Alexander Karn
Students in my War and Holocaust course struggle to understand the Nazi Revolution. How does a party which wins 38% in 1932 move so quickly to a one-party dictatorship? It’s several things:
1. Fear. Am I really prepared to oppose this violent, lawless clique?
2. Opportunism. What can I gain by aligning myself to the movement?
3. Ambiguity. Is there real danger here? Maybe I can ride this out and go back to my life when the clouds pass?
Paul Cantrell
@xankarn @cammerman
Would it be fair to add “divided opposition to fascism” to that list: Catholics and Communists refusing to work together, etc? Out of my depth on this, but curious about your take.
Alexander Karn
More than fair. Essential. I’ve been like a broken record here on Mastodon when it comes to the need for unified opposition.
No circular firing squads!
Paul Cantrell
@xankarn @cammerman
Thanks for that! I’ve made that shape of argument about 1933, and it’s reassuring to know I wasn’t totally out of line.
Paul Cantrell
@xankarn @cammerman
Oh, I know the type, and I’ve received endless crap from them. Some of them even search Mastodon for the names of certain dictators just to jump in the replies! Fortunately I’m well-practiced at blocking tankies.
Alexander Karn
Caveat: I’ve also been pilloried here by “kollectiva” types who have said I’m blaming the Left for Fascism when I raise this point.
Paul Cantrell
@shonin @xankarn @cammerman
That is interesting! If you have a minute to elaborate, I’d be really curious to hear a little bit more about what those breakout sessions looked like, how they were organized, and what “verbal hammers they found on the moral high ground” looks like. This approach seems important and perhaps reproducible…if we have a sense of what we’re reproducing.
shonin
@xankarn @inthehands @cammerman I was present when the Mayday people held their meeting in Atlanta after the April/May demonstrations in DC in 1971. There were breakout sessions for identity politics groups, something I hadn't seen before. These groups returned to the plenary with verbal hammers they found on the moral high ground, and I'm not sure I have seen a unified Left since that day, let alone one that can coalition with liberals or even LABOR. Just my take.
Paul Cantrell
@shonin @xankarn @cammerman
Thanks for this accounting. It is interesting. It’s the trouble with all utopian thinking: if your goal is to visualize perfection, there’s always something more perfect — if only you’re willing to shed a bit more of your coalition.
Organizing sure is hard work.
shonin
@inthehands @xankarn @cammerman
After that, I joined a Quaker commune for awhile, then headed across the country to take part in a Syndicalist forestry cooperative, then, about 1986, reluctantly re-assimilated into society.
The cooperative had the same policy fights, internally, as Mayday. How we were able to muddle through them, with 300+ people, was one person one vote, Roberts Rules of Order. If our enterprise was valued above purity, some of us had to stand aside sometimes.
5/5
shonin
@inthehands @xankarn @cammerman
-- with no equivalent leadership coming forward to bring unity. All the available "pure enough" people were cantankerous, so far as I could hear.
I was left with the impression that the conservative element in the nation -- which had jailed me and many others repeatedly in order to carry out its agenda in the world -- had won. This was about the time that "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" appeared. 4/x
shonin
@inthehands @xankarn @cammerman
My take, after a day of child care (great kids, a little wild) half listening on a PA system (IIRC), was that the caucuses were both in the right as to what needed to be addressed in order for there to be a human rights revolution, but that demands as the day wore on seemed to move the goal posts -- experienced (white male) movement leadership was effectively silenced --
3/x
shonin
@inthehands @xankarn @cammerman
centered on, and run by, white males. I don't remember any kind of vocal pushback to this, but the sessions seemed to grind to a halt. Rev. Dr. Ralph Abernathy was the keynote speaker, and his speech was punctuated throughout, and sometimes drowned out by, competing billows of applause and boos, with the boos in the ascendant.
AFAIK the boos were from the caucuses, and were grounded in a notion that Dr. King's movement was not revolutionary enough.
2/x
shonin
@inthehands @xankarn @cammerman
I missed a lot of what happened. Was male at the time and there was a demand that someone not female run childcare, so I stood up, to thunderous applause. Also there were big pots to scrape. I'm hearing impaired, so wanted to feel useful during the noisy sessions.
IIRC there were 3, or 3 types, of caucuses: Black, Feminist and Gay. People who went to these reported feeling immensely empowered, and voiced a determination not to go back to a movement
1/x
Paul Cantrell
@shonin @xankarn @cammerman
People are so hungry for a sense of purpose and meaning.
shonin
@inthehands @xankarn @cammerman What I found most satisfactory was to organize a livelihood. It focuses people.
In the coop we had farmers who wanted piecework so they could make hundred dollar days and pay mortgages. But we also had city-bred idealists who wanted hourly because they could not keep up with the farmers. Saving grace was, you had to have a minimum crew headcount to work on the contract. So the low-rollers were needed. We devised a 1/2 & 1/2 pay scheme and it passed vote.
Julian ♪🌻🥥🌴♫
@inthehands
What a sad existence that must be.
@xankarn @cammerman
Paul Cantrell
@TFFPrisoner @xankarn @cammerman
Sometimes all you’ve got to give you comfort in this word is constant, unceasing fuel for your belief that everyone else is wrong
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
Correct.
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