Alex Callinicos/SWP vs Laurie Penny/New Statesman Facebook handbags

[sihhi]

i love the radical routes 'legal and housing regulations' page - my ex co-op housemate (who applied for loanstock under my name after i'd moved out, and without my consent. it took a random vanity google in april to discover this..) is responsible for updating it

'http://www.radicalroutes.org.uk/pub...links-to-legal-and-housing-regs-websites.html

The what? nothing there.

 

[tufty79]

'xactly.

 

[sihhi]

miss leaving the house and checking my emails without worrying they're going to pop up in my face. reckon that'd get me a bursary for the fees?

No, unlikely, this is a special service for activists required because of how well they are fighting for others.

Activists are very good at fighting for others, often to the point of forgetting our own health

 

[frogwoman]

No, unlikely, this is a special service for activists required because of how well they are fighting for others.

so no non activist has ever fought for others?

bit vanguardist innit?

 

[tufty79]

fair point, sihhi. she did say that she and her mates did/are doing stuff involving me against my wishes 'for the greater good'. must be a strain on the poor things

 

[Tom A]

i'd rather go kibbutz

ZIONIST SCUM!!!

 

[Tom A]

People with different healing skills (herbalism, reiki, Bach-flowers,…)

 

[frogwoman]

I did a lot of things like selling papers and doing "interventions" in demos over the last few years, I might disagree with the politics now but I don't need to go to counselling over it.

 

[tufty79]

you're clearly suffering from 'compassion fatigue'

 

[sihhi]

fair point, sihhi. she did say that she and her mates did/are doing stuff involving me against my wishes 'for the greater good'. must be a strain on the poor things

It's possible that they are doing the activist trauma support to help other activists, and do not see themselves as needing any support.

Dragonfly housing coop has been running since 2000, housing 5 people in a quiet road in East Oxford that backs onto Florence Park. The house was previously home to Jigsaw housing coop.

Our current members have focused on many projects, often through Corporate Watch. We've also campaigned against GM, war, roads and runways and worked for sustainability, NVDA training, activist trauma support, activist legal advice, campaign publicity/props and the Climate Camp.

 

[tufty79]

aye. i know of that lot too.
forgive me if i'm cynical about radical routes, since a few of their very involved members (no leaders, innit) straightfacedly informed me that 'there are some things you don't go to the police about'. (more than one) sexual assault, fraud, that sort of thing, wrt a few of their member co-ops members and the organisations knowledge of what was happening..

i may also be having a complete sense of humour failure and can't work out whether i'm reading you straight

 

[sihhi]

you're clearly suffering from 'compassion fatigue'

Activists are able to overcome this with the help of organisations like this:

HOW AN ACTIVIST HEADED TOWARD BURNOUT CAN CHANGE COURSE: FOUR WAYS TO COPE WITH COMPASSION FATIGUE By Piper Hoffman — May 20, 2013

It has taken me until 5 p.m. to write a word of this column. It was due yesterday. I feel like I’m burning out. It’s not the common kind of working-too-hard-and-needing-a-break burning out. This is different, unique to activists and advocates and caregivers and whoever else cares that something really terrible is happening to someone. This is compassion fatigue. I can’t pinpoint exactly which story of abuse or picture of zoo cages set me on the path toward burnout, but there were two that made me realize what was happening to me; I had to close them as soon as they flashed across my screen.

<snip>

In a way I created this situation. I follow people and organizations on Twitter that tweet articles and photos about animals in unthinkable distress. I “friend” people on Facebook who post more of the same. I have created a pipeline to gather all of this toxic stuff and dump it into my psyche. On the other hand, I don’t have much choice. This is the work I do: I write articles about issues that people should know about – things that people need to change – and a big chunk of those articles are about animals. I can’t write about petitions that need signing or products that need boycotting if I don’t know about them. I also can’t write about them if I’m sapped by despair. My perfectionist tendencies don’t help. Whatever I do doesn’t feel like enough, so then there is guilt, too.

