Bertha Lewis CEO of ACORN (and the founding Co-Chair of the New York Working Families Party) and Dan Cantor, Executive Director of the NY Working Families Party spoke alongside Joe Schwartz on the last day of the 2010 Young Democratic Socialists Conference (blogged about my last post, Be Concrete on Concrete).

Ms. Lewis started out her speech applauding the audience. “I give you all a hand because saying I’m young and democratic and a socialist is a good thing to do; and no light thing to do in this time.” And then she fervently began: “We are in it right now.” “This is for real;” alluding to the sentiment of Jim Crow, the McCarthy era, and internment camps that waffles in the air.

“Economic crisis. What crisis?” Ms. Lewis loudly asked. “We have always been in a crisis,” she said, “this is NOT NEW.” While this may be a crisis for them, we have always been in a crisis if we are poor, working class, and/or people of color, Lewis explained. Moreover, Lewis questioned how the global corporations can still have lots of money and give out big bonuses (let alone a bonus). “How blatant do they have to be?” she asked. This is “one instance where size does not matter” for no bank or corporation should be giving or receiving bonuses. Moreover, Lewis wondered aloud how Hollywood continues with a straight face to be such a large industry; and went on to call all these practices insane.

Thus, Ms. Lewis urged us to knock on doors, and do less marching, believing, and asking: “that is advocacy, not organizing,” she stated. She also urged us to not depend on the kindness of strangers (e.g. foundations, philanthropies); and that when one has to soften what they are doing to beware. And to work on building an organization that is self-sufficient and gets into real battles. Politically speaking, Ms. Lewis called for a third party in government (and not for tea).

Ms. Lewis believes that the next real battle coming in the United States will be around immigration; whereby, immigrants are getting ready to be a “minority majority.” And as we are “getting ready to have a majority planet of color,” this is how the “fear of the black planet is being played out today.” ‘The face of immigration needs to be blacker than it is,’ proclaimed Ms. Lewis. “Second and third generation blacks here in the U.S. are not marching with other [more recent immigrants]. They need to say I am an immigrant too.”

Thus, I asked Ms. Lewis “how I, as a white woman, could help fuel this renewed black movement that she spoke of.” Ms. Lewis passionately responded, “Organize white women, black people need to organize themselves. Keep it simple and organize what you know and then join together, which will just make attacks stronger. This is how you help us and we help you.” She added a last piece of advice, “Challenge those talkin’ smack.”

Mr. Cantor then spoke about the 12 year old Working Families Party of New York (WFP-NY). Mr. Cantor promotes the WFP-NY because it a “unique and powerful way to make non-violent change. The WFP-NY is an example of a fusion voting system, where two parties (a minority and a majority), run on the same candidate (e.g. Obama running as both a Democratic and WFP-NY nominee). Mr. Cantor believes that if one “really wants power one has to scare not influence the influentials.” He also wanted us to understand that there are “no shortcuts to doing the work that we do.”

Mr. Cantor, Ms. Lewis, and Dr. Spivak (who spoke for the final Plenary) all affirmed the importance of language. So with Mr. Cantor’s urging, it is time we think critically about new terms and language as eloquent and simplistic as the “living wage;” but at the same time, be careful, do not get stunned by the “paralysis of analysis” (Ms. Lewis’ words) and go out there and organize!

The fourth plenary session of the Young Democratic Socialists of America 2010 conference, entitled “Progressive Responses to the Global Economic Crisis,” progressed from history to reality. Joe Schwartz, professor and author of the new book The Future of Democratic Equality started it off and did so affirming ‘at least we can’t privatize knowledge.’ According to Schwartz, the economic crisis started via a thirty year project of global neoliberal (under) development; particularly, in the 1970s, when democracy from below was seen as a threat to stable development.

