community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
UFPJ DIary: The Case For Participatory Democracy
by Thomas Good
Monday, Oct. 17, 2005 at 11:06 AM
editor@nextleftnotes.net (email address validated)
"UFPJ Diary: The Case for Participatory Democracy" is a year long chronology of an activist's experiences working with UFPJ as a War Resisters League (WRL) and Direct Action Tendency (DAT) delegate advocating for direct action. Although the effort to procure UFPJ endorsement of direct action was ultimately successful, the democratization of United for Peace and Justice is apparently a more difficult and probably more protracted struggle.
- Stephen Morrissey I - Introduction - C. George Benello For more see:
Tom Hayden,
Murray Bookchin,
et al.
II - A Year In The Life of a UFPJ Organizer • The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Action • • UFPJ's Second National Assembly (St. Louis) • • The NYC Coordinating Committee of UFPJ • • CP-UFPJ? • • How Can You Help? Donate! • • M19: The Second Anniversary of the Iraq War • • April Actions: Tax Day at the IRS • • Visual Acuity And Lack Thereof • • May Day March: UFPJ, Abolition Now and Us • • Fleet Week: UFPJ Forgets About Memorial Day • • NVDA and CALC-I • • At Your Birthday Party • • Criticism - Self-Criticism, UFPJ Style • • Hiroshima and Nagasaki 60th Anniversary March • - Bernardine Dohrn {7} • The Unity Proposal Revisited • • People Power • • Should I Stay Or Should I Go • III - Analysis • Social Democratic Centralism • • The Peace Bureaucrats • • Shadow Play • Never The Rose Without The Prick. - Tom Verlaine • Infinite Regression • • Corporate Liberalism v. Stirring Rhetoric • • Welcome To The Machine •
• Don't Step On The Grass • • Diversity, Not Tokenism •
Say, would you let me cry on your shoulder
I've heard that you'd try anything twice...
But then you open your eyes
And you see someone that you physically despise
But my heart is open
My heart is open to you
This is an opinion piece, not a position paper of either the Direct Action Tendency,
the Industrial Workers of the World, the War Resisters League or September Action.
All of the positions advanced are my own, as are the errors. Of course, the final
product has profited from some donated labor: many thanks to Brendan Story,
David Meieran and Jim Macdonald for their valuable input and valiant efforts to trap
my many errors.
This piece and my role in the organizing described within it could not have happened
without my wife Donyal's patience and generosity (and skills as a photographer). I am
also indebted to Ed Hedemann and Ruth Benn who are War Resisters and War Tax Resisters
extraordinaire. My friend Matt Daloisio also played a pivotal role in the work described
in this piece: Matt, an organizer with Catholic Worker, is incredibly supportive of
this writer and my fellow Wobblies. People like Matt help make the WRL a place where
the religious left and the secular not only coexist but form a very viable synthesis.
I'd also like to thank my brother Sam Morales for having made this journey with me.
Sam is a true revolutionary and good friend. Lastly I want to thank my comrade Frida Berrigan
for providing an example, in terms of level of activism, that always makes me feel guilty for
not doing enough to elevate the Struggle. This piece is a Call To Action: the ultimate goal
is the creation of a space wherein all activists can ramp up their level of participation - on
their own terms.
There is no shortcut to a society of participation.
Either one makes the basic institutions internally
democratic or one is blessed with political institutions
that take on the coloration of their surroundings.
A little more than a year ago I was driving home from the Socialist Party's
National Committee meeting in Pittsburgh when my mobile rang. Winding my
way along the Pennsylvania Turnpike I listened as Greg Pason, the SP's
National Secretary, asked if I would be willing to represent the Party as
the national delegate to United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). I was a little wary
of committing to any more meetings, however, Greg would not be denied and
I saw this as an opportunity to lobby UFPJ to embrace direct action.
I said yes...
I am now at the end of my rookie year as a UFPJ delegate. Much has changed
in a year's time: we've created a tendency of the SP devoted to activism,
UFPJ has embraced direct action and I applaud them for that. As for
democratizing UFPJ, I am no longer convinced that this is an attainable goal
but I encourage and support all of the dedicated activists who continue to
struggle towards this end. As I complete a year's worth of work within
UFPJ I am recommending to the Direct Action Tendency that we disaffiliate in
order to work with September Action with the long range goal of creating a new
organizing model predicated on participatory democracy and direct action.
Although I am resigning as DAT New York's local delegate to UFPJ I am not
advocating that we anti-authoritarians not sit at the same table with UFPJ:
I plan to do so. But I plan to speak frankly, at that table and elsewhere,
about the need for sweeping and immediate reform in United for Peace and
Justice. In as much as UFPJ claims to speak for the anti-war movement they
need to start listening to those of us who are rank and file organizers.
Whether we are card carrying members or not.
Although I lobbied hard for UFPJ to embrace direct action, suffered through
innumerable meetings and teleconferences and eventually saw the creation
of the Nonviolent Direct Action (NVDA) working group, I did not participate
in its first action: the civil disobedience at the White House that took
place on September 26, 2005. I opted out, choosing instead to join in an
autonomous direct action at the Pentagon. What follows is the story of how
it came to pass that what I fought for in UFPJ was realized and why I chose
not to be a part of its first outing. It is also an attempt to analyze
the shortcomings of UFPJ and make a case for participatory democracy within
that organization. In my estimation, the effort to democratize UFPJ will prove
to be much more difficult than the struggle to get UFPJ to accept direct action,
and is probably more meaningful for both the peace movement in general
and its direct action arm in particular. In the end, although I have opted to
work to create a new organizing model external to UFPJ, I believe, given UFPJ's
size and organizational profile, that the struggle for democracy must be carried on,
from within and from without.
Participatory Democracy is a form of democracy in which people participate
directly in decision making rather than indirectly through the election of
representatives. In terms of group structure - this would involve a free
agreement of individuals who work collectively towards common objectives.
In local councils, e.g. citizen's assemblies, every voice is heard.
The deliberative model is often consensus wherein a harmonization of values
is attempted so that the group as a whole defines it objectives, tactics
and message. (As opposed to a an elected body developing policy in isolation
or attempting to fabricate a compromise that mollifies a majority of the
constituents, marginalizes a minority and satisfies no one). In a large
organization a national council can facilitate participatory democracy if
it is formed as an assembly of recallable deputies mandated by local councils
and its sole functions are coordinative and administrative.
