Open Network of Revolutionary Activists -- July 22 mtg - aggregated fragmentary notes

Note for all readers (by Ben): I have given up on this RevLeft blog because the format is too
restricted. I am putting together some ideas for a better blog (or system of interlocking blogs) that
will use Wordpress. I am only posting these notes here because that is my agreement with the other
comrades in our discussion group: the rotating secretary (ie: in this case, me) must post
somewhere public within 24 hours (which means I am late).


(above: Our "Covey Jar" image of our agenda for 7/22 mtg)

Our meeting was between 3 and a half to 4 hours.

Following are partial, incomplete and highly fragmentary notes by the three participants: Damien, Art and Ben:

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Notes by Damien
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--> (News of world and the movement) (Spain) as austerity increases, so do protests. Funds cut for myriad public sector jobs; miners partake in actions in Asturias. (Syria) Will the oposition take Damascus or mainline border posts? (Saudi Arabia) and its relation with neighboring countries, et all. (On Kasama) Mike Ely has a habit of posting a statement and then refining it with something akin to a dialectical process.

--> Class struggle: is the pivotal struggle. We must focus on this.

--> On AC: he is reluctant to get involved, however time will tell.

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Notes by Art
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--> Middle East analysis: Syria, Libya, Bathast Party
Power, powerlessness and how some practice "real politick" support for _any_ power against US imperialism.
Recent Kasama article on real politick accommodation to US imperialism.

--> Religious purity in activist groups is impossible, confrontation and controversy are inevitable because we reflect the contradictions of real world. Excommunication and exile is unhealthy for group progression. Puget Sound Anarachist website article is exploring the approach we support of political criticism, open debate, analysis and "intense discussion" with minimal alienation.

--> Discussion of certain non-local activists involved in SD and petty bourgeois politics. Some activists see the cluelessness of the rest of the left, but fail to see their own cluelessness. As the struggle intensifies, the movement will rise above petty bourgeois politics and working class politics and the class struggle will assert themselves.

--> Fk: sectarianism and social democracy are the main enemies of the movement. Communist party developed from 57 groups in China, similar in Russia.

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Notes by Ben
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--> Syria (unfolding civil war) and Arab history and various positions on the left. Mike Ely's article smashes up apologists for US imperialist intervention in Syria.

--> Some examples of activists with petty bourg ideologies in this period. Weight of working class is generally felt in social movements only after considerable period of development because petty bourg layers of society have easier access to ideas and the movement itself.

--> AC and AA and the principles of our recovery. The problems AC is experiencing are utterly typical of a large number of activists. The network we need will (in some ways) be like AA (except with cross-talk and confrontation). We will need to build cauldron that can easily withstand temperatures hot enough to melt steel. What is most important thing to "do" during an intense confrontation? We don't necessarily need to "do" anything--rather, just stay calm and carefully observe, maybe write observations and notes for study afterward.

--> Fk, many issues related to this comrade, who has many fine abilities, but who has also paralyzed himself building castles in the sky.

--> (informal discussion of motivations of local bourgeoisie in the recent police raid on Red Spark comrades). A advanced a theory that I had never even thought of, but which is plausible, that motivation for raid may originate in contradictions among local bourgeoisie, in particular downtown business interests and effort of mayor to appease them and manuever. If main aim had been to intimidate movement, it was spectacular failure, but other explanation makes more sense.

Next meeting: Sunday, August 5 at 11 am.