I know I am not the only one you have touched, and they all have their own stories.
Mine is this: you gave me one of the greatest gifts I have ever received in my life as an organizer. When Becka and I were two trouble-makers playing union at Evergreen, you took the time to write a memo analyzing the mass meeting we had organized (with your help) to confront the Evergreen administration on the issue of twice-a-month paychecks. Your memo, and the care you took with us as young organizers, taught me to take my work seriously. It taught me to pay attention to the details. Your feedback was precious to us, and I am thankful that you saw fit to invest your time in our development.
Then, the first time I ever heard the phrase “WTO,” it came from your lips. I believe the conversation went something like this:
“Hughes… what are you doing in November?”
“Gee, I don’t know Dan… it’s only May.”
“Well, the WTO is coming to town on November 30th. Mark your calendar.”
That little thing we did in Seattle became for me the vision of the movement — and the world — that is possible. Whether I acknowledge it consciously or not, everything I have done in the 23 years since then has been guided in some way by that vision.
And then there was the fact that you drug me (somewhat reluctantly) into the crazy idea of running for city council. The first lesson I took away from that experience when it was over was, “well, I don’t want to do that again.” It was not because it was hard. I actually really appreciated knocking on all those doors, just like you said I would. Rather, it was because I already then had the sense of the limitations I would have faced had I actually won. Running for office was such an eye-opener for me because I was confronted for the first time by the actual power brokers in the city I grew up in. I did not have to go find them — they sought me out. They invited me to their homes and to their candidate forums. And as I began mapping this network of power players in my head, I became quite convinced that I would have been very lonely in office. I did not want to be pulled by all these people to do THEIR thing…I wanted to do the pulling!
So off to organizing I went. Seven years in the labor movement. Lots of conversations with lots of workers in numerous corners of the country. But then I found my way back to politics. I was drawn into the WFP by the idea of creating a publicly owned bank. Apparently my proto-socialism (or my western populism???) had been activated. And there you were again. You challenged me, and I don’t know if we ever fully agreed, but for me you are very much part of that chapter of my life as well.
And that already is a lot of chapters!
So, like I said, your influence on my life has been outsized, and I am thankful for that. Now I am involved with organizing and building movement infrastructure on two continents. It is the seriousness that you instilled in me, and the vision you invited me to see of the world that is possible, that still drive me. I am sure many others have stories like this, but I wanted you to hear mine.
With deep appreciation and love,
Steve
P.S. One more thing which I think you will appreciate… last week I was in the mountains of Catalunya as part of the teaching team in a week-long training session at a European movement school called the Ulex Project. There I met some tenant organizers from Dublin and we became fast friends. One of them, Jack, was a soft spoken man from a socialist family who shared with me his fraternal love for James Connolly. The other, Aisling, told me late into the night about how she started as a tenants organizer. She had gotten evicted herself, and so she “rallied some of the other ma’s to go talk to the landlord.” She then opened a new round of stories by efficiently removing the caps off our beer bottles with her teeth. Oh… and if that is not enough Ireland for you, she is also the daughter of the founder of the Dublin Fire Brigades Pipe Band! I felt as though I was in some sort of beautiful ancestral vortex where everything was familiar and everything was funny. (I am attaching a photo of me and the other perpetrators from that night.)