I urge all friends of participatory democracy and direct action who have chosen
to remain in UFPJ to join in the cry for democracy, to demand that the J in UFPJ
not be cast aside, to work with those of us who identify as anti-authoritarian
and who want a voice in the peace movement, who want a say in our messaging and
tactics, who want an organizational model that is consonant with the goals of peace
and justice. I urge all friends of peace and progress to work together to build
a movement we can all be a part of - and have a say in.
Early June, 2004. David McReynolds, a longtime war resister and member of
the Socialist Party since 1951, asked for a volunteer to represent the
New York City Socialist Party Local in regular meetings of the newly reanimated
NYC Local of the War Resisters League (WRL). I began attending meetings of the
WRL in preparation for the upcoming RNC protests. This ranks as one of the best
decisions I have ever made. I haven't gotten around to leaving the WRL yet and
have no intention of doing so as the people are truly special and the actions
are meaningful. Although I am not a pacifist, believing both in the efficacy of
armed struggle as a means of national liberation and in the right to self defense
I feel very much at home in the War Resisters League as diversity is not only
tolerated but sought and the WRL approach to organizing is refreshing. One of the
things that is most distinctive about the WRL is the group synergy that results
from a democratic internal process and the shared struggle of activists who risk
arrest as an act of resistance. My WRL Local proves on a weekly basis
that participatory democracy is not only possible but productive as well.
The WRL's commitment to direct action is well known. And inspiring.
August 29th, 2005, saw a very large demonstration in New York City, site of
the Republican National Convention. UFPJ turned out 500,000 marchers and
yet a fraction of this number set foot in Central Park as Mayor Bloomberg had
denied UFPJ a permit out of concern for "his" grass. As Jesse Jackson said at
the time: we shouldn't be so concerned about grass, whether we walk on
it or smoke it. {1} At the end of the march UFPJ parked a sound truck at
Union Square where steering committee members and staffers issued instructions
for marchers to disperse, indicating that some marchers were going to Central
Park. No UFPJ sponsored Direct Action to take the park occurred although
some protesters did indeed go there on their own. Two days later, on A31,
there were waves of civil disobedience and direct action throughout New
York City. In my first arrest as a War Resister I was cuffed at 28th and
Broadway, doing a die-in near Madison Square Garden. The WRL got good press
coverage for this action, in part due to illegal police arrests of 227 WRLers
at Ground Zero in an attempt to preempt the march (which failed). When I was
transported via corrections bus from Pier 57 to the Tombs, UFPJ protesters were
outside the Pier, yelling and cheering us as we drove by. We learned later
that UFPJ had organized a press conference and protest that pressured police
into moving us out of Pier 57, improving our conditions of confinement. This
was much appreciated and gave us hope that one day UFPJ organizers would join
us in the streets.
Jump ahead to the "re-election" of Bush. The WRL, partly in response to
the illegal arrests of our marchers on A31 and partly to point out that
no matter who is in the White House the Iraq War would not stop, staged
a civil disobedience at the New York Stock Exchange on November 3rd. By
this time I had been to several New York City Coordinating Committee meetings
at the UFPJ offices on 38th Street and knew Leslie Cagan slightly...I called
her and asked if UFPJ would consider supporting our action. I was told that
UFPJ's primary concern was the election and that if it was stolen (was there
any other possible outcome?) they would need to act quickly and therefore
could not support us. We held our CD as scheduled, the day after the election.
My family participated in it by leafleting (this was my ten year old son's first
action as a War Resister, I was quite the proud papa) and even in a hostile
setting like Wall Street numerous passersby took our leaflets and thanked
us - expressing their outrage and disappointment that Bush remained in
power. Although irregularities plagued the election UFPJ did not organize
a mass protest. This left some of us in the WRL wondering what it
would have cost UFPJ to promote our action - via simple endorsement and
perhaps email outreach.
After the action at the NYSE my WRL Local continued to have regular meetings
and began discussing UFPJ's role in the anti-war movement and the upcoming
National Assembly to be held in St. Louis, Missouri. In one of these
meetings my comrade and friend Frida Berrigan asked me to consider being
the WRL national delegate to the Assembly. I spoke with Greg Pason
and was able to get the SP's National Committee to designate an
alternate (a capable comrade by the name of Samuel Morales, Jr.) so that
I could rep for the WRL and Sam could replace me, at least temporarily,
as the Socialist Party delegate. We traveled together to St. Louis in
February, 2005. At the assembly we listened to speeches by Movement
stalwarts Angela Davis and Tom Hayden and voted on a wide variety of
proposals. But our primary reason for being in St. Louis was to push
the proposal for the creation of a Nonviolent Direct Action Working
Group - an idea put forward by the Iraq Pledge of Resistance, the
Brandywine Peace Community and the War Resisters League national office.
Things went well initially and our proposal made it out of subcommittee...but
on the day of the actual vote we were badly burned by a combination of
rigid bureaucratic process and the actions of a steering committee
member named Lisa Fithian who, in the opinion of many, misused her position
to block our initiative by speaking against it as an officer of UFPJ (it is my
view that she was responding to a perceived territorial threat as the proposal's
primary author was someone with whom she had personal issues). After the vote,
Sam and I sat down with a delegate from Madison and drafted a motion of reconsideration
citing the irregularities that resulted in our proposal going down to defeat.
At the next day's plenary we presented the motion to the appropriate
committee, expecting to be tossed aside with a recitation of some arcane
procedural rule. This did not happen - to our astonishment an administrative
committee member named Judith LeBlanc asked me to meet with Cagan in the hall...this
was my first exposure to the extraordinary administrative processes in UFPJ.
I quickly found two of the other proposal endorsers and we met with
with Leslie outside the plenary. She apologized for the actions of the
steering committee member who spoke against our proposal and asked me to
withdraw our motion as, at best, it would lengthen the assembly considerably,
and at worst, might invalidate the entire affair due to some of the voting
irregularities cited in it. She offered us a deal: Fithian would apologize
from the podium and we would be guaranteed the working group we had asked for.
