due to some conversations about what matters (or doesn’t) about autonomist marxism, I’ve been skimming a google translated version, it’s interesting stuff. i think there’s a similar book online in French about french movements someplace, I remember finding it but don’t recall where, likewise there’s some stuff from Spain. the history of the diffusion of the Italian stuff is super interesting, I’d like to know more about all that, and would really, really like to know how much (if any) discussion outside Italy of the Italian new left shaped stuff in Italy…

Always nice to hear from you. That’s a mighty fine nutshell, though I’d probably want to squeeze many more minuses under it.

Re: that Lynd book, I’ve been meaning to read it for years, I own it and have had it recommended many times and have gotten a lot of out what I’ve read by Lynd and heard him say in public talks… Interesting point about the irony in the title!

take care,
Nate

The rejection of organization? Take a look at the articles in We are All Leaders, edited by Staughton Lynd, which, contrary to its title, provides stories of the importance for the mass union movement in the 30s of leadership by activists with organizational experience, syndicalist and communist, during previous upsurges.

Nice to hear from you. unfortunately I can’t make it to HistoMat, I’ve had to cancel. You’re just gonna have to trek to Minnesota… Just kidding, I wouldn’t wish our weather this time of year on anyone but people I really dislike.

re: the occupations, you sort of confirm my hunch. My bet was that this has basically spread in an at most partially planned manner through at most partially open social networks. That’s not a criticism. I’ve got no agenda with regard to what should and shouldn’t happen in California and the work that people there should or shouldn’t do. The reason I started asking these questions (partly to myself, really nice to get your answers though) is for the rest of us who are far away, about ways we could try to spread awareness of this stuff. For various reasons I’m not really plugged into (what I bet are) circles analogous to the California ones that this stuff is emerging from/circulating in, so I don’t know how much word of all this is traveling. A fair bit, I’d imagine, but I also imagine that it’s still traveling mainly in the same sort of circles. So what I’m really fumbling for here is — would it make sense for people not currently in these networks to start working on ways to spread the word among other people not currently in these networks? I think so, but I’m not sure, and more than that I’m not sure what this would look like concretely or how to carry out systematically. Maybe I’m over thinking it — I’d previously discussed with some comrades trying bang together a leaflet and some folks to hand it out, that’s not happened yet.

take care,
Nate

It’s a little bit of both — partly it’s the inspiration model, and partly it’s about actual relationships. People from lots of the different schools know each other and have gotten to know each other through these actions. And since some of the radical circles through which this stuff passes are really small, there’s usually only one degree of separation.

As for the last question, whereas some of the earlier actions were planned somewhat secretively — for fear of police shutdowns, etc. — and involved small groups with high degrees of trust/familiarity, more recently there’s been an attempt to create more “open,” inclusive occupations where new people might participate (unfortunately, the police just raided 66 people at one of these at Berkeley — so we’re not powerful enough yet to hold one of these spaces open merely by numbers). And there’s been an intent to plan some of the stuff in the open, for instance, or in larger organizations, at both SC and Berkeley. So yes, new people are getting involved.

As for reading material, the “comrades” sidebar at occupyca.wordpress.com is a pretty good place to go to get started.

I see you’re going to be at Hist. Materialism in New York. It’ll be good to finally get the chance to meet!