So I had this really good weekend last weekend. It was a regional gathering for IWW members, hosted by my branch. I did some work in the lead up and a fair bit more during. It was great - carousing with out-of-towners and folk from my branch, good times hearing and singing labor and folk songs, some productive discussions and training in workshops, excellent keynote address by Staughton Lynd, loads of goodness all round. Then on monday I did my first one-on-one with somebody in a long while, with a friend from my branch riding co-pilot. That went well too. It was great to dust off the instincts a bit, and there’s a level of intensity of engagement that’s very powerful when a visit like that goes well. There are a number of possible follow ups to both the visit and the weekend, which is good. (That’s the whole point. “Accumulate, accumulate” isn’t just the mantra for capital, but for organization against capital as well, though in a different fashion.)
Despite all this I’ve been out of sorts the past couple days. Or perhaps because of all this. Having had a bit of a burst of activity I feel really impatient with the come-down and the steps needed for future and current activities. The pace of organizing moves glacially (with the occasionally burst of often unexpected and trying rapidity, rather like an earthquake) and it’s especially frustrating because the world is just so fucked. (I talked to my mom on the phone today, she’s getting to be quite a lefty. She told me she’d just heard from another teacher that one of her favorite students signed up. The student wouldn’t tell my mom because my mom is outspoking against enlisting. So did one of her neighbor’s kids. She told me about arguing with military recruiters who come to the highschool she teaches at. She asked one if his kids were signing up. He replied, “I can afford to send my kids to college, my kids don’t need to sign up.” She said “if it’s such a great opportunity like you tell these kids, why don’t you encourage your kids to go?” She’s convinced recent heatwaves are divine punishment for US policy.)
Just now, I logged in to do … something, I forget what, at the blog. Out of curiousity I clicked on the tab that tells me how people got here, what sites referred them. That can be interesting and fun on occasion. Someone got to this post from a search engine site, having entered the query “is there anyway to keep your house if it is auctioned off at a foreclosure sale?” I feel inadequate here, as my post is a minor anecdote I like about organizing. It offers no resources to someone whose home is in foreclosure, which I assume is the case. More than that, though, I just feel bad for folks. I’ve not been in that situation and I can’t imagine what it’d be like. I’ve been in financial dire straits, but never as severe as a repo or foreclosure. My immediate response is to reach for a half-flippant and half-sincere remark about long memories and class hatred, but that doesn’t seem to be exactly right here, it’s an attempt on my part to dodge this ugly condition. That said, it is true that the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage. I wish the harvest could come a little sooner. Ugh.