Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Another prespective on the ISO CSAW conference
it was just too much
This weekend was such a strange thing for me. I have no political affiliations. I consider myself to have socialist views when thinking about certain issues, but I have always refused to join any organizations.
I don't know exactly what happned or where the breakdown of communication was, but I have to agree with many of the others who have spoken out so far that the conference did posses and did have an extreme domination by the ISO. I know now for the first time they are trying to downplay their numbers, and making it look like they were quiet and good the entire time but that was not the case. I overheard conversations that they were having with one another, I saw the way a few of their "leaders" that I know were acting and reacting to people. At one point when the young middle easern lady who was speaking during the process point and saying that she felt left out, I saw a group of ISO people sitting in front of me poking one of their ISO members who was middle eastern, urging him to speak, a few seconds later that middle eastern ISO memebers hands went up.
I also sat back and observed this man who had introduced himself to me earlier in the day named Todd who come to find out later runs the west coast ISO and is paid by the ISO. I watched how he never sat down, at the start of the conference he was all the way up front talking to the moderator for a very long time, and talking to the speakers, and during the conference he would march between both enterances and never sat down, like he was watching and just guarding the doors.
It's was just an odd scene and very odd conference for me. It was sexist, racist towards not just my middle eastern people, but towards many people, it was homophobic. I know a group of students from humbloldt were sitting next to me, they were not delegates and they told me that they couldn't believe this was happening, but said they were not allowed to speak, and were scared to speak anyways.
The entire atmosphere was one that was extremly tense and frustrating, you could see all of the people that were annoyed and felt like they would never be called on. I saw so many raise their hands never to ever be called on.
I try to stay an unbias observer, I never not once spoke during the conference, I didn't even walk out. I just watched and listend, and from what I saw I saw a true devestating extreme white power and dominated event unfolding. The domination in the room was extremly thick and suffocating at times. 10 men would speak and only 1 women would stand up. Someone kept calling all of us middle easterns Arabs and that was becoming upseting.
The entire structure was never explained, I think that peoples naieve state of mind was taken advantage of, and that it was used and abused.
I personally will not be attending any of these forums, I don't think they'll miss me. One more middle eastern person that they don't have to worry about having to let them know how she feels. Im sure they know exactly what to do to help us become civilized organizers, and Im sure they know what to do to help us poor poor people who can't have an opinion, who can't have a voice, and are in such desperate need to be helped and saved by the charity of the amazing liberal left in this nation. Thank you Berkeley for your kind efforts to help my people, thank you for letting us have a voice.
If you couldn't tell, yes I was being sarcastic.
I don't know exactly what happned or where the breakdown of communication was, but I have to agree with many of the others who have spoken out so far that the conference did posses and did have an extreme domination by the ISO. I know now for the first time they are trying to downplay their numbers, and making it look like they were quiet and good the entire time but that was not the case. I overheard conversations that they were having with one another, I saw the way a few of their "leaders" that I know were acting and reacting to people. At one point when the young middle easern lady who was speaking during the process point and saying that she felt left out, I saw a group of ISO people sitting in front of me poking one of their ISO members who was middle eastern, urging him to speak, a few seconds later that middle eastern ISO memebers hands went up.
I also sat back and observed this man who had introduced himself to me earlier in the day named Todd who come to find out later runs the west coast ISO and is paid by the ISO. I watched how he never sat down, at the start of the conference he was all the way up front talking to the moderator for a very long time, and talking to the speakers, and during the conference he would march between both enterances and never sat down, like he was watching and just guarding the doors.
It's was just an odd scene and very odd conference for me. It was sexist, racist towards not just my middle eastern people, but towards many people, it was homophobic. I know a group of students from humbloldt were sitting next to me, they were not delegates and they told me that they couldn't believe this was happening, but said they were not allowed to speak, and were scared to speak anyways.
The entire atmosphere was one that was extremly tense and frustrating, you could see all of the people that were annoyed and felt like they would never be called on. I saw so many raise their hands never to ever be called on.
I try to stay an unbias observer, I never not once spoke during the conference, I didn't even walk out. I just watched and listend, and from what I saw I saw a true devestating extreme white power and dominated event unfolding. The domination in the room was extremly thick and suffocating at times. 10 men would speak and only 1 women would stand up. Someone kept calling all of us middle easterns Arabs and that was becoming upseting.
The entire structure was never explained, I think that peoples naieve state of mind was taken advantage of, and that it was used and abused.
