Good Comment on Scoundrel Time/Corporate Liberalism

Matthew McDaniel has been encouraging me to sit down and actually write a book on community organizing.  I'm beginning to think about that seriously.  He, himself, is a very long time and direct activist on behalf of the Akha tribal people -- perennially threatened by the government of Thailand. Now in Oregon, he has spent a vast amount of time in Thailand.  (I was giving some thought to doing a short autobiography -- maybe called "My Life as a Human:  The Autobiography of a Bear."  But autobios always pose problems about what to put in and what to leave out.  Again, seriously, Matthew's good suggestion makes sense.  (H)

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Matthew McDaniel 
  To: Hunter Gray 
  Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 9:43 AM
  Subject: Re: TWO POSTS: SCOUNDREL TIME AS CORPORATE LIBERALISM / A BRIEF ORGANIZER'S NOTE


  Hunter:


  You see, here in the US I do not know very many people who have been in the tough field, where one's choice of defending the rights of others could easily mean the old bullet in the head (funny enough the only people who actually threatened me with that were missionary related people calling from the states - NC accent).


  So much of what they have to say is a lot of platitudes and such and such wrapped in a thick mattress.


  But in the hard field one needs keen, clever, focused and highly effective organizing ability.


  Also I note that so many "activists" are "republicans" or "democrats" "conservatives" or "liberals".


  But few question the ownership of issues of these groups which as you point out, take over a cause. This is same as NGO's trying to own or take over a cause in Thailand or at the UN, immediately pushing the unique Akha farmer aside, as what he needs or does can not be compressed into the corporate establishment model the NGO has for itself.


  Few people will admit to this.


  So I think a broader book on good activism, ESPECIALLY how to be a community organizer and ORGANIZE other people, that brings in all these other issues one encounters dating back to Mississippi, are very helpful, and given the Obama thing and the new world order of waterboarding people and droning them will hellfire missiles in western oregon or where ever, these are complexities not seen so much in books. And while many people are pro or con Obama few can articulate the specifics of what he is doing that takes away freedoms.


  As you may feel, it looks as though we step back into the dark ages, where people will soon enough be afraid to even think a thought.


  Matthew


  On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 10:00 AM, Hunter Gray <[email protected]> wrote:

    Thanks much, Matthew.  That's a fine suggestion -- and nudges me significantly.

    All the best,

    Hunter


    HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
    Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
    Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
    www.hunterbear.org 
    (much social justice material)

    See the new and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's 
    Book." It's the inside story of the massive Jackson Movement,
    bloody repression and murder, and more -- including a myriad
    of organizing "lessons."  And with my new and 10,000 word
    Introduction. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm (". .a local activist's
     important account of the deleterious effects the involvement of 
    national organizations can have on indigenous protest movements."
    David Garrow in "The Age of the Unheralded", Progressive Magazine,
    April 1990.

    See my piece ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
    ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE:
    http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm

    The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
    http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
    (Expanded in 2012. Photos. Material on our Native
    background.) 

      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Matthew McDaniel 
      To: Hunter Gray 
      Sent: Monday, March 18, 2013 10:31 AM
      Subject: Re: TWO POSTS: SCOUNDREL TIME AS CORPORATE LIBERALISM / A BRIEF ORGANIZER'S NOTE


      Hunter: 


      I read posts like this one with interest, and feel you should certainly pull a book together focused on all these issues, both experiences and advise, as it has to be read broadly, through all of your experiences, to get a feel for the complexities of what you see and experience and then matching the ideas to one's own projects.


      So true about "corporate" activism efforts that steal away the grass root movements, I called it "hostile takeover" when ever it tried to happen to us in Thailand.


