WEBVTT - You Already Know How to Organize 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:03.120 A media. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:05.640 Hi everyone, it's me James, and I'm coming at you 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:07.880 today with one of these little requests that I make 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:10.720 sometimes when there's something that we would like you to do, 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:14.520 when it's very important to do. So today I want 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.640 to talk to you about Syria, and specifically Northeast Syria. 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.080 So with the world's eyes fixed on Syria, many are 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:23.360 rightly celebrating as a brutal dictatorship of Bashara Lasad comes 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.560 to an end. But for Kurdish and other minority communities, 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.520 recent days have bought violent attacks, ethnic cleansing and occupation 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.519 by Turkish back to Jahadis groups in an attempt to 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:36.320 take advantage of the chaos by crushing the Rajava Revolution. 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:39.600 Turkey and its mercenaries are openly committing war crimes against 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:43.560 the regions autonomous communities. Many thousands have already been forced 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.440 to be displaced and thousands more are in danger. To 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:50.360 make matters worth this remains largely absent from the mainstream 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.320 media reporting on Syria. If you'd like to share your 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:55.960 solidarity with the people of northern and Eastern Syria, please 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:58.320 call on Congress to take urgent action by passing the 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.200 emergency Legislation to stop the violence, hold Turkey accountable, and 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:05.080 commit US support to the Syrian democratic forces and the 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.440 diverse communities under their protection. If you want to take 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:11.640 action today, you can go to Defendrojaba dot org. That's 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.760 d E F E N d R o ja va 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:18.800 dot org. If you are able to the most effective 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:21.160 action we can take right now is to call a 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.240 couple of representatives, one representative on one. Senator representative would 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.800 be Gregory Meeks. He's from New York. He's a Democrat. 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:30.679 He is a ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.640 His phone number is two zero two two two five 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:37.600 three four six one. Leevon will be Senator James Risch. 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.920 He's an Idaho Republican. He is a ranking member's Senate 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:43.960 Foreign Relations Committee. His phone number would be two zero 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:48.440 two two two four two seven five two. If you'd 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:51.040 like to have some talking points, you can find those 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:55.760 on Defendrojaba dot org. If you'd like to donate financially instead, 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:58.800 especially to this humanitarian aid effort for the tens of 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:03.080 thousands of people who have been displaced by the SNA's advances, 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.120 you can donate to two organizations that I would suggest. 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.840 The first we be Heavier store the Curtis Red Crescent. 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:14.680 That's h E Yva s O R dot com and 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:16.320 you want to go slash e n if you want 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:18.399 to see their website in English, you can donate there. 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:20.919 The other one will be the free Burmer Rangers who 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.880 are currently working in Raka. I was talking to my 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:26.600 friend Abat who works with them. You can donate to 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:31.680 them at www dot free fr e E Burma b 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.519 U r m A rangers dot com. We will put 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.000 all of this in the show notes or the URL, 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:39.800 so if you're driving you don't have to write them down. 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:42.200 Those are the concrete ways that we can help right 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.760 now and what is unfolding as a very terrible situation 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.080 in nor Syria. Thanks. I hope you enjoy the episode. 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.640 It's it could happen here the podcast that's afficing right now. 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:55.880 This is maybe the foremost of the Putting Things Back 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.080 Together episodes. I'm your host Mia Wong with me as 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:00.079 James Stout. 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.120 A guy who likes it to put things together. 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.640 Yeah, and you know, on the subject of putting things 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.720 together over the last I don't even know three four weeks, 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.960 the question I have been asked the most by everyone 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:18.040 is how do I start organizing? And you know the 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.239 problem with how do I start organizing is that it's 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.239 not a question that has cleaner simple answers. Now, the 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:26.839 most common answer you get is just join an org. 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:28.840 And the problem is that most of the people who 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.040 you were hearing this from are already in an org 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:32.720 and want you to join their org. 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:34.240 Yeah. 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:36.280 Also, the problem is a lot of the orgs that 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.320 are currently dominating left to spaces in the in the 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:44.240 United States are trash, yeah, and bad for people. Bad 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:45.839 people in them, bad people who are not in them. 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:46.360 Yeah. 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:48.760 Here's a little test you can you can do, is 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.240 your org currently sad that Basha a Lasad is no 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.840 longer governing Syria? Because if that's the case, leave yep. 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.080 And that's that's a lot of orgs that that's not 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:01.280 for me. Yeah, it takes most of them right now. 