Comments on: WILLIE BAPTIST: It’s not enough to be angry

By: Cathy Talbott

Cathy Talbott — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:34:54 +0000

Thank-you, Willie for a most enlightened essay. It gives me much to chew up and devour. Hope you’re well and that 2010 is a most productive year in the struggle.

Cathy

By: Susan

Susan — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:06:26 +0000

This was a great article. It really captured my beliefs about social justice. But I think it does miss two pieces. First, in discussing structures of power, it misses an important intertwined element: relationships. Bias and stereotypes because of “otherness” irrespective of power, although they may be nurtured and inflamed by power. Thus, how individuals feel about groups is an important part of the equation for why there are injustices (and steps towards justice). Second, people have different values. Although I personally focus on equity and the economy, I have come to realize that others hold other values as more important. Thus, in Willie’s example, even all the oppressed poor would not necessarily be a unified group. I think the Right has done an excellent job of understanding and leveraging this. Anyhow, I would love to see a follow-up article about what this means for how organizing strategies might be different and implications for how the left is structured.

By: Debanuj DasGupta

Debanuj DasGupta — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:06:30 +0000

Dear Brother Willie (and friends at Organizing Update), your article.interview is wonderful. I especially love your clarification of power shifting vs. generating activity without fundamental shifts in power.

Building upon your analysis, in the spirit of intellectual discourse, might I ask you (and Organizing Update, given the categories of articles for the site)how do you conceptualize multiple forms of power that bind our lives? While Capitalism/Post-Capitalism/ Neoliberalism frames our economic positions/ access to power, class positions, so does our gender (identity) and sexuality. Let me be clear, I am not speaking of bourgeois feminism/LGBT rights movement. I am speaking of the ways hetero sexism (notions of family, feminine labor, masculine labor) are all embedded within systems of production.

In my work (intersections of sexuality and migration) it is evident that immigrant women labor organizers when engaging with labor organizing not only challenge “capitalist modes of profit accumulation” but also challenge sexism embedded within capitalism and the labor movement. Similarly, undocumented transgender folks, queer detainees when engaging with immigration reform are challenging “neoliberal security regimes” along with challenging heterosexism that is the building block of immigration regulations. Even when the immigrant rights movement works to create “humane immigration regimes”, without unpacking what the inherent notions of “family reunification” means will reify certain systems of oppression.

I bring this up with deep love for each of the contributors, and you. I agree we need to reflect on social movements, political philosophies, and part of that needs to be a rethinking of the “recognition” vs. “redistribution” framing of social change/social justice. What often passes as recognition (gender and sexuality recognition in law/citizenship rights) is not just recognition and open to “cultural hegemony”, rather at times are “third spaces” /sites of dangerous redefining of power. Thanks for all your lovely work.

By: Jacob Russell

Jacob Russell — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:21:34 +0000

Class is America’s forbidden word, the one reality that crosses all lines. The ruling elite change, but the weapon of choice stays the same. Thanks for your fine article. Keep up the good fight.

By: Vinny

Vinny — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:27:47 +0000

Willie,

Your article was a pleasure to read. I may or may not have more to say after I have had some time to reflect on it. For now I would like to say that the two quotes that really resonated with me were:

1) “Your arm is cut off and my finger is cut off. A cut off finger is certainly less than a cut off arm, but it still hurts. If we don’t link your hurt with my hurt but keep comparing whose injury is worse, we’re not going to be able to unite the critical mass necessary to move the existing power relationships.”

2) “You’ve got to talk as you walk. You’ve got to teach as you fight. You’ve got to learn as you lead.”

Thank you for your contribution. I look forward to reading more.

Vinny

By: Nitza Vera

Nitza Vera — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:14:44 +0000

HI Willie; God bless you. How is Marion, the General and everyone at NWRU? Give them my love. Together in the struggle, Nitza