[sudo-discuss] [omni-consensus] Proposal to Immediately Terminate Bay Area Public School Fiscal Sponsorship Contract and Member Collective Status

[Jenny Ryan]

Speaking from my own experience here:

I left a career in academia 7 years ago, shedding the arrogance and inertia
inherent in that life to instead actively serve the people and projects
that inspired and educated me. For years I have voluntarily and without
(much) complaint done a great deal of the administrative crap work Omni
needed doing so that these incredible people and projects could have the
needed space and resources to do their work, by and large sacrificing my
own desire to work directly on the more enjoyable aspects of activism (such
as leisurely sitting around reading and writing manifestos and poetry - and
I genuinely love those activities! Steve, Julian and I have much in common,
tbh - we're all hypereducated and love writing. i wish i had time to do
more of it). That's hardly 'elitism' - it's essentially janitorial work in
paper form. Steve, is this merely a term you use for those who do Actual
Work in the building so as to paint yourself superior?

Steve does not understand, nor has he even attempted to grasp, the amount
of labor this has involved over the years, and I have lost patience for his
misogynistic devaluing of the difficult work that Laura and I do, in
particular, wrangling all the excruciatingly boring bureaucracy needed to
be done to ensure Omni doesn't end up like virtually every other collective
space in the Bay Area. And for the record, I'm a bureaucracy _hacker_, and
believe that the more we understand the innards of the system, the more we
can shape it to serve our mission. Would you like to take a class taught by
me?

I've no desire to attend any more "classes" in my lifetime that are merely
pulpits for old white men to tell me what to think, having already spent
nearly two decades of my life doing that (with an extensive focus on
Marxian critical theory, for that matter, and I've zero appetite for more
such lectures). Do you really think offering yourself as an 'instructor' of
Omninoms' "low level of political awareness" is the solution? Because
across the board I see decades of experience in direct action,
coalition-building, grassroots activism and international organizing that
I'm constantly learning about from this "elite" and am grateful to and
humbled by all who contribute to this project's survival in a spirit of
good faith. Anyone can participate in the Finance WG, for the record - it's
just that only 2-3 people ever consistently do.

>From what I know of the unfortunate situation with Jericho, Ed (a longtime
sudoroom member) answered the door and asked the person (a FNB volunteer I
believe) why he was there, which is standard protocol when answering the
door to someone you've not seen around the building before. I wish more
people did this consistently - some do, some don't, and if anyone has ideas
on how to ensure every single person who happens to be in the building at
any given point answers the door in the same way, please share them! When I
answer the door to someone I don't know, I am usually already in a meeting
and simply say hello, ask them why they're there and point them in the
direction of the event/space they're there for if they seem disoriented
(which is usually the case for firsttimers). For a long time, we tried to
fill volunteer front door shifts to make this process more welcoming -
Laura and I, evidently both members of Steve's racist "Omni elite" - were
two of the most consistent volunteers. I never once saw Steve's name on the
signup spreadsheet, which was circulated with a call for more volunteers
many times.

Good faith collective action is: identifying an issue (eg; front door
etiquette and equity); coming up with solutions (eg; re-forming a welcoming
committee with front door shifts and protocol); communicating to the larger
community (eg; calls for volunteers); and participating in the execution of
those solutions.

Not communicating an issue to the collective when it occurred, harboring
resentment for ~2 years, and then using said incident as ammunition is the
opposite of good faith collective action, imho.

I fully support Laura's proposal, principally because the reality of BAPS
is such that two white male intellectuals have equal blocking power over
our otherwise collective-of-collectives structure, in direct contradiction
to our shared values.

Let's make healthy decisions, people, and stop letting two individuals
(whose very "collective" is emblematic of white supremacy) dominate Omni's
culture.