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.520 We'll come back to orgs in a bit. But what 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.680 I'll say about orgs is that, Okay, if you know 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.000 an organization in your area that you like and you 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.480 think does good work and most importantly spends their time 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:16.440 actually doing work instead of either in fighting or talking 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.200 about doing work, you join them. It'll be good but 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:21.520 the important thing about organizations, and this is something we'll 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.200 come back to you later. The important thing about organizations 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:26.479 is they have a lot of people. Yeah, and the 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:29.640 thing that makes organizing work is people. It's not organizations. 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.360 It's not even necessarily at eological labels. It's there being 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:34.599 a bunch of people who you can use and who 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:36.480 want to do things. Yeah. 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.800 But something I realized that the more I had these conversations, right, 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.040 you know, I'm having them with friends, I'm having them 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.760 with strangers, I'm having them with other organizers. And the 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.360 more I had these conversations, the more I realize something 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:53.040 sort of startling you. The person listening to this almost 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.040 certainly already knows how to organize, but you don't know 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.880 that that's called organizing. Yeah, that's a very good point. 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.280 I have encountered some of the most stunning or I 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:06.400 mean organizing that like I can't discuss the specifics of 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:08.680 but like some of the best organizing I've ever encountered. 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:10.840 I have ran into in the last three weeks some 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:13.719 people who don't think that they're organizers and started talking 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:17.240 to me about their stuff. I was like, what, like, 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:21.080 people are winning victories that like the like hardcore committed 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.200 organizers haven't been able to do in like thirty years. Yeah, 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:26.159 and it's just by random people who don't think they 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:27.040 know how to do anything. 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:29.919 Yeah, can I tell a little organizing story? We do 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:31.920 have time, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, go for it. So 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.479 I remember, in like twenty eighteen, I am on a 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.080 trip with a friend. We're coming back and we see 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:39.960 the arrival of the migrant caravan. One of the migrant 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:41.960 caravan is the one that everyone decided to have a 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:44.599 fucking cow about right before the twenty eighteen mid terms. 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:47.719 And at that time, they were corraling the people of 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:52.080 the migrant caravan in a baseball stadium in Tijuana, and 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.520 like it was raining every day. So the baseball stadium 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:56.400 ends up looking like the Battle of the Psalm after 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:58.719 like a couple of days, right, you know, kids in needy, 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.440 mud and shit, and I particularly know what to do, 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.000 but evidently there were people there who were hungry and thirsty, 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.080 and so I get three of my free my friends. 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:10.359 At this time, I was still making about half my 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:14.159 money riding bicycles and the other half riding so my 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:15.520 friends and I was supposed to do a long bike 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.200 ride all of us are people who make a living 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.520 riding bikes, right, We're not like expert organizers. And I 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:23.240 was like, hey, guys, this is fucked. Which we do. 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:26.080 We called a friend who has a company who makes waffles, 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:30.560 where we obtained like as many waffles as we could 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.359 physically carry across the border. At that time, we weren't 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:35.880 able to get in. We found a way to get in. 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:40.120 We began distributing the waffles. After that, we put something online, 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.880 people sent us money, and we continued feeding people for months. 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:45.680 None of us, I think, had a particular plan or 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:48.640 a scheduled. Yeah, it was a bit chaotic at times, 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:51.600 but we were able to do that and with a 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:53.720 lot of other people. Clearly wasn't just us, right, but 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:55.920 we were able to process tenths of thousands of dollars 0:06:55.960 --> 0:07:00.360 and feed thousands of people be everyone there. And I've 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:04.159 seen this countless times, especially working and organizing with well 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.800 with refugees. For the most part, people are so good 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.160 at organizing each other in themselves. Like when we got 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:12.720 there with bottles of water and food. There are a 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.640 thousand people there who have not had sometimes a drink 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.200 for days, let alone more than a thousand. I think 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:21.760 let alone something hot to eat. Right, everybody made sure 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:23.760 that the children and the sick people got what they 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:27.080 needed first. Organizing is something that is very inherent in 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.200 us as people. It just we don't call it that. 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:33.120 Yeah, And that's part of what I want to try 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:34.800 to the myth. I want to try to puncture with 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.040 this because I think particularly in the US, but this 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:39.920 is true in a lot of places. There's this way 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.360 in which the organizers sort of TM capital T capital O. 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.920 The organizer gets held up as this sort of I 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:51.000 guess even a particularly masculinist thing, which is it's this 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:56.120 guy with specialized knowledge. Yeah, and that's just not true. 