Among the left there is an increasing recognition that our organizations need to embody the values that we advocate. We try our best to avoid replicating (for example) sexist and racist dynamics, and (again, for example) individual male leftists calls themselves feminists and individual white leftists call themselves anti-racist. This is of course a very good thing and a definite improvement over even the fairly recent past.

What concerns me is the lack of similar awareness of class. Certainly many left organizations mention class and express concern for workers, but there is often a lack of awareness as to how our organizations reinforce class oppression in a way that we would never tolerate for race or sex. Noam Chomsky notes that while his speeches are almost always attended to the point of worrying the fire marshal, the two exceptions he can recall were a speech on welfare reform and a speech on labor unions.

Awareness of class issues is perhaps an even larger issue for the National Lawyers Guild than it would be for other left organizations. The legal world is filled with classism and can be very removed from the lives of working people. If we?re honest we can see that the very law itself is largely structured to disadvantage working people, not the least by being so incomprehensible and even downright counter-intuitive that working people need a lawyer if they are to have any chance at the limited justice the law offers them.

I believe that the Guild needs a greater recognition of class issues. I?m excited to see that a panel on workers? rights in planned for the Birmingham convention. The Bush administration?s imperialism abroad and repression of civil liberties at home are drawing attention from leftists, as well they should, but let?s not forget the administration?s war on workers, or the classism in our own organizations.

Second, I?m interested in learning from other Guild chapters what strategies can be successful in boosting Guild membership. The four Guild student chapters in D.C. are collaborating this summer for a D.C.-wide Disorientation event in September. We?re hoping that an event early in the year can inspire law students to join the Guild and become involved in its activities. I?m hoping that the Birmingham convention will be a time when I can learn how to get students involved in the Guild and how to best leverage new members to boost the profile and activity level of the National Lawyers Guild in the D.C. area.