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Why You Should Start A Solidarity Network
John Jacobsen - 03.02.2011 17:35
Have a small base of support? why you should start a Solidarity Network -
People often accuse anarchists of being opposed to all forms of organization. Some of us are quick to point out, however, that it’s not all organization we are opposed to – just apparently the effective ones.
When I first became interested in Anarchist politics, there weren't many groups for me to get involved with. All of the collectives I joined seemed to form, fall apart, and reform - always the same people reshuffling into new groups, disbanding, and starting over again. If they took part in any discernible action at all, it was normally because some other group had organized it.
All over the U.S., in fact, the Anarchist organizations I had worked with could be summed up in one word - they were aimless.
They had vague objectives. They had no discernable, immediate goals. Actually, if you asked most of them what they were doing, I'm not sure you could get a straight answer.
Sound familiar?
These are chronic issues in much of the Anarchist movement today, and if my experience is any indicator, you've probably run into similar problems.
There is, however, a way to get around these issues: with perseverance and a little bit of elbow grease, you can start your own solidarity network.
Although by no means does this model offer the only solutions to these common problems, the solidarity network model, nonetheless, does offer some practical insights and examples of how we can:
1. Win fights against our bosses and landlords,
2. Attract new workers to our organizations, many of whom will have never even heard of Anarchism before,
3. Empower ourselves and our fellow workers, and
4. Establish a stable and positive presence in our community, off of which we may continue to grow in new directions.
To Begin:
The Seattle Solidarity Network, or SeaSol for short, started in 2008 with only a handful of activists, from a variety of backgrounds. Some had experience in labor organizing, others in anti-summit work against the G8, and others still in various anti-war campaigns.
In part, the intention of the first organizers was to build off of the great work of people who had come before them. The vision for SeaSol, in fact, might best be described as a blending of the "direct action casework" of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and the "solidarity unionism" of the Industrial Workers of the World.
Since its founding, SeaSol has grown to encompass a membership of over 100 people, and an organizing committee of 15. These fifteen organizers, moreover, can rely on a mobilizing list of 400 supporters to call out to actions when needed, of whom we can reliably count on perhaps 20 - 30 people to turn out.
Largely, SeaSol's growth can be attributed to its success rate. Out of 25 fights SeaSol has taken on, we have won 22.
Further still, SeaSol's success rate can be attributed to its organizing model - which brings us to the first reason to start a solidarity network in your home town:
1. Winning Fights Against Bosses and Landlords:
"Winning," a SeaSol organizer once said, "is like a drug." A very intoxicating and empowering drug.
For those of us who have poured our hearts into a lot of "symbolic" anarchist projects - a lot of anti-police brutality work, anti-war organizing, anti-G8 campaigns, and so on - for those of us who have spent time around these campaigns, we have often felt extremely demoralized.
We have felt this way because despite all the sacrifice, we never won anything. The campaigns never seemed to end after the enemy had conceded something; instead they always seemed to stop when people just became exhausted.
Because of this, the SeaSol model stresses that organizers should have both a good understanding of how to take on bosses and landlords (what tactics work, what don't), and also on how realistic winning a potential new campaign could be.
We like to show this relationship – between our strength and our demands – in our “Winability” graph.
In the graph, we can see that as our demands on a boss become greater, it becomes necessary for us to find more leverage to hurt them. So, the smaller the demand, the less leverage we need. The bigger the demand… you get the idea.
You might think this sounds obvious, and to Anarchists it probably is. This graph is just a nerdy way of teaching people a concept Anarchists have always deeply appreciated – Direct Action.
Even so, Anarchists could still learn a thing or two from SeaSol’s take on that old idea.
Part of what makes SeaSol so effective is that we base our actions on our actual strength. If, for example, it was going to take us “5 units” of pressure to win a demand from a boss, but we could only reliably keep up “3 units,” we would decline to take on that fight.
Of course, there is no way to quantify any of this, but you understand the concept.
The idea, in a nutshell, is to make sure that we aren't ever spending time on fights we are not yet strong enough to win. By choosing fights carefully, we can focus our energy somewhere we can have a bigger impact. It is, after all, results that people most want to see.
Once the fight is underway, SeaSol uses two basic principals to plan the campaign: escalation and sustainability.
First, we brainstorm what tactics might be effective in the campaign, and we rate them from least to most powerful. We do this because we want to escalate as the fight goes on. “Its not the memory of what we did to them yesterday that will make the bosses give in,” explains a SeaSol organizer, “but the fear of what we will do to them tomorrow.”
The process of mapping out a fight in this way is helpful not only because it allows us see just how much support we will have to mobilize - its helpful also because it allows us to see if our initial plans are sustainable.
2. Attract new workers:
There are undoubtedly a lot of reasons people may choose to join an organization. How friendly people are, how inclusive the group is, whether or not they agree with the principles of the group - all of these are important considerations for people.
Unfortunately, they are often the only considerations many anarchist organizers have when starting new groups. But there’s another consideration we should take into account – people may also want to know what your organization is doing.
The fact of the matter is that its hard to attract most people to your organization with great ideas and inclusiveness alone. People really want to see things get done.
Its also hard to retain people if there isn't a sense that progress is being made - if there isn't some sort of momentum. People tend to burn out pretty quickly in groups where there is not a lot getting done. And who can blame them?
One of the reasons SeaSol has had more sustained growth than any other Anarchist organization in the Northwest over the last two years is that it offers something practical and concrete to people: mutual support, community, and a real, practical defense against your boss and landlord.
What’s more, the retention of new members has also been helped along by our momentum: there is always enough work to go around.
No matter how involved someone wants to get initially, we can always find space for them to come lend a hand. When we attract new people through our ongoing fights and new campaigns, we are increasing our capacity, which means we can take on more fights, thus attracting yet more people.
