#133 / KLM

I have been rummaging around in the files in my garage, and I scared off some spiders. I also came across my dusty but well-ordered editions of the KLM.

For several years, I received biweekly "Key List Mailings" from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, published by the San Francisco Regional Office. These mailings were described on their covers as "Selected Documents Of Current And Lasting Interest In The Civil Rights Movement." The KLM collected various news articles, first-hand descriptions of political organizing successes and failures, and academic work, all of which were sent on to supporters by SNCC regional offices as a way to help community organizers and civil rights workers "in the field."

They do have lasting interest. Fifty years later, organizations that began as SNCC affiliates are still working for social and economic justice (witness the banner of the Southwest Georgia Project, at the top of this posting). I don't feel like I've dropped out, either. One of the issues hotly debated in the KLM was the usefulness (or not) of electoral politics. I'm biased, but in Santa Cruz County, I think that a Santa Cruz variety of community-based politics has done some good.

It sure hasn't been enough, though, and there is sure a lot more to do. As long as there is, I am keeping my copies of the KLM around.