General

RADICAL POTLUCK

Friday, 19 November 2004
6:30 PM - 11:30 PM

Organizer: Brought to you by Radgrads, and by the letter W

Imagining is the party. Dig it.

RADICAL POTLUCK, Brought to you by Radgrads, and by the letter W

DJ Demos will offer an upbeat set of funk, groove, reggae and hip hop to balance the mind
body diet.

The coolest ideas never come from one person only. 'Cause imagining's a process, not a plan, which is why it's so fun to do. So, everyone's invited.

Let’s make a political party! Let's share some food and thoughts about ways that we can continue and affect change. Bring your disillusionment and resentment along with your creativity, brainpower, tofurky and baked goodies.

How do we sustain our energy and move forward? There is a long struggle ahead. Partying is a fun way to incite further instances of located and local productions of imagining communities.

Organizing Ideas:
A COMMUNITY ORGANIZING VEHICLE that could travel on a shoestring next summer into the "heartland" communities. We could talk about what democracy means. Staging performance art and posing respectful questions will be our possible methodology for encouraging critical thought about the meanings of democracy, morality, and freedom underlying people’s electoral participation. We will teach about doing politics outside of the ballot box, empowering young activists to apply pressure in local communities on local issues. What can we learn from the large scale Democracy Rising a la Jim Hightower? How can we reach all those people in communities that are frustrated and have no organizations to turn to?

A LOCALIZED SOCIAL FORUM could bring people together and talk about how we can cooperate and create the possible world. This could be a big party. Really big. Close the campus for a day. Invite everyone in Northern California and beyond. Provide transportation. Have lots of free food and free music. Respond to de-humanization with the exuberant incitement of enjoyment.

COMMUNITY POWER. Working on ways to conceive of ourselves as having immense community
power that is not dependent on political parties, lefty celebrities, or the non-profit complex. These are useful but should not be the defining institutions of a movement.

ENGAGE THE CHURCHES. How can we appropriate and rework the proselytizing language of the church? How many of us have actually attended a fundamentalist meeting? From the inside, how can we understand the psychological and social impact of these organizations? What about the long history of progressive churches providing one of the few places left to hold meetings in a public space? How can the tenets of the judeo-christian ethos be used for organizing and creating strong messages that challenge the Christian Coalitions zeal?

BRING OUT THE VOTERS. Reform-oriented organizing on mobilizing the 40% of eligible voters that didn't vote, educating on the electoral system, Diebold electronic voting machines, teach-ins on the ways elections can be manipulated, organizing in the workplace (unions or direct action), practical skills for engaging people through conversations, providing the history and the resources to enrich our memories of struggle.

ALLIANCES. Finding ways for the differing political viewpoints to agree on cooperative tactics that still allow autonomy. For the Zapatistas, the EZLN and the FZLN have separate mandates. How can direct action be in
communication with more reform-oriented work? We don't want to reinscribe the hierarchy of one form of political action being more visionary/practical than the other.

COME JOIN A BROAD CONVERSATION that invigorates and sustains our struggle while eating good food! Once we have eaten and imagined a new future, we will shake our booties to some fine tunes. All are welcome (even if ya don’t bring food).



Friday, Nov 19, 6:30pm till late
Oakes Learning Center (above the Hava Java Cafe), UCSC


RADICAL POTLUCK, Brought to you by Radgrads, and by the letter W

Location:
Oakes Learning Center (above the Hava Java Cafe), UCSC

Cost: Free!