These next two weeks I’m not going to have the time for some of the essay writing I’ve been doing of late. I’ll be working on laying out the print version of the SDS News Bulletin , which will eat up the bulk of my spare time.
In the back of my mind, I’ve been thinking a project for SDS in advance of the next National Convention. What form it’ll take, I’m unsure — it depends on what I hear from folks, what needs we really have, and how much work needs to be done by the Convention and what can be done by the Convention.
First on my list, I want to work on some materials for large-scale political education for SDS. The default model for carrying out any education in SDS are workshops used by non-governmental organizations and community based organizations to train their professional organizers — usually in some small, intimate setting, usually in a setting of 1-trainer to about 10-participants.
In itself, that is not a problem. The problem arises out of the small scale and high intensity which these trainings need, which has denied most of the organization the political education it needs in order to make informed decisions.
This small scale is creating a situation in which we have a small number of SDS’ers receiving a political education (some basic understanding of how and why we fight), while the rest do not. Overall, it’s a formula for isolating organizers from the rank-and-file comrades with whom they work.
Throw in sharp contradictions around gender, race, and sexuality into the mix, and you’ve got a formula for mutual resentment between organizers and rank-and-file.
I’d like to work on a print project that would function as a basic SDS 101: some history of the (CURRENT!) organization, some background on the issues with which we deal, some extracted essays with some idea of what these systems of oppression and exploitation are.
My own example would be trying to explain something like white supremacy. I’ve been approached so many times by white comrades — “What should I do? TEACH ME!” A younger me would have been curt (“I’m not your teacher. Go teach yourself.”), but present-day-me sees that present-day education on such matters glosses over so many of the harder parts, that we lack a real critical engagement.
Thus the project would be a matter of assembling some information, and having it in an easy-to-read format. “White Supremacy: What is it? Why and how do we oppose it?” It’d be a matter of illustrating how white supremacy works using a concrete example. (Let’s say housing discrimination, since it operates on several levels). Then presenting excerpts of Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, or Fannie Lou Hamer’s speeches that touch on the topic.
The point of this would be to have an evergreen text, that could be used to encourage the development of their own critical thinking, but also to build a common consciousness among SDS’ers. It isn’t a matter of creating some SDS-sanctioned dogma with prescribed solutions, but more a matter of pushing the forces of partisanship (of which we have many; of which we will probably have to agree to disagree very often) to put their ideas to work in devising approaches to the common problems that virtually all of us agree are “out there” in the world outside of conferences and conventions.
This is a great project, and one of the things I’m looking forward to the most at National. On the issue of “SDS-sanctioned dogma” I see the main issue with the selection of readings and seed texts, as each “tradition” within SDS might want to claim their texts ought to be included and are of particular relevance.
On legitimacy, I think this would be work very suited to the caucuses to take and work on. This guarantees that, in an official and accountable manner, the groups affected by something have a clear voice to educate the organization as a whole. However, there is the issue of non-caucused groups, like the absence of a Working Class cuaucus, affecting coverage. Also, this could be rather disenfranchising to non-caucus members, which I think is a major flaw in my otherwise awesome idea.
In any case, the training workshops have been great here in New York, and the work put into the youth chapter made the workshops come off well. Seeing a model like this based on SDS self-education and training can only be beneficial for us.
Also- I’m looking forward to the next SDS Bulletin. One question- why did the working group / editorial collective not go with a more traditional radiname representative of SDS, like “The Finger-Twinkler,” “The Cuddle-Puddler,” “The Procedural-Debater,” “The Wait-What-Yr-Not-Vegan?-Asker,” or something? I love SDS.
-paco.