One of my fondest memories of my early days in the WSA was eagerly waiting for the next
Discussion Bulletin to arrive in the mail. The DB had reports from comrades around the
country on what they were doing, introducing new members, local actions and important
news, international reports and letters from the IWA secretariat and other sections. Many
phone calls were generated by the DB with questions and congratulations and offers of aid.
Really the DB and the phone were the communication system that kept us in touch with the
organization. ---- I miss that, a lot. Our current electronic instantaneous communications
seem less substantial sometimes. The immediacy has, for me at least, degraded both the
content and tone of our interactions. We have sacrificed thoughtfulness for speed, which
isn?t a fair trade.
My other best memory is the national conferences held each year. This was where we were
able to meet the people we?d been corresponding with and maybe clarify what needed
clarification, and maybe achieve agreement, or not. Anyway, it was always good to see the
comrades. My favorites were the conference in Knoxville and the conference in New York.
Knoxville was great because they had an active community of supporters to we also met, and
just the chance to meet the Knoxville comrades was a pleasure. New York was also a high
point, with Pepe Jiminez the IWA secretary attending. I got to wander around Mike Harris?s
neighborhood in Bloomfield, New Jersey which was pretty cool. Even ordered a pepper and
egg sandwich at some Italian bar. Nice, right? I went out for a beer run while the group
of us ate at an Indian restaurant in Manhattan and ended up drunk and lost for a half hour
(all of the blocks looked kind of the same, until I found the one with nothing but Indian
Restaurants and could see New York Steve through the window.
The conferences were fun, but we also got shit done. When we left we felt like we?d
accomplished something, or at least I did. We had a plan for moving forward, and that is
always what you need.
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» (en) US, WSA Ideas & Action: WSA Memories By Mike Kolhoff - Part of a series commemorating 30 years of WSA