Megan Amram on leftist infrastructure, the Portland protest calendar, and the subtle art of not burning out
By Megan Amram, originally North London, currently Portland and increasingly exhausted, The London Prat | Also at Bohiney Magazine
I have been to four meetings this week. I attended one about housing policy, one about climate action, one about transit funding, and one which was described as a “visioning session” which turned out to mean: we will not make decisions but we will feel very deeply about the possibility of making them in the future. I left the visioning session with a lanyard and a commitment to attend the next one. This is how they get you.
The Mechanics of Organised Progressivism
Every progressive meeting follows the same structure. There is a check-in circle where everyone says their name, their pronouns, and one word describing how they are feeling. Then there are agenda items. The agenda items spawn sub-items. The sub-items generate working groups. The working groups will report back. Reporting back is always “at the next meeting.” The next meeting has its own check-in circle. Somewhere in this structure, things occasionally get done. Not this week. This week we visioned.
Back at amram.top I wrote the Portland Progressive Meeting Bingo card and it has been shared, genuinely, into activist WhatsApp groups as a sincere resource, which tells you something about self-awareness levels across the movement. The Guardian Portland coverage takes a more sympathetic view of the activist infrastructure.
Reading the British Coverage
I miss North London in the way you miss a difficult relative: constantly, fondly, with full awareness of why you left. The Bohiney Magazine coverage of UK politics from Portland reads like dispatches from a parallel dimension where people are sarcastic about the same problems instead of earnest about them. I find this restorative. British political satire is a public health service. Portland is still working on it.
Saturday: Recovery
I slept until nine. I made proper coffee. I did not attend a single meeting. Progress. Real progress.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
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