What It Looks Like When Allies Throw Up their Hands...

[WillyT]

<snip>

Curtis Muhammad


With this second anniversary of Katrina upon us, there are a few words I
wish to speak. This letter is written to the progressive, left movement for
justice in the USA. In the last two years, every left organization has been
in New Orleans, but despite that there is still no sign of a mass movement.
There is still no sign that most activists are willing to put their
knowledge and resources at the service of the grass roots and take their
leadership from the bottom. I have found myself wondering, have poor black
people been so vilified and criminalized that they are completely off the
radar even of the so-called left? When Katrina happened, I hoped and
expected that this would be the trigger to once again set off a true mass
movement against racism and for justice in the US, led by those most
affected: poor, black working people. When it became abundantly clear that
this was not happening, I found myself at the crossroads of hope and
hopelessness, and began to wonder how to spend the last years of my life in
the service of my people.


The thing that I remind myself when I'm contemplating hopelessness is the
beauty of humanity and the fact that people have always fought for what was
right even when they knew they couldn't win. They tried because they loved
each other; I think it's because it's built into human beings for people to
look out for each other. There is a drive in humanity to be just, to live in
a society that is just, equal and respectful. I believe that ultimately
people will achieve a just society; I believe humanity came out of a just
society and will create it again.


I do believe that there was a time that the lovers of life, the lovers of
humanity, the lovers of justice dominated the world. Some say this was so
during the hunter-gatherer days, when though there were evil people they
could never gain dominance. Their numbers were always small, less than 1%;
people ran their lives collectively, and therefore the greedy could not
dominate. Well then, I say what happened, there is only that same 1% who
dominates the world now.


This thinking, this logic has been the motivating factor in my life of
movement work: the belief that there is a basic humanity that is inside the
soul of most people. That this humanity can be harvested and organized into
a movement for justice to free our people from slavery, bondage, oppression
and exploitation. That the 80% of the world who live on an average of $2 a
day can and will overcome the 1% and return us to a collective life
organized around love, justice and equality.


Most of you who know me also know I'm a storyteller and believe story to be
a universal language that can be a vehicle for voice, the voice of all
regardless of status, class, cast, race, gender. Story is an egalitarian
language. So I wish to share with you my story, an abbreviated story of my
organizing work from SNCC in Mississippi through the ghettoes of the US to
the villages and jungles of Africa, to CLU, PHRF, NOSC, POC and finally the
International School for Bottom-up Organizing. My story is meant to clarify
why I now choose to live, work, teach and write outside the US and away from
the grip of a drastically de-energized and often opportunistic and
reactionary left in the USA.

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More: http://groups.google.com/group/misc.activism.progressive/browse_thread/thread/25e3fdabb8199169

()*&#%#$!*()!!!

:banghead: