The Sojourner Truth Organization: Notes Toward a History

Hello out there to my small stable of interested readers.  I’m looking for a little help from someone with a lot of time on their hands.  I have accumulated several recordings of interviews with former members of STO and other folks who were around the scene, and I want to get them transcribed.  I don’t have much to offer in way of compensation, other than grateful acknowledgement in the mythical book I still believe will emerge from my never-ending project.  But anyone interested in doing some transcription should submit a comment below and I will be in touch.  Thanks in advance!

Just a quick note to alert people to a wonderful new website devoted to the historical memory of the English revolutionary group Big Flame.  The site functions as something of a combination of this blog and the STO web archive, so it includes both original documents (mostly in PDF format) and reflections on the group’s history.  They were also kind enough to give STO a big shout-out, including a favorable (and forgiving) reference to my under-tended blog.  Anyway, check it out.

Otherwise, still plugging away on my manuscript, but with a few side-projects taking up my time.  I’ll talk about a couple of those side projects in future posts here.

I recently received the following document, a lengthy critique of the political philosophy of Louis Althusser, from Don Hamerquist, founding and long-time member of STO.  Hamerquist was inspired by some recent threads at the Kasama website to rework some old notes on the Althusser collection For Marx, notes that he had originally produced in the process of preparing the Dialectics curriculum and other political education classes put together by STO, beginning in the late 1970s.  The primary thrust of Hamerquist’s critique, it seems to me after an initial reading, is that Althusser’s analysis of Marxist philosophy is fatally compromised by his attachment to A) an enforced distinction between the "ideological" and "scientific" periods of Marx’s writings, and B) a party-based model of revolutionary theory built around an ahistorical understanding of Lenin’s What is to be Done as Communist gospel.  Hamerquist offers alternative readings of both Marx and Lenin on the relevant points, and overall encourages contemporary revolutionaries to rethink our traditional conceptions of theory and practice.  Additionally (and what initially made the piece appropriate for this blog), Hamerquist offers substantial insight into the origins and development of some key themes in STO’s intellectual outlook, especially relating to the theory of dual consciousness and the analysis of contradictions and crisis within capitalism.  (It is also worth noting that Hamerquist published a much earlier piece on Althusser in issue #4 (1978) of Urgent Tasks, STO’s political journal.)  While Hamerquist’s analysis emerges from within the Leninist framework, I believe there is much here that will benefit 21st century revolutionary anarchism as well.  I am happy to post this contribution to a needed discussion, and both Hamerquist and I encourage discussion of this piece here and elsewhere, in both the virtual and the real world.  Please let us know what you think.

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Althusser Comments

Don Hamerquist

One skeptical participant commented on the recent Kasama website discussion of Althusser’s impact on Avakian’s theoretical posture as follows:

“Althusser and Avakian do not matter much.”

To the contrary, I think that both “matter” a good deal, although in different ways. However, in the case of Althusser, my appreciation has some different content than what I’ve seen expressed in these discussions.

One of the defining characteristics of STO was its consistent opposition to Stalinism, but for the most part the group didn’t write extensively on this subject.  However, during a brief period in the mid-seventies, STO participated in something called the Federation of Independent Marxist-Leninist Collectives.  Another participant in this short-lived group was a then-nameless grouping from Boston, which eventually became the core of the Proletarian Unity League, which in turn was one of the founding elements of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization in the mid-1980s.  Whether rightly or wrongly, STO identified the Boston group as a proponent of what STO sometimes referred to as the "Stalin-model" of party-building.  In the course of a series of polemics with the Boston group in 1975, STO produced (from the pen of Don Hamerquist) two of the better articulations of anti-Stalinist Leninism that I have encountered.  (more…)

Just a heads up that an interview I did in the fall on my research has been published in AREA Chicago, a great resource for community social movements here.  I was interviewed for a special issue on 1968, even though STO wasn’t even a glimmer in anyone’s eye during that pivotal year.  But because the group was in many ways an outgrowth of the events of 68, it does make sense to consider the group’s legacy in that context.  Anyway, check it out here. 

One of STO’s first publications ever was a dense pamphlet with the less than scintilating title "Toward a Revolutionary Party."  Despite its age, and despite my anarchism, I still find this to be one of the most valuable documents ever produced by STO.  It details a whole range of problems commonly found in revolutionary organizations, and attempts to sketch an alternative perspective.  I recommend highly.

A few months back, someone sent me the link to a lengthy analysis of TARP, written by another anarchist revolutionary, on the blog Bedtime Theory.  This piece is pretty thoughtful, and is one of the most extensive engagements with TARP that I have read, but I thought it got a number of things wrong.  So, I wrote a reply, which was posted to the blog.  Check it out.

UPDATE:  A response to my reply is now up here.

By now, the workers’ occupation of the Republic Windows factory here in Chicago is national news.  Last night I took the kids down to deliver some soda to the workers, and show support for the occupation.  (more…)

It’s been far too long since I put anything up here.  I’ve been busy, but that’s no excuse.  Here’s a little teaser anecdote to tide you over until I can post something more substantial.

[This is the text of my remarks for the panel "Islamophobia, Antisemitism and Fascism:  Challenges for Anti-Capitalists" at the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference in Vermont earlier this month.  The panel also featured remarks by Rami El-Amine and by my brother, Peter Staudenmaier.  A brief but productive open discussion focused heavily on questions of solidarity.  The panel was an outgrowth of my presentation at the National Conference on Organized Resistance last spring in Washington DC.  Also worth looking at is the exchange between myself and Rami El-Amine in the latest issue of Upping the Anti-.  At some point the panel should be available online as an audio file, and I will link to it here.]

[This is the text of the presentation I gave at the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition Conference last weekend in Vermont.  The discussion afterwards was pretty good, I thought, mostly relating to the various experiences attendees had accumulated over years of working in "multi-racial" or "all-white" or "people of color" projects, organizations, and campaigns, and lessons people had learned as a result.  The session was recorded, and once an audio file appears on the internet, I will offer a link here.]