I personally will not be attending any of these forums, I don't think they'll miss me. One more middle eastern person that they don't have to worry about having to let them know how she feels. Im sure they know exactly what to do to help us become civilized organizers, and Im sure they know what to do to help us poor poor people who can't have an opinion, who can't have a voice, and are in such desperate need to be helped and saved by the charity of the amazing liberal left in this nation. Thank you Berkeley for your kind efforts to help my people, thank you for letting us have a voice.
If you couldn't tell, yes I was being sarcastic.
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
This person's story is all too typical and really brings up the point of why the "left" is getting it's but kicked so hard right now.
HOW MANY VANGUARDS CAN THERE BE? AND, DOES THE VANGUARD SPEAK FOR ME?
It is time for all the self-appointed "leaders" within the "left" and those that think of themselves as the only vanguard, to reconsider the values of openness, inclusiveness, sincerity and egalitarianism.
How many times will real workers, youth, people of color, artists and many others who come out to political events, be totally turned off and run away before we can ask oursevles some tough questions? When can those in the "left" gain some respect for other groups and update their program a little bit?
Is it possible to be promoting a more open and egalitarian society and at the same to harbor beliefs about yourself as the only capable leader? Is it possible to work for positive social change and environenmental sustainability while clinging to outdated reactions against capitalist tyrannies of former centuries? Is it possible to be really working for more diversity and inclusion while maintaining the belief that you are in the only group with the real answer? You roam around secretly thinking about how great it would be in a world where everyone embraced your worldview, then, you act surprised when you wake up and find out that you are still irrelevant to most of the working population.
The capitalists are very flexible, very adaptive and great at co-opting "progressive" messages. The capitalists in America are not as vulnerable to worker revolt as they were in former times. We need to re-evaluate and to welcome those that come along with different approaches than ourselves. The problem of modern times is complex and rapidly changing. We need to respond with flexibility, diversity and a wide variety of approaches, tactics and messages.
It is not "negative" or "positive" to do some self-evaluation and promote a little critical, inter-movement dialogue. It has to happen soon, or we may forced to go on with the blame game from within one of the capitalists' lovely new prisons.
So, is it possible for groups like the RCP, CPUSA, ISO, IAC and Global Exchange to set aside their unstated, but totally obvious self-held notions of themselves as the only viable "leaders" of the "left" and work in egalitarian coalitions with others? There is always hope, but the reality to date is kind of pathetic. If the "left" is a wheel, it will never get rolling if it only has one broken hub and no spokes. Where are the spokes on the wheel? How come the wheel is always lopsided, the spokes are all working against each other and the hub is not connected to the spokes? All groups must now start to think of themselves as spokes on the wheel, as contributors to the greater whole. To think of yourself, or your group as leading anything on the "left" right now is delusional. If you have a plan, an outline of some changes that need to made, a scheme for a post-revolionary world - then, get your platforms and your plans out there and let the merits of your ideas stand on their own. This habit of baiting people with hyper-reactionary journals and ellusive answers is getting to be problematic. Let it all hang out ... anarchists, communists, reformists, solialists - all need to be putting forth a vision for a better world in clear and simple terms. We need to get our platforms out there and let out bickering be about finding some common planks in a new emerging common platform for positive change. Get your points out there ... speak out your claims, instead of calling old names.
I challenge those in groups like the ISO, the infoshop, Global Exchange, the IAC, the RCP, the CPUSA, and the top-down labor organizations to ask yourselves how can you work better with the other groups that out there. How can you evaluate what you yourself are saying, what others on the "left" are saying and try to posit some points-of-unity? Can you really be open and consider what other groups are doing? Can you link to other groups on your websites? Can you think of yourselves as just one more helpful group in a coalition? Or, must you always be the umbrella, the hub of any coalition that springs up? Does your group have the ultimate answer for everyone? Or, can you cooperate with some diversity in the "movement?" Is your group really representing the rank-and-file workers and the inner-city youths, or is it better representing the rather insulated notions of the foundations that provide your funding? Can you tolerate (maybe even celebrate) successes for the movement that your group did not initiate? Can you call the organizers of any given event and ask them if it is OK, for you to co-opt every entrance to their event with your agressive paper distributors? Is this kind of basic respect possible within the "left" today?
I too have seen the ISO acting as if they are the real deal and thus alienating anybody with a critical and indepent mind. I hear RCP'ers going around talking about how people's thinking will be set straight, once they are re-programmed with the correct programming from them. This type of thinking is self-centered, divisive, outdated and delusional. These groups need to evaluate what is more important to them, insisting that they are the only ones that are right or working in coalition equally with others to save themselves and the planet. And, we all need to respect groups and people that don't want to work in any particular coalition.
