Re: Academia and Practice (fwd)

Sorry for not replying until now-

My whole point in the original email was to emphasize the importance of
connecting academia with concrete political action.  I am glad that
several people responded to me with their thoughts on this.  

I believe that organization is instrumental in pushing through effective
social change and changing the power dynamics.  And I think it is very
important for privileged actors, including many in academia, who have a
progressive politics to be involved in existing organizations that are
fighting for constructive change.

Locally, on my college campus some students, faculty, and local labor
groups are organizing a living wage campaign for the employees of our
university.  I am involved in that, in addition to being involved in our
local chapter of Jobs with Justice, which is a national organization that
brings together church, community, and labor groups in support of local
struggles in communities.  There are many ways for people in academia to
get involved- I am sure there are bases of local struggle that need help
in everyone on this list's communities. 

I believe academics, when in the classroom, can also be very successful
organizers in getting their students involved in struggle.  For many
students, the graduate students and faculty on this list will be the first
contact with progressive ideas that they will ever have, and if you can
ignite a spark in a student's consciousness, then you can also direct them
into areas of struggle.  In that way I think academics can be extremely
important in the building of a movement, in addition to the other work
they do in the university.  

Apathy among progressive academics, from my experience, is horrifyingly
sickening.  I have had several professors who definitely left their mark
in shaping and expanding my politics, yet they are not involved in
struggle nor do they see its importance.  They seem to think that
conditions must worsen before any mass movement will occur, and that any
kind of political action that takes place right now is essentially futile.
I find this view particularly disturbing, as when conditions worsen we
will not be assured that the mass of people will "naturally" choose a more
progressive direction.  They could choose a fascistic, reactionary one, as
history has proven.

Just my thoughts.

Cameron Brooks



*******************************************************************************

"The business of obscuring language is a mask behind which stands out the
much greater business of plunder.  The people's property and the people's
sovereignty are to be stripped from them at one and the same time.
Everything can be explained to the people, on the single condition that
you really want them to understand."

Frantz Fanon


On Tue, 7 Dec 1999 md7148@cnsvax.albany.edu wrote:

>
>Cameron. you are definetly right. what do you want us specifically to do?
>how can we contribute from here? what is the plan of action or network?
>please enlighten us about the program of strategy you are activating in
>Tennesee? is there any "manifesto" that we can collectively or
>individually contribute? or what? I want to join. I was a feminist
>activist/organizer (and still am) back to home in a non-profit
>organization responsible for the protection of abused women.
>
>Mine
> 
> 
>Hello WSN-
>
>My name is Cameron Brooks and I am a student/activist/organizer at the
>University of Tennessee Knoxville.  I appreciate the work that many
>contributors to this list do in academia and of the information you share
>in this forum.  Yesterday I sent out an email from the Campaign for Labor
>Rights about Del Monte workers in Guatemala that are being threatened with
>death for standing up for their rights.  In this email it detailed some
>concrete action that needed to occur from people to help them in this
>struggle.
>
>I have not heard one response back from anyone on the list on their
>thoughts on this.  There has been extensive recent discussion on the
>mounting of a campaign to discredit the racist book being mentioned, which
>is extremely important, but it is equally important when a worker
>organization asks assistance from the general public to aid them in their
>struggle.  
>
>This may be moving beyond the realms of the theoretical, which many on
>this list serve are definitely valuable in, and moving into the realm of
>practical struggle.  Does this make many academics feel uncomfortable?  I
>am not making an accusation, but I am curious to people's responses.  Just
>about everyone on this list seems to care and support global justice and
>an anti-capitalist model of liberation, but what do people on this list do
>in the realms of applying this into the practical?  
>
>There is a definite contradiction that I see at my own university-
>between academics who teach and speak in favor of worker justice and
>equality, yet when it comes time to walk a picket line in solidarity with
>striking workers, or participate and organize a local demonstration
>against the WTO, they are no where to be found.  Is this just a problem I
>see at my university, or is this a general problem with progressive
>academics throughout the US?
>
>Interested to hear what people have to say.
>
>Cameron Brooks
>
>
>*******************************************************************************
>
>"The business of obscuring language is a mask behind which stands out the
>much greater business of plunder.  The people's property and the people's
>sovereignty are to be stripped from them at one and the same time.
>Everything can be explained to the people, on the single condition that
>you really want them to understand."
>
>Frantz Fanon
>
>
>
>