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:57.240 This brings us. 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.640 Something that I think is actually really important, which is 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:01.520 what what even is organizing? 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:02.160 Right? 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.280 And the answer is that most organizing is you get 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.400 you get a group of people together, you get them 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:10.960 to show up to something, and then you do something right. 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.920 And the thing about this, right, that's something all of 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.720 you know how to do. If if you can organize 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.000 a dinner party, right, if you can get eight people 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.560 to show up to a place to eat dinner, you 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.920 can do this. It is it is largely the same 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.480 skill sets, and all of the skill sets that make 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:33.000 people good organizers are skill sets that you have to 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.240 develop to you know, work a job, right. You know, 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:37.640 Like one of the things that comes up a lot 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.880 in this which is less discussed and also kind of annoying, 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:42.240 but you know you have to manage it, is that 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.000 organizing is about people and sometimes you have to you know, 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:46.160 you have to do things like you have to manage 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:48.400 people's egos. But like, I don't know, almost all of 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.160 you work jobs or have work jobs, right, you have 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.680 had to like deal with your boss being on one right, 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:57.120 you have the skills to do this. 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:58.360 You know how to do. 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:03.400 The interpersonal relationship stuff. It's just that you don't think 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:07.760 about that as organizing, even though that's just what it is. 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:10.880 Yeah, that's the core of it is getting people to 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.760 do stuff like you do it every day. 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:14.920 Yeah. 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:18.040 And the way you do this is by building relationships 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:21.040 with people, right. And this isn't necessarily friendships, although that works. 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.000 And like one of the easiest ways to start organizing 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:26.439 is by getting all of your friends together because you're 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:30.040 already friends, you have pre existing relationships, and being like, okay, motherfuckers, 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:33.920 we gotta go do something. And actually I love that 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.360 the first thing that you brought up was an admittedly 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:40.440 sort of medium ish scale lift version of this. But 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:42.280 one of the very easiest things that you can do 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:44.640 is you can just get food of some kind. You 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:46.680 can either buy it or you can make it yourself, 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:49.920 and you and a group of like eight people, not 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:51.480 even eight people, you can do it with lower I 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.640 know people who've done this just solo. Is that you 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:56.640 can just go give food to people. Yeah. 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:01.360 Literally it was this morning yesterday morning. I have some 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:03.360 man house neighbors, right and it was cold, and so 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:05.320 I went out and gave them some hot breakfast or 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:09.560 hot coffee. It's super easy to do. If you are 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.320 struggling socially wherever you are, maybe you're finding it hard 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:14.040 to make friends. I know that's the thing that people 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:16.600 often struggle, especially if you've moved to a new place 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.079 or post pandemic, or you're still concerned with liuved gatherings 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.719 or any of those things. Like, if you start doing that, 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:25.600 you will find other people who want to do it too, 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:28.000 Like so many of my friends I organize with are people. 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:31.000 Like when we had the end of Title forty two 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:34.040 and people were in between the fences that a lot 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.240 of the people who I organize with now or who 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.080 helped people with now, I didn't know. I just showed 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:41.760 up with a giant side of generator that I happened 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:43.600 to have and some stuff that we had a whip 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.400 around a call zone for and like, people who care 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.040 about the same things as you are generally cool and 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:51.360 it's a good way to make friends. And then you 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:52.760 can go on from there. 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:57.200 Yeah, and there's a second compounding thing here too, which 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.880 is that you know, feeding people it's a way to 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.040 build relationships with people. And also it's a really good 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.480 way for people to get to know you in general 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:09.400 and know that you are someone who will help them 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:11.440 with things. Yeah, and from there, and this is a 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:13.400 very common exception. I mean this is I literally had 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.160 this conversation with one of my friends who's like an 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.280 old school Food Not Bombs organizer. Food Not Bombs is 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:22.240 a very very it's a cool organization. You can just 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.480 like found a food out Bobs chapter. They have like 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:28.679 a couple of principles, or you can just do your 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:30.360 own thing. And I'm pretty sure it's still like the 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.360 largest anarchist project in the world because all it takes 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:35.880 is you and like three other people and you just 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.839 go feed people. But the thing is from doing that, right, 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.240 if there's other things that you're concerned about, people will 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.880 bring you their problems and you can help them doing it. 