Consequently, now we have not just poor people losing homes and unemployment benefits, but the middle class as well. While, Schwartz talked about today’s ‘tremendous resistance to foreclosures’ being reminiscent of the 1929-1931 organizing around foreclosures, he was quick to point out that this momentum and its possibility to bring about change will diminish unless we mobilize. “People should have the right to rent homes at the market price,” he said and promoted a program similar to the Federal Home Loan Banks that were established in 1932. Schwartz highlighted its cram down mortgages (i.e. a forced easing of mortgage terms). So why haven’t we the people mobilized for efforts like this one?

Schwartz exclaimed that the “repressive nature of the state makes it harder to organize;” but moreover that ‘working people do not have a line of defense; there is no right to organize in the U.S., and there is a war on trade union rights across the globe.’ But this does not stop Schwartz from believing in a “global working class.” Yet, Schwartz made it clear that there needs to be a fundamental decommodifcation of basic human needs and a progressive tax to redistribute income. Without which both class and racial inequalities will worsen.

And so, one day, we will all come to realize as many told us throughout the conference, human life moves fast, even though we were also told it is a marathon not a sprint. Meanwhile, today, ordinary people cannot save enough. But we, in agreement with Schwartz, will not be able to defeat the forces against ordinary people with frequent or infrequent email petitions and check writing. Life moves to fast for this. For life, as Schwartz said, “should not be a rat race;” and we should be able to get our basic human needs, which should be based on human rights, from society. And that ALL workers in a society, proclaimed Schwartz, should have rights of citizenship immediately. So what do we do?

Now, more than ever, it is time to [continue to] organize around real peoples needs. Fight foreclosures, fight to eliminate private healthcare insurance. But do it on the streets. Fight for concrete [housing needs] on the concrete! And stop feeling guilty (if you do), says Schwartz.

Two dynamic ladies (who are also both professors, authors, activists, moms, and so on), Christine Kelly and Liza Featherstone, led the third plenary session of the 2010 Young Democratic Socialists of America conference.

First, Featherstone made clear that we must see the campus [of public higher education] as a battleground for struggle. And quickly pointed out that “[Heck], the recent March 4^th protests [amongst public universities in protest to tuition increases, among other issues] were even covered by the mainstream media,” whereby signifying a national momentum around public education that us young folk MUST keep up (e.g. protest tuition hikes and the prohibition of tenure [to professors we like]!).

Currently, both Kelly and Featherstone conveyed, public education in America is weak and sickly, or “totally physically decaying,” as Featherstone put it. Higher education is draining family incomes. Federal Pell grants have been cut substantially. There is an increased charter school movement competing with public K-12 education—which inevitably ‘fuels cynicism about the public sector and makes it harder to fight for anything else;’ all making it more difficult than ever for those in the poorer classes to obtain a college degree.

Nonetheless, Kelly urged us along, to keep up. We (18-29y) are numerous, we vote, we are diverse, we have broad attitudes (or at least compared to our parents, the baby-boomers). “You are cooler than we were,” she said. But we cannot, she told us, keep financing our education with our future and our children’s future and our parent’s future. “[The privatization of public higher education (e.g. food services, research support, financing)] is the defining fight of [our current young folk] generation.”

Maybe society does not need to be concerned about higher education? Yet, this dynamic duo assured us we do. We will have a more skilled and competitive workforce, more economic mobility, and most importantly, have a more efficacious and effective citizenry.

Yet, constantly lurking right around the corner is the unregulated and highly exempt student loan industry. Together, both massive debt and tuition increases and the inherent partnership between the two, makes the fight for sound loan and public higher education practices even more important. Both ladies, heavily promoted the upcoming film, Default: the Student Loan Documentary: How much do you owe on your future?

But we were reminded by Piven on Day One that often sound thought provoking films just evaporate upon watching. Not to worry. Featherstone urged us to “find a way to trace financial lines and to develop a campus friendly strategy;” whereby the student loan and banking industry is a good target. And we must “make alliances with our working peers of the same age (which, don’t forget, are the majority).” For this fight, we learned, ‘is really about an economic bill of rights for young Americans, in which there should be a universal right to higher education.’

