Symbiosis Community Conversations - Feb 9th

* **Xavier (Coop Tulsa)** - working with Muscogee organizers on a permaculture project and community meal
* **Shambe (Coop Jackson)** - beefing up CLT and crew coming over weekend to help out with construction plus comm. engagement with market meetup towards coop
* **AP (At-Large)** - transit/mobility work plus houseless outreach
* **Austin (Coop Denton)** - mutual aid outreach during recent cold snap and looking for spot to engage in permaculture/wild forarging project
* Josh (Cottage Grove Oregon) - building community center for local forestry and trying to determine best use of space for community gatherings
* Kyle (Coop St. Charles) - organized Bookchin reading group plus outreach to local tenant and trans organizations; also glove distribution
* Mike
* Anna/Tyler (Degrow US) - recently in New Orleans and traveling by bus to do interview series; Tyler also works with MADR and looking for intersections
* Cora (Boston, MA) - does commoning work through local library including a gardening mutual aid project in process; seed exchange; seed library; fought back against state process to take land; Mass-wide meeting occured and NE regional gathering
* Roberto (Coop Tulsa) - feeling good about group's ability to draw new people; Symbiosis Summer was success
* John F. ()
* Jared (Coop Tulsa) - trash cleanup at a lot in a member's neighborhood; huge turnout for land cleanup for 2.5 acres whichwere donated; group keeps growing
* Lyn (At-Large) - no official group formed at moment and group still materializing
* Danji (Symbiosis Montreal) - not a lot to report locally; in touch with Woodbine for NE regional in April or May
* Sara (Neighborhood Anarchist Collective) - doing radical reading group; outreach to houseless populations; organizing May Day celebration
* Mason (DT Build & Fight/Wesside Community Coalition) - local neighborhood assembly on pause during winter; launching renewable energy and weatherization coop
* Teagen (At-Large) - co-chair of Central Vermont DSA MAWG; seeking to join or start affiliate org
* Thaddeus (Coop Jackson) - main thing is centered around recruiting community members and business who are interested in cooperative conversions
* Yaakov (At-Large) - hoping to start something in Boston; also member of LSC
* Yvonne (Solidarity Research Center) - seeking to start LA chapter of Symbiosis; serves on LA Neighborhood Council; attempted to oppose anti-camping ban unsuccessfully; also talking about Municipalism Learning Series with others in federation; unveiling municipalist platform in LA which was not received by DSA
* Kaija (BSA) - supporting efforts in org and doing anti-displacement in Oakland