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:45.680 And this is a very good way to get into 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.000 other kinds of organizing because suddenly, once you start building 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:52.120 these relationships, everything sort of cycles and cycles, and you know, 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.679 you get involved in more and more things. Yeah, and 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:56.800 that's kind of a that's kind of a late stage 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.360 thing that we're sort of jumping to a bit. But 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:01.600 I want to go back to the beginnings of how 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:04.360 so how do you get a group of people together 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:08.040 to do a thing? And the answer is you kind 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.600 of already know how to because you you presumably at 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.720 some point in your life, have like organized a group 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.760 of friends to go do something, right, Like I've gotten 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:21.480 a group of people together to go accomplish a task. 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.520 Yeah, it could literally be anything, right like, yeah, if 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.240 you've got some people to go to a BA, you 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:28.000 have the skills. 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.520 One way I've been thinking about it recently and in 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:32.840 my project is putting is thinking about it as like 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:39.040 putting together a heist crew. And I, okay, I could 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.880 vouch for this right. The feeling of walking up to 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:46.120 eight people and telling them individually, I'm putting together a 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:49.920 team and I want you it is. It feels you 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.040 can just do it. There is nothing stopping you. Nothing 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:54.960 in the world can stop you from just walking up 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.400 to your friend and going I'm putting together a team. 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.920 And it feels exactly as good as you think it 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:06.559 with them Ice movie, it rules. It's so fun, amazing, Yeah, 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.360 and and and but this gets into also what kinds 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:13.160 of people you want to do right, because obviously you 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:16.680 know there's two vectors of this. There's on the one hand, 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.719 you have the aspect of okay, who do you know? Right, 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.520 And a lot of organizing is just about here is 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.760 a problem, and I know someone who has some sort 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.000 of skill or resource that can that can help deal 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.040 with it, and you put people in touch with each other, 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:34.800 and that's organizing. That's so much organizing is literally just hey, 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:37.480 like I have like a broken part of my car. 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.880 I know someone who's like a car mechanic, right, and 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:42.559 you put you put them in touch. And you have 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.200 successfully organized people, and you have built relationships, and you 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.480 have made all of the sort of social web that 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:52.000 creates organizing. You've made it stronger. It also just feels 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:54.600 good because you know, and that that's an auxiliary benefit 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:56.040 to all of this is that it's it's a great 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:58.320 it's a great way to sort of break break the 0:13:58.360 --> 0:13:59.520 isolation we're all under. 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:04.959 Yeah, I think the best solution for despair is I'm 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:08.440 thinking of a quotation here something the busy bee have 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.200 no time for despair. But the thing that makes me 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.640 feel better about the world is that I have seen 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:18.559 that people can fix massive problems with very few resources 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:23.880 by just showing up. And like, I think, organizing is 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.240 what gives me, what allows me to enter this period 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:28.680 of time that we're entering into with a great deal 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:30.200 more hope than I otherwise would have done. 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:32.680 Yeah, And do you know what else will help you 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:34.080 enter your situation? 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.920 Is it the products and services that support this podcast. 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:40.600 I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.760 we are not in control of the length of the ads. 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:49.600 They just do it. We're sorry, here's a really long 0:14:49.680 --> 0:15:08.560 period of ads. I'm so sorry. 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:04.560 We are back. So I want to I want to 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.280 return to my my highst career. If I don't know 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:08.920 if you're a D and D person, the other way 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:10.680 you can think about this is you're putting together like 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.120 a Dungeons and Dragons party or like an RPG party. 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.640 And the way you need to think about this is, Okay, 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:19.520 so you've picked a thing that you want to do, right, 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:21.600 you see, you've seen something in the world that is 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:23.760 bad and you you figure it. You go, okay, I 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:25.520 can do this thing to solve it. And maybe and 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:27.880 maybe that's you know, it's literally something as simple as 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.640 feeding people. Maybe that's you know, I want to start. 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:32.640 I want to start doing tenets organizing. I want to 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:34.800 start because my rent is too high, right, people are 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.520 getting evicted. I want to start doing like immigration defense. 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:38.400 Yeah. 