Said our Socratic and prophetic supporter, Brother Cornel West, on the opening of day two of Real Change for a Change—the 2010 Young Democratic Socialists of America conference. Brother West took the stage to a roaring auditorium and was tempted, he said, to start breakdancing—which he did not. Give us a little hope, however, he did, but not with out great caution.

“Instead of politics of fear, [we need] politics of hope. Hope is serious work, don’t confuse it with optimism. No optimism for ‘Blues people.’ There is no cheap optimism for young democratic socialists. You come to the democratic socialist movement, you want to be optimistic? No, you are in the wrong movement. [Otherwise] you go to Disneyland, you go to Disneyworld, read your Peter Pan. Not for something sentimental, that’s cheap optimism. Hope is much deeper; it has to do with struggle, it do with farm, it has to do with struggle, it has to do with cutting against the grain. It has to do with being wounded, but choosing to be a wounded healer, rather than a wounded hurter. …Hope is a Blues thing.”

Before hope comes love; or so Brother West implied. Imperative to being a [young] democratic socialist is having a love for poor people and a lens for the weak, he asserted. Yet, even democratic socialists, can suffer from “spiritual malnutrition” and “moral constipation.” And everyone ‘knows good, but just can’t get it out.’ Brother West said he “gotta get [his] diarrhea flowin’;” but he also cautioned us that we ‘can’t do it by [ourselves in order to] ‘keep the good going.’

At the very least, can we do as Brother West and many others desire and call into question? “Can we treat workers, can we treat poor people, the way we treat investment bankers?”

“Fascism in America is always a possibility,” said Brother West. “The only reason why we haven’t had full scale [fascism] is because organizations like Young Democratic Socialists of America, the black freedom movement…the anti-homophobic movement, and a host of other movements push it back. Every generation has to meet that challenge.”

But will we meet that challenge, among many others? No one knows, but we can do as Brother West urged us to do:

“Don’t ever confuse grassroots organizing, with Astroturf networking”

“Come together”

“Read voraciously”

and

“Be collective (e.g. via multi-contextual, multi-class, multi-sexual orientation groups)”

The title of the 2010 Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) Conference is: Democratic Socialism: Real Change for a Change.

Whether this conference will spur, amongst us young folk, real change for a change, time will only tell. Nonetheless, the YDSA Conference started out with two great speakers.

The first plenary session opened with Steve Max, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Vice-Chair and longtime activist, who co-authored the Midwest Academy Manual, Organizing for Social Change (now in its fourth edition). And then Frances Fox Piven, the renowned sociologist and author (e.g. Piven and Cloward’s 1966 article in The Nation entitled:“The Weight of the Poor. A Strategy to End Poverty”).

Steve Max began the night and the conference, reminiscent of the late Howard Zinn, with socialist history ‘that rarely gets told.’ A hero, so to speak, of this segment of Max’s speech was Franz Sigel (1824-1902). Franz, born in Baden, Germany (where he was inspired by the socialist movement and a leader of revolutionary forces in Baden), became a Union General in the American Civil War. In Saint Louis, Missouri, Franz Sigel developed his own militia, to counter that of Missouri’s secessionist governor. Consequently, Sigel helped keep Missouri in the Union and thus, access to the Mississippi River.

Max also talked about one of the great dilemmas of democratic socialist work. How many hours does one try to improve things under capitalism versus speaking out on socialist principles? This, he said, distinguishes democratic socialists from liberals, who do not discriminate or criticize; and from quote-un-quote socialists, who do not want to make anything better under capitalism. And urged us to spend more time discussing what is socialism and that alternatives to liberalism do not just equal socialism. ‘For if this is not made clear, liberal initiatives will never pass,’ said Max.

