Kshama Sawant and Capitalism's Shock Absorbers
An analysis from Black Orchid Collective on the recent election of Socialist Alternative candidate Kshama Sawant to Seattle City Council, and this election's relationship to the broader social movement forces and conditions of the city.
“While you waitin’ for the mention in the pages of ‘The Stranger’
You can find me in the basement makin’ heaters for later…
we’ve been living in conditions we’re tired of
Come on and rise up”
- Blue Scholars, “North by Northwest”
Intro: the shifting political terrain
Between the Leninists and the Clowns: Avoiding recklessness and professionalism in revolutionary struggle
A piece by a member of Black Orchid Collective looking at recent movements in Seattle and advocating their conception of cadre organization.
This piece reflects on the current strengths and weaknesses of the revolutionary networks that have emerged out of the Decolonize/ Occupy movement in Seattle. In particular, I critique some of the problems that arise because of lack of organization, and suggest ways we can address these without falling into top-down, authoritarian models of organization building.
Truth and revolution and parenting
Nate Hawthorne writes about the issue of parenting in the Sojourner Truth Organization and his own experience in current groups.
This piece is by Nate Hawthorne, a friend and comrade to many of us in Black Orchid Collective. He’s a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and is one of the editors of a web site called Recomposition. He writes on his own at this libcom blog.
*Dramatic Intro* The crisis of the Left: What’s really going in the ISO BOC debate?!?!
Black Orchid Collective takes on criticisms leveled at them by the International Socialist Organization, a Trotskyist influenced group in the United States.
In the past few months the International Socialist Organization (ISO) has gone out its way to associate Black Orchid Collective with being divisive, ultra leftist, anti-union, and even defenders of CEOs according to one member on the Occupy Purdue Facebook page. All of these accusations can be dispelled by reading our pieces on our blog.
Be careful with each other, so we can be dangerous together
A reply to 'Privilige politics is reformism', an article that appeared on Black Orchid Collective's website.
Comrade Will’s piece “Privilege Politics is Reformism,” for the Black Orchid Collective blog, is a timely and valuable contribution to understanding how the revolutionary movement of the early 21st century will develop. In essence, what he tries to do is to identify the dynamics of racial oppression within the Occupy movement and identify some tentative ways forward.
Privilege politics is reformism
A critique of privilege politics, which the author sees as a demobilizing force that boils down issues of oppression into what happens between individuals.
This piece was written by Will, a close comrade to many members of Black Orchid Collective.
Notes on Privilege Theory
Introduction: White Supremacy Lives on
It is crystal clear that white supremacy exists. It seeps through every pore in our society. It infects every social relationship. It obviously affects Occupy Wall Street.
Longview, Occupy, and Beyond: Rank and File and the 89% Unite!
Table of Contents:
I) Longview and Occupy: a warm autumn on the West Coast
II) Birth of the hip hop picket line: the Dec 12th West Coast Port Shutdown and the precarious proletariat.
III) From Dec 12th to Jan 6th: attempts at coastal solidarity, and divisions in Seattle
IV) Our response to Socialist Worker newspaper’s article
“Between the Zeal of the Young and the Patience of the Old”: Reflections on Seattle’s Recent Upheavals Against Police Brutality
A pamphlet on recent cases of police brutality in Seattle and the reaction that followed.
Response to “Direct Unionism: A Discussion Paper”
A response by a member of the Seattle-based Black Orchid Collective to 'Direct Unionism: A Discussion Paper'
This is a response to a piece written by IWW members, entitled “Direct Unionism: A Discussion Paper.“
Can comment on articles and discussions