Remember when we stopped shipping things for a while and it turned out that global sea temperatures were actually higher than we thought, but no one could tell becuase of all the smog from shipping blankets the oceans?
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Andrew (Television Executive)replied to Andrew (Television Executive) last edited by
The most important thing you can do, the big message, is to build a community.
That's how we Organize. That's how we create social change.
Organizing for "the vote" is useless. The work happens in kitchens and coffee shops and bookstores and libraries and living rooms and concert halls.
Make friends. Support your friends. Be ready to defend one another if the moment calls for it. Figure out how to get to the other side. Figure out how to slow down. Figure out how to get off the ride.
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Andrew (Television Executive)replied to Andrew (Television Executive) last edited by
Today's as good a day as any to listen to A Short Story About A War.
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Andrew (Television Executive)replied to Andrew (Television Executive) last edited by
If you want to blame someone for what happened, consider blaming the party that decided genocide and the support of the Cheney family was a winning strategy.
But remember that, even if Trump had lost, things would still continue to get worse.
If we want things to get better, we have to move beyond this system.
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Andrew (Television Executive)replied to Andrew (Television Executive) last edited by
The biggest thing that changed is the timeline. Most things were already bad and getting worse. Now they're also going to be faster.
Some new things will get worse in more obvious ways, but they probably would have gotten worse either way.
The biggest thing that changed is the timeline.
The most important thing we need to do in the wake of it is build, maintain, and protect our communities.
People, not politics. People, not technology.
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Don't join the IWW. As an IWW member I can say that the organization is completely dysfunctional and currently unable to do anything for new members, who will just be treated as a source of dues until they leave.
It's going to need something to happen before it's useful to anyone.
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@richpuchalsky probably depends where you are? I know the national level has been bad for a while, but they're all about to be voted out so hopefully that will be fixed soon. The Atlanta General Membership Branch is pretty active despite the national chaos and does a lot of good work. The thing is that it's a much more bottom up organization, national does mostly paperwork and locally is where stuff happens. That does mean that not all branches are good at engagement though
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@richpuchalsky anyways, sorry if you had a bad experience wherever you are
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If you want to say that your branch is great and people in Atlanta should join, that's fine. I'm in a job branch myself. But a general message to join NARA is a sacrifice of people who think that they are doing something useful and will just leave them embittered.
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@richpuchalsky I disagree. Obviously I can't say that every single person will find their political and organizing home there, no org is perfect and I want to acknowledge that the problem you're describing is probably very real, but overall it's a great organization doing great work. I'm sorry it wasn't good for you, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good recommendation for others.
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@richpuchalsky also, anything I can do to help sort out the problems with your work place branch? I'd be curious to know more if you're willing to chat.
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"I'm sorry it wasn't good for you": I'm a current member, I'm familiar with the organization, and I can only repeat that people should not join. I see no chance of the long-lasting problems being solved any time soon.
My problems are not with my branch, which is fine: my problems are that NARA has hurt my branch, not helped, as it has every IWW organizing effort.
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@richpuchalsky oh yah, totally agree that NARA is actively harmful right now. The election is almost done though and it sounds like they'll all be gone; I'm hopeful they'll get back to just getting gobs out on time and paying branches their remittances. Other than that, locally is where the important stuff happens, I'm not sure that NARA matters much. Also, lots of people here aren't even in north america and won't have to deal with NARA even indirectly.
