…so suave.
After an extremely overpriced yet sub-par sandwich (where is Food Not Bombs and their vegetarian delights when you need them? I was expecting better from you, USSF), I composed myself for my second session, which was a four-hour workshop called Social Service and Social Change. The goal was to connect community organizers with nonprofits and other service providers, and share movement-building strategies through a seminar format. One presenter shared his experience of a divide wherein organizers believe the service providers/nonprofits are essentially just putting band-aids on larger systemic problems, while service-providers resent the idea that their work isn’t valuable or needed. Another presenter is extremely active in the Detroit community, so it was great to get a local perspective. She had worked specifically with African-American teen moms and single moms, before getting involved in local politics, before fleeing politics for the nonprofit sector, and now works for an Advisory Board to the City Council. The other two presenters had done extensive work with housing rights and fighting gentrification in Washington, D.C.; and in San Francisco encouraging people in service-providing jobs to link with organizers and push the boundaries of what it means to provide social services.
This workshop also included small-group brainstorming of various needs, barriers, and opportunities at individual, organization, community, and systemic levels. Speakers emphasized that movements develop out of a context; you can’t just go an event like the USSF and come out, “All right, the revolution is starting next Thursday!” Instead, they suggested cultivating four components:
- Popular education
- Indigenous/community leadership
- Infrastructure and organizations
- A catalyst
Have all of these things in place and you have a successful social movement! It’s a neat theory, but certainly easier said than done.
After such a long session I felt bad requesting an interview with the panelists, but they were friendly and helpful. Second interview went much more smoothly than the morning, so I think I’m starting to get the hang of this collective ethnography business. To end my day I wandered through the vendors for a while perusing the progressive merchandise and collecting yet more papers to add to my poor overstuffed folder - unsolicited I might add. I mean, I can get behind reforming health care again, but I don’t think I really need the Revolutionary Communist Party’s most recent publication. I’ll happily chat with nonpartisan or community groups, socialists, even the Green Party, but once some goateed man barely three years my senior starts lecturing me about violent revolution and forced atheism I tend not to stick around. Ah, well - excited to see what tomorrow’s sessions bring!
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