What’s needed at this political moment? 5 well-known leftists, 5 strong opinions

At the Working-Class Studies conference last weekend, I heard an amazing dialogue about class, race and movement-building by five progressive journalists and activist scholars: Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now!, Frances Fox Piven, Bill Fletcher Jr. of Blackcommentator.com, and former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert of Demos, with conference organizer Michael Zweig, author of The Working Class Majority moderating.

I was struck by how openly they disagreed with each other in front of us 200 listeners, by how passionate all five of them are about creating a more just society, and by what vast depth of experience they brought to the panel. Here are some highlights:

Black and Blue vs. Whites and their Crew

This will be the first of  a few posts on the interesting things Will Moore and I observed in Chicago this past weekend while conducting an observational study of the G8/NATO protests that builds on, and extends, Clark McPhail’s approach.  Our goal was to systematically evaluate the variation and escalatory dynamics present within contentious state-dissident interactions.  For a description of the project, see Matt Baggetta’s post or visit our site: http://tinyurl.com/protpol.  We will update that site later with  additional information regarding this project.

Last year I ran some embedded survey experiments with Rose McDermott and Dave Armstrong regarding protest-protest policing.  At one point, we sought to determine if responses would vary according to the race/ethnicity of the protestors and police.  One dyad concerned black police and white protestors.  To this, several readers questioned whether black cops “policed” white protesters.

While there were a large number of white officers and protestors at the event, there were also specific moments when the police force was almost exclusively African American with a predominately white protestor presence.

Below are some of the images that I shot.

Black police on both sides of the predominately white protest.

Anouncement: Reconciliation Symposium in Tulsa

I received an announcement some social movement scholars and activists interested in issues of racial equality and cross-racial coalitions may want to check out. May 30-June 1, 2010 the John Hope Franklin Center will host the 3rd Annual Reconciliation in America conference, which is meant to “Combine Academic Discussions with Real-World Solutions” at the Hyatt Regency, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. You can preview the entire program here or register for this event here. Details from their email are below:

In light of recent tragic events, Tulsa has become center stage in a national dialogue of racial tensions within our society. Yet, in all the talk of violence and justice, the idea of long-term reconciliation is often lost.

We all have a part to play in bringing racial reconciliation to our communities. But what are we doing about it today?

The John Hope Franklin Center’s 3rd Annual Reconciliation in America symposium will bring together the nation’s top thinkers, community leaders and activists to Tulsa to generate concrete solutions.

This year’s program includes:

• Dr. Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi and an internationally known scholar and humanitarian, will speak on “Reconciliation and the American Dream: Pointers from Gandhi & King.”
• Town Hall: “Cityscape – Former Mayors Reflect on Reconciliation Efforts,” a panel of innovative, forward-thinking American mayors with Tulsa’s dynamic former mayors Kathy Taylor and Susan Savage, plus former Denver mayor Wellington Webb.
• Governor William Winter, former Governor of Mississippi.
• Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, President of Spelman College.
• Dr. George Henderson, creator of the Human Relations Program at the University of Oklahoma.
• Dr. Donald W. Shriver, Jr., an ethicist and President Emeritus of Union Seminary in New York City.
• Reverend Doug Tanner, Senior Advisor of the Faith & Politics Institute in Washington, D.C.

Race, Class, and Gender among the 99%

Identifying as “the 99%” is sure to appeal to a diverse group, but the Occupy Wall Street movement has been dogged by issues of diversity. “Occupy Wall Street is a men’s movement,” blasts a recent brochure from feminist blog RadFem-HUB. Women’s interests are being pushed aside, it declares, and men are assuming positions of power. Chauncey DeVega says he is “concerned that white group interests, white experiences, white politics, white understandings of the good life, white history, white humanity, and white concerns, remain normalized by OWS” (also see Tim Wise on the Rachel Maddow Show). Still others report, “On multiple occasions, we have witnessed the exclusion of trans people from spaces and groups affiliated with Occupations…We have also encountered transphobic hate speech within the movement. This must not be allowed to continue.”