Their profession mocked by Republicans on the campaign trail, hundreds of community organizers - including more than a dozen from Ventura County - got a little payback this week by flexing their political muscle in Washington and meeting with members of the incoming Obama administration.
Their forum, dubbed Realizing the Promise, attracted more than 2,000 grass-roots, religious and political leaders from around the country.
The meeting was partly a follow-up to the Heartland Forum a year ago, when Barack Obama promised to include community organizers in helping to shape his administration's agenda if elected
Friday, December 5, 2008
Community Organizers Attend Washington Event
Community Organizers Attend Washington Event by Scott Hadley on commondreams.org (link goes through anonymouse.org).
4 comments:
The problem is that anything that Obama said a year ago is clearly not relevant, and has probably since be retracted or clarified.
Obama said a lot of things a year ago when he was trying to win the nomination. For example, he clearly positioned himself as an alternative to Hillary and another term of the Clinton administration. How's that working out?
These people are going to find themselves shut out in the streets, blocked from any access to the White House, and threatened with police attack and arrest if they dare to get within site of the people's house.
If they think they are going to 'set the agenda', they are dreaming. That's reserved for people who gave 6 figures or more to the Democrats.
At least they'll be good company in the streets with the rest of us. When's the first big protest against Obama and his policies?
I'm afraid that that is correct--there are going to be alot of broken hearts. But, like the first "hard knock" we all had---you never want to admit that it is really OVER.
O supporters are, like, "well dont just criticize--do something constructive!" Like , join PDA, or go to DC for the inaugeration and complain(I actually had someone tell me to do that! I would go to DC---if I thought I wouldnt get killed by Obama lovers)
I mean, can you just imagine, ?"Hey Obama ! Its me! I actually didnt give you money--just McKinney --$5 and Nader-$5! But listen! I've got some ideas!" LOL!!
PDA just goes along--half are former Obama delegates. Many are "now comfortable" 60s people--and they are not about to give up their "insider" status that they paid so dearly for...
Students for an (Un)Democratic Society..
"Oh! We tried that ! We're just going to work within the system now!" Well, I guess the rest of us are just left still trying then!
"Is there still room for protest in the age of Obama"? What bullshit.Or The Nation--"those of us used to protest will have to adjust to working within the system.." Why?? Because you dont want to do it anymore? Fine. But, just going along is not an option for me...I told Kucinich , when we were talking about Obama, that I might try to see if I can stay with my father's fanily in Denmark, if it ends up like I am dreading...he said, "How dare you leave your country when it needs you the most?".(Well, it left me!) Actually, I dont know if the relatives I know well are still living in the same place.. But..
anyone actually going to DC? I'd better stop ranting..
What if I say I would never surrender???
I heard someone on teevee the other day-- dammit, I can't remember who, except for the vaguest sense that it was on "Democracy Now"-- respond to a question about whether the Obama team expected protestors and dissenters to attend the inauguration.
The response was to the effect that it was anticipated that untold millions would descend on DC to express enthusiasm for the Obama administration.
Damn my scrambled brains for not precisely recalling who said this, but the oblique response clearly implied that "protestors", if any showed up, would be swallowed up and drowned out by the frenzied adulation of We the People-- reminiscent, one supposes, of Andrew Jackson's inauguration.
In other words, this party will not be pooped!
Its a question of time. Right now it seems hard to imagine much protest. But picture a couple of years from now. We'll still have troops dying in Iraq. We'll have 'surged' the war in Afghanistan, but the experts on the ground say that won't solve the problems there. So, we'll be deeper in that quagmire than we are today, with Obama's administration committed to 'winning' there.
We'll have a slightly better economic stimulus plan than the current 'give all the money to the rich' plan we have today. But the Obama plan will still be to give a lot of the money to the rich, and there's no sign that they'll make any structural changes to solve the causes of the problem.
We'll have some vague attempt at health care reform that won't solve the problem because the Democrats are bought off and their primary goal is to maintain the ability of insurance companies and HMO's and big pharma to suck money from us.
So, when that day comes, I suspect there will be a LOT of pissed off people.
We need to start working for that day. Build now to do what we can. Organize now to do what we can. We know we won't achieve any big magic success immediately, but we know the day is coming when people are going to be mad.
The Republicans and the way the system is designed by the elite to work is that the Republicans are supposed to be the answer that day. We need to be ready with our own alternative. It won't be perfect, but we build and organize what we can knowing that day is coming.
I keep remembering the fall of the Soviet Union. When people are both fed up and starting to get the idea that change is possible, it happens really fast. A movement can go from being a fringe movement that seems powerless to having millions in the streets and able to really change things in a remarkably short period of time.
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