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A couple of weeks ago, NPR Morning Edition highlighted "Jelly", a semi-weekly gathering of freelancers of various ilk (graphic designers, web developers, photographers, musicians) at someone's house to work on different projects together. Since freelancers usually work from home, Jelly offers them the social interaction they'd get at a typical work place without the stress and monotony of reporting to an office every day.
When I heard about Jelly, it reminded me of the idea of mobilization vs. organization. Although the idea of gathering at someone's house to engage each other in meaningful dialog is nothing new, maybe it's something we need to bring back. A good example of this is the Jena 6 case.
Yes, it's nice that thousands of people showed up to rally in Jena, La. this weekend and that the rally sparked memories of and comparisons to the civil rights marches and rallies of the 1960s. But I wonder how many of them would be willing to meet regularly to discuss how to keep this issue and many, many others (taxes, health care, police brutality, Iraq, living wages, fallout from Hurricane Katrina, take your pick) that affect our livelihoods in the public consciousness? How many of those people would be willing to meet with people in their communities, to come up with effective ways to imbue their communities with real political staying power? To do all this without the fervor of a large crowd, without the presence of news reporters, photographers, videographers and some so-called Black Leader sermonizing (or as my dad would put it, "speechifying") on the mount?
Maybe our dear Liberator readers could start hosting semi-weekly or monthly Liberator "Jellys" (Jams? Preserves?) in their cities in the vein of true organization, so that mobilization, while important, isn't our only means of flexing our collective political muscle.
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5 comments:
omg, you are reading my mind. i'm helping to "organize" (smile) a gathering at my house for october 13th.
i've started to think of it as bible studie. another friend of mine calls them "circles"
whatever we call them we SERIOUSLY need to gather regularly to build, discuss, study (maybe even eat a meal) and build CONSENSUS and from there to begin to act POLITICALLY, COLLECTIVELY.
just finished Kwame Ture's autobio and his memories of SNCC meetings going on for hours and the frustration but patience and willingness of everyone there to give everyone time to speak and understand is an yet again another inspiring example.
someone at a gathering i was at yesterday mentioned the act of "checking eachother" and i'm all for that. but before we can do that we need to know eachother and in order to know eachother we need to begin again to spend more serious time with eachother as community... certainly socially and spiritually but more and more politically as well.
let's get it crackin.
i also gotta appreciate this idea just from the pure aspect of working from home.
it really can get lonely!
so even outside of the purely political, this is a great idea for home office folks.
WE DO IT. i want as many heads in this as possible... people in my building (different crowds each time, some for projects, some to listen, some to ideate) meet each week! this is the first time in my life that this actually happens regularly and MAKE THINGS HAPPEN.
this needs to expand, each meeting should have a completely different freeflowing agenda-- food, a great book, stories of projects or movements that are going on and need clout..
or it can be organized as say... bring an object very close to you or that makes a favorite sound-- start a discussion and see where it goes from there-
i'm very excited that recently for people around me this meeting and making thing has been positive- it's so easy to say 'hey let's work on blah sometime' or 'we should really get together and make things happen....'
once out of school or arenas that facilitate intellectual or creative banter- one's soul can easily become stale or bogged up with ideas waiting to burst.
no, we should REALLY get together and make things happen!
You definitely bring up a good point, Piama, about how it's hard to find places for true intellectual stimulation/collaboration outside of traditional places like school or the workplace. I'm glad that people in your building are coming together and trying to make things happen. Where do you live, if you don't mind me asking?
Brian, I think you also made a good point about how we need to start knowing each other before we can start checking each other, so to speak. We need to create our own spaces for political organization instead of relegating ourselves solely to churches or town hall meetings or rallies. Whatever you call it, (circles, gatherings, bible study) I really feel THAT's where you lay the groundwork for real change.
word up. and i can dig the loose form meeting space as well. no matter what the vibe of these spaces are i really think and hope emphasis should be and is placed on creating not just spaces, but spaces where there's a clear articulation of serious dedication to study and informed reflection. if there's not an organized collective of people that we think we fit in we should create one. and asap!
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