Casting the Net
Call them crazy. But they still believe in democracy. And in the power of ordinary people.
BY BECCI ROBBINS
They come from different places. They hold different jobs. They are young and old, black and white, male and female, well-groomed and not. They are wearing ties and tie-dye, combat boots and Birkenstocks, suspenders and support hose, tattoos and bifocals, pressed shirts and pressed hair, beards and buzz cuts, rattails, jerry curls and a t-shirt that says DYKE.
They have come from across South Carolina, driving down Highway 21 in brilliant April sunshine, under canopies of sprawling oaks and Spanish moss, past trailer parks and country shacks gaudy with azaleas and junked cars, through the heart of Beaufort and out across the bridge to St. Helena Island, throught the marsh and into the sleepy town, turning finally onto Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, past the platform where the good doctor once spoke, to arrive here at Penn Center.
John Hickey, director of Missouri Progressive Voter Coalition, talks in a small-group session about how his organization has successfully backed a dozen candidates for the Missouri Legislature. |
These are the same roads Dr. King, John Lewis, Jessie Jackson and
Andrew Young traveled in the '60s when they came to Penn Center to train
and organize. If they could see us now
gathered here
in this wooden-floored room with its high windows and slow-turning fans
what would
they think?
Today, the group is gathered here for the first conference of the
South Carolina Progressive Network, a weekend retreat for grassroots
activists from across the state to get together to compare notes,
brainstorm, talk politics and get to know each other.
The conference is actually the culmination of a year of networking.
Beginning last April, social and political activists began meeting,
talking on the phone, creating a Web site and sharing mailings in an
effort to put together a progressive coalition.
The Progressive Network is growing quietly, with members signing on in
the hopes of building a unified front to fight the erosion of gains they
have worked for decades to secure. They believe that by joining forces
they can help leverage each other's work and strengthen the progressive
community in South Carolina.
The efforts at building a viable statewide network were boosted by a
grant from the NOYSE Foundation, which was secured by the Natural Guard
Fund (the nonprofit group whose projects include POINT).
So far, the Network has 38 members
grassroots
groups working to protect a broad range of interests: labor, the
environment, civil liberties, prison reform, animal welfare, reproductive
freedom, and the rights of minorities, women and children.
The Network includes older, established organizations like A.C.L.U.
and Planned Parenthood as well as younger, smaller groups like 52% (a
Charleston-based women's PAC) and S.C. Environmental Watch (a group
organized in Gadsden that works to protect low-income minority communities
from industries that pollute).
Individuals who don't belong to any group also support the Network.
These "loose lefties" contribute in a variety of ways but do not have
voting power.
While members of the Network serve a variety of interests, they share
a lot in common. Diversity is the strength of the coalition, but their
commonality is the glue.
"The issue of racism is the same issue as homophobia," explains Tom
Myers, director of We Are Family, a nonprofit group in Charleston that
works to educate the straight public about gay issues.
"Discrimination against women is the same issue as racism. It is all
about people trying to impose control on another group of people because
they don't have as much power."
The conference is the first time that members of the Network have met
in a large group. Over the weekend, 65 activists will take part in the
discussion, which is loose and informal. The agenda is to solidify the
form and function of the Network and to identify some short- and long-term
projects.
Before they do anything, they move the chairs from rows into a circle.
This act is a metaphor for what the group hopes to do: take that which is
separate and make it whole
a sum
stronger than its parts.
It also reflects how business will be done. Action will not come from
up front, but in the round. They will not be talked to; they will talk
with each other. Face to face.
To help frame the discussion, the leaders of two groups that have
formed similar coalitions in other states talk about the nuts and bolts of
building a statewide network. They offer their experiences to warn us of
potential pitfalls, to outline strategies that worked for them but
most of all
to reassure
us that it can be done.
The same political cold front that progressives have felt here is the
same chill that has already mobilized grassroots groups in other states.
They have organized in various ways; the job today is to structure
something that is right for South Carolina.
John Hickey, director of Missouri Progressive Voter Coalition,
describes how his organization has successfully backed a dozen progressive
candidates for the Missouri legislature. His group, formed five years ago
using organized labor as its base, focuses exclusively on electoral
action.
Hickey, who looks like a taller, prettier James Carville
and who is
just as sharp
talks about
how his group was started, with just him and five of his friends, and how
quickly it came together.
"It is almost scary how fast you can be an operative at the state
representative level," Hickey says.
And he explains how.
