does WSA members organize community groups?

andrewnorthcali...
Posts: 5 Joined: 12-11-07
Submitted by andrewnorthcali... on 12 November, 2007 - 09:32.

hey, I recently joined the W.S.A., and I was wondering does the W.S.A. help organize collectives or anarchist groups?
I mean as an organization, not just as individuals.

Is it possible to raise money for speaking tours, lecturers, Like the N.E.F.A.C. does or the folks in Ontario apparently have done with
much success.

do the W.S.A. dues cover just the cost of the news letter and office stuff?

I understand there are no more than fifty people in W.S.A. Though don't lectures and speaking tours, benefit shows and such
build interest ,cash and an organization?

What is the W.S.A. doing now to grow?

are things such as these already in the works?

I know these are a lot of questions, but if anyone has some answers/insight on/to them it would be much appreciated.

syndicalist
Posts: 1184 Joined: 15-04-06
12 November, 2007 - 15:28

Welcome aboard comrade.

Let me try and answer a few questions. Some of the questions are probably better answered off the public list. You'll be subscribed to the internal WSA-members list shortly.

As with most radical organizations, much of the work done is on a "do-it-yourself" basis. That is, local folks do local things, build a local organization (that plugs in to the larger organization) and so forth. WSA can be helpful in this process by prviding advice, literature and speakers (where practical). As you're new and I'm 3000 miles east, perhaps I'm not the person to talk about a personal visitation and that sort of on-the-ground help. But we'll do what we can from this end to help out.

I think it's absolutely possible for a regional (west coast) organization to develop. My observation of the Ontario situation is quite simple: A few "live wires" got together and said "let's do something". They had some basic political agreements; a few regional contacts and the drive to make it happen. I'm not sure if there was financial support, but certainly moral and political support by others outside their region. So, anything is possible with the right mix of agreement and energy.

Growth comes about with building good local groups and a solid national organization. The key is having local groups that function and are active. A solid national publication (as well as local ones) and common projects also help build a bigger and better organization.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

Look forward to working with you.

syndicalistcat
Posts: 888 Joined: 02-11-06 Location: San Francisco USA
12 November, 2007 - 16:35

well, WSA is very much in need of organizing local branches of WSA itself. But i wouldn't think of community organizing as organizing necessarily a specifically anarchist group -- i would think of a specifically anarchist group as a political group of some sort -- but of organizing people in a community around some area of struggle, like a tenants group or a copwatch group (against police brutality) or public transit riders' union, etc. If there were a WSA branch in a particular community, then participating in, or working to organize, a community group might be an area of focus, but i think this should fit in with some strategy.

booeyschewy
Posts: 433 Joined: 18-10-06 Location: USA, Miami
12 November, 2007 - 17:16
andrewnorthcalifornia wrote:
hey, I recently joined the W.S.A., and I was wondering does the W.S.A. help organize collectives or anarchist groups?

Hey there andrew. i'm a new member too, but will try to answer some of your questions. what sort of help did you want?

andrewnorthcalifornia wrote:
Is it possible to raise money for speaking tours, lecturers, Like the N.E.F.A.C. does or the folks in Ontario apparently have done with much success.

it is possible, and not really that hard. i've thought about doing this with my reading group with good outside speakers on a topical basis. i've been too busy though.

andrewnorthcalifornia wrote:
do the W.S.A. dues cover just the cost of the news letter and office stuff?

I'm not sure what the funds are used for, be interested to know.

andrewnorthcalifornia wrote:
I understand there are no more than fifty people in W.S.A. Though don't lectures and speaking tours, benefit shows and such
build interest ,cash and an organization?

In terms of what will build anarchist organization (in the long term), it is clearly going to be building an organized tendency within social movements that: i actually does the nitty gritty work that people respect in a cooperative and non-sectarian way, ii develops anarchist praxis is a way comprehensible to most people, and iii demonstrates the truth of anarchism through practice. This should be our primary loyalty and activity.

