A review of "The Seattle Solidarity Network: a new kind of working class social movement"

Small summary of a great article about community organizing.

(Original full length article this comments on is at the bottom)

The group (Seattle Solidarity Network, or SeaSol) organized on a democratic basis with no set leadership, and one that allowed for anyone present in meetings to have a vote, a part in the decision making process. They organized around direct action against injustices from workers and tenets. When someone in the community would come to them with an injustice they had suffered, like unpaid wages from a local business or a stolen security deposit by a landlord, they would give that the business owner or landlord (which I will just calls capitalists from this point on) saying they had a certain amount of time to make things right or they would pursue further action. This further action was aimed at directly disrupting the capitalist’s business, pressuring the capitalist to make things right or close their business, which is what they were able to do in the first example they talk about in the article. They believed that the experience of organizing against injustice in your community, for yourself and/or for others in your community, was one of the best ways of radicalizing people into being committed to being part of social change, and something that stayed with people for life, with the experience and character it brings you. One of their core principles in deciding what fights to take on, was winnability. Learning from their observations of other activist movements, who protested more macro level issues, listened to paid union leaders, and other forms of activism that used up a lot of energy on ineffective forms of protest like voting and giving nice speeches that were not proving effective, SeaSol decided to focus on smaller community level issues that they had a chance at winning in their direct action to disrupt a capitalist’s business to force change where they could. To do what they could realistically take on and win, in bettering the lives of people in their community. At the same time, many group organizers (which were only distinguished by amount of service to the group, and had no power over other members or group decisions, as it was Democratic open to everyone who attended meetings) believed that this was a good stepping stone for people who want to gain experience organizing and empower them by showing them their collective action can bring real results without following the tedious expensive legal process or seemingly empty result of the political route (just vote! when voting for Biden did not change much, and even allows for the taking away of federal abortion rights, the funding and support for genocide by the government, and more; and the articles example of all the people around the country who protested the anti-union bill that still passed). Many people in SeaSol do not see it as the organization that will end capitalism, but they believe the effect on people's lives in bettering their conditions, having community support, and gaining community organizing experience, will equip them with what they need to be part of social change and organizing in general, even on a bigger level.

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“The Seattle Solidarity Network: a new kind of working class social movement”:

https://libcom.org/article/seattle-solidarity-network-new-kind-working-class-social-movement

(PDF for full article is on webpage)