Thanks for reading,
Jenny

On Sat, Mar 23, 2019 at 5:20 PM Steve Martinot <martinot4 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Laura notices the paucity of classes held over the last year by BAPS in
> the Omni. But I would ask, why should I organize classes in the Omni when I
> can’t guarantee to black or brown members of such a class that they will
> not be profiled, nor treated with disrespect? This became a serious concern
> after the Jericho group left. I raised it with those I could identify as
> having been involved in a case of profiling at that time, and never got any
> response. I have raised it here during the present discussion, and have
> gotten no response on the issue of racial profiling. Well, I guess Laura’s
> exclusionist proposal can be seen as the essential response.
>
> I have been trying to get a good clear approach to the racial problem in
> this establishment (and I use that term advisedly) for a while now, in
> order to deal with it. For me, that has become a precondition for
> organizing more classes in it. (I have continued to teach, but not here.)
> With respect to the Omni elite, I chose to move slowly, so that I would not
> end up making statements that would effectively turn people against simply
> looking in the direction of a racial problem, knowing that people already
> didn’t want to do so. When you suggest to white people that their white
> racialized identity might be a problem, and that they should perhaps look
> in the mirror, or that their implicit bias might be a problem, a fairly
> usual reaction is that they turn around and walk away. The difference
> between the white left wing response and the right wing response is that
> the rightwinger will often come at you swinging. That has happened to me.
> (I won a few, and lost a few.) But essentially, the response is the same, a
> refusal (aka chickening out) from dialogue on the issue. So I felt I had to
> be careful.
>
> Well, Laura has called the question on that, so there is no point in going
> slow any more.
>
> I have taught many classes here in the Omni. They have ranged from race,
> and the structures of racialization, to the corporate structure, and
> questions of fascism in the US. No one of the elite of the Omni have seen
> fit to attend any. They were apparently not interested in that. But after
> all, why should they be? They had a business to run. I assumed they were
> simply more interested in the operation of the establishment, with no
> inkling that perhaps the topics I taught related to any internal problems
> they may have inherited from the surrounding corporate environment, with
> its insistence (going back to the Jamestown colony) on racialization (aka
> white supremacy). But I think they have now shown me that I was wrong. To
> raise these topics as issues invokes a reaction and response whose
> essential character is extreme exclusionism. Like any sect, their response
> is to root out the heresy.
>
> What we face here in the Omni is a structure that has immersed itself in
> the corporate form, and has become seriously property-oriented. The labels
> that are used in Omni organization are cute, but the hierarchy, the sense
> of control, the need for control, the exclusionism, the property ethic, the
> hiding behind administrative rules, the hiding behind administrative
> issues, and the refusal to take responsibility for what has become an
> obvious product of the establishment’s operations, are the same as the
> corporate.
>
> The corporate structure is necessary for an organization to handle
> property. That is why city governments and trade unions are organized on
> the coroporate model. And most people simply ignore the fact that, for
> cities, the corporate structure prevents them from being democratic; and
> for unions, it prevents them from being truly fighting organizations. Here
> at the Omni, we have an establishment that is more interested in money than
> in the ideals and topics of its humble beginnings – some of which are
> listed at the beginning of Laura’s desire to fire us – that is to say, her
> “pink slip.” Well, lets take a look at the first line.
>
> In the first line of her pink slip, it says (quoting from a BAPS mission
> statement), “enlarge movement and collective understanding of the
> structures we face.” Precisely what I was teaching in my classes. And it
> was precisely what I attempted to bring into the Omni by giving space to
> Oakland Jericho.
>
> But all that is outside and extraneous to the corporate structure, and
> what it sets at the center for itself. Insofar as that structure has taken
> over the thinking of the elite in the Omni, it makes it clear why none of
> the elite were interested in regarding, or critiquing, or rising above the
> corporate structure they had chosen.  Cultural critique would have
> distracted them from their innermost desire, to become the rulers of a
> corporate establishment. Which is what has happened.
>
> The corporate structure will make hypocrites of the damnedest people. I
> remember when the dream of the Omni was to be a center for left wing and
> popular resistance to the colonialist culture and the corporate state. At
> that time, the place was always full, and the activities were often
> earthshaking. Well, money put an end to that, and it did it by making it
> look as if money was the essential way to accomplish it all -- that is, to
> shake the world. And there were those who fell for it, and followed the
> temptation of becoming an elite.
>
> For myself, I have my own ideas about the beauty and virtue of free
> education, that education for which we, like Mr. Twain, should not let
> school get in the way. But it became a problem when I could not longer