In terms of building branches, i think we have to prioritize. I see reading groups as a good way to build the closeness and common thought necessary to political organization. Benefits are good but take a lot of energy, so i think are better once you've already got a group, some time, and some energy. Speaking tours can be good for spurring interests if there's a framework to plug people into.

One thing some comrades (non-wsa) and i have worked on is building parallel reading groups, which would eventually sponsor common speaking tours of anarchist thinkers and people who have lessons from social movements. this could be a good way to go, though i'd be interested to hear others' experiences are all this stuff is empirical.

andrewnorthcali...
Posts: 5 Joined: 12-11-07
18 November, 2007 - 02:50
booeyschewy wrote:
andrewnorthcalifornia wrote:
hey, I recently joined the W.S.A., and I was wondering does the W.S.A. help organize collectives or anarchist groups?

Hey there andrew. i'm a new member too, but will try to answer some of your questions. what sort of help did you want?

andrewnorthcalifornia wrote:
Is it possible to raise money for speaking tours, lecturers, Like the N.E.F.A.C. does or the folks in Ontario apparently have done with much success.

it is possible, and not really that hard. i've thought about doing this with my reading group with good outside speakers on a topical basis. i've been too busy though.

andrewnorthcalifornia wrote:
do the W.S.A. dues cover just the cost of the news letter and office stuff?

I'm not sure what the funds are used for, be interested to know.

andrewnorthcalifornia wrote:
I understand there are no more than fifty people in W.S.A. Though don't lectures and speaking tours, benefit shows and such
build interest ,cash and an organization?

In terms of what will build anarchist organization (in the long term), it is clearly going to be building an organized tendency within social movements that: i actually does the nitty gritty work that people respect in a cooperative and non-sectarian way, ii develops anarchist praxis is a way comprehensible to most people, and iii demonstrates the truth of anarchism through practice. This should be our primary loyalty and activity.

In terms of building branches, i think we have to prioritize. I see reading groups as a good way to build the closeness and common thought necessary to political organization. Benefits are good but take a lot of energy, so i think are better once you've already got a group, some time, and some energy. Speaking tours can be good for spurring interests if there's a framework to plug people into.

One thing some comrades (non-wsa) and i have worked on is building parallel reading groups, which would eventually sponsor common speaking tours of anarchist thinkers and people who have lessons from social movements. this could be a good way to go, though i'd be interested to hear others' experiences are all this stuff is empirical.

The kind of help from WSA I was talking about was, anywhere from splitting the cost of out reach and organizing, to WSA helping you get in cotact with WSA members around where you live, or having bitchen flyers to distribute whith a place to put on your contact info.
you know help organizing and out reach,

I was thinking of getting organizing started, spurring interest outside of the Anarchist movement and exposing people to revolutionary anarchism
the way we see it (before it'sgone through the media spin machine, or waterd down by political opponents or lifestylists)
I think local action is good but paying more attention to places where the anarchist movement, doesn't have a presence is important
for building the movement.

Also the idea was getting groups and individuals who already agree with the anarchist vision, to at least to affiliate in acooperative relationship with WSA
if they don't join would be good step towards the movement being more interconected .

My impression is that WSA is a political organization witch engages in solidarity action, WSA encorages activity in unions and community groups
(not specificly WSA groups), grass roots political actions, organizing functional things like workers centers, and WSA branches to promote and bring about
anarchism.
And I thought these startegies to rais cash And promoting anarchism were pretty consistent.

My thoughts are there are already many examples of anarchism being shown to be pratical through action, but nobody but anarchists and those in or around those actions(or who read about them) will think about it that way ,or analyze it like that.

People can be motivated to action, by vision ,a goal, a deeper purpose to that action
That is why we're talking right now, because we want to move towards a free society.