What is the purpose of our federation?
* Anna + Tyler
Anna + Tyler says:I'm gonna try taking notes here
Anna + Tyler says:Shambe: align different organizations with similar visions doing different work in different places, supporting each other's orgs, learn from and teach each other
19:29
john foran
john foran says:Hi y'all, sorry but I can't unmute, first time on jitsi
19:29
Anna + Tyler
Anna + Tyler says:@john I just tried to "ask to unmute" you
19:30
john foran
john foran says:thanks, but no dice
john foran says:doesn't matter
19:30
Anna + Tyler
Anna + Tyler says:AP: We need local action everywhere, but we need to be working together, through skillsharing and coordinating action then coordinating power. The purpose of federating is growth (anna grumbles in degrowther) but in constructing an ecosystem (anna is pleased)
Anna + Tyler says:Thaddaeus: purpose is to not only learn and build, but in general organize labor, organize workers and those trying to take power, so we can control our own communities
Anna + Tyler says:Josh: ideally get municipalism/libsoc in every town and city everywhere and federate together to build dual power. at this stage it's useful to learn from each other, connect people to each other, opportunity to connect at regional gatherings and build those networks and more material support
Anna + Tyler says:Dual power definition: organizing collective power outside and in parallel to capitalism and the state, based autonomous power in our own locales
Anna + Tyler says:Gaining capacity to make decisions and challenge capital/state power
19:34
Sara
Sara says:Well said
19:34
Anna + Tyler
Anna + Tyler says:"dual and contending power" oh how yummy
Anna + Tyler says:Sara: the goal is networking, sharing information, ideas, experience and providing support in times of disaster or just need for aid, and keeping the movement going in times of state crackdown and despair
19:35
me says:Mike: MY purpose in joining this federation (through both Kola Nut Collaborative and Chicago Community Councils WG) was to make sure it is making inroads and developing intersections with movement partners in other spaces such as the solidarity economy, just transition, and other iterations and did not get caught in any forms of inward looking or navel gazing based upon its particular political orientation or party line (ie. dual power). I already feel like I am plugged into a sufficient number of learning spaces, networks, and organizations to last a lifetime. I don't personally need to be connected to a new federation, but I also don't like duplicative efforts in different spaces.
19:36
Anna + Tyler
Anna + Tyler says:Tyler: would add that networking diverse people from diverse places presents great opportunities to be more creative, think outside our previous experience
19:36
john foran
john foran says:Sara spoke my word
19:37
Sara
Sara says:You all are inspiring me!
19:37
Josh F
Josh F says:Im wondering too about what we are doing rn, more immediately
19:38
Sara
Sara says:Yes!
19:40
Anna + Tyler
Anna + Tyler says:Shambe: as far as capacity building, so folks don't get burnt out, it's important to have multiple people from each org on the calls so people can step in when others are not there and so one person isn't doing all the work after each meeting
Anna + Tyler says:Thaddaeus: capacity derives more from numerical strength than anything else. We need to make the information to be accessible
Anna + Tyler says:(word)
Anna + Tyler says:Shambe: how do we make the connection where folks are interested in doing the reading, how does it tie into their lives
19:42
Sara
Sara says:Indeed!
19:44
me says:Different people can indeed do different things. I am not going to argue for the academic side of that equation when I just argued against it, but the Regional Congress idea was a meant to solve a real professed need that came from the lack of capacity to do on the ground organizing for all of the at-large members in different regions.
19:45
Anna + Tyler
Anna + Tyler says:AP: need to move away in some ways from "hardened socialist" tactics, we're all trying to decolonize ourselves
19:46
Josh F
Josh F says:I really like the idea of regional gatherings. Feels important to see people in person and to make those connections.
19:46
Anna + Tyler
Anna + Tyler says:AP: capacity can be an issue of work over time, we need to really understand our timelines and capacities to fit what folks can actually do
Anna + Tyler says:AP: we have to get to know each other and trust each other
Anna + Tyler says:Sara: thinking about motivation and getting folks interested, some structure is needed, but we need to socialize and talk to each other more informally so we can forge relationships and build trust
Anna + Tyler says:Josh: one of the benefits of this forum is to keep us feeling connected to the larger movement beyond our locales. community and connection building and checking in feels important
Xavier (he/him, Coop Tulsa)
Xavier (he/him, Coop Tulsa) says:We are at time so when you folks wrap up come back to the Main Room
19:52
Sara
Sara says:Agreed
19:52
Anna + Tyler
Anna + Tyler says:Thaddaeus: our purpose is not to appeal to the powers that be and prove our intelligence to them, it's to appeal to the brothers on the block, the average individual. Let's make sure our structure and language aren't alienating
19:53
me says:Let's discard the proposal. That is a straw man for other things.
19:53
Anna + Tyler
Anna + Tyler says:Anna agrees with Mike, it's not about the proposal, it's a good proposal, this is just about culture and priorities
Anna + Tyler says:Tyler: important to share tasks

Breakout group 4 notes:
Y: Provide a network for information, between places that are far away. Strengthen our understandings of global trends, things going on in local movements, greater sense of political connection between like-minded political activists

L: Help spread the ideas or practices that work really well, avoid repeating each other’s mistakes

Ka: Political education forums, help create decentralized political education about our ideas. Keep us from being so isolated.

C: A lighthouse looking out at what is coming at us, both threats and opportunities, and getting the word out within our network. Many of us are dealing with a lot of the same things (disaster response, houselessness, food security). Can share tools for how to deal with these things. Share ways of dealing with potentially really destructive conflicts in organizations. TEV-DEM in Rojava is maybe an interesting model for us to look to.

M: actively help seed new organizations

Ky: I like the metaphor of a lighthouse, and the idea of serving as a sort of forum for sharing ideas. A space where you can talk to people who have already done that stuff before.

X: In the immediate sense, what could help people build what they’re already doing? I don’t want Symbiosis to be a membership organization like IWW or DSA - it should be defined by its constituent organizations. Regional structures are important parts of seeding new organizations.
The purpose of this organization is to overthrow hierarchy. Our own little local groups can’t overthrow these forces - we need to be together to build the commune of communes. A revolutionary collective oriented towards this. Need to be building beyond our activist core. Popular education is one of those crucial roles of the federation, as opposed to just local work. Building towards infrastructure for that new world. Maybe a grant fund for getting physical brick-and-mortar space for member organizations. Regionally, we could do things like energy cooperatives etc.

C: It sounds like it would require some paid staff to do a lot of these proposed things. Wondering if people have thought about that possibility, and who they would be accountable to.

X: What do people think about that? I’m really conflicted

C: We run a risk of a tyranny of structurelessness and volunteers who are mostly people with time having the most access to information etc. Having clear democratic mandates for staff to carry out is potentially a better solution

M: Splitting up roles into manageable pieces so that they can be shared and rotated sustainably

C and L: Need to have more than one person tasked with those roles