Berkeley          This may not have been on the top of your list, but when organizers, young or old, get together informally to catch up and have a cup of coffee, you might wonder what they talk about?  Maybe not?  They talk about organizing.  Who is doing it?  Who isn’t?  What’s the same?  What’s different?

Over two days in the Bay Area of California, bouncing back and forth between San Francisco, Oakland, Berkely, and Marin County, my paths crossed with a number of old and dear comrades.  Reporting from the field, I’d say there were recurring themes.

Of course, the latest outrages and head thumpers from Trump were high on the list, especially his new slush fund.  I suggested we all apply.  We’ve all got grievances with the Justice Department in one way or another.  What do we have to lose?  We all need the money?  Can you use artificial intelligence in organizing?  What do you make of the implosion around Cesar Chavez?  Is it right to give Delores Huerta credit for contract bargaining?  Wasn’t Huerta also part of the purges?  What’s new in different organizing models?  Has anything filled the ACORN vacuum?  It goes on and on, back and forth like that.

“Wade,”” several asked, what’s it like to recruit young organizers now?”  Those still in the work all had stories about interviews and applicants that asked in utmost seriousness, “Could they work remotely?”  You can’t organize neighbors, unions, tenants, or anything without hitting the street and getting with people, so, no, there’s no remote work.  Some had been asked if they could work a four-day week?  No, not in our world, was the only possible answer.  Heads would nod when someone, maybe me, would say, that social media has poisoned the water for a lot of young potential organizers.  Too many think that there might be shortcuts that light a fire from loose leaves and tinder.  Many are confused that there’s no end point, like an election in voter work, where there’s a break, and we’ve won or lost.  Organizing just goes on and on, up and down, push and shove. Long-term commitments to projects seems foreign to some.

One of us would quickly say, “Hey, be careful.  We sound like a lot of old people talking about the good old days, and what it was like back then!”  Organizers are about building power for change, but they don’t like change.

The most interesting conversations are about current campaigns and what people are doing here and there in the work.  What’s really the story on the UAW now?  Who remembers working with this person or that one who is now in government, running for office, elected or, lord save us, went to law school?

Truth to tell, it’s all enjoyable.  It’s like what regular people do. It’s a mixture of gossip and gripes, aches and pains, all which add up to shoptalk, which underlies the infrastructure of what builds and sustains the community of organizers and forces the field forward past the barricades.