28-01-2010, 01:01 AM
"Another even colder hour on the street corners yesterday, and I have a relatively new thought: organizing is a shade different from protesting.
Maybe it's because I have a union organizer in my new novel, who can't understand why protesters meekly submit to arrest. His motto is "cut and run to fight another day. There was a time when protesters wore jail time like a feather in their hat. They quit that after a while and settled on solidarity, a more social goal."
~~
"I overstep to the extent that I often suggest to the person I'm conversing with to "Join us." Some offer excuses, some say they're thinking about it. The prize remark was from a black woman who asked why we were just standing around with posters. I tried to respond, asked her to join us, make a difference. She refused and went away. She wanted more action, fewer words on plain white poster paper.
That might have been the moment when I saw us protesters in a slightly different light. One of us always has a fistful of little folders stating the Veterans for Peace point of view. He's an organizer. A surprising number of pedestrians we talk to are veterans. Usually they accept the leaflets. Some like to talk, some don't. Regardless, it is up to us to be friendly, even when under verbal fire, able to listen carefully and also pitch our own point of view. It all depends on what we hear the other person say. That's organizing. Protesting is putting you body where your mouth is and that is honorable and necessary. But listening and then replying is something to be learned and learned again. That's organizing."
Excerpts from "Protests And Organizing" by Martin Murie
[URL="http://swans.com/library/art16/murie86.html#author"]http://swans.com/library/art16/murie86.html
[/URL]
Maybe it's because I have a union organizer in my new novel, who can't understand why protesters meekly submit to arrest. His motto is "cut and run to fight another day. There was a time when protesters wore jail time like a feather in their hat. They quit that after a while and settled on solidarity, a more social goal."
~~
"I overstep to the extent that I often suggest to the person I'm conversing with to "Join us." Some offer excuses, some say they're thinking about it. The prize remark was from a black woman who asked why we were just standing around with posters. I tried to respond, asked her to join us, make a difference. She refused and went away. She wanted more action, fewer words on plain white poster paper.
That might have been the moment when I saw us protesters in a slightly different light. One of us always has a fistful of little folders stating the Veterans for Peace point of view. He's an organizer. A surprising number of pedestrians we talk to are veterans. Usually they accept the leaflets. Some like to talk, some don't. Regardless, it is up to us to be friendly, even when under verbal fire, able to listen carefully and also pitch our own point of view. It all depends on what we hear the other person say. That's organizing. Protesting is putting you body where your mouth is and that is honorable and necessary. But listening and then replying is something to be learned and learned again. That's organizing."
Excerpts from "Protests And Organizing" by Martin Murie
[URL="http://swans.com/library/art16/murie86.html#author"]http://swans.com/library/art16/murie86.html
[/URL]
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"