Local organizing crisis, or opportunity?
Rita just called to report back from the October 22nd Coalition meeting. So there were a bunch of family members of people who've been killed by the cops, some long-time police brutality activists, and a few newer people. These family members tend to be on the younger, working class side. One woman's new husband is a comedian, and he suggested that there be like 3 comics. Overall, Rita had to struggle to get people to agree to have speakers- they agreed on three, and will invite Amnesty International (Mona is cool), Samina (American Muslim Voice), and the October 22nd Coalition (not a lot of possibilities there, but let's try to not have Rita this time). The speakers would be at the beginning of the event, and then there would be performers. Some names thrown out were Mystic (she's cool, I've heard her a lot on Hard Knock Radio, but I can't remember if she does any police-related stuff), Cool Cats/Kool Kats (who is this?), and Rita can't remember who else. The rest would be all families. This just cracks me up, cuz every year there are 10 times as many speakers as the crowd can bear.The mission statement of the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation is The National Day of Protest was initiated by a diverse coalition of organizations and individuals. We came together out of our concern that the peoples resistance to Police Brutality needed to be taken to a higher level nationwide.
The National Day of Protest aims to bring forward a powerful, visible, national protest against police brutality and the criminalization of a generation. It aims to expose the state's repressive program. It aims to bring forward those most directly under the gun of Police Brutality AND to also reach into all parts of the society--bringing forward others to stand in the fight against this official brutality. And the National Day of Protest aims to strengthen the peoples' organized capacity for resistance in a variety of ways.
So the problem with their vision of the event is that you are not guaranteed that the politics of the day will get out there- it is about STOPPING police brutality, REPRESSION, and the CRIMINALIZATION of youth/youth culture. About this part about "bringing forward others to stand in the fight against this official brutality": This is partly about building the movement, but is also about giving people who are doing work to stop police brutality a place to speak.
The coalition has been really weak the last few years- partly cuz Rita's organizing style is not about collective building, and partly because the Coalition is not so sexy, and partly because damn near every political group is in crisis these days (except maybe for the RCP, which is what Rita and a lot of former October 22nd activists have focused on the last several years...now they are working on this project called Drive Out the Bush Regime, ugh). I actually left the coalition for a few years, but it's hard to stay away from such an important issue, and frankly, there aren't any local anarchist groups that I know of that do specifically anti-police organizing, or the awesome research that we do in the Stolen Lives Project.
Anyhow, the organizing for this event has been taking place in San Jose, where there has been a lot of police brutality lately, but there is not an October 22nd Coaltion (ie, there is no RCP based there). The Bay Area Office of the October 22nd Coalition is based in San Francisco. So ultimately, it might make more sense for us to have an event in San Francisco, Oakland, or Berkeley (transit accessible).
How to save this situation? Stack the meeting with people like me and 10 RCP people? Organize our own event up here? Let the event go on as it is?
If the event is to go on as it is, there are some ways to deal with this situation:
1. make sure that there are a lot of banners and signs that state the message of the day right behind and next to the performers? no, there is no easy way to do this
2. figure out what the politics of the coalition really are and talk them up with the family members who are going to be speaking? possible
3. build the website so it really gives people a sense of what 1022 is? need web designers
4. have a lot of people in the crowd talking up what the day is about? no, the RCP will be too busy selling papers and building for November 2nd.
5. organize some participatory events (plural) like a reportback/sum up/what to do next and a speakout, for shortly after the event, and publicize them like mad at the event.
posted by mahtin @ 9:48 PM
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