It's been a while since I've posted, and I've never done one of these
before, so I thought I would do an annual report. I think it's
important for everyone if people like us lay out what we've done in
the past year and what we plan to do in the next year for a couple of
reasons: a) it's actually a pretty good tool for the author to get
all of their plans down on paper so as to be a little more organized,
and b) it keeps everyone "in the know."

So here goes nothing…

The year in retrospect
-----------------------------

My ability to carry out practical political work has been extremely
limited due to the political climate (or lack thereof) in my town and
the fact that there aren't that many people living here. In other
words, I'm pretty isolated. And the work I have been able to do has
yielded very disappointing results. Nearly all people I have come in
contact with here have had a great want to remain non-committed to
real progress. Their attitude toward me is that, "Yes, we recognize
that you are 100% correct, and the movement really needs more people
like you, but we are not setting out to dismantle the system, and
[insert bullshit reason to sit around and do nothing here]." Yes,
committing to principles that come in direct conflict with how the
society we live in works can be frightening, but it needs to be done.
No one here realizes that, and because there are so few people here,
there's not a whole lot I can do. I have done and will continue to do
the best that I can, and I will hope for a turn of events. But I am
not expecting huge things yet.

All things considered, I've been basically limited in my success to
work on the internet. I set up The Ginger Group blog
(http://thegingergroup.wordpress.com) with a friend of mine, and I
think it has a lot of potential. I haven't had a lot of time to work
on it and I think there are some serious improvements that can be
made. Traffic has also been next to zero, but there are ways to fix
that. The biggest hindrance in maintaining and expanding the blog has
been time-related.

That said, I think there has been some very useful discussion there.
The objective now is to find a way for it to reach the eyes of more
people.

Perhaps the biggest achievement this year was the discussion that we
had with Frank and Joseph (which can be found here:
http://struggle.net/struggle/mass-democracy). Indirectly, many of the
topics discussed led to tons of discussion on various lists, and
serious discussion on this list has increased.

But back on the practical side of things, my experience has not been
all bad. I have been some serious people, though they are a minority.

One thing I have found (not surprisingly) is that Ben's views are
popular with people not already committed to an organization. This
is, in my view, and exceedingly good thing. New activists who are not
committed to a specific organization are often inexperienced, but
they also don't suffer from the sectarian disease that many more
experienced activists do. Without sectarianism distorting their
thinking, non-committed activists are able to see why many of the
things Ben has proposed are really kind of "no-brainer" statements.
Reformism is a problem among these newer activists. But I think this
is fairly easily corrected, as the serious people I've met are open
minded.


Looking to the Future
----------------------------

My immediate plans for the next year are to greatly expand The Ginger
Group blog and its audience, as well as explore some other mediums,
like Myspace, Facebook, etc. Once again, I do not expect to
accomplish a ton on the practical front for a while, though I will do
the best that I can. My time, however, will be somewhat limited.

2008 will probably not be a great year.

BUT…

In 2009, I will be moving to East Lansing, Michigan (i.e. Michigan
State University). I have my own reasons for this, but from a
political standpoint, it is not a hugely populated area, but the
political climate is certainly a lot less dead than where I am
currently living. While it is nothing like Detroit, I should be able
to operate a lot more effectively than I am able to now. I will have
less time, but the time I am able to spend will be more valuable.

So I think this is a good thing. Obviously, I will know more when
that time actually comes.

Something to think about: If Obama is President
-------------------------------------------------------------

Obama looks like he will gain the Democratic Party nomination and he
has a very good chance of beating John McCain in the general
election. Why should we care? Well, I think that if Obama wins the
general election, a lot of "anti-war" groups will just give up. They
will have gotten their "anti-war" candidate into office; end of
story. Basically, I think it is possible for the movement to fall
into even worse stagnancy if Obama wins the election, as many
activists won't see any reason to continue the mass actions. To many,
electing Obama will be "good enough."

So I think one of our main goals on that front will be to prepare for
that. We need to hit the issue of reformism HARD, and preferably
before the general election. We need to show that electing Obama into
office will solve nothing because a) the Democratic Party is not
an "anti-war" party and they simply use their "progressive"
candidates to make themselves look good while continuing to pass pro-
war legislation, b) Obama cannot do a whole lot without the support
of Congress, which is certainly not for troop withdrawal, c) all
plans for "withdrawal" leave thousands of U.S. troops in the region
or UN troops, which is a U.S.-dominated power.

I think this is something we should all focus on in our local
communities and in our agitation in the immediate future.

-- Alex