October 2, 2009

'Upgrade' Zine Stoked By Ambitious Organizers

Posted by M. Junaid Levesque-Alam at 12:17PM

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Bill Fletcher, Jr.

A new online publication, Organizing Upgrade, featuring a number of progressive activists, launched yesterday. Given the dynamic nature of the web landscape, the announcement of a new political journal is not necessarily deserving of commentary, but the ambitions of this project set it apart.

For one thing, it seems to be for organizers and by organizers, not simply a repository for navel-gazing and abstract theorizing.

The vision statement notes:

"Organizing Upgrade is an attempt to engage left leaders and innovators in the field of community organizing in a strategic dialogue… We hope that, by encouraging some of the leading innovators and leaders from the sphere of community organizing to put pen to paper and to speak their mind, we can develop unity and clarity about the key demands on left organizers in these times."

Information on editors and contributors is available on the site, and the binding theme is clearly one of a demonstrated commitment and record of leadership in the area of grassroots activism, with a strong focus on labor and poverty issues.

Writers featured on the site are asked to frame their articles to answer three questions: What significant shifts are taking place; how do they affect what activists on the ground should be doing; and what strategies need to be tweaked, discarded or invented?

The first edition, released yesterday, includes an interview with noted activist Bill Fletcher, Jr. and highlights a roundtable discussion that took place in April.

The publication aims to publish three new pieces every month, so it's clearly designed to be a strategic tool rather than a tactical one that is constantly updated. However, the first edition consists of only the interview, panel excerpts and the intro, so hopefully we'll see more substantial and meaty content in the coming months.

The hardest challenge for any kind of ongoing writing enterprise is definitely sustaining it on a consistent basis, and that applies with all the more force to an ambitious enterprise like this one.