Our problem as a society is huge and complex. Why do we think our answer is going to be centralized and based on the texts of leftists from former centuries?
This is really important - because the "left" is getting its but kicked and corporate, PR-friendly fascism is making great gains. We have to be willing to admit what our relevance is right now, to admit what our real contribution to any "movement" really is and ask how can we improve together and separately. How can we magnify the work of other groups instead of talking crap about them? What are other groups doing that is valuable? What are our outdated notions about <fill-in-the-blank> anarchists?, socialists?, etc. Can we check in with others and maybe get some facts before we going around repeating the capitalists's stereotypes about each other? The things I hear so-called progressives saying about anarchists, reveals that they are no better educated in their history than are insulated students in wealthy suburbs. Time to get recent, get realistic, promote healthy self-evaluation internally and build new visions for unity when we speak in public.
So, the left is kind of a melange of self-centered groups who are barely able to respond to anything or articulate any vision for the future - because of self-appointed "leaders" who are using the bulk of the resources available for leftist organizing and claiming to represent everything "progressive." They are not aware of how they need to cooperate and accept others and they are rigid, stodgey and inflexible. The leftist "leaders" that hail from expensive Universities, and never really had to hold down a job in order to survive, maybe aren't the best ones to be at the center of organizing efforts are up on the 'leftist" stage all the time. I mean let's face it - you go out to many "leftist" events and their is some hyper-articulate recent college graduate taking center stage and their is something less than authentic about some of their rhetoric and who they are claiming to represent. A real worker shows up and is not so thrilled or engaged. Also, activists, knowing that they have sort of become irrelevant in the flood of hyper-distracting media messages, have attempted to make their messages more appealing to the people on the streets. Not all of this has been bad, but perhaps they have gone too far to the side of making everything nice, fun and accessible. Entertainment is what the corporate news media provides. We should not be afraid of presenting information or of being real. Real workers, real youth-of-color, real peole (even if they don't embrace the leftist elite's rant-du-jour) are more compelling for other real people than are academes with cute puppets and patronizing chants or stodgy old socliasts with militaristicly wrote chants and approved of methods of protesting.
A better world is possible. Let's start with ourselves and get a little more real, coopterative and authentic.
Wake-up, evolve, evaluate, be open - now, is our last chance.
Love always, Val Karie
HOW MANY VANGUARDS CAN THERE BE? AND, DOES THE VANGUARD SPEAK FOR ME?
It is time for all the self-appointed "leaders" within the "left" and those that think of themselves as the only vanguard, to reconsider the values of openness, inclusiveness, sincerity and egalitarianism.
How many times will real workers, youth, people of color, artists and many others who come out to political events, be totally turned off and run away before we can ask oursevles some tough questions? When can those in the "left" gain some respect for other groups and update their program a little bit?
Is it possible to be promoting a more open and egalitarian society and at the same to harbor beliefs about yourself as the only capable leader? Is it possible to work for positive social change and environenmental sustainability while clinging to outdated reactions against capitalist tyrannies of former centuries? Is it possible to be really working for more diversity and inclusion while maintaining the belief that you are in the only group with the real answer? You roam around secretly thinking about how great it would be in a world where everyone embraced your worldview, then, you act surprised when you wake up and find out that you are still irrelevant to most of the working population.
The capitalists are very flexible, very adaptive and great at co-opting "progressive" messages. The capitalists in America are not as vulnerable to worker revolt as they were in former times. We need to re-evaluate and to welcome those that come along with different approaches than ourselves. The problem of modern times is complex and rapidly changing. We need to respond with flexibility, diversity and a wide variety of approaches, tactics and messages.
It is not "negative" or "positive" to do some self-evaluation and promote a little critical, inter-movement dialogue. It has to happen soon, or we may forced to go on with the blame game from within one of the capitalists' lovely new prisons.
