Communists in the South of the USA

[Entrails Konfetti]

The south in the USA doesn't have a history of organized labour like the north of the USA does. This is largely due to the fact that the south was largely an argicultural district, and most of the south has a right-to-work policy.

I have talked to other comrades, and it seems that Communist movement here seem to attract college students (I myself attend a community college), and most of the college kids leave the radical-left as they get older. If there ever is a labour movement it gets inflitrated easily--they are islands of action in a sea of reaction.

There is definately a working-class where I live, but it's based around constructing homes. The workers are hired by contractors, or a company and once the project is done the workers find another project to work on. Or there are those workers who are trapped in cubicles to schedual building on sites, plumbing visits, and market over the telephone.

The left in the north is writing, and revising their platforms, and trying to figure out a direction. They have organization, while the south is trying to form organizations.

I don't know what to do, I don't know where to look.

[Nachie]

I would suggest studying the history of what's happened in your area and the South in general so as to get a good idea of what's been tried before, what worked, what didn't, etc.

To get this kind of information it is often useful to talk to local unions, anti-war organizations, historical Leninist parties (ones that have been around for at least 20 years) and liberal groups of all stripes to see who has been doing what. Of course I'm not saying adopt their methods, but learn from them first to see what ground has already been covered and where they are drawing their support from, if anywhere.

Your best bet isn't going to be in organizing workers, but in organizing communities of workers. Focus on the idea of dual power and assisting with autonomous campaigns already underway that relate to the everyday needs of the people. Communities usually have all sorts of interesting little things going on like neighborhood associations to stop the closing of a local pool or other smaller issues like that. These can be very useful tactical points of entry for revolutionary groups if and only if they are prepared to act in solidarity with these struggles and not in leadership over them.

Also if you need some inspiration I would suggest picking up Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807842885/sr=8-1/qid=1146593545/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-5510927-6066304?%5Fencoding=UTF8) by Robin D. G. Kelley

[Janus]

I would suggest studying the history of what's happened in your area and the South in general so as to get a good idea of what's been tried before, what worked, what didn't, etc.
That's what the IWW does and it seems that the labor movement has had major difficulties here in the area.


To get this kind of information it is often useful to talk to local unions, anti-war organizations, historical Leninist parties (ones that have been around for at least 20 years) and liberal groups of all stripes to see who has been doing what.
The problem is that in some areas, there's no leftist activity at all other than maybe some labor unions or a peace group. That's kind of the problem right there as there is so much conservatism here in the South.

[Nachie]

What state/region/town are we talking about here?

Of course if you'd rather not say, that's quite understandable.

My advice remains: go into unorganized communities to see what kind of trouble you can stir up there. The big successes I have had have been with organizing around cultural/music events that create an atmosphere where people can start talking about what type of "revolutionary organization" would actually work in the area, and any campaign having to do with countering the police presence in working class neighborhoods will also have a lot of potential.

Find out if the pigs have murdered anyone poor or of color recently and try to contact the families. If and only if the family is accepting of your help, give it to them in the form of physical bodies to throw behind whatever actions they decide are appropriate. Help raise funds or find legal support if they are thinking of taking the cops to court, etc.

Turn your house into a "community center" that does weekly block parties.

[Jimmie Higgins]

In most of the south, state governments "right to work states" and are tripping over themselves to get rid of labor protections and give tax cuts to large companies so they'll locate there.

As manufactureing is declining in the north, many companies are relocating to the south where the lack of union movements, lack of a left, and history of racial ineqaulity means little opposition.

Although liberals and right-wing populatists complain about factories moving over seas, the majority of the northern manufacturing has moved to the south and southwest rathern than mexico or other places.

This means the south is going to be the location of major class struggle at some point in the next decades... this labor action is probably also going to be coneccted to racial struggles (probably both black and latino struggles for equlatiy).

Being part of a movement that's small right now, but will become big later means being active in everything you can so that you can start making connections to any labor militants in the area or progressives or whatnot. Don't limit yourself to other revolutionaries who believe the same things you do... network and meet the people who realize the present situation isn't working and are comitted to doing something. You might be able to convince them to become radicals or you might just make some allies in the area (which is important if when you are a lone activist in a more reactionary area).

[Red Axis]

I better head south. The great thing too is that they are all anti-gun control so the revolution won't be as hard to armor in case it unfortunately goes that direction.

[Entrails Konfetti]

I haven't seen much industrialization, and it just doesn't make sense to industrialize areas that grow raw-product.

They're turning New Orleans into a Disneyland, and I haven't heard of it being industrialized.