We took the deal and only later did it occur to me that this sort of thing
might be a symptom of a serious problem within UFPJ. {2} I fully believe
that Leslie felt she was doing the right thing by all concerned and probably
she did - but what troubles me is that she was ABLE to do this, without any
process whatsoever. After the Assembly the NVDA proposal was brought to the
Steering Committee where there was a vote on it. This provided a post hoc veneer of
democratic process. It was a pretty thin veneer. Leslie had made a backroom deal
that essentially circumvented the assembly altogether. I think, in retrospect,
it was a Faustian bargain for all concerned. Had I been a delegate who voted
against the NVDA I would have been very surprised to see it created - despite
the proposal being defeated on the floor of the assembly by what was supposed
to be a democratic process. The fact that the national coordinator was able
to reintroduce a defeated proposal to the steering committee is problematic
in terms of process but the fact that she negotiated with me using this as a
bargaining chip, guaranteeing its passage, would seem to be an even larger issue.
(The fact that this deal was struck in order to prevent public scrutiny of
alleged voting irregularities is also an issue worthy of further examination).
After the assembly, focus within the NYC Coordinating Committee (CC)
meetings of UFPJ turned to March 19th, the second anniversary of the
Iraq War. My WRL local was planning a civil disobedience that incorporated
military counter-recruitment - doing a blockade at Times Square. I began
to urge the NYC CC to support this but attention within UFPJ was largely
focused on a demonstration in Fayetteville, North Carolina which centered on
veteran's groups - devoid of direct action. Nonetheless I continued to
agitate for direct action, having now been joined by fellow DATer Sam Morales
who was representing the Socialist Party while I continued on as a lame duck WRL
delegate. At one meeting the Communist Party representative, Judith LeBlanc
(the current vice chair of the CPUSA), was addressing needs for the upcoming
actions and covered all of the various elements of the weekend of protests
except ours. Realizing this she turned to Sam and I and said: oh, we'll try
to work in support for your civil disobedience. Clearly, we were an afterthought
but we felt that Judith's assurance was significant. Even though UFPJ-NYC is
not a national body (UFPJ has a Steering Committee which meets monthly via
teleconference and presently has 42 members) it is very influential. It meets
in the UFPJ national office and 2 members of the Administrative Committee (a
subset of the Steering Committee which meets biweekly and is UFPJ's most powerful
body) rotate facilitation of the meetings. In addition to this, Leslie Cagan,
the national coordinator, frequently sat in on the UFPJ-NYC meetings I attended.
Thus we had hope that the move from protest to resistance might at last be underway.
The Communist Party is a major player in UFPJ New York. This is a mixed
blessing - on the one hand the administrative expertise and resources are
very valuable. On the other hand, the legacy of Gus Hall and the years of
democratic centralism being abused by CP leadership (which came to a head in
1991 at the 25th National Convention where 1/3 of the Party was expelled by
Gus Hall - the expelled becoming the nucleus of the Committees of Correspondence
for Democracy and Socialism) has produced something that those of us who were
once in the CPUSA call "CP Style". For the uninitiated, this is an organizational
style that is not particularly subtle about being top down. It is my
understanding that Sam Webb, the CP's current chair, is invested in making
the CP a more democratic organization (and perhaps he has succeeded, I wouldn't
know) but they have yet to jettison democratic centralism, i.e., Leninism.
Judith LeBlanc, in her capacity as UFPJ admin committee member, once remarked in
a UFPJ-NYC meeting that the role of the CP was critical in UFPJ as "when you say
Communist Party" people know what you mean - "it has name recognition." Setting
aside the issue of whether or not this name recognition is always positive,
this is an interesting point as UFPJ is big on name recognition and sucks
in a fair number of celebrities which it then husbands as a resource. Brian
Flanagan once remarked that the Democratic Party is like "a black hole
with an event horizon surrounding it" that sucks in peace activists who
are "never to be seen again" {3} - this could well describe UFPJ as it is
presently constituted. Indeed, it is my view that organizers as well as
celebrities are sucked into UFPJ and become "resources" (in the case of skilled
organizers they are all too often treated as go-fers - Jim Crutchfield, a member
of the IWW General Executive Board, attended a UFPJ NYC meeting in 2003 where "everybody
sat in a big circle and talked for hours, and then four people made all the decisions
after the meeting." This is very similar to my experience). Whether or not this approach
was influenced by the CP is anyone's guess but there is a striking similarity in terms
of the management of human resources between UFPJ today and the CP of the 1980s.
It is significant that two of the most influential officers in UFPJ: Judith LeBlanc
and Leslie Cagan, are vice-chair of the Communist Party and co-chair of the Committees
of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, respectively.
It became clear to Sam and I, as we attended UFPJ NYC CC meetings, that they bore the
hallmarks of top down organizational model. In the course of struggling for acceptance
of direct action we began to notice that agendas appeared to be preset and that agenda
changes were not encouraged due to the ever present urgency of some upcoming meeting
or event. We also noticed that no minutes were ever distributed to attendees.
There was a weekly email but it did not contain the previous week's minutes - it
focused on announcements. Sam and I began to joke that, even though we had not signed
enlistment papers, we were becoming foot soldiers in "CP-UFPJ". This was all sort of
acceptable until the CC began having "Citywide Mobilization" meetings. These
were held at 23rd Street, in the Communist Party's building which once housed
the Daily World and the storefront Unity Book Store, now an artists' supply shop.
Sam and I attended the meeting but it became obvious that there was little planning
happening...this was really an opportunity for UFPJ to pass the hat - my first
exposure to just how relentless UFPJ fundraising can be. It is my contention
now that they differ little from any capitalist charity in that over one third
of the annual revenue ($288,000 of $800,000 in 2004 {4}) goes to payroll. This is
an astounding sum for most Leftists used to running their organizations with
volunteer staff and a shoestring budget. Why is the budget so large? Clearly,
maintaining the budget dictates the need for constant fundraising - but where is
the public accounting of where the money goes? The balance sheet available on
the UFPJ website is somewhat lacking in terms of specifics.
