My response to letter from friend and colleague J. dated February 29:
It's very good to hear from you too. Things are going well with me and Chuleenan here in the Bay. It's almost impossible for me to believe that you're only 27 or that you are that same curious, precocious, and big eared kid who used to hang out with all of us crazy Detroit radicals and music/literary fanatics on those summer porches back in the '80s (with your wonderful and equally crazy radical artist parents among us). It WAS a longtime ago and yet it seems like it happened only a few months back in many respects. TEMPUS FUGIT indeed!
It's especially great to hear what you have been doing with your life. Your union and political activity is not merely 'impressive' but needless to say VERY IMPORTANT. We are probably living in the most perilous time in human history and as you well know it's imperative that we all take direct responsibility for seriously changing this world that as you so eloquently and accurately put it is clearly "headed to hell with gasoline drawers on"...
The fact that you have such a sophisticated and mature understanding and knowledge of the complex ideological dynamics of "race, class, and gender" in both your struggles for democracy within the Teamsters and in the general society as well does my heart good and is a clear vindication for me that all the public "ranting and raving" we black, white, brown, yellow, and red activists and artists did in Detroit back in the '80s and beyond was not in vain. YOU ARE THE BRILLIANT LIVING PROOF OF THAT FACT. After all our collective goal "back in the day" and as it still remains to this day was to make both political and cultural education and activism REAL AND USEFUL for younger people as well as ourselves. Your involvement in the union struggles along with Walter and all the others in your multiracial crew make that vividly clear and is definitely inspiring (despite whatever primitive and backward racist bilge and opposition you have inevitably encountered among many of the "Irish and Italians").
What's especially encouraging and inspirational for me to realize is that you are already an integral part of that truly progressive "new generation" that I and all my other friends/colleagues/fellow radicals & artists from my generation are always talking about and demanding that it emerge. So along with Kathleen and the music I can see that you're taking care of business and doing just fine. That means I can now relax a little bit now that I know the future is in good hands. So thank you brother. I appreciate it...
As for Obama:
As I pointed out in my last email message I agree with you that Obama is not, will not, and cannot be the central or most significant force in any mass movement for progressive change in this country--only the rest of us can build and sustain such a movement (as i also said in my more detailed letter response to Ray Waller, a copy of which I sent to you--I hope you read it). But Obama's clearly a potential political conduit and instrument for such mass activity as one part of a much larger and far more complex strategic, tactical, and creative movement that can and should make sustained demands on his administration to carry out much needed reforms in many different areas of both domestic and foreign policy. I especially agree wholeheartedly with the last five paragraphs of your letter that speaks precisely and lucidly to what we should all concern ourselves with regardless of the inherent limitations and inadequacies of the Obama candidacy and campaign. Because as I also pointed out our responsibility as activists and citizens in this mass struggle is going to involve far more than merely getting a liberal President elected and will be as we pointed out not only a great challenge to any legitimate mass movement for change but will also take time to develop (certainly much longer than anyone's four year term in office).
What's absolutely KEY to this political evolution however is what you say here in the following quotation all of which i agree with 100%:
Kofi,
good to hear from you. hope things are well out in
the bay. it's been a long time since we've seen each
other or spoke.
I'm remembering a young boy, on summer nights in
Detroit, eaves-dropping on front porch
conversations--listening as his pops and his pops'
friends talked about jazz or poetry or politics, or
some combination of the above. I'm only fucking 27 and
that seems like a long time ago. damn!
anyway man, good to hear from you.
especially now as the world still seems to be headed
to hell with gasoline drawers on...
I wanna respond to this Obama stuff in a second.
But since its been a good minute, first, allow me to
indulge in a little "what has the young boy been
up-to-lately-type-shit."
About two and a half years ago I moved to Brooklyn. I
took a job as a Teamster in the trade show/moving and
storage industry (moving boxes, crates, setting
up/installing shit for shows, packing, wrapping,
delivering expensive things to rich people, etc.).
I genuinely enjoy the work and make more money then
many kids I went to school with who are wallowing in
non-profit land (i guess the government isn't into
funding its own demise huh?).
anyway, the story is that I didn't just end up in any
old Teamsters local, but one with a pretty militant
past and a potentially even more militant future.
There had just been a strike where the rank-and-file
(who almost always know better than their "leaders")
self-organized and basically shut down the entire
industry for a few days. One of the major
rank-and-file leaders of the strike was and is an
African-American guy in his forties named Walter.
Since becoming a member of the union myself, a growing
rank and file movement/dissident caucus is beginning
to take shape. I have helped bring together some
younger (and a few older) radical workers in my
particular shop.