An example is the Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project

“Caring too much can hurt.” So I’m not just a wuss. Good start. (Not loving the “too much” though. How much is just right, exactly?)
“When caregivers focus on others without practicing self-care, destructive behaviors can surface.” Like, maybe, napping every few hours? Wearing pajamas for days? Check.
Compassion fatigue is what’s called a “secondary traumatic stress disorder.” Having an official label makes this feel more concrete and legitimate. Again, not a wuss.

 

[frogwoman]

What the fuck?

How it unique to activists sihhi? What about people who for example work in the NHS or as support staff in homeless hostels, housing etc. How is becoming burnt out unique to activists??

I know you don't think this but jesus, the arrogance of these people

 

[Tom A]

I remember one talk I went to in Manchester (at one of the recent spate of OK Cafe squats) regarding "activist burnout", and how disability and mental health affects people's ability to carry out activism, and it was suggested that yoga and meditation could be considered useful, something I utterly disagreed with at the time when I was prone to getting on my high horse over what I describe as "New Age mumbo jumbo". Although to be fair that was as far as it got in the woo department, and even I will admit there are some some psychological benefits associated with mediation. One thing they did address was how there was the problematic tendency to see treating activist burnout as essentially getting them to be a "good" activist again, regardless of any other mental health issues.

Of course nothing came of it, yet another meeting where it all got forgotten soon afterwards.

 

[tufty79]

it was suggested that yoga and meditation could be considered useful

it can. for normals *as well* as activists

One thing they did address was how there was the problematic tendency to see treating activist burnout as essentially getting them to be a "good" activist again, regardless of any other mental health issues.

aforementioned housemate tried to convince me to start seeing her therapist mate who's on the activist trauma support list, 'because she is brilliant with burnt out activists'. after i pointed out that the issues affecting me at the time were fuck all to do with that (i wasn't/aren't an activist), and everything to do with my history/the people around me, she decided i was 'too broken to fix'
so it seems like she then thought it would be a good idea to embark on few courses of action using a very dubious moral compass.

 

[sihhi]

aforementioned housemate tried to convince me to start seeing her therapist mate who's on the activist trauma support list, 'because she is brilliant with burnt out activists'. after i pointed out that the issues affecting me at the time were fuck all to do with that (i wasn't/aren't an activist), and everything to do with my history/the people around me, she decided i was 'too broken to fix'
so it seems like she then thought it would be a good idea to embark on few courses of action using a very dubious moral compass.

If you are not an activist you have no *activist history* - it's essentially your own fault for being upset with them for their taking liberties.
Plus it appears as if you have been resistent to your housemates' conflict facilitation efforts.

6. Reconnect with your vision as an individual and as a group. Most people are activists for highly personal reasons and when you connect the group's work to individual passions it helps foster awareness, empathy, and creativity. You can ask people to talk about their motivations or set aside time for people to get to know each other's activist histories. This is especially useful as a way to engage new members.
7. Learn to facilitate conflict. You can help the group reach a decision and ease stress simply through developing strong facilitation skills. There are many books on this but the best way to learn is to practice. Give group members turns practising. After all, you're going to be meeting anyway so it might as well be a learning opportunity.
8. Be intentional and deliberate about your work by setting SMART goals (SMART=Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, Timebound). SMART goals give the group a shared standard by which to measure progress and review strengths and weaknesses. This is especially useful and necessary when group members need to talk about workload.

 

[tufty79]

If you are not an activist you have no *activist history* - it's essentially your own fault for being upset with them for their taking liberties.

i was too agoraphobic to go to climate camp properly
i did go to a radical routes gathering though. had to share a bed with housemate, and woke up screaming in the middle of the night. they don't like having to cater for people that don't like being made to sleep with others

 

[Tom A]

they don't like having to cater for people that don't like being made to sleep with others

Nor catering with people who have a major aversion being in a cold environment without any form of relief (as this was in an unheated, uninsulated building in the middle of February, just after some snow), whom were shivering even when huddled with a sleeping bag over their coat, jumper, and T-shirt (my other friend whom went had it much worse than me, he really can't hack the cold), and those whom are adverse to sudden, unexpected noises (e.g. loud children playing - this was in a building which, to be polite, had several health and safety issues, especially to children). My eternal gratitude to the person whom offered me a night in an Ibis hotel room (which I had to myself!) at the end of the second evening, I appreciated having a hot bath in somewhere which paid homage to the allegedly petty bourgeois concept of "creature comforts".

