Sun, 30 May 2010 15:32:00
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| Article by:
Kathy Emery, Ph.D.
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By Kathy Emery, Ph.D.
Two months ago, I arranged six hours of workshop time in which Mike Miller – a Bay Area Civil Rights veteran – gave a very brief introduction about the differences between service and community organizing. Five Berkeley students – known as UCB5 and led by Ray Leung – attended these sessions.
The Berkeley students incorporated what they learned from Miller and have been working with Mission High School students this year, helping them identify what issue they would be interested in organizing around. This process led to the organizing of an exciting anti-violence workshop/dance event on May 28.
As with the Campaign for Ethnic Studies this school year, the organizing around the “Make Peace, Don’t Rest in Peace” – MPDRP – Dance has brought together a heterogeneous coalition of individuals and organizations who were committed to getting things done.
Two weeks ago, I sat at an organizational meeting led by the UCB5’s new organization, the Neighborhood Visions Project. At the table with the five college students and myself were representatives from the Visitacion Valley Community Center, UCSF’s Clinical Translational Institute, Chinatown Youth Center and the Peace Alliance. The vision that inspired these groups to meet was one in which authentic activities designed by high school students from different neighborhoods can bring together youth from different neighborhoods to meet each other, talk, dance and learn about alternatives to having violence be part of one’s way in or response to the world.
I am excited about the potential of this group and that of the Campaign for Ethnic Studies because both represent the kind of organizing that is crucial to movement building.
Last month, I argued in my column that the nonprofit industrial complex has co-opted those people who would otherwise be community organizers and leaders. This is not to say that the services provided by nonprofits are not essential. For example, when women get battered, they need help. But nonprofits set up to provide services for battered women are not focused on eliminating the cause of the battering.
To make fundamental change while we mitigate the symptoms of an unjust society, there must be groups of people working across the divisions that during the last 40 years have succeeded in keeping a movement for fundamental change from emerging.
Both the New Visions Neighborhood Project and the Campaign for Ethnic Studies promise to be these kinds of groups if they continue on the course each has charted already.
The Berkeley students asked Miller at one point during their workshop what he thought about Obama. Miller responded by explaining that one cannot have a transformative president unless there is also a transformative citizenry. Right now, we are consumers, not citizens who are constantly active in holding our representatives accountable.
He pointed out that there is a world of difference between voting for something and working to pass legislation. In other words, it’s okay to watch baseball, but you have to play it, too.
Most people today who complain about the status quo are armchair critics. We all need to get off the couch and work with people we may not like personally, but do share the same goals — affordable housing and health care for all; fully-funded public education and transportation; safety and living wages for everyone; and so forth.
There are many battles to fight, all requiring different levels of expertise, time and resources. Find one that suits your talents and temperament. I have named two in this column that could use some help.
Kathy Emery is a writer, educator and organizer who lives in San Francisco. She holds a Ph.D. in educational policy from the University of California, Davis.
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