On Friday, 30 November 2001, at 7:PM, there will be
a meeting between _the_Undercurrent_ and members of
the progressive/liberal communities at OU.  This
meeting will take place at Burton 204C, the building
north of Goddard Health Center.

The purpose of the meeting is an effort to resolve
the frustrating breech with _the_Undercurrent_ and
its current treatment of the progressive/liberal
groups on campus, such as SSEC and SAN and SWSS and
such.

Prior to this meeting, some people will gather in the
Alma Wilson room at 5:PM to discuss exactly what it is
which the frustrated members of the various left
communities want from _the_Undercurrent_.  Vague
frustrations and complains with no concrete requests
or suggestions do no one any good.

The _Undercurrent_'s recent front-page mockery of
activism is only the latest in a series of problems
occurring between the various progressive/liberal
communities on campus and the newspaper which had been
at one time the voice for all our communities, our
alternative to the timidity of the _Daily_Oklahoma_
and the reactionary rants of the _Fountainhead_, but
a newspaper which may now have become in the worst
case scenario instead a site of powerplays and the
plaything of a few individuals.  Hopefully, this is
not the case.

Is this what we want to happen with what had once
been a newspaper for our side of the political
spectrum?  Do we want a campus of three newspapers in
which one presents the official university thoughts
(_the_Daily_Oklahoma_), one disseminates reactionary
anger on campus (_the_Fountainhead_), and the third
one joins _the_Fountainhead_ in mocking activist
efforts (_the_Undercurrent_ as it currently is), with
not one paper addressing progressive/liberal issues
with neither preachiness nor disdain?

At today's hastily arranged Monday meeting, five
members of THE UNDERCURRENT staff were present but
only one individual was there for all the leftwing
communities which have felt marginalized or insulted
by the current UNDERCURRENT articles and/or its staff.

If enough people show up at Friday's meeting, this
issue will probably be resolved, ideally with some
sort of reconciliation between the progressive/liberal
communities and _the_Undercurrent_ but possibly with
a recognition of irreconciliable indifference from the
current staff.  The matter here isn't a legal issue
but a community issue; it has always been the last
dodge of the exploitative reactionary to hide behind a
legal right to ignore an ethical obligation, but that
kind of self-serving legalism is not the way of the
left.  If the staff of _the_Undercurrent_ cling to
legal considerations, for example, instead of seeking
reconnection with the left communities, we may have no
choice but to abandon them and seek a new publication
to replace _the_Undercurrent_ and its staff while no
longer counting/relying on them as part of our
communities.  (That would be a shame, but it may be
necessary, depending upon the attitudes and reasons
of _the_Undercurrent_ staff.)

However, if only one or two people show up to Friday's
meeting, then the message to _the_Undercurrent_ will
be clear: do as you will, _Undercurrent_, for all
you'll receive are a few grumbled complaints, nothing
more.  I suspect that some of them expect just such a
low turn-out on Friday for just such a reason.

I hope to see this resolved one way or the other soon,
ideally with a reconciliation.  Thank you.

(Please pass this information along to SWSS and
OUrEarth since I still have trouble reaching them.
Thanks!)

-----------------------------------------------------
                 quotes on this matter
               (authors' names withheld):

"i worked on the undercurrent for as long as i could
  stand to do so and was unable to make any headway."

"The actions of the Undercurrent are one of the main
  reasons I left the progressive/liberal movement.
  I'm sure my friend [] would agree"

"so, maybe we should help start a TRULY progressive
   paper. i would help."

"All that comes to mind is a classic question..."What
   is to be done?"."

"Each issue of the Undercurrent has become worse and
   worse. I was a writer for the Undercurrent from
   almost the first issue."

"TheUndercurrent coup led by [] and supported by a
   selection of other OU editors, was a devious
   and megalomaniacal maneuver that has served only
   to further the rift between our organizations and
   effectively paralyze further progressive student
   initiatives."

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month.
http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1