Two years ago – on June 22, 2018 – Mattachine Society president and pre-Stonewall gay rights activist Dick Leitsch died at the age of 83. I’ll share with readers what I wrote about him in a Facebook post a few weeks ago. I wanted to highlight him and his work for Pride Month.
Category: Activism (Page 24 of 29)
These are posts on activism from the blog Base and Superstructure. This takes many forms. The focus here is on political activism, above all on activist organizing and base-building. One concern is how to build effective movements. There’s also a need to create solidarity with fellow members and build coalitions with other groups. The main aim of good movements is to work together to advance material interests. This section also includes critiques of electoral work, and discussion of how and when to use elections to advance activist goals. Navigating the balance between grassroots work and electoral work is difficult for everyone.
Racial justice demonstrations and protests erupted across the U.S. over the last few weeks. Each location added its own flavor, and Iowa City was no exception. Iowa City’s contribution comes from the Iowa Freedom Riders.
I’ve followed along with the progress of the Iowa Freedom Riders from demonstration and march to protest movement. Usually not in-person, due to some family health issues. But certainly by live broadcast. Here’s a bit about what the Iowa Freedom Riders have done and how it’s going.
Iowa City redesigned its pedestrian mall a few years ago. Since the ped mall serves as our agora, that’s no minor task. Among other things, the city planned to replace older, open park benches with new ones. Several groups – most notably the Iowa City Catholic Worker House – claimed the new benches prevented people in a state of homelessness from sleeping on them. They called it ‘hostile architecture.’ Why? The new benches had middle armrests. As it turned out, city council meeting transcripts confirmed city officials already knew this.
And then folks with the Worker House made unreasonable demands. They demanded the city replace all the new benches. And they held a ‘sleep in‘ to draw public attention to the issue and to city officials taking an opposing stance. Why is the demand unreasonable? The city reported it would cost about $150,000, money that probably would’ve come from more important social services.
Ultimately, they reached a deal. Iowa City replaced 14 of the new benches at a lower cost. And it did so without taking money from social services.
Therefore, making unreasonable demands is a strategy that works, right? Well, maybe. Let’s find out.
Through Commune magazine – by way of our local tenants union – I recently heard about Woodbine. It’s a space in Queens for food aid in the coronavirus era. Among other things, the Commune article discusses the rent strike, that object of lots of recent fascination.
As Commune puts it, the slogan of the nascent New York rent strike is ‘can’t pay, won’t pay.’ People in Iowa City talk about the same thing, often with the same slogan. So, what’s happening here? Is it a good time for a rent strike? If so, is it best to organize a rent strike around inability to pay rent during hard times?
For whatever reason, left spaces encourage the ‘pied piper’ character. Always enthusiastic, he – and the Pied Piper is almost always he – wants to lead, regardless of expertise or skill. And he wants to lead now. He’s ready to get things done, and he wants to play the hero.
The Pied Piper uniquely combines ambition with enthusiasm and impatience. And he’s uniquely common in places like Iowa City.
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