The net result of attendance at numerous meetings to plan protests on
the second anniversary of the Iraq War wherein we pushed for full support
of the M19 civil disobedience was a vague assurance of some kind of "support"
as clearly the Fayetteville demonstration was the centerpiece of UFPJ's
weekend of protest. There was, however, great interest on UFPJ's part in
getting Frida Berrigan to speak at their Friday sendoff (of the buses
to Fayetteville) at Union Square. I was the go between and Frida did agree
to speak, providing UFPJ with their nationally known figure (the speech
was good and helped the WRL to a degree but I later regretted asking this
favor of Frida when I realized that UFPJ regarded her as yet another
commodity...)
The M19 civil disobedience went well for the War Resisters League. A couple
dozen of us were arrested at Times Square. Both Reverend Sekou and Leslie
Cagan of UFPJ showed up at Times Square - to urge us on, not to risk arrest.
I was pleased to see them, especially Sekou as, although he is a cleric and I have
a secular orientation, he is a rank and file organizer, a straight shooter and
a very likeable and committed activist. As I was loaded into the police van with
my fellow arrestees I saw Leslie being interviewed by a TV crew. The media frenzy
at Times Square was in part orchestrated by Bill Dobbs, UFPJ's masterful media
person (Bill has an acerbic wit and is as likeable for his candor as he is
valuable for his skill). Sitting at the Seventh Precinct I had time to
reflect on my being in a dingy little cell with 3 other comrades and Leslie
being on TV, speaking about OUR action - which got almost no support from
UFPJ other than from Bill. Despite my gratitude for Leslie coming to our
CD I was simultaneously angered that UFPJ would, perhaps unintentionally, co-opt
it...while doing little to help build it. I had tried several times to post our
call to action on the UFPJ NYC listserv and although no posts were bounced, none
appeared on the list - this sort of thing is common in UFPJ as the centralization
and hoarding of all resources, including information, is clearly a serious issue
for anti-authoritarians concerned with democratic process. UFPJ's co-optation
of the action was, in my view, very similar to what they often accuse ANSWER of doing.
(UFPJ's criticisms of ANSWER, which we took at face value in CC meetings, was
that they are impossible to work with as they argue over everything from major
issues down to font size on fliers - and that they take credit for the actions of
others).
The weekend of activities UFPJ had planned for the second anniversary of the war
included, in addition to the Friday sendoff: the demonstration in Fayetteville;
marginally the War Resisters action, and; a large interfaith service at Riverside
Church on March 20. I attended the interfaith event as a representative of the
atheist caucus of UFPJ (tongue firmly in cheek, it is a caucus of one). This was the
kickoff of the Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq initiative and I wanted to support
Reverend Sekou who was the point person in the CALC-I working group. It was a
very successful event and I was duly impressed...Sekou had managed to assemble a
truly inspiring set of diverse clerics who demanded of the audience, god forbid, action.
During the month of April, UFPJ began to plan for a large New York City demonstration
for disarmament to take place on May first. At a "Citywide Meeting" for the May Day demo,
co-sponsored by Abolition Now and UFPJ, things came to a head in terms of process
issues. Several of us who were working on a Tax Day action (still a week or so
away) had asked to be allowed to announce our upcoming action. Despite assurances
from Leslie and Judith that we would be allowed our two minutes at the podium
(all speakers were to get two minutes for announcements), we watched in amazement as
a rep from Abolition Now rambled on for over ten minutes. We waited patiently for
our turn which never came as the moderator (Leslie Kielson, a member of the admin
committee) said we were out of time and needed to form breakout groups immediately.
Leslie C and Judith looked dismayed but said nothing. We never made our announcements.
Instead we gritted our teeth and went home, grumbling...
Our WRL April Action was a Tax Day vigil outside the Internal Revenue Service.
It was another successful action, again with no visible UFPJ presence...despite
my agitating for assistance in the context of our weekly NYC CC meetings. Again,
no listserv announcements made it through, no announcements at the citywide pass
the hat meeting reached our friends in the Movement and yet the action was a success.
I began to wonder what I was doing suffering through the UFPJ meetings at which I
had little input and was simply there to be assigned a task for an upcoming UFPJ
meeting or event...on some occasions the meetings were indeed hard to sit through.
One of the issues confronting UFPJ is the lack of diversity, in terms of racial
composition, in its officers and constituents. Obviously, UFPJ appeals to middle
America with its focus on legislative action and attempts to find a lowest common
denominator in terms of positions. This has an impact on diversity. Yet this fact
seems to elude UFPJ officers. In fact, there is a strange myopia at work here...
During one of the last UFPJ NYC CC meetings I attended, Judith was center stage
complaining about the lack of diversity in the assembled activists. She pointed out
more than once that she was the "only person of color in the room" and that this
had to change, we had to reach out to communities of color. Unfortunately, she
did not indicate that UFPJ was going to take political positions (e.g. on
Palestine) that would allow us to attract a more diverse group. Judith was
again stating she was "the only person of color here" when Sam Morales spoke,
reminding Judith that he was Puerto Rican and knew all about discrimination
from firsthand experience. Judith didn't miss a beat, continuing on to her next
point. I was left wondering if her idea of outreach to communities of color
consisted solely of getting big names like Danny Glover to speak at UFPJ
fundraisers (Danny spoke eloquently at the National Assembly but UFPJ's celeb
envy is highly problematic). What struck me was that Sam, the rank and file
organizer, was almost invisible to Judith. I was dismayed by this as I believe
that the myopic view she espoused is not an isolated phenomenon: there is an
authoritarian hierarchy within UFPJ wherein steering committee members alone
have the right to lecture the faithful on the evils of white supremacy (which
none of the rank and file dispute and in fact address in our political work)
even when their own political positions reinforce it.
May Day rolled around and it was a low key affair for most of us in the War Resisters League.
We were in between actions, having completed the Tax Day vigil and just starting to think about
our Fleet Week protests that were scheduled for late May. We decided to march in UFPJ and
Abolition Now's anti-nuke demonstration taking place on May 1, 2005. Our (WRL) local fielded
a good size contingent that was fairly ecumenical: we had IWW, WRL, Catholic Worker, Direct Action
Tendency (Socialist Party), Kiaros Community, Green Party, Not In Our Name, CodePINK and No Police
State Coalition all well represented. The march was a pleasant way to spend the day and we
all wound up in Central Park at day's end.