But ‘disappointment with the Obama administration is beside the point’, said Piven. And that to make a movement we must apply pressure. Piven’s main point for the night (which resurfaced a lot during the Q&A), was that the left cannot win with a strategy that empowers communication much more over mobilization (e.g. labor strikes; civil rights movement). She went on to tell us, that ‘the lesson is that popular power rests with ordinary people to threaten government that breaks rules to ensure their cooperation. More importantly, Piven asserted that mobilization does not have to be about making noise, but about the fundamental ability of the people to shut it down; for talking about socialism by itself, she said, without mass popular action will not get us there.

However, it was in the question and answer session, amidst great questions (the young people do speak!), where the eloquence of the night flowed. Some notable paraphrased quotes are:

‘Activists can make a difference. Giving people courage and confidence and defiance is not something to be ashamed of, but something the country needs (Piven).’

[In response to how to go against the active right-wing parties] ‘The right got to them first because we are not doing it (Max).’

‘It is not our job to solve the problem, but to create the demand that it be solved. [The government] will solve it (Max).’

[On the role of cultural production] ‘There are so many exposes of U.S. imperialism, but often the message just evaporates; and it is just another kind of entertainment (Piven).’ Furthermore, Steve Max said as ‘all politics are local (i.e. community organizing), then the [media mainstream] level of Fox News in a community is not required.’

In closing, as Piven remarked at one point in the evening, ‘you did not join YDS because you thought it would be an easy role did you?’

And so, it is on that note that the rest of the Young Democratic Socialists of America Conference awaits us speaking young folk.

On January 27^th, 2010 the great “people’s historian” Howard Zinn died. On February 15^th, 2010 [ironically, President’s Day] the people came to the Howard Zinn Tribute at [the original 14^th & Vst] Busboys & Poets in Washington DC. Together we sat in Andy Shallal’s living room to pay tribute where tribute was due, but to a man that wanted no such thing.

My 24 year old friend and I, two years her elder, (both University of Rochester alumna//their motto of which is “Meliora”) sat back and relaxed. She soon asked me if I typically noticed if I was one of the younger ones at ‘events like these;’ to which I replied, ‘oh, most definitely.’ We continued to talk about our hidden fervor around political activist events such as these and how we don’t have many friends that we discuss ‘politics’ with, let alone that watch DemocracyNow.

I kept thinking about how we are not that young, but let it go. Soon after, we received a new “adult” neighbor who quickly remarked “you look like some of the youngest people here.” We explained that we had graduated college and learned that her husband had also attended the University of Rochester. Small world.

David Zirin emceed the tribute with his usual charm and wit; introducing the show by telling about how Zinn had been called by the Boston Globe about his obituary to which Zinn responded “when is the deadline?” We heard beautiful sounds and eloquent words from the likes of The Young Women’s Drumming Empowerment Project, Ralph Nader, Bernice Johnson Regan, Amy Goodman, Sojourner Truth, Phyllis Bennis, Marian Wright Edelman, Emma’s Revolution, John Judge, Rich Rubenstein, Muhammad Ali, Geoff Millard, and, also recently deceased, Lucile Clifton.

In the middle of all this, it dawned on me. Where were our peers? Especially the college kids, less confined to a 9-5 job, and able to secure a seat three hours prior to the 6pm start. Meanwhile, many people stood in the rainy cold wintery mix, almost Zinn (not Zen)-like, listening through speakers and watching through the windows. Maybe some of our peers were there; and maybe some were inside.

Ms. Edelman spoke of being a sixteen year old freshman at Spellman College; and meeting this tall, handsome, man named “Howie” that taught and guided her. I kept looking around for the sixteen-year-olds (or even twenty-somethings) reminiscent of Ms. Edelman’s youth, but saw few.

Damien Smith (sp?) talked about how people like Howard did not know their place; he said “…that’s good. None of us know our place.” I do not expect my peers or myself to know our place. But I do think that we of all ages need to do as Rich Rubenstein said “you need to work on interpreting the world and do it the way Zinn did it.”

Get comfortable in a living room talking and listening to strangers; as well as people you do ‘know.’ If we cannot speak and listen up in “the inside;” how are we going to do so outside? Thanks, Howard.