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:42.480 And from there you make a list and that list 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.120 is you know what you're interested in doing, and you 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:49.280 try to match what things need to be done with 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:53.200 people you know who have those skills. Yeah, and this 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:54.600 is you know this, this is this is where you 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.240 really get into the hist things, right, because everyone has 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.920 their sort of like highst role. Now, obvious part of 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:02.560 this that you want is you want to create sort 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.840 of balanced teams. Right. You want people who have overlapping 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.160 strengths so you don't just have only one person who 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:10.840 can do a thing. And part of the way to 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:14.440 successful organization works over time, and I mean just how 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.880 successful organizing works is that eventually you are trying to 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.720 organize yourself out of a job, which is to say, 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.480 you want your organization to function such that if you're 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.160 not able to do it, you know, or just you're gone, 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:28.200 or you cycle onto a next thing, or you know, 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.440 any any number of things that can happen. You want 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:32.840 the organization to still be able to keep working without you, 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:34.520 and you want you want you're trying to get people 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:36.680 to be able to replace you as the person who's 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:40.400 like organizing the thing, right. Yeah, And at this point 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:43.720 we can start talking about the kinds of skills that 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.880 people need for organizing, and a lot of people and 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.960 this is unbelievably common when I talk to people, and 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:52.720 like especially women and especially like a lot of non 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:56.640 binary people and trans people particularly have this is that 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:01.200 people don't believe that they have any skills. Yeah, and 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:03.440 then you talk to them for five seconds and they're like, well, 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.200 I'm good at carrying heavy objects, right, I'm good with kids, 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:07.639 which is a huge one. We'll get to you in 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:09.760 a second, right, or like I don't know, I have 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.840 a car that's a huge skill. There are so many 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.520 different skills that are so useful for so many things. 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:17.840 I'm just gonna go over lots of things that are 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.359 actually really useful to get to get people a sense 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.040 of like the kinds of things that there are. There 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:27.000 are massive roles for so one of the most important ones, 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:29.120 and this is something you can you deliberately look for. 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:30.640 You know, this is this is one of the things 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:33.160 you do at the beginning of any union organizing campaign. 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.800 Someone who's good at talking to other people and making friends. 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:41.280 That is a staggeringly useful person because against most organizing 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:43.919 is just talking to people and building relationships. And you know, 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:45.400 one of the things you do when you when you're 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:47.480 doing you're sort of they call it power mapping. But 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:49.760 when when you when you're figuring out how you're going 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:52.600 to organize a workplace, is you find the person who 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.480 everyone likes and talks to and respects, and you talk 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.080 to that person. Yeah, because that person can you know, 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.480 can sort of like organize people down the chain because 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:02.800 they have they have their relationships already and also they're 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.000 good they'll be good at, you know, talking to new 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.359 people and and spreading your organization that way, and so 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.280 like you know, if you're just someone who's social or 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:13.359 and this is also very useful if you have a 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:15.720 friend who is very social, because I know a lot 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:18.359 of us are oporary social. But you probably have a 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:20.360 friend that you're thinking of right now who is very 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.000 good at conversations that is charming and is good at 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:29.040 making friendships. That person unbelievably useful, incredibly useful and compelling skill. Yeah, 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.520 there are also things like research people who are good 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:33.439 at and I think people are much better at research 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.480 than they think to take like a Tete's organizing example. Right, 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:38.520 one of the common things you have to do is 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:42.280 find out stuff about a landlord, right, Yeah, And there's 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.200 the higher difficulty version of that, which isn't that hard. Also, 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:47.480 want to I want to mention this, but like going 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:51.200 to a courthouse and finding records about who owns property 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:53.960 companies that it's not that hard. It's it's like you 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:56.320 could just do it, right, It's not as hard as 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.120 you think it is from someone saying it. But there's 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:01.159 also even just easy things in that, right that all 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:02.840 of you probably already know how to do, which is 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:06.240 just looking at someone's social media profiles, and finding out 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.200 information about them. Yeah, and this is very useful, yeah, 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:11.200 for like union campaigns, bosses. 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.560 If you've ever been a person who uses dating apps, 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:17.760