Less than a year ago, we ran for the executive board
of our union (with Walter running for president) and
lost by a slim margin. Our local's membership is
traditionally--you'll be shocked to hear--Irish and
Italian. And our leadership (if they can even be
called that) is again--hold your breath--Irish and
Italian! Many people in the union grumbled that
running a Black guy for the top spot was political
suicide. The rest of our "Teamsters For Change" slate
included a half Latino/half Korean guy (who by the way
refers to himself jokingly as the "china-man") a
Mexican-American, a Nigerian immigrant and one good
old white guy from Staten Island (who is a solid
trade-unionist and didn't mind being on a slate with a
radical group of people of color).
Not surprisingly, when we ran a campaign based on
rank-and file power, union democracy (which we
currently enjoy very little of) and standing up to the
corporate bosses in new york (something our lazy bunch
of Sopranos cast-offs doesn't seem particularly
interested in), we did quite well with all
demographics--and even had an Italian shop steward in
of the most notorious "goomba" warehouses campaigning
really hard for us.
Were there white racists in our union who didn't vote
for Walter because he's Black (even though he did lead
the strike which resulted in material gains for those
same idiots)? Of course there were and are.
But we trudge on. We've pressured our union leadership
to take more militant stands and adopt more visionary
practices on organizing our industry. We have a new
web-site (in slightly post-embryonic form) at
www.voiceof814.com, and are preparing for several
contract fights and possible strikes/lockouts.
so yeah, class struggle, along with falling in love
with a beautiful woman named Kathleen, and listening
to the new Joshua Redman joint is what I've been up to
lately.
As for Obama...
I think you're right to say the momentum behind him is
real. Many regular working people have fucking had it
and see his candidacy as something which could make
their lives better. They are right. If he gets
elected and even passes a few modest liberal reforms,
and/or appoints more liberal judges to benches and
labor boards, holds the line on affirmative action,
doesn't bomb us and the rest of the world into the
next century, then our lives will all be better. I
don't however feel that his campaign is really much of
a "movement" per se, as it is based on getting him
elected and not on building and sustaining popular
organization and/or putting forth an agenda for
substantive change and a shift in current power
dynamics.
The reason I circulated the Gonzalez piece is not
because I think he's a great guy or is ideologically
pure (if anybody is). All I know about him is that he
ran for mayor and is a big wheel in the Green party.
He may be a hypocrite, probably is, and that wouldn't
surprise me. I generally expect very little from
elected "leaders," precisely because I adhere to what
you said in your email about social movements being
the only real engine of radical change.
I did, and do however, think Obama's voting record
suggests very little willingness to break with
washington's time-honored practice of protecting the
white-western-corporate-elite. I would support Obama,
as Howard Zinn says in this article
(www.progressive.org/mag_zinn0308), for as long as it
takes to pull the lever in the voting booth.
But what's actually great about the Obama
campaign--besides that it has seen a lot of white
people acknowledging and even advocating for a Black
guy to be president (that alone is something in this
country!)-- is that it has no real substance! It's
like Obama is handing out a bunch of blank checks to
poor/broke Americans and telling them to just fill in
whatever they want. Whatever dreams Americans have
for change, they can get. I don't have to be the one
to tell you, or anybody, that the check is gonna
bounce!
Still, I think his presidency will be a good thing.
Not the least of the reasons being that we will have
avoided electing a deranged veteran who never got to
finish blowing up yellow and brown countries or
electing a slippery politician who sat on the board of
Wal-Mart for years and has a high level adviser
(Bill's old buddy Mark Penn) who works for an infamous
anti-worker law firm.
But further, it may sharpen the contradictions a
little more and hopefully encourage the re-birth of
real autonomous social movements. Labor, Civil
Rights, Women's Rights, etc. are all movements whose
leadership has been co-opted by the government and/or
capital. Instead of mobilizing against capitalism,
racism, sexism, imperialism, etc., they all focus
almost exclusively on electing liberal democrats (or
sometimes just ANY democrat).
What would happen if we got a Black, liberal,
democratic president? The movements would have to
really get to work. Electing Obama, as you know and
basically said in your email, is not going to bring us
real democracy or control over our own lives over
night.
One last thing about third party stuff. We
desperately need independent working-class political
parties that can put the demands of working people of
color, women, etc. front and center. I'm not sure if
the greens haven't had their day. They seem to be
more interested in running for president than building
real people power.
With that said however, there is a radical
African-American woman named Cynthia McKinney who left
the democrats and is running for president, seeking
the Green nomination. Why would Nader stand in her
way? Why couldn't he be her vice-president? She
seems to at least represent the kind of politics we
need in the electoral arena.
ok enough babbling.
respond if you get a chance.
again, great to hear from you.
peace,
J.