Despite my misgivings I attended one or two more meetings, albeit without Sam
who had become so disillusioned that he returned to IWW organizing which is his
first love. I had inherited the point position on a War Resister's Fleet Week/Memorial
Day protest after a WRL colleague was unable to continue. I urged UFPJ to support
this and received assurances that they would turn people out. In point of fact
a very dedicated lower east side organizer named Ted Auerbach did turn out, as
did Sekou. But the large numbers of UFPJ faithful did not appear. Again, no
effort was made by UFPJ to promote our action. Despite this it was very
successful and garnered a lot of media attention. I was relieved when it was
over - it had been a hell of a lot of responsibility for one organizer - and
without realizing it I simply stopped going to NYC CC meetings, coming up with
one "valid" rationale after another. I was in limbo in as much as I wanted to
see CALC succeed and I wanted to see UFPJ embrace direct action but I couldn't
bring myself to waste any more time in CC meetings. An uncomfortable position
to be sure...
A short time later I spoke with my friend Gordon Clark, author of the original
Non-Violent Direct Action working group (NVDA) proposal. He told me that the
the working group had indeed been created by Cagan and UFPJ's Steering Committee
and that their first action would be a civil disobedience at the White House.
I asked if he had heard that CALC-I was also planning a civil disobedience
at the White House on the same date, the weekend of September 24-26th.
Gordon was not aware of any CALC initiated mass action on this date (the weekend
UFPJ had called for their Fall Mobilization) but he invited me to join the
NVDA teleconferences and help organize the mobilization. I began working with
NVDA and corresponding with Reverend Sekou as well as I wondered if the two
proposals for CD (the Iraq Pledge of Resistance plan submitted to the NVDA by
Gordon and Steve Cleghorn and the CALC plan) weren't really complementary.
Meanwhile, in the WRL, we had decided to draft a plan for a direct action
at the Pentagon and put that in the hopper along with the other proposals.
Unfortunately, many members of the NVDA felt that only one mass action was
doable and so the WRL Pentagon proposal, the CALC proposal and the IPOR proposal
were seen as being in competition. The WRL was not looking to create conflict
but the prospect of an action that centered on a CALC pray in at the White House
or involved a coordinated legislative action (the IPOR action was to complement
a "Lobby Day" effort) turned off a lot of WRLers who favored a secular action
that was not connected with lobbying politicians - myself included. We had hoped
that there could be at least two mass actions. Several NVDA teleconferences wrestled
with these issues. The teleconferences were heated at times and on the day we
voted on which proposal for a main action would go forward we reached an impasse.
(There was also a lot of frustration as the issue of which organizational model
should be used, centralized or autonomous, the substance of two other proposals,
never got discussed). The vote count indicated that we were deadlocked. That week I
worked on a unity proposal. I scaled down the Pentagon proposal (research had
indicated that it might not be an ideal location for a mass action, although this
conclusion was not shared by every member of my WRL local) and argued for a fusion
of the CALC-I and IPOR CD's. The gist was that we would have one mass CD at the
White House, organized centrally by UFPJ/NVDA/CALC and one smaller scale action
at the Pentagon organized in an autonomous way by a sub working group. It turned
out that some of these ideas were acceptable to IPOR and so Steve Cleghorn began
to work with me on the "Unified Unity Proposal". We added in a late entry CodePINK
proposal for their own action at the White House and I worked in ideas from the
decentralized direct action caucus of which I was now a member.
The decentralized, autonomous action caucus of NVDA had begun meeting in our
own teleconferences just prior to my beginning work on the Unity Proposal.
We christened ourselves September Action and registered a website in order
to help promote any autonomous actions that might occur during the September
Mobilization. Our birthday was July 24, 2005 and we began life feeling a bit
uncertain about our relationship to NVDA. There was a fair amount of distrust
between some NVDAers who didn't see the need for autonomous actions and those
of us who in September Action felt that the White House civil disobedience
should not be the only act of resistance taking place during the Mobilization.
Although we still sought some form of recognition, whether as an ad hoc
working group or a sub working group of UFPJ, many of us had reconciled ourselves
to the fact that this would not happen.
Steve and I posted our Unity Proposal to the NVDA working group email listserv
feeling cautiously optimistic. To my dismay, Leslie Cagan immediately wrote in
essentially saying that UFPJ had agreed to direct action, this was a big step
and why did we have to have an autonomous component? {5} My response to her
note was to indicate that I did not feel it appropriate that the national
coordinator of a very hierarchical organization should use her position to
kill off a democratic initiative that was an attempt to find common ground.
(Shades of St. Louis...) Leslie replied, arguing that her power had been
overstated in my note. {6} I had some difficulty accepting this assertion,
however, it did not surprise me. UFPJ has never been big on self criticism.
And all of this was occurring at a time when: UFPJ was under fire for refusing to
include support of the (Palestinian) right of return in their Mobilization
slogans (from Mahdi Brae and others) and from some of its conservative members
for even considering this; ANSWER and UFPJ were both organizing separate marches
on the same day in DC; CALC had a minor controversy (Sekou had invited the Dalai
Lama to speak at the Mobe without consulting the CALC rank and file), and;
anti-authoritarian members of the coalition were decrying the lack of democracy
within UFPJ (rumblings in DAWN and other concerned parties were getting louder).
With the struggle in the NVDA as a backdrop, the WRL continued its work. We planned
a large march from the East Village (Tompkins Square Park) to the Hudson River on the West Side.
The march, called to mark the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima, occurred on August 6, 2005.
It started in Tompkins Square Park where we had held an exhibit about the horrors of
nuclear war all day. At dusk we had a brief ceremony and formed up into a single
file contingent under the watchful eye of the NYPD. It's worth noting that this march
was typical, in terms of composition, of the recent WRL events. Beginning on March 19,
I had been struggling, as an Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) organizer, to involve
labor more in the WRL's peace work. Daniel Gross, the Starbucks Union (IWW) organizer
had spoken at the March 19th rally before the civil disobedience. Three wobblies
were arrested with the WRL in the CD at Times Square on M19. This trend continued
in the Hiroshima/Nagasaki 60th anniversary exhibit and march. Our contingent was
joined by eight wobblies, including Daniel Gross and Eugene Lerner. (Lerner and I
had shared a jail cell on M19). The Hiroshima Day march was solemn and dignified as
well as unpermitted. We trekked across town, reaching the Hudson at about eleven
o'clock. A spectator approached me and asked what the "Never Again" slogan on my
sign referred to. I said: "We are urging the government to stop killing people."