      Matthew









      On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 2:51 AM, Hunter Gray <[email protected]> wrote:

        TWO POSTS  (HUNTER BEAR)

        From Redbadbear:


        Sam Friedman levied a sharp critique of corporate liberalism a day or so ago, commenting that I (Hunter) knew much about its negative impact in and on the Southern Movement.  He's right -- I do.  The National NAACP and the Kennedy administration did their best to subvert our large and militant Jackson Movement almost 50 years ago -- and did a great deal of damage.  I've recently passed around a couple of my long and pointed missives regarding present events in Jackson where 50th Anniversary efforts are underway, in the name of the Jackson Movement, to whitewash that, along with some of the cruel realities of Old Mississippi (and probably some of the present ones) -- and present the National NAACP and the Kennedys as Sterling Knights of the Light.

        I'm not known for crudity -- but, B.S.  And I could cite many other sorry Dixie instances involving various versions of corporate liberalism and self-serving high level "pragmatism" during that sanguinary era.

        And I can cite other instances in other times and places.

        My correspondence on all of this has picked up considerably and that's why I've enlarged my signature link regarding my book, Jackson Mississippi.  (Here is that, in case you don't scroll down.)

        See the new and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's 
        Book." It's the inside story of the massive Jackson Movement,
        bloody repression and murder, and more -- including a myriad
        of organizing "lessons."  And with my new and 10,000 word
        Introduction. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm (". .a local activist's
         important account of the deleterious effects the involvement of 
        national organizations can have on indigenous protest movements."
        David Garrow in "The Age of the Unheralded", Progressive Magazine,
        April 1990.

        And that's why I've occasionally quoted the concluding line of a speech I gave at Jackson in 1979 -- condemning
        "the subversion by the corporate liberals of New York and the self-styled "pragmatism" of those splendid scoundrels residing in Camelot on the Potomac." That drew a thundering and standing ovation from about one thousand people.

        Sam's right on all of this stuff. And so am I -- and so are many others.  And, when Sam finished an earlier edition of my book a few years ago, he wrote a very solid review on just this of which we're writing.  Posted that on Amazon where it certainly remains.

        Much changes as years and decades pass.  But Scoundrel Times, whatever the masks of the period, always continue -- with the basic thrust, however openly or covertly, of keeping the people in their "place".  And, of course, that means Down.

        Hunter Bear

        It's critical for an organizational thrust or a more transcendent Movement to always -- always -- continue moving ahead toward its goals/objectives.  Sometimes this has to be done speedily and sometimes it's a matter of "deliberate dispatch."  It should never be done recklessly. And, occasionally, a momentary pause for reconnoitering purposes is necessary.

        But the ethos and its tangible dimensions must be full ahead.  And, in doing so, there are always plenty of dangers levied by the adversary: some are "legal", some are physical, often the two occur together.

        If an organizational thrust or Movement loses the initiative or at least much of it, matters become vastly more dangerous to the organizers and the people with and for whom they're working.  Retaliatory legal and physical attacks can be legion.  While there are many examples of this, the massive and militant Jackson Movement situation in 1963, undercut by the National NAACP with the Kennedy administration in the shadows, is tragically classic in the most dramatic sense from both legal and physical perspectives.  

        I am sure others on our lists can cite comparable examples.

        Hunter Bear

        HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
        Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
        Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
        www.hunterbear.org 
        (much social justice material)

        See the new and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's 
        Book." It's the inside story of the massive Jackson Movement,
        bloody repression and murder, and more -- including a myriad
        of organizing "lessons."  And with my new and 10,000 word
        Introduction. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm (". .a local activist's
         important account of the deleterious effects the involvement of 
        national organizations can have on indigenous protest movements."
        David Garrow in "The Age of the Unheralded", Progressive Magazine,
        April 1990.

        See my piece ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
        ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE:
        http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm

        The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
        http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
        (Expanded in 2012. Photos. Material on our Native
        background.) 






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  -- 



  The Akha Heritage Foundation
  PO BOX 6073
  Salem, OR 97304 
  971-388-7185
  http://www.akha.org
  Make a Donation:
  (501-c non profit)
  https://www.paypal.com/xclick/[email protected]&item_name=Donation

  Join the Akha Weekly Journal
  [email protected]

  http://youtube.com/akhazauh

  Your Donation helps Protect the Human Rights of the Akha People. 

  http://www.facebook.com/akhamatthew