It's very good to hear from you too. Things are going well with me and Chuleenan here in the Bay. It's almost impossible for me to believe that you're only 27 or that you are that same curious, precocious, and big eared kid who used to hang out with all of us crazy Detroit radicals and music/literary fanatics on those summer porches back in the '80s (with your wonderful and equally crazy radical artist parents among us). It WAS a longtime ago and yet it seems like it happened only a few months back in many respects. TEMPUS FUGIT indeed!
It's especially great to hear what you have been doing with your life. Your union and political activity is not merely 'impressive' but needless to say VERY IMPORTANT. We are probably living in the most perilous time in human history and as you well know it's imperative that we all take direct responsibility for seriously changing this world that as you so eloquently and accurately put it is clearly "headed to hell with gasoline drawers on"...
The fact that you have such a sophisticated and mature understanding and knowledge of the complex ideological dynamics of "race, class, and gender" in both your struggles for democracy within the Teamsters and in the general society as well does my heart good and is a clear vindication for me that all the public "ranting and raving" we black, white, brown, yellow, and red activists and artists did in Detroit back in the '80s and beyond was not in vain. YOU ARE THE BRILLIANT LIVING PROOF OF THAT FACT. After all our collective goal "back in the day" and as it still remains to this day was to make both political and cultural education and activism REAL AND USEFUL for younger people as well as ourselves. Your involvement in the union struggles along with Walter and all the others in your multiracial crew make that vividly clear and is definitely inspiring (despite whatever primitive and backward racist bilge and opposition you have inevitably encountered among many of the "Irish and Italians").
What's especially encouraging and inspirational for me to realize is that you are already an integral part of that truly progressive "new generation" that I and all my other friends/colleagues/fellow radicals & artists from my generation are always talking about and demanding that it emerge. So along with Kathleen and the music I can see that you're taking care of business and doing just fine. That means I can now relax a little bit now that I know the future is in good hands. So thank you brother. I appreciate it...
As for Obama:
As I pointed out in my last email message I agree with you that Obama is not, will not, and cannot be the central or most significant force in any mass movement for progressive change in this country--only the rest of us can build and sustain such a movement (as i also said in my more detailed letter response to Ray Waller, a copy of which I sent to you--I hope you read it). But Obama's clearly a potential political conduit and instrument for such mass activity as one part of a much larger and far more complex strategic, tactical, and creative movement that can and should make sustained demands on his administration to carry out much needed reforms in many different areas of both domestic and foreign policy. I especially agree wholeheartedly with the last five paragraphs of your letter that speaks precisely and lucidly to what we should all concern ourselves with regardless of the inherent limitations and inadequacies of the Obama candidacy and campaign. Because as I also pointed out our responsibility as activists and citizens in this mass struggle is going to involve far more than merely getting a liberal President elected and will be as we pointed out not only a great challenge to any legitimate mass movement for change but will also take time to develop (certainly much longer than anyone's four year term in office).
What's absolutely KEY to this political evolution however is what you say here in the following quotation all of which i agree with 100%:
"But further, it may sharpen the contradictions a
little more and hopefully encourage the re-birth of
real autonomous social movements. Labor, Civil
Rights, Women's Rights, etc. are all movements whose
leadership has been co-opted by the government and/or
capital. Instead of mobilizing against capitalism,
racism, sexism, imperialism, etc., they all focus
almost exclusively on electing liberal democrats (or
sometimes just ANY democrat).
What would happen if we got a Black, liberal,
democratic president? The movements would have to
really get to work. Electing Obama, as you know and
basically said in your email, is not going to bring us
real democracy or control over our own lives over
night.
One last thing about third party stuff. We
desperately need independent working-class political
parties that can put the demands of working people of
color, women, etc. front and center. I'm not sure if
the greens haven't had their day. They seem to be
more interested in running for president than building
real people power.
With that said however, there is a radical
African-American woman named Cynthia McKinney who left
the democrats and is running for president, seeking
the Green nomination. Why would Nader stand in her
way? Why couldn't he be her vice-president? She
seems to at least represent the kind of politics we
need in the electoral arena."