[Entrails Konfetti]

Originally posted by [email protected] 2 2006, 07:57 PM
The big successes I have had have been with organizing around cultural/music events that create an atmosphere where people can start talking about what type of "revolutionary organization" would actually work in the area, and any campaign having to do with countering the police presence in working class neighborhoods will also have a lot of potential.

I know you're just trying to help, but there are already plenty of students in the left. Promoting a hardcore/punk gig would just attract alot of kids--if they have a revolutionary grasp thats a good thing, but if they talk in a revolutionary manner jst because they think its cool thats another thing. I don't know how inclined the punky kids are in your area, but here the political ones like to wave " Fuck Bush" posters beside the highway, which disturbs old people, and gets them arrested.
As well intentioned as they are, they don't have a sense of direction.


Find out if the pigs have murdered anyone poor or of color recently and try to contact the families. If and only if the family is accepting of your help, give it to them in the form of physical bodies to throw behind whatever actions they decide are appropriate

An interesting story, near my town, last year Aryan Nations had a bar-b-que on some privatly owned ranch, and one of the heads of AN (or National Alliance) went there and spoke to about 500 or more Neo-Nazis who traveled there. I don't recall a demonstration to protest that event, however if such a thing happens again, and there is a protest I think it would be wize to not be openly Communist.


Turn your house into a "community center" that does weekly block parties.
Thats a good suggestion if there was a political base, but that would turn into drunken bashes which everyone would get sick of showing up to.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Originally posted by EL [email protected] 2 2006, 10:51 PM
I haven't seen much industrialization, and it just doesn't make sense to industrialize areas that grow raw-product.

They're turning New Orleans into a Disneyland, and I haven't heard of it being industrialized.
I'm sure different areas have different situations. If it is all farming where you are, I don't know what to tell you - read up on Chavez and the UFW in California because organizing farmworkers is dificult because they are so isolated from eachother and often they get work through contractors hired by the large farms.

I was just googleing for stats on industrialization in the south when I cam across this webpage:

It looks to be a pretty decent liberal/progressive webpage about the south:
http://www.southernstudies.org/facingsouth/

It looks like maybe they are coneccted to the NAACP, but their articles seem to the left of the NAACP.

[Nachie]

I know you're just trying to help, but there are already plenty of students in the left.
haha yeah but school campuses are hardly what i had in mind when i suggested "communities".

Also you shouldn't take my referring to "cultural/music" events as a codeword for punk shows. punk/hardcore shows make shitty places to organize anyway because usually the music is too loud for anybody to hear themselves think or have a decent discussion about anything. I also don't think that weekly block parties tend to turn into drunken bashes, and even when they do it's still better than nothing! Get some food together and make it a backyard barbeque with some folk music or a DJ or something. It doesn't have to call itself "political" to be revolutionary.

By saying it was a good idea you implied that you do have access to a house. So turn it into an informal homeless shelter, or daycare, or anything!

Either way though, it sounds like you're pretty desperate and aren't in a position to be extremely picky about where you're organizing just so long as its somewhere that works. If you admit that some students might indeed have a "revolutionary grasp", then why not seek them out and see what they're interested in doing outside the school grounds? If there is a punk scene in your area, why not go down to a show and see who's out there, who already has the consciousness? Maybe there's an animal defense league or something tabling at the show and you can start building up a wider network.

Consolidate what support you can.

[Janus]

The great thing too is that they are all anti-gun control so the revolution won't be as hard to armor in case it unfortunately goes that direction.
That's a two-edged sword. You'll also have to face a conservative white militia as well.

[rebelworker]

I have a few friends who are union organizers in the south, there is alot of good organising going on in the south right now, in particular among immigrant communities.

Check to see what groups like SEIU are up to. They just won a hunger strike of janitors in Florida, Janitors win fight (http://www.seiu.org/media/pressreleases.cfm?pr_id=1307).

There is a very large(considering the size of most revolutionary groups right now) supporter collective of NEFAC in Atlanta,Capital Terminus Collective (http://www.nefac.net/~ctc/) . I think in that city in particular the left is fairly sizable(black city surrounded).

I think labour organising is the way to go, there is lots of room to grow there and the need is greates in all the US.

[Entrails Konfetti]

Originally posted by [email protected] 2 2006, 11:26 PM
haha yeah but school campuses are hardly what i had in mind when i suggested "communities".
The last place I'd look for leftists would be at my school. There isn't even a decent place on the campus for students to hangout and have "clubs". I mainly to talk to other students elsewhere. The thing is the left has plenty of students. And you don't have much credibility when you haven't yet worked a monotonous job for 10 or more years, but try to organize communities of workers.


I also don't think that weekly block parties tend to turn into drunken bashes, and even when they do it's still better than nothing! Get some food together and make it a backyard barbeque with some folk music or a DJ or something.

