Author
|
Topic: How to avoid activist burnout
|
|
|
|
|
|
Seddig
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 15052
|
posted 01 June 2008 08:09 PM
I think keeping the work load manageable is important but there are factors as well. People work on issues and need to see result and if there are not enough people to take on pieces they feel they have to do the work to get result. The other factor is the existence of forceful oppositions that they have to constantly battle with, on the way to achieving a goal. If there isn’t the positive force to at least offer few words of support it can get difficult. Few people (youth) close to me are working on few very important social justice issues ( I am trying to help them) but I can see how forceful negativities can impact them. In the past they have been involved in organizing letter writing campaigns and protests to stop deportation of two Jarvis students and the amount of abuse they had to put up with was huge but the positive support wasn’t coming as easily as the negative forces were coming. Just few words of support can be very helpful to reduce burned out at the time that all they are getting are negative and accusatory forces.
From: Canada | Registered: Mar 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Left Turn
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8662
|
posted 01 June 2008 09:10 PM
As activists, it's important that we keep our activist workload sustainable. If our physical and mental health suffers from our activist workload, then we need to cut back. Provided there are enough activists in a group to carry out the tasks of the groups we're involved in, this shouldn't be a problem.The big problem is when everyone in a group is overextended and/or burning out. This is nearly the case in the group I belong to, the Vancouver Socialist Forum. We try to meet once every two weeks, with the intent of holding one public forum a month on issues relevant to radical, socialist politics. Of the 15 members in the group, I'm the only one who is not involved in other groups. So many other members have other activist meetings they attend on a bi-weekly or monthly basis, that it becomes hard to set a meeting time. It's hard to find a time for a meeting that doesn't conflict with meetings of other groups that multiple members are involved in, or some members who go out of town for work or activist stuff, or one member who gets bogged down with school work. Plus, some members will argue against certain meeting nights because of important activist events that one or more members want to attend. When we do have meetings, we usually only have half the group in attendance, so enough people are absent such that we can't set a time for the next meeting that won't conflict with too many other things. So we wind up trying to organize many of our meetings over the internet. What often happens is that one member sends an e-mail suggesting time for our next meeting, a few other members replying that they can't make it, and then one member suggests we postpone the meeting because too many people can't make it. Which results in the meeting getting cancled, because the inertia created by the suggestion to cancel the meeting can't be overcome. We've been trying to establish a 3 person coordinating committee that would have responsibility for setting meeting dates, but every time we have a meeting we put off the vote on who will be on the coordinating committe because members want to nominate people who are not present. [ 05 June 2008: Message edited by: Left Turn ]
From: Burnaby, BC | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|