> guarantee the safety of the sentiments of any of the students who I might
> bring to this establishment.
>
> Of course, the above critique only scratches the surface. But it points to
> a clear axiomatic foundation for Laura’s pink slip.
>
> Actually, when our critique began, more than a year ago, it was simply the
> question of how to deal with a really low level of political consciousness
> in the Omni. It emerged when the issue of whether the CCL should or could
> bring in FBI agents who were working on mushrooms arose. We saw that as
> representing something missing in political awareness, and started a group
> to begin to deal with it. That group got sidetracked into the issue of
> banning, which was then transformed into the issue of policing conduct in
> the Omni. And that’s when we knew we had a much bigger problem than we
> thought.
>
> Banning is the essential operation of an exclusionist perspective. And it
> has gotten to the point where the issue has its own guaranteed place in DA
> agendas. Well, the corporate structure is nothing if not exclusionist. So
> lets call the Laura Pink Slip form of that exclusionism what it really is,
> and go from there. It is repression. And like all repression, it is
> essentially cowardly.
>
> Steve
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 21, 2019 at 6:08 PM Laura Turiano <scylla at riseup.net> wrote:
>
>> *Proposal to Immediately Terminate Bay Area Public School Fiscal
>> Sponsorship Contract and Member Collective Status *
>>
>> *Bay Area Public School was fiscally sponsored by OC to:*
>>
>> * ● enlarge movement and collective understanding of the structures we
>> face; ● place our present activities in their relevant history; ●
>> understand the forces of evolution acting on our actions and organizations;
>> ● study the extant literature addressing political forms and structures,
>> varieties of party and organization forms, the archive of movement politics
>> and principles, and strategies of organizing; ● organize classes, seminars,
>> workshops and educational events on the above topics; ● coordinate space
>> for these activities in the Omni and elsewhere; ● develop syllabi,
>> outlines, focus topics, lists of references, etc. Since January 2018, BAPS
>> has only held the following 4 classes: Marx was Right Reading Group -
>> 2-6/2018 Poets’ House - Intermittent events 2-11/2018 The East: Solo
>> Performance Laboratory - 5-10/2018 Writing with World Stuff - 10/2018 to
>> the present. BAPS has made little to no effort to recruit new classes,
>> research what kind of classes would be of interest and benefit to OC or the
>> neighborhood community, or otherwise use OC fiscal sponsorship to develop
>> the activities for which it was sponsored. BAPS has made no effort to ask
>> for donations from class participants or do any other fundraising and has
>> made no material contributions to OC in over a year. BAPS has had only
>> between 1-5 active members for at least 2 years. Only 2 people have
>> consistently attended BAPS meetings. With usually only 2 members from
>> similar backgrounds discussing and deciding upon any proposal or issue,
>> they only hear a very limited range of opinions. Most collectives have to
>> reach some level of agreement between many more people from more diverse
>> perspectives. Currently, BAPS and its delegate are blocking the proposal to
>> hire Jenny Ryan as bookkeeper on a temporary contract. This proposal is
>> urgent and supported by everyone else in the organization. This block shows
>> that BAPS does not take seriously the main duty of a Delegate to support
>> sound, ethical, and legal governance and financial management of Omni
>> Commons as an organization. Given BAPS minimal activities at OC, it’s lack
>> of any unified organizing effort, its lack of support by participating
>> members, it’s failure to fulfill its responsibility to support the
>> continued healthy functioning of the organization, and its lack of need for
>> fiscal sponsorship (since they collect no donations), BAPS’ fiscal
>> sponsorship agreement should be discontinued. Per the agreement: 8. The
>> board retains the right to terminate collection of funds for the Project at
>> any time upon giving written notice to the Committee. Taking into account
>> the large workload of the Treasurer, bookkeeper, and Finance Working Group
>> over the next several months, and the length of time the proposal to hire
>> Jenny has been stalled, this decision should be made and enacted
>> immediately. Since member collectives are required to be either fiscally
>> sponsored projects of OC or tenants of OC, termination of the fiscal
>> sponsorship contract also ends BAPS status as a member collective. Current
>> or future classes that members of BAPS would like to hold can be scheduled
>> at OC through event contracts via the Commons working group. Should an
>> actual collective come together to undertake similar activities to BAPS in
>> the future, it is welcome to apply to be a member collective or for fiscal
>> sponsorship. *
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> consensus mailing list
>> consensus at lists.omnicommons.org
>> https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/consensus
>>
>
>
> <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> Virus-free.
> www.avg.com
> <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
> <#m_4143797760984497172_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
> _______________________________________________
> consensus mailing list
> consensus at lists.omnicommons.org
> https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/consensus
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://sudoroom.org/pipermail/sudo-discuss/attachments/20190325/d993c638/attachment.html>