What do you do at these events then, divert the conversation into talk about a revolution?


By saying it was a good idea you implied that you do have access to a house. So turn it into an informal homeless shelter, or daycare, or anything!

Not exactly, it ain't my house, and I don't know how willing my friends would be.
Its certainly not a "punk house" where all local leftists pool some money together to pay for rent, have a book barrowing place, and show movies like "Bread and Roses" or " the Revolution will not be Televised".


If there is a punk scene in your area, why not go down to a show and see who's out there, who already has the consciousness?

Dude, I see my friends play all the time. My friends heard about Crass from me.
Perhaps we could all just talk more and figure out what to do. We all have the same single parent, working back grounds, and some of my friends are postal workers now. It could be just a start. But I can't put my head in the clouds, I have to look at things as realistically as possible. Who knows...

[Nachie]

What do you do at these events then, divert the conversation into talk about a revolution?
Nope, just divert the conversation to interesting topics. Communism, surprisingly enough, is a direct consequence of almost any human interaction. Who cares if people leave without having heard anything about Marxism? Shit, that'll probably make them more likely to come back. Try to think in terms of creating spaces where people can have a good time. People will recognize community cohesion as a positive and will get themselves interested in supporting it, which at that point is when you can start thinking about bigger projects with more people. Plus maybe in two years when you get arrested for doing something stupid, there will be a ton of regular people who remember you as a chill guy, and will come to your defense.

It's not about "we got the ill revolutionary organization" because that's simply not the stage we're at. Right now we have enough trouble getting to "I know what my neighbor's name is, and I even look them in the eye and greet them sometimes".


Perhaps we could all just talk more and figure out what to do. We all have the same single parent, working back grounds, and some of my friends are postal workers now. It could be just a start. But I can't put my head in the clouds, I have to look at things as realistically as possible. Who knows...
Sounds like you ARE looking at it pretty realistically, then. You just gotta sit down with your friends, without an agenda, and talk about where everybody's head is at in terms of the future and what they see as being a valueable use of their lives.

[Severian]

Originally posted by EL [email protected] 2 2006, 11:53 AM
The south in the USA doesn't have a history of organized labour like the north of the USA does. This is largely due to the fact that the south was largely an argicultural district, and most of the south has a right-to-work policy.
Actually, it's due to the legacy of Jim Crow segregation. (Though the "right-to-work" laws don't help.) The deeper racist divisions in the working class, and Ku Klux Klan terror, made it harder for workers to organize historically.

Those conditions have changed; but the relative weakness of the workers' movement in the South remains as an aftereffect. So what to do in the South isn't that different from anywhere else - less different than in the past, certainly.

The population of North Carolina, for example, has a higher percentage of industrial workers than anywhere else in the country. Mostly textile, historically; there's a lot of meatpacking also. But North Carolina also has the lowest rate of unionization in the country.

Industries in the South include coal, steel, and now auto in Alabama; shipbuilding and oil along the Gulf, garment and textile in different places; meatpacking everywhere. A lot of companies are moving south in search of cheaper and non-union labor. I'm not sure what area you're in.

There are also farmworkers organizing efforts - mostly in Florida - and struggles by by working farmers, especially by Black farmers who've been fighting against USDA discrimination.

Find out what actions are going on and join them. If there are strikes or organizing efforts nearby, ask the workers most directly involved what kind of help they can use. If nothing's going on, I don't think anyone's general advice on starting anything is going to be particularly helpful.

I might add that I don't really miss having "the left" in the area since I moved here.

[LoneRed]

El, check out the Coalition of Immokolee workers, I went to a protest with them in chicago a little while ago, and they are from Florida, heres the link


http://www.ciw-online.org/

[LoneRed]

Also im in the same boat as you, even though Arizona isnt classified as what is known as the south, its very conservative, and the best place to start organizing (at least in Arizona) is with the immigrant issue, florida i would assume there would be things involving farm workers as well as the haitian and cuban immigrants, although the cuban immigrants dont seem to be complaining as the US govt takes care of them

[RevSouth]

I feel the same way, I'm in the south too. A punk/hardcore show doesn't seem to be a very good idea in the South, anyway. Part of the problem with this, in my area of the South, anyway, is that so many of the hardcore-punk kids are Christian rockers. They are, after misinformed, conservative, and don't know enough about the world to care. One idea though, is a bluegrass festival, or some more traditionalist element. It seems that the intensity at these is lower, and many of the supporters are left leaning.

Black culture really needs to be reached out towards. Most seem disrespected and disenfranchised by capitalism and white America. A leftist revolution in the States would require the Afro-Americans support. The first step though, is the reunification of black culture under a common banner.