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Bio: My hometown is Baltimore, USA.  After working as an attorney for two small law firms, first in West Virginia and then in Baltimore, I opened a solo law office in April, 2007.&nb... (More)

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All you got to do to join is sing...

By Curtis Cooper at Sep 21, 2010

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And the only reason I'm singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if you’re in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's walk into the shrink wherever you are, just walk in say "Shrink, You can get anything you want, at Alice's restaurant.”  And walk out.  You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him.  And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both [gay] and they won't take either of them. And if three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin’ a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization.  And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin’ a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out.  And friends they may think it's a movement.
 
And that's what it is, the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it comes around on the guitar.
 
-Arlo Guthrie, Alice’s Restaurant, 1966
 
 
Sure, building a movement takes more than singing, or writing blog posts.  Especially in times like now, which seem more barren for racial justice advocates, environmentalists, peaceniks, leftists, etc. in the US than the comparatively heady days of the 1960s.

Listening to the popular live recording of Alice’s Restaurant, there is a great interplay between Arlo Guthrie’s hilarious ramblings and the audience’s laughter and singing along.  Without denigrating the many fine and socially conscious musicians and audiences of today, a certain elan comes through in the recording which is harder to feel these days, one that might be worth thinking about for those interested in building a movement.

Here are some questions, provoked by the opening quotation from Alice’s Restaurant.  What are we (whoever we are) asking people to join?  Is it building toward something concrete?  At the same time, is it at least a little fun?  Is it part of something big and affirming, though embracing struggle … a movement?  Is there an organizing strategy likely to appeal to a broad base, or is it tailored to fit the choir in predictable and ineffective ways? 

These questions come up often enough on Z, around projects like the proposal for a Fifth International and building an institutional framework for participatory economics.  In my own experience as a lawyer in the US, I have found my participation in the National Lawyers Guild to be very positive.  The Guild has a solid grounding in social justice captured in the motto “to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests”, with a network of  people’s lawyers across the country, and even with some dedicated staff in a national office and in large chapters and projects around the country, funded by modest budgets that many other social justice organizations do not have.  But at least in my local chapter, and to some degree at the national level and in many other chapters around the country, we’re not feeling much like a movement, and that’s a part of the problem.

Comment On This Blog Post  See All Comments (2)

Stephen_oct_2010

Good blog

By Roblin, Stephen at Sep 24, 2010 14:24 PM
"What are we (whoever we are) asking people to join?  Is it building toward something concrete?  At the same time, is it at least a little fun?  Is it part of something big and affirming, though embracing struggle … a movement?  Is there an organizing strategy likely to appeal to a broad base, or is it tailored to fit the choir in predictable and ineffective ways?"

These basic questions seem to be overlooked by many activist groups, at least my experience. I tend to believe that when thing aren't working ( I don't think anyone would argue that the Left is being as effective as it should), you go back to the drawing board. As for making activism more fun, I haven't spoken to one activist who disagrees with this. There are too many activists like myself, academic, dry, and boring.

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Comment_reply
Brad_guitar_clean

Re: Good blog

By Wilson, Brad at Sep 25, 2010 04:42 AM


Cf. "Will it be fun for the People," http://www.tenant.net/Organize/orgdyn.html#I6  Doesn't Saul Alinsky say the same thing.

More at my Content Box: "Real Organizing." 

Winning is fun!  Winning appeals to a broad base.  It's unpredictable.  It sometimes seems that most groups have never won, and aren't focused in that way.  Stephen, you might want to check out my writing on organizing.  It's not that hard to learn better methods.  What's challenging is the lack of experience with the methods used by those groups that can win.  If they haven't experienced it, it's hard to get the  leaders to change.  The grassroots can be quickly mobilized however.  They're ready to act.  

People like to go see big actions, but that's not the real drama.  Drama is the key.  Fun drama.

We should start a group here focusing on this topic.

I think I'll post some pictures on some of our work, which comes straight out of the Shel Trapp booklets, and Roger Fisher.

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Comment_reply
Stephen_oct_2010

Re: Re: Good blog

By Roblin, Stephen at Sep 25, 2010 17:36 PM
Hi Brad,

Thanks for the info. Some of us are considering creating a Project for a Participatory Society - U.S. (PPS-U.S.). I think this discussion would perhaps have more influence if it occured within an organization. See blog: http://www.zcommunications.org/why-not-a-project-for-a-participatory-society-u-s-by-stephen-roblin#comment_container_172166

I look forward to reading your blog post.

Stephen

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Comment_reply
Brad_guitar_clean

Re: Re: Re: Good blog

By Wilson, Brad at Sep 27, 2010 13:29 PM
Yes, here are 2 quotes: 

There is a delusional quality about all those humanistic and developmental schema that individualize a “naked spirit” in man, assumed to grow without social, economic or other structural support.  In fact, people are fed, fueled, protected, employed, empowered, informed and variously regarded by institutions.  Anti-heroism and man-alone-against-the-system are middle-class ideals, which have more to do with the personal predilections of creative writers to remain at their desks than empowering their ideas through action.

 

The Reality pits an institutionalized professional, preaching individuality, against an uninstitutionalized client, experiencing bureaucratization.

 

Charles Hampden-Turner, From Poverty to Dignity

 

What ordinary man, or for that matter exceptional man, wants an individual relationship with government and its might?  .  .  .  Instead he seeks a closer relationship to government through his group, where there is enough collective human strength to further his interest and defend him from State power.  It is the group which relates man to the state for self-defense and the good life.

 

Milton Kotler, also quoted in Hampden-Turner, above

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Brad_guitar_clean

Re: Good blog

By Wilson, Brad at Sep 25, 2010 04:48 AM


Cf. "Will it be fun for the People," http://www.tenant.net/Organize/orgdyn.html#I6  Doesn't Saul Alinsky say the same thing.

More at my Content Box: "Real Organizing." 

Winning is fun!  Winning appeals to a broad base.  It's unpredictable.  It sometimes seems that most groups have never won, and aren't focused in that way.  Stephen, you might want to check out my writing on organizing.  It's not that hard to learn better methods.  What's challenging is the lack of experience with the methods used by those groups that can win.  If they haven't experienced it, it's hard to get the  leaders to change.  The grassroots can be quickly mobilized however.  They're ready to act.  

People like to go see big actions, but that's not the real drama.  Drama is the key.  Fun drama.

We should start a group here focusing on this topic.

I think I'll post some pictures on some of our work, which comes straight out of the Shel Trapp booklets, and Roger Fisher.

Reply this comment

Brad_guitar_clean

Re: Good blog

By Wilson, Brad at Sep 25, 2010 16:42 PM
I've nowuploaded the photo album, and posted the text in my new blog:

"How to Organize: A ZSpace Photo Album."

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Brad_guitar_clean

feeling like a movement

By Wilson, Brad at Sep 21, 2010 13:52 PM
You might be interested in my writing about organizing such as my piece on chomsky and peters, and my "Real Organizing" links.  Songs can teach our members how to win, build membership, and become wise to tricks.  I mention than in my "organizers checklist." 

I guess, I'd be more concrete and specific than Arlo in the movie.

I have more that might relate to your thoughts here (music, drama, movement):

http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/3109/food-drama-organizers-writers-actors-cooks-board-members-wanted

And here (videos on the same):  

http://www.youtube.com/user/FireweedFarm#p/c/DB8B6234003B8520/6/q9iuYDK2x-o

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