* Organizing. When there was a strong US left, strongly influenced by the Communist Party, organizing had a strong meaning.

I learned this from "The Romance of American Communism" a wonderful book by Vivian Gornick. It is divided into three sections about people's relationship with the party--falling in love, living the life (being married), and getting divorced.

Gornick talks about her childhood, where poor workers would sit around the kitchen table talking about big ideas and their lives and thinking that was a standard thing to do, think big and deep about their lives.

They were, in those conversations, organizing themselves.

When people got thrown out of the party and their whole lives, some continued to organize themselves.