Halifax

“Getting ourselves together”: Organizing for Radical Social Change

Dialogues on the Radical Imagination, 3 of 3

7:00pm
Thursday June 16 2011

Dialogues on the Radical Imagination, 3 of 3

“Getting our shit together”: Organizing for Radical Social Change

June 16, 7pm
Bus Stop Theatre, 2203 Gottingen St. Halifax NS

As a far-right tide rips across the continent and the country, and as the forces of austerity mobilize against social justice around the world, what do we need to do to achieve a different political landscape? More precisely: how can we best mobilize to affect radical change in our communities?

Under older models of organization, a centralized party with an empowered leadership was supposed to lead the people to a better tomorrow through “change from above”. More recently, ideas about anti-authoritarianism and anti-hierarchy have led to a preference for autonomous and local collectives, working on smaller-scale projects promised a “revolution from below.”

But today, where are we? Will social change come from grassroots community activism? Do we need the Party (again)? Do we make decisions by votes or consensus? Are electoral politics utterly bankrupt? Do we have time to organize based on our principles, or do the ecological, social, economic and politic crises mean we need more expedient political organizations? Is the idea of “leadership” inherently patriarchal? Does a lack of formal organization lead to unaccountability? How do we ensure we fight oppression and hierarchy within our organizing structures? Do we organize into affinity groups? Coalitions? Parties? All of the above? None of the above? Seasoned activists and organizers are all too familiar with these questions.

In short, how do we organize social change? Can we imagine something that works? Is the failure of the Left the result of a failure of organization? What can we learn from successful struggles both here and elsewhere?

In this final phase of the Radical Imagination Dialogue Series we invite all interested organizers, activists and member of the public to join us for a critical discussion.

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