We can often sense changes in the political climate based on the kinds of orders people place. Election years are tricky ’cause a lot of funds that would ordinarily go into organizing end up in political campaigns. In flush years the political spending includes T-shirts and signs and buttons and in leaner years there are mostly buttons. Big campaigns tend to favor ad buys on television and radio.

We’re getting plenty of organizing orders — you can tell by the quantity and slogans on the materials. No one orders 500 buttons that say “What part of good faith don’t you understand” for the family reunion. Strike slogans are down though. Not too many campaigns are moving onto the risky ground of shutting down the work place. There are occasional exceptions (and occasional successes). The recent innovative and militant security guard strike in Minnesota was an encouraging victory. SEIU local 26 organized a solid internal unity and was also effective in reaching out to the wider labor, faith and general community for support.

Not everything we do is about labor, of course. It’s always interesting to see how more people connect the dots each year. Organizers of tenant, union or children’s rights organization will also order environmental justice, anti-war and GLBT art. None of us can go it alone. This week we have a table and are presenting workshops at the National Organizers Alliance at the national Labor College outside of Washington DC. We’ll see what it tells us about the mood on the front lines.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 @ 12:51 pm on the category News, Organizing.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.