Don't ever lose sight of the very clear eyed, practical, and ideologically substantive vision you express in these last four exquisitely expressed paragraphs. It is in these words that you most intelligently indicate that you fully understand and appreciate the dialectical dimensions of thought and action that will be crucial for any truly radical and progressive organizing efforts not only in terms of this election but far more importantly in terms of that much larger struggle that you talk about in your letter. We both realize in the long run that the Obama campaign (with all of its warts, shortcomings, blindspots, and flaws) is only the possible beginning of something and I maintain that the energy released by this national activity is the actual beginning of a legitimate mass movement IF we don't all falter now in our general commitment and realize the potential that we collectively have to really turn things around. It'll obviously take discipline, patience, dedication, and a great deal of perseverance but it CAN and MUST be done. Like always the real struggle for Democracy is in our hands and not in the hands of politicians or any other "leaders." To the degree that we understand and act on that knowledge is in my opinion the degree to which we can all fulfill old Fred Douglass prophetic words about resistance and struggle against the so-called "powers-that-be" by expressing and making manifest our own collective power and genuine sense of self determination. Later young blood. It was great hearing from you. Talk to you soon...
Peace & Struggle,
Kofi
From letter dated Feb 29, 2008little more and hopefully encourage the re-birth of
real autonomous social movements. Labor, Civil
Rights, Women's Rights, etc. are all movements whose
leadership has been co-opted by the government and/or
capital. Instead of mobilizing against capitalism,
racism, sexism, imperialism, etc., they all focus
almost exclusively on electing liberal democrats (or
sometimes just ANY democrat).
What would happen if we got a Black, liberal,
democratic president? The movements would have to
really get to work. Electing Obama, as you know and
basically said in your email, is not going to bring us
real democracy or control over our own lives over
night.
One last thing about third party stuff. We
desperately need independent working-class political
parties that can put the demands of working people of
color, women, etc. front and center. I'm not sure if
the greens haven't had their day. They seem to be
more interested in running for president than building
real people power.
With that said however, there is a radical
African-American woman named Cynthia McKinney who left
the democrats and is running for president, seeking
the Green nomination. Why would Nader stand in her
way? Why couldn't he be her vice-president? She
seems to at least represent the kind of politics we
need in the electoral arena."
Don't ever lose sight of the very clear eyed, practical, and ideologically substantive vision you express in these last four exquisitely expressed paragraphs. It is in these words that you most intelligently indicate that you fully understand and appreciate the dialectical dimensions of thought and action that will be crucial for any truly radical and progressive organizing efforts not only in terms of this election but far more importantly in terms of that much larger struggle that you talk about in your letter. We both realize in the long run that the Obama campaign (with all of its warts, shortcomings, blindspots, and flaws) is only the possible beginning of something and I maintain that the energy released by this national activity is the actual beginning of a legitimate mass movement IF we don't all falter now in our general commitment and realize the potential that we collectively have to really turn things around. It'll obviously take discipline, patience, dedication, and a great deal of perseverance but it CAN and MUST be done. Like always the real struggle for Democracy is in our hands and not in the hands of politicians or any other "leaders." To the degree that we understand and act on that knowledge is in my opinion the degree to which we can all fulfill old Fred Douglass prophetic words about resistance and struggle against the so-called "powers-that-be" by expressing and making manifest our own collective power and genuine sense of self determination. Later young blood. It was great hearing from you. Talk to you soon...
Peace & Struggle,
Kofi
Kofi,
good to hear from you. hope things are well out in
the bay. it's been a long time since we've seen each
other or spoke.
I'm remembering a young boy, on summer nights in
Detroit, eaves-dropping on front porch
conversations--listening as his pops and his pops'
friends talked about jazz or poetry or politics, or
some combination of the above. I'm only fucking 27 and
that seems like a long time ago. damn!
anyway man, good to hear from you.
especially now as the world still seems to be headed
to hell with gasoline drawers on...
I wanna respond to this Obama stuff in a second.
But since its been a good minute, first, allow me to
indulge in a little "what has the young boy been
up-to-lately-type-shit."
About two and a half years ago I moved to Brooklyn. I
took a job as a Teamster in the trade show/moving and
storage industry (moving boxes, crates, setting
up/installing shit for shows, packing, wrapping,
delivering expensive things to rich people, etc.).
I genuinely enjoy the work and make more money then
many kids I went to school with who are wallowing in
non-profit land (i guess the government isn't into
funding its own demise huh?).
anyway, the story is that I didn't just end up in any
old Teamsters local, but one with a pretty militant
past and a potentially even more militant future.
There had just been a strike where the rank-and-file
(who almost always know better than their "leaders")
self-organized and basically shut down the entire
industry for a few days. One of the major
rank-and-file leaders of the strike was and is an
African-American guy in his forties named Walter.
Since becoming a member of the union myself, a growing
rank and file movement/dissident caucus is beginning
to take shape. I have helped bring together some
younger (and a few older) radical workers in my
particular shop.