Providing a different model, Randall Merritt talks about the structure
of the Georgia Urban/Rural Summit, for which he serves as outreach
director. The coalition, formed a year ago, is made up of groups whose
nonprofit status prevents them from doing certain work in the electoral
arena, such as endorse candidates.
While not overtly political, the Georgia network was born in the wake
of the "Republican revolution."
"That was our wake-up call," Merritt says. "We were asleep at the
wheel."
The purpose of the Summit, according to a position paper, is to
initiate a dialogue between elected officials and statewide organizations
to develop a unified sense of purpose. Furthermore, "the Summit will help
them take full advantage of their collective power in both the public
policy arena and in communities."
Merritt sees this as a pivotal period for politics in this country.
"This year is critical," he says. "We either survive together or we die
together."
To help put the discussion into a local context, two South Carolina
legislators offer an inside view of the current political climate in the
General Assembly. "The legislature is mean, mean-spirited, and getting
meaner by the hour," says Rep. Joe Neal (D-Richland), who is a member of
the Network through S.C. Environmental Watch.
Neal gives a rundown on some of the bills debated this session. It is
a quick sketch of how the state government went about the business of
gutting environmental protections, cutting social services, whoring for
big business and how it is gearing up to resegregate public education.
Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D-Orangeburg), a Network member through CASA, a
family crisis agency, talks about how the Republican majority has changed
the legislature.
"I'm used to not having much power," she says, "but for many of my
white Democratic colleagues it was a new experience to be in the minority.
It has forced us to get our act together; has made us realize we need to
work together."
But while the Democratic Party is most closely aligned with the ideals
of the Network, the group will remain nonpartisan. Members of the Network
recognize that Democrats have had their hand in shabby politics and that
certain Independents and Republicans have done important work, such as
Sen. Holly Cork (R-Beaufort), who has waged a lonely battle for
environmental protections and reproductive choice.
"My first philosophy is: don't agonize; organize." Cobb-Hunter says.
"I think this is the first step toward doing that. In the work I do [as a
social worker for battered women] we talk about breaking the silence to
end abuse. That's what we have to do here; it's the same analogy. We need
to break the silence.
"We need to get beyond our own groups and write letters to the editor,
call talk shows and challenge these crazies spewing hateful stuff. We need
to take the name Christian Coalition back and call them what they are,
which is religious political extremists. You cannot allow them to outwork
you. Stop whining and complaining; get out and do something."
At dusk they break for an oyster roast out under the trees. About half
the crowd leaves to honor other commitments; but those who remain don't
stop working. Some of the most useful discussions of the weekend take
place in small groups around the fire, which burns long past midnight.
In the morning, they reconvene to make some critical decisions about
the form and function of the Network. The discussion grows circuitous and
tiresome, but after they break into smaller issue groups they finally make
slow headway in hammering out some details.
The most important decision the group makes is to divide the Network
into two separate entities.
"Since many of the Network members are tax-exempt, we need to keep our
electoral activities separate from our other work," explains Brett Bursey,
director of the Natural Guard.
"All of our organizations are doing work around the critical issues
that our legislature debates," Bursey says, "but none of us is organized
to focus our efforts on electing specific candidates. That's where
religious conservatives are beating us."
To that end, the group decides to form South Carolina Progressive
Voter Coalition (S.C. ProVote) which will target statewide races to
support or defeat.
The PAC's work will be facilitated by work the Network will do, which
will include tracking legislation, compiling and circulating voting
records of legislators, and conducting voter education and registration
drives.
The Network is optimistic about its chances for leveraging change in
Brett Bursey, editor of POINT and director of the Natural Guard, which is serving as interim coordinator of the Network, introduces representatives Joe Neal and Gilda Cobb-Hunter, who offer a reality check on the current state of the State House. |
In truth, most South Carolinians do not participate in the political
process. Less than half of us are registered. In the 1994 general
elections, according to figures from the state Election Commission, only
34 percent made it to the polls.
In the gubernatorial election, David Beasley won with just 17 percent
of the state's voting age population.
The task for the Network is to reach
and mobilize
the other 83
percent. Once the numbers are crunched, the idea of shaking up the status
quo seems a less daunting task.
"We've tried to do this sort of thing before," Bursey says, "and it
never quite worked. What makes this effort different is that the objective
reality has changed. The political climate is more charged, which makes
mobilizing people easier.
"Also, this time we have strong black leadership, which makes all the
difference."
"My first philosophy is: don't agonize; organize. I think this is the first step toward doing that."
Gilda Cobb-Hunter