Anyway, on another point, too many activists treat commitment to (insert cause here) as some form of moral yardsitck, and organisations like Radical Routes make it worse with their idea of "work commitments" towards "radical social change" - in many ways RR is quite cultish.

 

[tufty79]

Nor catering with people who have a major aversion being in a cold environment without any form of relief (as this was in an unheated, uninsulated building in the middle of February, just after some snow), whom were shivering even when huddled with a sleeping bag over their coat, jumper, and T-shirt (my other friend whom went had it much worse than me, he really can't hack the cold), and those whom are adverse to sudden, unexpected noises (e.g. loud children playing - this was in a building which, to be polite, had several health and safety issues, especially to children). My eternal gratitude to the person whom offered me a night in an Ibis hotel room (which I had to myself!) at the end of the second evening, I appreciated having a hot bath in somewhere which paid homage to the allegedly petty bourgeois concept of "creature comforts".

from what i heard, the catering on the first day extended to 'baked beans with 'pasta'
ffs

 

[Tom A]

from what i heard, the catering on the first day extended to 'baked beans with 'pasta'
ffs

I actually helped with getting preparing the food the first evening (before the gathering started), memories were hazy but it seemed like your bog standard right-on radical vegan grub. Can't recall any "baked beans and pasta" incident though, though being bitterly cold for hours on end plays havoc with my memory and attention to detail.

 

[sihhi]

What event are you two describing? Some kind of road occupation?

 

[Tom A]

What event are you two describing? Some kind of road occupation?

A Radical Routes gathering last year.

 

[DotCommunist]

I wouldn't be comfortable sitting in a counselling room with somebody wearing a mask, sorry

 

[agricola]

A Radical Routes gathering last year.

so a middle-of-the-road occupation, then?

 

[tufty79]

An accessible Radical Routes gathering last year.

fixed it for you
(that one didn't require you to make a 2-mile trek up country paths to get to the venue)

 

[tufty79]

Anyway, on another point, too many activists treat commitment to (insert cause here) as some form of moral yardsitck, and organisations like Radical Routes make it worse with their idea of "work commitments" towards "radical social change" - in many ways RR is quite cultish.

i actually got patted on the head during a house meeting, and told that i wasn't expected to do the work commitment 'because the government thought i was poorly'.
it was a bit humiliating being the house's token disabled, tbh

 

[captainmission]

I once went to a mental health for activist workshop at the earth first gathering. It ended in the person with probably the most severe mental health problems getting asked to leave for being disruptive whilst the rest of the group talked about the healing effects of st john's wort.

 

[Tom A]

fixed it for you
(that one didn't require you to make a 2-mile trek up country paths to get to the venue)

But required you to rough it out in near-zero temperatures for hours on end. Some people really shut down in the cold, also not fun if you have arthritis, and with other people with underlying conditions (e.g. heart problems) this can be actually dangerous for them. I guess quite a lot of people have get to get beyond the squatting/roughing it in tents on protest sites mentality, or realise that it takes a certain kind of person to willingly put up with such hardship.

i actually got patted on the head during a house meeting, and told that i wasn't expected to do the work commitment 'because the government thought i was poorly'.
it was a bit humiliating being the house's token disabled, tbh

I would find it humiliating, how patronising and hypocritical. "Piss on Pity" is probably the most appropriate response to that one.

 

[Tom A]

I once went to a mental health for activist workshop at the earth first gathering. It ended in the person with probably the most severe mental health problems getting asked to leave for being disruptive whilst the rest of the group talked about the healing effects of st john's wort.

 

[tufty79]

If you are not an activist you have no *activist history* - it's essentially your own fault for being upset with them for their taking liberties.
Plus it appears as if you have been resistent to your housemates' conflict facilitation efforts.

i know this is their perception of me/them - i'm the short paragraph that mentions brixton (where i've never worked) see the activism gaps compared to everyone else

I would find it humiliating, how patronising and hypocritical. "Piss on Pity" is probably the most appropriate response to that one.

i pissed in the back garden enough times to be comforted by the fact that there's probably still traces of it in the soil