Coalitions, The Left Doesn't want to win - The Implosion of Progressive Organizing - Ryan Grim - The Intercept on Call Out Culture on the Left

Stop hiring activists - Bernie Sanders -
During the 2020 presidential campaign, as entry-level staffers for [Bernie] Sanders repeatedly agitated over internal dynamics, despite having already formed a staff union, the senator issued a directive to his campaign leadership: ‘Stop hiring activists.’ Instead, Sanders implored, according to multiple campaign sources, the campaign should focus on bringing on people interested first and foremost in doing the job they’re hired to do.”

If you don’t have a coalition, you don’t have power...these groups being in Overton mode, when there are actual wins on the table to possibly be had, his argument, and I heard this from a lot of people as well, is that there’s something about the left, and its hostility or its skepticism of coercion, that just makes it allergic to power, that it just doesn’t want to be in power. As one person said: If you’re not uncomfortable all of the time, then you’re not in a coalition. Because being in a coalition means that you are in coalition with people who disagree with you on some things, because if they didn’t disagree with you on some things — NR: They would be in the same group. RG: [Laughs.] They would be in your group! Right! And so if you’re never feeling discomfort, you don’t have a coalition. ... The Intercept

These comments are so apt considering the recent United for Change coalition, where various stands from the center left to the far left came together for UFT elections. [Note stories from France where the always divided left - Socialists, Communists and Green - came together.] Has "the left" learned a lesson? Note the UFT election debacle of 2019 with three groups running and losing badly as a key lesson. But Bernie's comment, explained in detail below, about activists, recalls some stories I was told during the election about "activists" and the different concepts of activism - some unresolved issues in many groups.

Mike Antonucci chimes in on the Grim piece:

“Progressive organizations are run like shit,” said one of Grim’s sources, and it’s a sentiment I’ve heard before. But teachers unions have an asset that most progressive organizations don’t: a huge, automatic cash flow. It’s used to placate the staff while keeping control of the agenda in the hands of management. So while there may be similar schisms within NEA and AFT, they will not rise to a level of outright rebellion… at least, as long as the money holds out.

Also check out his piece from a couple of years ago on what it's like to work for Randi's AFT:  

“Favoritism is rampant. Office politics are sometimes terrible.” “The headquarters has an often toxic culture of petty jealousies and long-simmering grievances.”

Ya think?

But - 

The seizing of a trifecta in Washington by Democrats has coincided with a mass social movement demobilization. Those activated by Trump have stepped back. Democratic leaders spent more energy attacking the phrase “defund the police” than they invested in police reform, 

Is there a parallel in the UFT Oppo movement with a lack of post-election activity by United for Change? Has UFC demobilized? There has not been an internal crisis as chronicled in groups below - just apathy. But it's' only a month and Retiree Advocate is as active as ever. [Retirees - Rally June 16 noon: Tell Mayor Adams to Stop the Switch to Medicare Advantage - Rally Also June 15 at 4:30 PM].

Many progressive groups seem to be suffering from internal crises.

....at the height of the negotiations last summer over Build Back Better, that the Sierra Club vanished from the private and public conversation, because they were so caught up in turmoil that the entire institution’s energy was all being directed inward. And this is at a time where the climate movement is saying we have 10 years left to turn this thing around. And we might have just a couple months left on a Democratic trifecta. And they’re all just utterly consumed by these internal debates....

after 1968, after Richard Nixon was elected president, you had this kind of collapse and demobilization of the left. There was still a war to protest. But the demonstrations against the war never reached their peak, which they hit around 1965 or so.

The Intercept

For me this article is not an abstract concept. I've been involved in various versions of left politics for over 50 years and have seen some of the issues raised up close and personal. I was once called out - by a white guy - for using the expression about some clueless people as "just off the boat," which he said was an attack on immigrants. He practically leaped across the table in anger. Who knew? So this article and podcast resonated with me. Here is an interesting excerpt:

 

An anecdote from the 2020 Bernie Sanders campaign: 

Ahead of the Iowa caucus... there was a kind of staff uprising there over all sorts of different issuese. And the uprising ended up being squashed by other workers. And partly because the workers had a union. The people leading the uprising had to get a majority vote; they didn’t have a majority. The majority of the workers in Iowa said: No, our purpose here is to win the Iowa caucuses. Like, the future of the world depends on this. What are you doing? And, also, by the way, this job ends — we know when this job ends. After the caucus. And so why are you going to throw away the chance to change the future of the world over the next several weeks of working conditions?

And so when Bernie Sanders got wind of this uprising, which was not the first of the uprisings, he relayed to his leadership staff, he said, “Stop hiring activists.”

NR: It’s so funny.

RG: And that’s from Bernie Sanders. And he said: Just hire people that want to do the job. We pay well. We treat people well. It’s a good cause. Get people who want to do the job. Stop hiring activists.

 Here is the podcast followed by Grim's long article.

The Implosion of Progressive Organizing

Play • 38 min - with a transcript:
https://theintercept.com/2022/06/14/deconstructed-podcast-progressive-organizing-callout-culture/

In the Biden era, progressive groups in Washington have increasingly found themselves paralyzed by internal tumult at the very moment when their efforts are needed to push the more ambitious elements of the president’s agenda through Congress. Behind the scenes, the leaders of these groups express frustration with the organizational culture wrought by their younger employees and fear of becoming embroiled in a “callout” scandal. Ryan Grim talks with The Intercept’s Nausicaa Renner about his new story on the subject.

An interesting story on The Sunrise movement and I get the point about lobbying for what is the possible - but also don't see a point when the possible is severly limited to moving deck chairs on the Titanic - ie - witness the glorious new gun legislation.

a progressive congressional staffer, who said: “I’ve noticed a real erosion of the number of groups who are effective at leveraging progressive power in Congress. Some of that is these groups have these organizational culture things that are affecting them. Because of the organizational culture of some of the real movement groups that have lots of chapters, what they’re lobbying on isn’t relevant to the actual fights in Congress. Some of these groups are in Overton mode when we have a trifecta.” And then they go on to pull out Sunrise, which is doing a Green New Deal pledge. And the aid says: The climate bill is still on the table. What are you doing? You should be lobbying around that, basically.

Ryan Grim of The Intercept takes a deep dive into issues that have arisen as a result of covid and the George Floyd protests, which occurred concurrently. It's the kind of journalism, even if you don't agree, that we should support: https://join.theintercept.com/donate/now

 

 Here is the very long article with more details:

 

 

 

 

https://theintercept.com/2022/06/13/progressive-organizing-infighting-callout-culture/