A War on People by Zigon Jarrett

Author:Zigon, Jarrett
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520969957
Publisher: University of California Press

CHAPTER 4

Disclosive Freedom

The raison d’être of politics is freedom, and its field of experience is action.

—Hannah Arendt

In the last week of every month, Voices of Community Activists and Leaders (VOCAL-NY) holds its membership meeting. At the time of my most intense research with them, these meetings were held in a large room in the basement of a housing complex in the East Village of Manhattan. The number of those attending changes each month depending on personal schedules, weather, and so forth, but normally around a hundred people will show up. The diversity of those in the room is noteworthy. Although there are always more men than women, the numbers are not normally that far off from half and half. Black, white, Latino; young and old; some wearing clothes suggesting they came directly from a well-paying job, others not; some live in stable housing with their family, others do not; some participate intensely in the meeting, others nod off from heroin use or the exhaustion of a precarious existence in a relentlessly unforgiving city; while others seem to have come primarily for the free dinner that is always served. In other words, those who fill this room every month constitute a community of whoever arrives.

These meetings usually have two components: an update of recent union activity and a training or educational component. Since most of the organizing, strategizing, and tactical planning is done by a core leadership and staff, these meetings are necessary to communicate this work to the membership and to get their feedback in terms of how the union’s activities could better reflect members’ experiences and needs as users. The meetings are also important for recruiting, as the leadership and staff are always looking to find members who are willing and able to become more active in the day-to-day work and political activity of the union. And as we will see shortly, it was about this time that it was decided that new recruits were needed to expand the leadership of the union. Such recruitment is done in a number of ways, but perhaps the most common one is through inspirational talks given by leaders that touch on such themes as the self-transformational possibilities of participating, the importance and necessity of collective political activity, and the thrills of showing “everyone” that drug users are perfectly capable of doing political activity.

Terrance may not be the most dynamic speaker of the leadership, but he does speak with an authority that is buttressed not only by his long experience with VOCAL-NY but also, as a former basketball player, by his tall and bulky frame. As he was once introduced at a meeting in November 2012, Terrance is “the strong, silent type.” When he does speak, however, there is no doubt people listen. On this particular night, Terrance, along with other leaders, were talking about their experience at the recent national harm-reduction conference that had been held in Portland, Oregon. Most of the others spoke about the chance they had to meet others

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