The impromptu hug I received told me we were among friends.
It was always true throughout the Sixties that we were small and marginalized.
The NVDA ultimately voted to accept a streamlined version of the unity proposal
drafted by Gordon Clark after we all received Cagan's letter bomb . It removed specific
UFPJ responsibilities to the autonomous action organizers that I had included after discussion
with my colleagues. This surgery worked for Cagan and the admin committee but would cause
logistical headaches for September Action later. Leslie C and Judith spoke in favor of this
lesser of two evils proposal and it was indeed a way of disposing of the autonomous
actions question without UPFJ taking on any financial or other support commitments.
Recognizing that we hadn't won much of a victory - we were not an officially sanctioned
working group and had no commitments from UFPJ - we nonetheless began organizing under
our own name. Composed of anti-authoritarian direct action types from several different
anti-war and labor groups, we began organizing under the banner: "Shutdown
The War Machine, Four Days of Direct Action" and "People Power". Doubtless viewed
with some suspicion by our colleagues in UFPJ's upper echelon, our request for money
to rent a convergence space were met with "absolutely not". {8} A last minute
appeal for funds for housing space that went out to Leslie Cagan did not even
produce a response. Some might argue that Cagan supported the unity proposal
in order to marginalize and isolate September Action...to many of us in the
Collective it certainly felt that way. Despite noble attempts by NVDAers
Gordon Clark and Pete Perry to get us funding none appeared.
As UFPJ and ANSWER finally came to terms on a joint rally and march,
September Action carried on - running consultas in DC, Cleveland and New York
and helping to promote a schedule of autonomous actions occurring during the
weekend of the September Mobilization in Washington, DC. Despite the lack of
support from UFPJ the autonomous actions were very successful. The CodePINK
vigil at Walter Reed hospital (Friday, September 23) we endorsed was much larger
than usual. (Not that September Action can take credit for the increased numbers
as all we did was help promote the event - we did not send a sizable contingent.
Most likely the promotion and the presence of so many activists in DC helped
our friends in CodePINK). Saturday's (S24) Mobilization for Global Justice feeder
march that originated at Dupont Circle and targeted the IMF and World Bank was
three times larger than the anti-IMF demo that took place the previous April and was
very spirited as well. Sunday's "Adopt An Intersection" action was hugely successful in
that 70-100 activists blockaded intersections around the Mayflower Hotel for four
hours, thus preventing IMF delegates from getting to the Sunday meetings. There
were only two arrests and one report of an injured protester. One affinity
group, composed of DAWN and September Action organizers, was called the Monkeypants
Collective. This creative caucus dressed in clown regalia and occupied the pivotal
intersection of Connecticut and Desales where they blocked IMFers while identifying
themselves as "Neo-Clowns". The WRL Pentagon direct action was also a great success.
45* arrestees had managed to shutdown the Metro entrance to the Pentagon and even
the Metro itself for a brief period. This action was seen as disruptive rather
than symbolic by many observers and as a participant I have been complemented
repeatedly by those who thought this action was special. I am touched by this
and grateful to all who supported us. (* 45 were arrested but only 41 were charged
as the arresting officers for four of our number did not come to the processing
center to fill out the proper forms - sometimes bureaucracy has its upside).
UFPJ's Civil Disobedience also went well with 370 participants being
arrested. However, it should be noted that Cindy Sheehan being arrested at this
action caused some in the media to depict the CD as the arrest of Cindy Sheehan and
her supporting cast. This is not fair to those who worked hard on this
action although I doubt it diminished their spirits - and rightly so. Although
this was a largely symbolic civil disobedience, it is significant that: a) it
occurred under the auspices of UFPJ (with the Iraq Pledge of Resistance, the
National Call for Nonviolent Resistance and Clergy and Laity Concerned taking on
much of the logistical work), and; b) many who participated had never been
arrested before - perhaps indicating the long overdue move from protest to
resistance is underway. For the above reasons, I found the action inspiring.
My only critique of the White House action is that it might have been nice to not
involve celebrity. The image of Cindy Sheehan asking for a meeting with a President
(whom she knew in advance was not there - he was once again on vacation) might work
as a photo op but it diminishes to a degree the importance of those rank and file who
committed civil disobedience, in many cases their first CD. UFPJ celebrity envy is
highly problematic, especially when contrasted with the idea of real People Power
where ordinary people can make a difference. Unfortunately UFPJ functions as a kind
of paparazzi of the Left - it seems clear that their agenda is to co-opt celebrities,
and indeed the peace movement itself, whenever possible - their jumping on the Cindy
Sheehan/Camp Casey bandwagon is evidence of this. UFPJ completely co-opted the post
"Camp Casey" bus tour organized by Veterans For Peace (VFP) and once there, they became
territorial, throwing two DAWN organizers off of a tour teleconference. {9}
After the Mobilization, many of us in September Action, the NVDA caucus turned
autonomous collective, struggled with the issue of whether to work with United
for Peace and Justice. I have come to accept the position of Jim Macdonald,
a DAWN organizer and fellow founding member of September Action. Jim has argued that we
must work with UFPJ, continuing to speak truth to power even though this promises
to be a very difficult task. {10} Believing that Jim's analysis is correct,
I have resigned myself to the fact that, just as the IWW seeks to build a new society
in the shell of the old {11}, we must seek to democratize
the Old Left by building the Next Left in its corridors. And so, grumbling all
the way, I will continue to agitate for reform within UFPJ, this time from the
outside, while simultaneously looking to build a new organizational model external
to UFPJ wherein participatory democracy and direct action inform our approach.
Each member of September Action will have to decide this question individually,
as a matter of conscience. The collective has no stated position on this issue.
It is my personal conviction that the struggle to define a new organizing model and
the struggle for democratization of the organization that claims to speak for the
mainstream anti-war movement are both essential components of a dialectic
whose synthesis holds out the promise of a stronger movement for peace and progress.
