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Friday, October 19, 2018

former OSWP officer Avi (UCSB) endorses their opponents and talks about OSWP toxicity

This was shared on facebook, and reshared by my friend and comrade Hannah Kagan-Moore:


From Avi, a communications expert and an ex-OSWP slate member: a compelling statement regarding the upcoming UAW 2865 statewide union elections. She and I both strongly recommend that you vote for Veronica Hamilton, Marcelo Mendez, and Cory Mengual.


"I ran in the last vacancy election on the OSWP slate. I believed that caucuses would facilitate contentious debate and dialogue, which I think is much needed in our union space, and I trusted and was friends with several of the OSWP leaders.

I was wrong—I misplaced my trust, and OSWP has done serious damage.

I'm not interested in dragging individuals, so I'll focus on the party overall. These observations combine first-hand experience on an OSWP-controlled EBoard with a perspective developed through five years of graduate work in organizational communication focusing on the contradictory practices of leftist organizers.

From what I've seen up close, OSWP is a case study in groupthink dynamics, has a strong tendency to demonize the opposition, expresses little to no interest in facilitating dialogue with dissenters, and is primarily focused on card campaigns at the expense of just about everything else. The OSWP election campaign is disingenuous and factually inaccurate, and clearly designed to gloss over OSWP’s own contravention of the basic practices of democratic participation.

These are systemic dynamics, not the fault of any one individual, although systems are reproduced by the individuals who exist within them. Despite still being friends with some of the OSWP candidates (again, this isn't personal!), I feel strongly enough about the party-level toxicity that I must openly campaign in support of the opposition caucus, including Marcelo Mendez, Veronica Hamilton, and Cory Mengual. I encourage you to do the same. Preventing an OSWP super-majority is the last, best chance our union has to survive as an organization we can be proud of."