Below is a leaflet I handed out at the annual meeting of the Washington Education Association (WEA) on Thurs. 21 Apr. 2011. Since this is a cut and paste, some of the points are out of date.
Over the last 5 plus years I've attempted to get some traction with some of these ideas. The efforts at getting daylight for these ideas, or similar ideas with different people, have been staggeringly futile. What has been most interesting is just how deep is the resistance to change.
When the 'democratic' processes of an organization are all stacked to insure that the entrenched and unaccountable get to stay in charge of the cookie jar, people walk away. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard some leader or leader wannabe of the Seattle Education Association (SEA), WEA, or National Education Association blame working members for not participating in last minute processes in which working members had little or no visibility to, and little or no input to.
The leaflet is below.
++++++++++++++++++++++
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3 Must Do’s
I. It is too hard to participate. II. Too often participation is demanded / extorted / guilted in such a way that people participate in ways which they aren’t interested in. Eventually, their participation goes from limited to non-existent. III. The union does a lousy job at keeping people interested in participating.
I. WE MUST DO ORGANIZING ONLINE
+++++ My Statement.
Volunteers need to be able to self-organize on the web. Volunteers should NEVER have to waste time the questions of WHAT, WHERE, WHO, WHEN, HOW for the campaign or issue they’re working on. Volunteers should just be able to go to 1 website and get the following information for whatever community event or campaign they’re going to work with:
+++++ My Proposal.
1. WHAT are we going to do? Doorbelling, phone bank, rah rah, mailings, leafleting, informational tabling at community events, letter to editor / blog writing, contacting legislators…
2. WHERE is the WHAT going to happen? The corner of Main and 6th, the Law Office of SaveEm & SueEm, the statue of the pig…
3. WHO are we doing WHAT with? WHO is the coordinator making sure the ingredients of HOW happen.
4. WHEN are we doing WHAT? Every Friday night, Just Sat the 6th …
5. HOW are we going to do WHAT? Post as many instructions on the web as possible, so workers are less dependent on any coordinator.
II. WE MUST LET PEOPLE DO WHAT INTERESTS THEM OR,
LET PEOPLE DO WHAT THEY CAN STOMACH
+++++ My Statement.
People SHOULD participate in a way which interests them the most. Campaigns typically try to get everyone to only doorbell on this day or phone bank on that day – AND – how does that entice people who don’t want to phone bank or don’t want to doorbell or WANT to leaflet? IF it were easy to organize online, it would be easier for people to participate in a way which is comfortable and with people they want to participate with.
Below is a sample printed email I handed out at my high school, soliciting participation. It took me several hours to put this together (in Google Docs) and get it printed and get it back to school and hand it out and and and … this is something the UNION should be doing, electronically, and it should be tied to the online organizing.
+++++ My Proposal & Model.
How You Can Help and How Can You Help
Which Political Activity Interests You The Most, or, which is the least odious?
Which Community Organizing Activity Interests You The Most? *PICK ONLY 1
• Phone banking for an issue or candidate.
• Doorbelling - going door to door and chatting with people about an issue or candidate.
• Visibility - Sign Waving & Rah Rah in public spaces or at public events for an issue or candidate.
• Leafleting and /or Informational Table at some Community event (farmer's markets, public meetings...)
• Writing Letters to the Editor / Responding to media articles about an issue or candidate.
• Hosting Get Togethers / Coffee Hours with Friends / Neighbors about an issue or candidate.
• Helping a Host.
• Being an organizer for 1 of the above.
• Participate in civil disobedience !!!
• Other:
IF all 80,000 WEA members do 4 Political Activities a year, for only 2 hours at a time, THEN WEA members will do 320,000 Political Activities a year for a total of 640,000 hours. When would you prefer to participate?
• I could only manage in the summer.
• I could do it over the course of the year.
• I’d prefer to participate during primary and general campaign season.
• I’d prefer to participate when the legislature is in session.
III. MESSAGING FROM WEA MUST BE BETTER
+++++ My Statement.
My wife’s mother was told in 1949 at Bates College by her English professor in the nursing program that written communication had to be: Clear, Concise, Concrete, Consistent.
We do NOT have consistent information, even with the internet. I typically know more about what is happening from Blogs like Publicola, Save Seattle Schools
http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/ , Seattle Education
http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/ , and the Olympian than I get from my union.
+++++ My Ideas.
Through email and the web, there should be a specific time that messages are sent out. For example, people should know that every … Thursday at 5:00 the union tells us what is up with what. (Look at the Washington State Labor Council’s messaging!) When things are busy, the messaging should be more frequent AND should tell us when the next update will happen.
IV. Solidarity & Civility – The Myth, Trap and Lie
+++++ My Statement & My Ideas.
Let’s think about something – WHEN will 2 or more people ever agree on anything for longer than a week or a month, ESPECIALLY something like - which candidate or which campaign to support, AND, which political activities are the best ways to support the candidate or campaign?
The “Solidarity” thing becomes a trap EVERY fall. The CON$ultant$ get in charge of the campaigns and start with their grand stratergeries which ALWAYS boil down to: IF we all do what we’re told for the top of the ticket, the out pouring will trickle down the rest of the ballot. These grand $erve the intere$t$ of the CON$ultant cla$$ who've lead us to defeat after defeat for the la$t 30+ year$, under the banner of "don't scare the middle, or we'll lose." How has that worked out in Indiana, Florida, Wisconsin...? On Wall Street with casino pensions? With energy independence? With ha ha ha "heath care"?
Every time I hear “Solidarity” I wonder … huh? “Solidarity” is a cute myth, and when it is the basis for political strategy it is frequently childish. We really have to turn off the Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood romanticism and get out of the unrealistic trap it creates. We need to recognize that no one agrees on much for very long, and to concentrate on getting people involved!