Anti-authoritarians who have spent long hours building the UFPJ coalition and its
actions now feel trapped in what has become an entrenched system. In private conversation
with other activists on the libertarian Left I have called this system Social Democratic
Centralism. This treacherous pun encapsulates the following alleged attributes of UFPJ: a
corporate liberal agenda; an anti-democratic (Leninist) organizational model, and; the
careerist impulse of an upper echelon preoccupied with self preservation and self promotion.
It is my belief that United for Peace and Justice must perform a serious self examination
prior to the next National Assembly if it is to survive peace in Iraq. The American war in
Viet Nam also seemed never ending to those resisting it but 30 years ago it did come to a
close and the peace movement stumbled badly - this mistake should not be repeated. The
intensely bureaucratic organizational model of UFPJ stifles creativity, simultaneously
hoards and squanders resources, and alienates anti-authoritarian activists and people of
color. UFPJ needs to look at why this is so and to explore possible corrective action
in order to redefine itself as an organization that embraces participatory democracy and has
an agenda that ensures the struggle for justice will continue after the Iraq War is ended.
United for Peace and Justice regards itself as the voice of the anti-war movement,
the coalition that represents the mainstream peace community. Their character
foil is Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.). UFPJ likes to be perceived
as a democratic, inclusive and open organization. In my experience, many of its
leadership regard ANSWER as an ultraleft, divisive organization which is a front
group for the Workers World Party. Many in the mainstream peace movement who support
UFPJ accept these views as a given. ANSWER members are equally certain their take
on UFPJ is correct. ANSWER accuses UFPJ of being unconcerned with issues that
affect communities of color. ANSWER is accused in turn of being divisive: argumentative
in negotiations, guilty of Trotskyist tailing (co-opting) UFPJ actions and being
gratuitously inflammatory in its slogans which include statements such as Support
The Iraqi Resistance. The litany of accusations and counter-accusations is seemingly
endless (and may well serve as a surrogate for more meaningful activity). Despite this,
it is my view that UFPJ and ANSWER share a common, bureaucratic, organizational model,
albeit each with its own unique features. Both organizations are administered by
what I would term Peace Bureaucrats: for all of their assertions to the contrary,
in its internal functioning UFPJ is not that dissimilar from ANSWER - it is top
down and the administrative committee can overrule decisions made at the level of the
steering committee. The national coordinator wields influence not unlike a Leninist
general secretary or chair and, armed with "name recognition" (the net result of
celebrity envy), is certainly equipped to use the cult of personality as necessary
to influence decisions. {12} (Whether or not this occurs is arguable.
I witnessed what seemed to be unilateral administrative decisions overruling plenary
votes in St. Louis and an attempt to quash a motion on the NVDA listserv. It is my
opinion this sort of thing does go on and the office of national coordinator
should be abolished or its power curtailed by some rudimentary sanity checks).
In speaking with various steering committee members, and based on my
experiences working within UFPJ, it has become clear that, contrary to
UFPJ's Structure and Functioning document, which defines the Steering
Committee as the highest decision making body, the real power resides in
the Administrative Committee. Within the Administrative Committee, the
national coordinator and co-chairs make the lion's share of decisions.
Thus what I've experienced at the level of the NYC CC appears to be true of
the steering committee as well: power is concentrated in a very small number
of hands; decisions arrived at by democratic process (voted on at the National
Assembly) appear to be discarded or overturned; no minutes from Steering or
Admin Committees are published on the UFPJ website or distributed to member
groups. There is precious little transparency or accountability to member
groups. The fact that the national coordinator and a co-chair
are officers of organizations with Leninist organizational models is possibly
a factor. In any case, it is a suffocating reality as the end product
is a bureaucracy that has grown adept at manipulating a constituency
that needs to believe the organization is delivering the goods. I take
exception to that view. In my estimation the sub rosa government which
is the admin committee and national coordinator has created a situation
wherein no mechanisms exist to prevent administrative exigencies, red tape,
leadership hierarchies and clogged channels of communication from
destroying any sense of meaningful participation on the part of the
rank and file - and decreasing the efficiency of the organization.
It is time to desanctify and demystify the grand coalition: bureaucracy
does not equate to efficiency. And it is the death of participatory
democracy.
The democratization of UFPJ is an interesting puzzle because, although UFPJ is run in what
appears to be a highly bureaucratic, centralized manner, its constituents would be appalled to
be called either "communist" or "democratic centralist". What's more, despite the fact that
many affiliates willingly submit to an arguably anti-democratic organizational model, they
voice objections to many of its decisions if not its overall direction (or lack thereof). This
is not unlike the American electoral system which UFPJ is, superficially at least, wedded to:
many Americans appear to regard democratizing "democracy" as impossible and decline to
challenge the apparently immovable bureaucracy. And so it is in UFPJ as well: the members
rarely challenge the bureaucracy which clings to a corporate liberal agenda which in turn
fails to challenge the war machine head on. A bit of infinite regress not without historical
precedent. The peace bureaucrats of UFPJ's upper echelon appear to have much in common with the
"peace utopians" Rosa Luxemburg described in 1911:
...the roses of capitalist profit making and class domination also have thorns
for the bourgeoisie which it prefers to wear as long as possible round its
suffering head, in spite of all pain and woe, rather than get rid of it...{13}
The disinclination to take a principled stand until shamed into doing so (or feigning
compliance by passing meaningless legislation) is a standard tactic of the bourgeois
State. Unfortunately, this malady also appears to afflict the UFPJ hierarchy...probably
for similar reasons. There is some, at least stated, anxiety within UFPJ over alienating
the base which is presumed to be centrist. There is a feeling among the libertarian Left
wing of UFPJ that the organization's desire to be a one size fits all coalition is at the
root of the diversity issue identified by ANSWER. UFPJ's hesitation to take a principled stand
out of concern that it might anger centrists (and their corporate liberal friends in Congress)
doubtless alienates marginalized groups that will not join a coalition that refuses
to even pay lip service to their concerns.
When looking at the UFPJ/ANSWER duality it is interesting to read the
memorandum of understanding between UFPJ and ANSWER issued prior to the joint
rally and march that occurred on September 24, 2005. In the document, specific
slogans to be borne on banners in the march's lead contingent are described in detail.
ANSWER announced its intent to use "anti-imperialist" slogans on their banners
while UFPJ planned to use slogans that "address the war in Iraq and issues
connected to that war". {14} ANSWER throws out the usual revolutionary
slogans and other stirring rhetoric but is hampered in terms of PR by its symbiotic
relationship with the Workers World Party which continues to defend the Soviet model.
