Representatives from City Life, ACE, the T Riders Union, Reflect and Strengthen, MIRA Coalition, the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union, and the Boston Workers’ Alliance have been meeting to plan the conference. And we invite your input! Please read about the two sets of workshops below, talk about it with your organization, and give us your comments. And come to the conference (see the registration form)!

In addition to presentation and workshops below, the day will also include performance of song, spoken word, etc., and lunch too.

Opening presentations and panels

The day will begin with testimony from leaders of participating organizations about how a radical analysis informs their organizing work.

Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner will give the keynote talk. He will present his understanding about how to do radical organizing, about why it’s important to make connections between different issues. Those in power understand the connections; we better understand them, too.

Chuck will be followed by a panel representing sponsoring organizations. They will link Chuck’s talk to their work. How have they been doing their work in a radical way that leads to fundamental change.

Morning Small Group discussions, after opening presentations

These small group discussions will be a chance for people working on different issues to mix it up with other activists. They will discuss what they have heard from Chuck and other presenters. Below are some questions to get discussion going in those small groups.

• How do we stay focused on the mission of our organization and still build solidarity with other organizations?
• How is “radical organizing” different from other kinds of organizing.
• People are sometimes afraid to do radical organizing. Why? And how do we overcome this?
• We need to understand our legal rights, but we can’t be limited to what is legal. How do we do both?
• What does it mean “to win”? Can you win a battle but see the movement grow weaker? Or vice versa?
• We know there are “big” questions that affect our work. Why does our economy make the rich richer? Why does the US send troops everywhere? Why it is so difficult to get rid of racism? Why does the US force immigrants to come here and then criminalize them? Are you able to make time to discuss these qwuestiosn in your work? Should you make more space to discuss them?

Afternoon Workshops

The afternoon will include two different kinds of workshops. Some will look at a radical approach to organizing around specific issues like housing, youth, labor, immigrant rights, or the war, etc.

Other workshops will consider problems of radical organizing that affect all our work, whatever the issue we work on. Some examples might be:

• Spirituality. Do you feel there is a spiritual dimension to your work, religious or not? Why is it important?
• Elections and the grass roots. What’s the connection between elections and building grassroots power?
• Fight hard and fight smart. How can we fight the fight, but also take time to think and study?
• New leadership. How do we build new leadership in all our struggles? What is radical leadership? How does this allow us to “win” in the long run, to build our movement, even when we lose on a specific issue?
• Other countries. What are the lessons of experiments in other countries, such as Venezuela or Argentina?
• The “free market.” Many of us confront the myth of the market in our work. How do we deal with it?
• Radical organizing, through non-profits? That’s what we got. But let’s be honest about the problems.

Feel free to comments on these workshops or propose a new workshop. Write down some ideas, or just call to talk with us. Use the contact form or call City Life (617-524-3541) or ACE (617-442-3343). (We may not be able to accept all proposals.)

Closing session – how do we develop common training in radical organizing?

Throughout the day, in each workshop, we will encourage participants to think about this question. What training do YOU need in order to do better radical organizing? What support do you need to do better training among members. Ideas and questions will be posted during the day. In this last session we will talk about these ideas and schedule a follow up meeting.