VitalSigns posted:

Whoa having to demand the basic human rights that most Americans have and take for granted, black people get all the benefits.

You don't see white people arrogantly demanding that they not be murdered for existing, I guess that's a privilege reserved to America's coddled minorities.

quote:

While running for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez pledged to eliminate unpaid internships at DNC.

“Millennials need more than just a seat at the table, they need a voice in every part of the conversation at the DNC,” tweeted Perez during a DNC chairman’s debate in February. “And creating a paid internship program is a part of my plan to bring in more millennials.”

However, it’s been nearly four months since Tom Perez became chairman, and now the DNC— under Perez’s watch—is employing another set of unpaid summer interns and is currently accepting applications for unpaid internships for the fall.

According to the DNC’s website, unpaid interns are required to work 40 hours per week, leaving little time for interns to work part-time jobs to pay their bills.

FuriousxGeorge posted:

Way too many white people are murdered by cops too. We would be talking about how insane police violence is even if there wasn't a racism problem. It's just when there is such a major, obvious racism problem you kind of have to focus on that as a practical matter of triage.

Ze Pollack posted:

people involved in a political movement's leadership ambitious self-promoters. in other news, sky blue, water wet.

man sold out slightly faster than average, but thankfully his humiliation in the Baltimore mayoral election seems to have ended him as a serious force for anything beyond his own brand.

Ze Pollack posted:

it rules that rudatron dismisses BLM in its entirety with "those neurotic darkies must just have been doing it for attention"

call to action posted:

Activists don't want to win because they don't know what they'd do with the world if they did

Mister Facetious posted:

OWS in a nutshell.

Bob le Moche posted:

If you're looking for a kind of activism that wants to win and knows what it'd do with the world if it did, and doesn't reject structure and organization on a matter of principle, marxism leninism might be for you

call to action posted:

Activists don't want to win because they don't know what they'd do with the world if they did

Ohio State BOOniversity posted:

lol http://paydayreport.com/unpaidinternsatdnc/


let's hear it for the secretary of labor.

Verus posted:

No, no, no, you see, if you pay the interns, then there's a small chance that a filthy poor person might be able to build ties with the DNC.

call to action posted:

Activists don't want to win because they don't know what they'd do with the world if they did

joepinetree posted:

That's what has been an eye opener when i listened to pod save America. Every single person they interview from the Obama administration had the same story: student at expensive private University takes unpaid internship with up and coming politician.

Fados posted:

Yes that is precisely the point, like the French say "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose". I'm more and more suspicious of the category of activism in the abstract, it fits too well in today's "post-political"/"post-ideological" environment. You get to have cool moments, of 'standing up to the man', marching on streets all together, protesting etc, without having to really do the dirty and hardous work of politics that comes with having to plan what to do in case you actually have your concerns heard. That's why third party stuff (in the context of american politics, it's really quite different in non bi-party systems) is well and good to create pressure but the real victory must come in the form of a change in the Democratic party itself.

Fados posted:

Yes that is precisely the point, like the French say "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose". I'm more and more suspicious of the category of activism in the abstract, it fits too well in today's "post-political"/"post-ideological" environment. You get to have cool moments, of 'standing up to the man', marching on streets all together, protesting etc, without having to really do the dirty and hardous work of politics that comes with having to plan what to do in case you actually have your concerns heard. That's why third party stuff (in the context of american politics, it's really quite different in non bi-party systems) is well and good to create pressure but the real victory must come in the form of a change in the Democratic party itself.

steinrokkan posted:

So what that protesters don't have meticulously worked out policy proposals? It's the purpose of paid politicians to tap into to the feedback that protests and other forms of dissent represent, and adapt by creating an appropriate response. That's their whole purpose. If they refuse to do that, and complain that they aren't given pre-made agenda on a silver platter, they are more than worthless.

Imagine a chef refusing to serve you anything more elaborate than grilled cheese because you wouldn't be able to make anything more complicated yourself.

Majorian posted:

I'm not sure those two things go hand-in-hand as much as you assume.

But yeah, I agree with your and rudatron's point that the reflexive eschewing of structure and organization has not served either anti-capitalist or anti-racist groups over the past several years. Let leaders rise organically to the top, and then let them lead.

quote:

What We Want Now!

We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.

We want full employment for our people.

We want an end to the robbery by the white men of our Black Community. (later changed to "we want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black and oppressed communities.")

We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.

We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present day society.

We want all Black men to be exempt from military service.

We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people.

We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.

We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black Communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.
We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.

Kraftwerk posted:

I don't understand why we need to reinvent the wheel here.
Both OWS and BLM could have gotten behind an existing manifesto that would have represented them perfectly. I really blame this on my generation's tendency to avoid making clear non negotiable demands and it's general dislike of hierarchy.

Here - I'm going to solve BLM for you guys with only 5 minutes of effort.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Point_Program


So now instead of just crashing political events screeching about oppression and whatever pronouns people are using you show up with clear cut demands. The 10 point program was relevant then and it's relevant now. No need to reinvent the wheel. You repeat actionable goals over and over again and threaten an organized revolution or secession from a society that doesn't care about you.

call to action posted:

Funny how whites are actually far more accepting of BLM than, say, Latinos are though isn't it?

rudatron posted:

I don't actually think blm doesn't have a clear set of demands, nor should 'having a clear set of demands' be the metric you use for determining how organized and effective an organization is.

It's totally okay to have a general goal, that you flesh out in detail later! So, for example, you have the flint water crisis or whatever - it's not the responsibility of people protesting that to give a fully-costed budget proposal for how to solve it. An expression of anger and passion, a threat that this needs to be solved now, you have to do that first.

quote:

What to do in the aftermath of the Occupy Wall Street movement, when the protests that started far away – in the Middle East, Greece, Spain, UK – reached the centre, and are now reinforced and rolling out all around the world?

In a San Francisco echo of the OWS movement on 16 October 2011, a guy addressed the crowd with an invitation to participate in it as if it were a happening in the hippy style of the 1960s:

"They are asking us what is our program. We have no program. We are here to have a good time."

Such statements display one of the great dangers the protesters are facing: the danger that they will fall in love with themselves, with the nice time they are having in the "occupied" places. Carnivals come cheap – the true test of their worth is what remains the day after, how our normal daily life will be changed. The protesters should fall in love with hard and patient work – they are the beginning, not the end. Their basic message is: the taboo is broken, we do not live in the best possible world; we are allowed, obliged even, to think about alternatives.

In a kind of Hegelian triad, the western left has come full circle: after abandoning the so-called "class struggle essentialism" for the plurality of anti-racist, feminist etc struggles, "capitalism" is now clearly re-emerging as the name of the problem.

Helsing posted:

Avirosb posted:

You say that but that doesn't really say anything.
Latinos can be white and they can be black, they can even be Asian.

rudatron posted:

You're not thinking in terms of opportunity cost. The energy that existed at the moment, demonstrated that there was a passion & potential for something special - the actual experience of OWS, over a period of a couple of weeks, threw all that potential into the trash can. It was a wasted opportunity/road not traveled.

If other people point to that existence of passion as inspiration, then more power to them. But it'd be nice if they hadn't dropped the ball. And, to be honest, I'm not sure people have learned anything from it - we're still in the era of suspicion of any formal structure within progressive thought, and blm is an example of that.

Fados posted:

One of the most efficient conservative mottifs is to play different minorities against each other, creating an hierarchy with 'good, diligent, well-behaved, etc' against the 'lazy, indulgent, divisive' group.