Marcus Clayman
6th April 2012, 01:26
Hey, Mike here from Maine in the US.
Been travelling for a while and involved in an occupy group, my first experiences in activism, organizing people, and direct actions. It was a great lerning experience but im ready for more,,
more critical dialogue about tactics/strategy/philosophy/etc
and more practical experience
anyone from maine, id like to talk with more about what we can do... im interested in organizing facilitation trainings to bring more general assembly, direct democratic alternatives to community governance, to every day people... i think maine would foster this well and be good place to experiment with it/learn from it in rural and small town areas
also i have this pet project, of creating a DIY Organization Structure Modular Kit handbook, lol, long name, big idea... i want to make organizational methods more understandable for people who aren't organizational theorists... because from my experiences, people tend to organize in conventional methods, or in an ad hoc way,spontaneous without really looking at various options and their merits critically... sometimes people pick a way of organizing because of some percieved moral merit, such as anarchists and democraticists(both of which I identify with on moral grounds, but see the practical merits of top down management in some situations, such as strategic spontaniety, group coordination, focus, etc) and sometimes, when there is no process, people make up their own rules, and this can create an unintended meritocracy/despotic situation, competition over individual autonomy vs inclusiveness of everyone in a decision, avoidable ego clashes, etc etc
anyway, lots of interests... mostly organizational theory and practical process issues, although I am not a process nazi, I dislike the negative side of beurocracy as much as anyone, and the ideal of ultimate autonomy and spontaniety with equality and consensus are what I, and I think everyone compassionate and rational, would be aiming for? but my limited experience in activist groups, has shown me, that lack of use of process/organizational structure, in some incidences allows some of the same systemic and cultural injustices that we are fighting against, and many others, to be recreated on a micro scale within our activist groups. it's like assuming everyone is equal, quite naively, and then doing nothing to make sure that's the case. Leaving it up to individuals, may be what we have to do, and the burden is always on individuals anyway, to intepret and apply a process, or make up their own way, but a process can protect us from ourselves sometimes, and be used as a working model to define goals and measure success. and are a big part of what is, and has always been a major weakness in leftist movements... since we are not just rallying and making a bunch of noise, but challenging deep rooted systemic things, we have to aproach them on multiple levels, and in my opinion, that means organizing in critical ways.
See you all around the boards, peace!
Been travelling for a while and involved in an occupy group, my first experiences in activism, organizing people, and direct actions. It was a great lerning experience but im ready for more,,
more critical dialogue about tactics/strategy/philosophy/etc
and more practical experience
anyone from maine, id like to talk with more about what we can do... im interested in organizing facilitation trainings to bring more general assembly, direct democratic alternatives to community governance, to every day people... i think maine would foster this well and be good place to experiment with it/learn from it in rural and small town areas
also i have this pet project, of creating a DIY Organization Structure Modular Kit handbook, lol, long name, big idea... i want to make organizational methods more understandable for people who aren't organizational theorists... because from my experiences, people tend to organize in conventional methods, or in an ad hoc way,spontaneous without really looking at various options and their merits critically... sometimes people pick a way of organizing because of some percieved moral merit, such as anarchists and democraticists(both of which I identify with on moral grounds, but see the practical merits of top down management in some situations, such as strategic spontaniety, group coordination, focus, etc) and sometimes, when there is no process, people make up their own rules, and this can create an unintended meritocracy/despotic situation, competition over individual autonomy vs inclusiveness of everyone in a decision, avoidable ego clashes, etc etc
anyway, lots of interests... mostly organizational theory and practical process issues, although I am not a process nazi, I dislike the negative side of beurocracy as much as anyone, and the ideal of ultimate autonomy and spontaniety with equality and consensus are what I, and I think everyone compassionate and rational, would be aiming for? but my limited experience in activist groups, has shown me, that lack of use of process/organizational structure, in some incidences allows some of the same systemic and cultural injustices that we are fighting against, and many others, to be recreated on a micro scale within our activist groups. it's like assuming everyone is equal, quite naively, and then doing nothing to make sure that's the case. Leaving it up to individuals, may be what we have to do, and the burden is always on individuals anyway, to intepret and apply a process, or make up their own way, but a process can protect us from ourselves sometimes, and be used as a working model to define goals and measure success. and are a big part of what is, and has always been a major weakness in leftist movements... since we are not just rallying and making a bunch of noise, but challenging deep rooted systemic things, we have to aproach them on multiple levels, and in my opinion, that means organizing in critical ways.
See you all around the boards, peace!