Tuesday, January 17, 2006
SWOP homepageWhere Will You Be Saturday?
The following is from Louis Head, longtime staff member...
SWOP's 25th Anniversary: Where I'll be next Saturday
If you haven't heard yet, the SouthWest Organizing Project will celebrate its 25th Anniversary this coming Saturday, January 21, 2006 beginning at 6:00pm at the Hyatt Regency at Tijeras & 3rd in Downtown Albuquerque.
I started working with SWOP when I was 22 years old, not long after Albuquerque became home, after I finished school in Michigan where I was raised.
SWOP had lots to do with why I stayed here. I wanted to plant my feet and put myself to something consequential, and was tired of old ways insofar as I had been exposed to them as a teenager and student. Here, I hooked up with folks who were really talking about history and how to learn from it to build something new. All of them became friends and comrades, and some of them became really important mentors to me. It never escaped me that these same people were willing to take me in, invest in me and put up with me.
This and many other things reflected their level of commitment to building a new, independent project that would stick around.
In those days 25 years seemed like an eternity. I used to imagine that, in 25 years most certainly we, along with others, would have transformed our society and world into infinitely more just realities than what we had at the time, or what we have today. I used to walk through the Country Club neighborhood in Albuquerque and those big mansions would be daycare and community centers. Santa Fe would be one big redevelopment zone to the benefit of local people, and to hell with the jet set. And lots of other things that would still be just fine with me.
Some may have had more sobering thoughts about paying the bills, having been around longer than I. But aside from that we didn't know where it would all go. It was not until several years later that we would be able to begin talking about a longer range vision, our discussions amplified many times over by an ever growing number of recruits and participants. But what held from the beginning was our collective sense that if things were going to change then those most affected by social injustice would have to be the protagonists. We also knew that we would have to build an organization that would outlast the individuals involved in it. So we put everything we had towards this idea.
These days, going by the SWOP office or participating in an action or campaign is more inspiring than ever. I see this whole thing very much alive, very much in existence, and very much dedicated to the same basic ideas and principals that were in our minds 25 years ago. And the best part is seeing a whole crew of "new" folks of all ages, but mostly a lot younger than I, dealing with it.
It's a group that will never look at things quite the same way we did, just as we cannot look at things completely though their eyes. Their world is different than ours was.
It's scarier, and I don't think I say this simply because I am 46 and not 21 and maybe more concerned about my own well-being or anything like that.
Rather because the world is simply a tougher place and the choices people have to make often have a lot more dire consequences.
But it's also a better place for them, in that they have in their hands now a vehicle that puts them in touch with a whole universe of struggle, of complexities and possibilities. The relationships developed with social justice organizations both in the US and throughout the world complement the incredible amount of social, political and cultural information that they absorb just growing up. A whole infrastructure has been developed in which they may now move, and I feel proud that I have been able to play a small role bringing that about.
For this and many other reasons I'll be there on Saturday.
If you can join us, you will hear from SWOP veterans and friends from sister organizations who will reflect on where we have been and where we are going.
Gail Small, a Northern Cheyenne leader from Montana who we began to relate to and work with in the early 1990s, will be the keynote speaker. SWOP's youth group Jovenes Unidos will perform, and our founders will be recognized. Later in the evening we will dance to the sounds of a great conjunto, the Angel Alvarado Band.
If you are not here or near New Mexico, or will otherwise not be able to make it, I ask that you take a moment to think about how SWOP, and the social movement of which SWOP is a part, have affected you and what you do.
A better world is possible, and we are winning!
Louis
SWOP's 25th Anniversary: Where I'll be next Saturday
If you haven't heard yet, the SouthWest Organizing Project will celebrate its 25th Anniversary this coming Saturday, January 21, 2006 beginning at 6:00pm at the Hyatt Regency at Tijeras & 3rd in Downtown Albuquerque.
I started working with SWOP when I was 22 years old, not long after Albuquerque became home, after I finished school in Michigan where I was raised.
SWOP had lots to do with why I stayed here. I wanted to plant my feet and put myself to something consequential, and was tired of old ways insofar as I had been exposed to them as a teenager and student. Here, I hooked up with folks who were really talking about history and how to learn from it to build something new. All of them became friends and comrades, and some of them became really important mentors to me. It never escaped me that these same people were willing to take me in, invest in me and put up with me.
This and many other things reflected their level of commitment to building a new, independent project that would stick around.
In those days 25 years seemed like an eternity. I used to imagine that, in 25 years most certainly we, along with others, would have transformed our society and world into infinitely more just realities than what we had at the time, or what we have today. I used to walk through the Country Club neighborhood in Albuquerque and those big mansions would be daycare and community centers. Santa Fe would be one big redevelopment zone to the benefit of local people, and to hell with the jet set. And lots of other things that would still be just fine with me.
Some may have had more sobering thoughts about paying the bills, having been around longer than I. But aside from that we didn't know where it would all go. It was not until several years later that we would be able to begin talking about a longer range vision, our discussions amplified many times over by an ever growing number of recruits and participants. But what held from the beginning was our collective sense that if things were going to change then those most affected by social injustice would have to be the protagonists. We also knew that we would have to build an organization that would outlast the individuals involved in it. So we put everything we had towards this idea.
These days, going by the SWOP office or participating in an action or campaign is more inspiring than ever. I see this whole thing very much alive, very much in existence, and very much dedicated to the same basic ideas and principals that were in our minds 25 years ago. And the best part is seeing a whole crew of "new" folks of all ages, but mostly a lot younger than I, dealing with it.
It's a group that will never look at things quite the same way we did, just as we cannot look at things completely though their eyes. Their world is different than ours was.
It's scarier, and I don't think I say this simply because I am 46 and not 21 and maybe more concerned about my own well-being or anything like that.
Rather because the world is simply a tougher place and the choices people have to make often have a lot more dire consequences.
But it's also a better place for them, in that they have in their hands now a vehicle that puts them in touch with a whole universe of struggle, of complexities and possibilities. The relationships developed with social justice organizations both in the US and throughout the world complement the incredible amount of social, political and cultural information that they absorb just growing up. A whole infrastructure has been developed in which they may now move, and I feel proud that I have been able to play a small role bringing that about.
For this and many other reasons I'll be there on Saturday.
If you can join us, you will hear from SWOP veterans and friends from sister organizations who will reflect on where we have been and where we are going.
Gail Small, a Northern Cheyenne leader from Montana who we began to relate to and work with in the early 1990s, will be the keynote speaker. SWOP's youth group Jovenes Unidos will perform, and our founders will be recognized. Later in the evening we will dance to the sounds of a great conjunto, the Angel Alvarado Band.
If you are not here or near New Mexico, or will otherwise not be able to make it, I ask that you take a moment to think about how SWOP, and the social movement of which SWOP is a part, have affected you and what you do.
A better world is possible, and we are winning!
Louis