So, is it possible for groups like the RCP, CPUSA, ISO, IAC and Global Exchange to set aside their unstated, but totally obvious self-held notions of themselves as the only viable "leaders" of the "left" and work in egalitarian coalitions with others? There is always hope, but the reality to date is kind of pathetic. If the "left" is a wheel, it will never get rolling if it only has one broken hub and no spokes. Where are the spokes on the wheel? How come the wheel is always lopsided, the spokes are all working against each other and the hub is not connected to the spokes? All groups must now start to think of themselves as spokes on the wheel, as contributors to the greater whole. To think of yourself, or your group as leading anything on the "left" right now is delusional. If you have a plan, an outline of some changes that need to made, a scheme for a post-revolionary world - then, get your platforms and your plans out there and let the merits of your ideas stand on their own. This habit of baiting people with hyper-reactionary journals and ellusive answers is getting to be problematic. Let it all hang out ... anarchists, communists, reformists, solialists - all need to be putting forth a vision for a better world in clear and simple terms. We need to get our platforms out there and let out bickering be about finding some common planks in a new emerging common platform for positive change. Get your points out there ... speak out your claims, instead of calling old names.
I challenge those in groups like the ISO, the infoshop, Global Exchange, the IAC, the RCP, the CPUSA, and the top-down labor organizations to ask yourselves how can you work better with the other groups that out there. How can you evaluate what you yourself are saying, what others on the "left" are saying and try to posit some points-of-unity? Can you really be open and consider what other groups are doing? Can you link to other groups on your websites? Can you think of yourselves as just one more helpful group in a coalition? Or, must you always be the umbrella, the hub of any coalition that springs up? Does your group have the ultimate answer for everyone? Or, can you cooperate with some diversity in the "movement?" Is your group really representing the rank-and-file workers and the inner-city youths, or is it better representing the rather insulated notions of the foundations that provide your funding? Can you tolerate (maybe even celebrate) successes for the movement that your group did not initiate? Can you call the organizers of any given event and ask them if it is OK, for you to co-opt every entrance to their event with your agressive paper distributors? Is this kind of basic respect possible within the "left" today?
I too have seen the ISO acting as if they are the real deal and thus alienating anybody with a critical and indepent mind. I hear RCP'ers going around talking about how people's thinking will be set straight, once they are re-programmed with the correct programming from them. This type of thinking is self-centered, divisive, outdated and delusional. These groups need to evaluate what is more important to them, insisting that they are the only ones that are right or working in coalition equally with others to save themselves and the planet. And, we all need to respect groups and people that don't want to work in any particular coalition.
Our problem as a society is huge and complex. Why do we think our answer is going to be centralized and based on the texts of leftists from former centuries?
This is really important - because the "left" is getting its but kicked and corporate, PR-friendly fascism is making great gains. We have to be willing to admit what our relevance is right now, to admit what our real contribution to any "movement" really is and ask how can we improve together and separately. How can we magnify the work of other groups instead of talking crap about them? What are other groups doing that is valuable? What are our outdated notions about <fill-in-the-blank> anarchists?, socialists?, etc. Can we check in with others and maybe get some facts before we going around repeating the capitalists's stereotypes about each other? The things I hear so-called progressives saying about anarchists, reveals that they are no better educated in their history than are insulated students in wealthy suburbs. Time to get recent, get realistic, promote healthy self-evaluation internally and build new visions for unity when we speak in public.
So, the left is kind of a melange of self-centered groups who are barely able to respond to anything or articulate any vision for the future - because of self-appointed "leaders" who are using the bulk of the resources available for leftist organizing and claiming to represent everything "progressive." They are not aware of how they need to cooperate and accept others and they are rigid, stodgey and inflexible. The leftist "leaders" that hail from expensive Universities, and never really had to hold down a job in order to survive, maybe aren't the best ones to be at the center of organizing efforts are up on the 'leftist" stage all the time. I mean let's face it - you go out to many "leftist" events and their is some hyper-articulate recent college graduate taking center stage and their is something less than authentic about some of their rhetoric and who they are claiming to represent. A real worker shows up and is not so thrilled or engaged. Also, activists, knowing that they have sort of become irrelevant in the flood of hyper-distracting media messages, have attempted to make their messages more appealing to the people on the streets. Not all of this has been bad, but perhaps they have gone too far to the side of making everything nice, fun and accessible. Entertainment is what the corporate news media provides. We should not be afraid of presenting information or of being real. Real workers, real youth-of-color, real peole (even if they don't embrace the leftist elite's rant-du-jour) are more compelling for other real people than are academes with cute puppets and patronizing chants or stodgy old socliasts with militaristicly wrote chants and approved of methods of protesting.
A better world is possible. Let's start with ourselves and get a little more real, coopterative and authentic.
Wake-up, evolve, evaluate, be open - now, is our last chance.
Love always, Val Karie
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$200.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network