Less than a year ago, we ran for the executive board
of our union (with Walter running for president) and
lost by a slim margin. Our local's membership is
traditionally--you'll be shocked to hear--Irish and
Italian. And our leadership (if they can even be
called that) is again--hold your breath--Irish and
Italian! Many people in the union grumbled that
running a Black guy for the top spot was political
suicide. The rest of our "Teamsters For Change" slate
included a half Latino/half Korean guy (who by the way
refers to himself jokingly as the "china-man") a
Mexican-American, a Nigerian immigrant and one good
old white guy from Staten Island (who is a solid
trade-unionist and didn't mind being on a slate with a
radical group of people of color).
Not surprisingly, when we ran a campaign based on
rank-and file power, union democracy (which we
currently enjoy very little of) and standing up to the
corporate bosses in new york (something our lazy bunch
of Sopranos cast-offs doesn't seem particularly
interested in), we did quite well with all
demographics--and even had an Italian shop steward in
of the most notorious "goomba" warehouses campaigning
really hard for us.
Were there white racists in our union who didn't vote
for Walter because he's Black (even though he did lead
the strike which resulted in material gains for those
same idiots)? Of course there were and are.
But we trudge on. We've pressured our union leadership
to take more militant stands and adopt more visionary
practices on organizing our industry. We have a new
web-site (in slightly post-embryonic form) at
www.voiceof814.com, and are preparing for several
contract fights and possible strikes/lockouts.
so yeah, class struggle, along with falling in love
with a beautiful woman named Kathleen, and listening
to the new Joshua Redman joint is what I've been up to
lately.
As for Obama...
I think you're right to say the momentum behind him is
real. Many regular working people have fucking had it
and see his candidacy as something which could make
their lives better. They are right. If he gets
elected and even passes a few modest liberal reforms,
and/or appoints more liberal judges to benches and
labor boards, holds the line on affirmative action,
doesn't bomb us and the rest of the world into the
next century, then our lives will all be better. I
don't however feel that his campaign is really much of
a "movement" per se, as it is based on getting him
elected and not on building and sustaining popular
organization and/or putting forth an agenda for
substantive change and a shift in current power
dynamics.
The reason I circulated the Gonzalez piece is not
because I think he's a great guy or is ideologically
pure (if anybody is). All I know about him is that he
ran for mayor and is a big wheel in the Green party.
He may be a hypocrite, probably is, and that wouldn't
surprise me. I generally expect very little from
elected "leaders," precisely because I adhere to what
you said in your email about social movements being
the only real engine of radical change.
I did, and do however, think Obama's voting record
suggests very little willingness to break with
washington's time-honored practice of protecting the
white-western-corporate-elite. I would support Obama,
as Howard Zinn says in this article
(www.progressive.org/mag_zinn0308), for as long as it
takes to pull the lever in the voting booth.
But what's actually great about the Obama
campaign--besides that it has seen a lot of white
people acknowledging and even advocating for a Black
guy to be president (that alone is something in this
country!)-- is that it has no real substance! It's
like Obama is handing out a bunch of blank checks to
poor/broke Americans and telling them to just fill in
whatever they want. Whatever dreams Americans have
for change, they can get. I don't have to be the one
to tell you, or anybody, that the check is gonna
bounce!
Still, I think his presidency will be a good thing.
Not the least of the reasons being that we will have
avoided electing a deranged veteran who never got to
finish blowing up yellow and brown countries or
electing a slippery politician who sat on the board of
Wal-Mart for years and has a high level adviser
(Bill's old buddy Mark Penn) who works for an infamous
anti-worker law firm.
But further, it may sharpen the contradictions a
little more and hopefully encourage the re-birth of
real autonomous social movements. Labor, Civil
Rights, Women's Rights, etc. are all movements whose
leadership has been co-opted by the government and/or
capital. Instead of mobilizing against capitalism,
racism, sexism, imperialism, etc., they all focus
almost exclusively on electing liberal democrats (or
sometimes just ANY democrat).
What would happen if we got a Black, liberal,
democratic president? The movements would have to
really get to work. Electing Obama, as you know and
basically said in your email, is not going to bring us
real democracy or control over our own lives over
night.
One last thing about third party stuff. We
desperately need independent working-class political
parties that can put the demands of working people of
color, women, etc. front and center. I'm not sure if
the greens haven't had their day. They seem to be
more interested in running for president than building
real people power.
With that said however, there is a radical
African-American woman named Cynthia McKinney who left
the democrats and is running for president, seeking
the Green nomination. Why would Nader stand in her
way? Why couldn't he be her vice-president? She
seems to at least represent the kind of politics we
need in the electoral arena.
ok enough babbling.
respond if you get a chance.
again, great to hear from you.
peace,
J.