3. Empower ourselves and others:
“Empowerment” is a term bandied about a lot in radical circles. “We need to empower them and empower them…” It can, at times, be used so often it becomes meaningless.
It is also used quite often in circumstances where, quite frankly, nothing of the sort is happening.
In SeaSol, however, we see it very concretely every day.
The process by which we accomplish the goals of our organization – winning fights against bosses and landlords – involves a lot of formal training. People need to learn how we make mobilizing calls. They need to learn how to conduct a meeting with a potential new fight, and they need to learn how to get a picket line together.
To these ends, we have a lot of one on ones, and we have a lot of group trainings.
But people don’t really learn how to organize by hearing a talk or by attending trainings. What’s most important about the education people get with the Seattle Solidarity Network is that they are given a space in which they can put ideas into action. Any worker that has a few spare hours every week has a place to come and learn the art and science of people power.
There is more to empowerment, however, than just learning new skills.
Even if the people involved in SeaSol are not ready to become full on organizers, the experience of taking on a boss and winning can still be a very radicalizing experience. It increases not just our power, but our confidence in ourselves.
The campaigns we conduct concretely show us all the real class divisions rife in our society, with workers on one side, and the bosses, landlords, cops and courts on the other. Arguably, the fights we conduct are able to reach many people in a way that our extensive libraries cannot.
4. Establish a stable presence in our community, off of which we can grow in new directions:
Starting a new political group is hard. Getting a group of people together to start any new group is hard. You need to find new ground rules, set new boundaries, find a space to meet, and just get a feeling for how you’re going to work with each other. This takes a lot of work.
Arguably, then, it’s a problem when groups are constantly falling apart. Unfortunately, that’s exactly the state of the Anarchist movement today.
If you are interested in avoiding a lot of the redundant, and frankly unnecessary work of constantly forming new groups, the Solidarity Network model has some advantages.
First, there is never any shortage of workers being screwed over by their bosses or landlords. As long as organizers are dedicated to fighting back, your work is cut out for you.
Secondly, the longer you’re around, the easier it is to build a bigger and more inclusive community. It just makes sense. If you’re around for years, and are engaged in work that is important to your community, people are going to know about you. If you’re around for all of two months, no one is going to get a chance to get in contact with you.
…
In the end, the Solidarity Network is just a beginning to something we all hope will be something much broader, and more encompassing.
With a larger network - and the community of struggle it builds – new possibilities become apparent to us. People have pitched ideas about the Seattle Solidarity Network taking on fights around police brutality, around violence against the LGBTQ community, or even around a case of sexual violence at a local high school.
These are all legitimate fights we may well be capable of dealing with. The point is, this model offers the chance to build a foundation for greater things down the line.
SeaSol provides us with the people power we need to start building a movement, and as the network grows, new possibilities will present themselves to us.
 E-Mail: info@seasol.net  Website: http://anarchism.pageabode.com/john-jacobsen/why-you-should-start-solidarity-network
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| Read more about: zonder rubriek | | supplements | | Starting a group | nn - 03.02.2011 17:37
1. A core group of people to found the organization. Its important to not just open the doors to just anyone at first, so that you can really get the group focussed on a small, specific list of tasks. One of the most common mistakes I've seen people make when starting a solidarity network is that they let a million people into it with a million different ideas about what it should be. In order for this sort of group to get off the ground, you need to focus all of your energy on finding and winning single fights for tenants and workers.
2. A website: Just start a blog on wordpress - its free and self explanatory. It allows you to update people about your fights, tell them about who you are/ what you do, and gives them a way to get in contact with you.
3. A message machine: We use a free message service - " http://k7.net/" This is the primary way people get a hold of us. People simply call and leave a message about what their potential fight may be about. It allows people to leave voice messages with us which we can share with all of the people on our organizing committee at once. Look around to see if there is a similar free service in your area.
4. Posters: Posters are the main way we reach out to people and find fights. We put up literally thousands of them - normally near bus stops, on main thouroughfares, and anywhere other working class people might stop and jot down our phone number or website. Their are often many ways to find free/cheap ways to make posters for your group - we have, for example, had members start groups on their college campus and gotten free funding and copies from the university. Here are some sample posters of what we use: http://www.seattlesolidarity.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=29
5. Place to meet: this is pretty self explanatory. Just make sure its centrally located and accessible.
| | Autonomous Base Nuclei | nn - 03.02.2011 17:38
Would be interested in the views of some of the more insurrectionary anarchist contributors to indymedia as to how the solnets are basically autonomous base nuclei?
Any views, ideas, opinions, critiques, etc ?
| | anarchy? | winston smith - 04.02.2011 12:18
On many occasions i hear people saying that organazation leads to hierachy. Wich in many cases is true. But the problem is not getting organized the problem are the people in the organazation. There is nothing wrong with getting organized.
what is anarchy.
for me the deffinition of anarchy is: To respect someone else freedom.
Inthis lies actually a great restriction and therefor i say anarchy is order and not chaos. Now we are living in chaos true democracy.
Definition of democraty: Even when everybody is wrong everybody is wright.
Wow that helps.
So basically democracy and capitalism go hand in hand.
so its surprise me how so many anarchist shout for democracy. And in this world anarchy is an Utopia why its actually very simple there are to many of us. And that has nothing to do with food or even femenine cleaqn energy or what so ever. It has to do with social behavior with there never will be this way. So the only thing one should fight for is a word birth control. Only then mankind could have a social sociaty. But that won 't be now or even the next few generations so that means an offerinf for a few generations in order to get a normal world in the future. But ego doesn 't care for the furure the ego wants it now wich is impossible.
This are ofcourse a few statements and i am not going into the philosofy behind it here for no i hope its some food for thaughts ps i know my english isn't the best
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