So using examples people can relate to when giving speeches, or
workshops relating to the big 'A' is important, but that doesn't in any way take away from needing to spread the idea, and the reasoning behind it
and how we think we can make it happen (and how people can help).

yeah having speakers come to one location sounds cool.

thoughI wonder how hard it is to book a venue in a speaking tour, probably have to find some folks intersted in helping put it on,
or a group that is interested in hearing it.
(it's limeted to wondering as of now, I have few connections with WSA folks that live within 16hrs of me )

But wouldn't it be cool if we had like one person in a rural town, or some town with a tiny anarchist current, they set a venue, people in the region had raised money, and we send a lecturer or set up a work shop, low and behold those couple anarchists are now in a group from people interested in the talk that was put on;, they can get tips if they need too from the rest of the WSA
but they can now work on community projects/national projects, plus help put class struggle Anarchism(union,anti-oppression etc.) up for discussion in a place where Anarchism used to have no presence.

Yeah I say regionaly raise money through benefit shows and tabling what have you, to do stuff like pay for speakers and/or travel ,supplies; cause the WSA
dues it seems is all going to mantainig the organization and getting supplies, so yeah D.I,Y. or regional D.O.S.

cool sounds good, thanks for your responses
And i'm looking forward to working with ya'll.

booeyschewy
Posts: 433 Joined: 18-10-06 Location: USA, Miami
18 November, 2007 - 17:23

What you say makes sense, and I'm on the same page about the task being to build out of struggles (rather than mere solidarity). If you want to start organizing a speaking tour, I will help in my city. Here the IWW has a large union hall, and I could book it really easily. We would just need funds for travel.

syndicalistcat
Posts: 888 Joined: 02-11-06 Location: San Francisco USA
18 November, 2007 - 19:47
Quote:
My impression is that WSA is a political organization witch engages in solidarity action, WSA encorages activity in unions and community groups
(not specificly WSA groups), grass roots political actions, organizing functional things like workers centers, and WSA branches to promote and bring about
anarchism.

yes that's basically right. we see the mass organizations as the means to making social change, since it is the working class itself that does this.

there are two other people in Mendocino who have been members of WSA. both have been "dual-carders", i.e. belong to both IWW and WSA, but one is no longer a WSA member tho he's still a sympathizer.

syndicalist
Posts: 1184 Joined: 15-04-06
19 November, 2007 - 01:44

very, very briefly.

good conversation. i'm in favor of helping where we can and using our meger resources as wisely as we can.

on the question of finances, this would best be left for an internal wsa-members dicussion and on that list.

let me just say that the main expense to the wsa has been "workers solidarity" #3.
the costs of maintaining the ny office have all been out of local pocket (thanks to steve) and sharing the space with others. "administrative" costs have also been out-of-pocket.. it has been ages since the ny office received any wsa (more than 10 years).

with increased energy, more vigorious dues collection needs to be done. and, most people pay the minimum, so it 's not like there's tons of dough.

but let's put our heads together and work a sustainable game plan.

more later.

Wobbly Preacher
Posts: 97 Joined: 06-11-06 Location: Cleveland, OH
25 January, 2008 - 04:42

I just visited booey in PDX and he encouraged me to consider joining WSA. It's actually something I have thought about in the past. My only hesitation is around the question of what WSA does and what it would mean to be a member...

syndicalist
Posts: 1184 Joined: 15-04-06
25 January, 2008 - 14:39

Hey WP,

The basic is agreement with the WSA principles, "Where We Stand", pay dues and participate in trhe life of the organization.

WWS is currently being revised. The current WWS can be found at www.workersolidarity.org.

I'll try and get back to this over the weekend. I've got a dog bite of the flu at the moment.

Solidarity

blackstone
Posts: 22 Joined: 04-11-07
29 January, 2008 - 15:45

Yeah, i intend to join prolly in the spring or summer after i get my car and have more free time on my hands.

syndicalist
Posts: 1184 Joined: 15-04-06
30 January, 2008 - 02:26

That be great blackstone. Look forward to working with you.