Meanwhile, UFPJ offers a familiar corporate liberalism, with demands that won't
frighten its corporate apologist friends in Congress. Hence the lack of any slogans
that go beyond "bring the troops home". It is my view that ANSWER will not be reformed.
While there are doubtless many members of the coalition that
are not Workers World cadre the organization is routinely referred to as a front
group by independent leftists and I believe this is an accurate description although
I will surely be called sectarian for saying publicly what many believe privately.
That leaves one large coalition left to speak for the peace community that is
not willing to be identified with vanguardist front groups. Unfortunately, this
coalition speaks the language of corporate liberalism which many, myself included,
regard as a dead end. To serve the peace community well we must get away from self
defeating rhetoric, thinking and agendas. Here is (then) SDS president Carl Oglesby,
speaking in 1965:
Let me then speak directly to humanist liberals...
Corporatism or humanism: which? For it has come to that. Will you let your dreams be
used? Will you be a grudging apologist for the corporate state? Or will you help try
to change it - not in the name of this or that blueprint or ism, but in the name of
simple human decency and democracy and the vision that wise and brave men saw in
the time of our own Revolution?
And if your commitment to human values is unconditional, then disabuse yourselves
of the notion that statements will bring change, if only the right statements can be
written, or that interviews with the mighty will bring change if only the mighty
can be reached, or that marches will bring change if only we can make them massive
enough, or that policy proposals will bring change if only we can make them responsible
enough. {15}
Describing the generation gap from a young person's point of view, pop singer
Robyn Hitchcock said that old people "cling onto life like some kind of disease." {16}
UFPJ resembles this remark. Those in the hierarchy look to remain there, probably in
response to a belief that they are essential to the survival of the organization. UFPJ
as the permanent anti-war movement - the loyal opposition to the permanent war. The
bloated organizational budget is not questioned as all available energies are put
into maintaining it. Publicly, UFPJ often appears focused more on fundraising
than on mission. All of this contributes to a perception of the part of activists that,
within UFPJ, self preservation has become the reason for being and UFPJ has become
about as revolutionary as the March of Dimes. The primacy of chant and ritual has
replaced any sense of urgency and consequently, urgency is periodically manufactured
in various committees and issued via the email listservs. But not many recipients
believe the urgent appeals as they are generally little more than a request for donations
("How Can You Help? Donate!) The endless streams of email appeals to one's wallet
appear to have been born in a manufactory of echoes...the other day, as I walked
through the East Village, I saw an oversize yellow ribbon magnet that said simply: support
the magnetic ribbon industry. Touche. Anti-war sentiment drained of meaning, pre-packaged,
sanitized and relentlessly marketed. I have been guilty of saying in jest that
the war can't end quite yet, UFPJ has an overstock of ribbons. The mass marketing of a
bumper sticker mentality may keep UFPJ in the black but at what cost? We have built a
machine when we desperately need a movement.
The chief enemy of creativity is "good" sense
-- Pablo Picasso
There are not many grassroots efforts that UFPJ supports beyond lip service
and in my view this is a serious strategic blunder. It is my contention
that not only is it time to move from mass protest to people powered, decentralized,
resistance in general - it is time for UFPJ to pay a lot more attention to local
initiatives and to let the membership hear of these efforts so that community
organizers can get support from UFPJ affiliates. Currently hoarded UFPJ information
and communications resources should be used by and for the member groups
who are undertaking local actions - without the affiliates having to ask permission
to use the resources they have helped pay for. The affiliates also need to step
up and demand more from the national office - UFPJ organizes two mass mobilizations
a year. Is this cost-effective? What if one of these were a mass civil disobedience?
One that is not celebrity based, but is people powered. One that is disruptive, not
symbolic. What if, in addition to mass actions, UFPJ supported resistance on a regular
basis, say counter-recruitment CD actions, at a grassroots level? In the organizations
I work for (War Resisters League, Industrial Workers of the World and Socialist Party)
we do a lot of work with a lot less money than UFPJ spends on fundraising alone ($35,000 in
2004). Simply put, UFPJ must find a way to support grassroots organizing and civil resistance
as well as large marches - and do so within the current budget. Let's eliminate the
institutionalized disorganization which is the primary block (by design?) to affiliates
using the national resources. Open up the channels of communication. Decentralize
command and control. Democratize the organization and RESPOND to affiliates rather
than crying poverty or playing the corporate liberal game of saying: "if we support
you then we have to deny the request of this other group" (pluralism)...bring the two
groups together and let them find a way. As an organization UFPJ should facilitate
problem solving discussions where resources for grassroots campaigns are scant and
let the affected groups set the priorities. UFPJ should facilitate
cooperation - and get out of the way so that discussion is fruitful.
In terms of building an insurgent culture within the heartless heart of the
oppressor nation, so as to carry forward the anti-imperialist struggle,
we need to attract the anti-organizational youth and students, i.e.,
those anarchists who resist participating in any organizational structure.
We need to attract people of color led organizations. But we appeal to
neither with our intensely bureaucratic/centralized hierarchical
organization and its corporate liberal agenda. Handwringing about how
to bring in individual people of color is no substitute for reaching
out to people of color led organizations, embracing their issues,
and bringing them into the coalition. Here is a concrete example of
one way to prove our intent is genuine, not lip service, to POC
issues: cease the celeb envy and get serious about supporting political
prisoners and prisoners of class war, the overwhelming majority of
whom are people of color. We must move beyond paying lip service to
the anti-imperialist struggle by recognizing that the US has internal
colonies and those colonized who dare fight back are locked up, murdered,
and/or placed on death row - e.g. Mumia. We must embrace real issues that
concern people of color, if we are to move beyond tokenism and add
POC led organizations to our collective. In addition to opposing the war
in Iraq we must fight for the environment and animal rights, we must demand
independence for Puerto Rico, demand the closure of the IMF and World Bank (an
www.nextleftnotes.net/current/ufpj_diary.html
| TITLE | AUTHOR | DATE |
|---|---|---|
| Abrupt Ending... | Tom Good | Monday, Oct. 17, 2005 at 11:10 AM |
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