Think of Obama as a
mirror. He is not
an independent being; he is a reflection. Right now he reflects
Wall Street, big lobbies and police staters. When the forces
of democracy and decency become strong enough, this reflection
will change and so will Obama.
Change Washington from
the outside. Washington
is more incompetent, corrupt and dysfunctional than it has ever
been and you can't rely on Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren
to fix it. The way to get Washington to pay attention is to do
things it can't ignore. Nearly all important change comes from
the bottom up, which is why gay marriage and marijuana made progress
last year while practically nothing else did. Remember also that
we wouldn't have an environmental or civil rights movement if
people had waited for Washington to act.
Work on single issues.
Again, the gay
marriage and pot campaigns provide a model. Single issues are
easier to organize around, raise money for, and they appeal to
a more varied constituency. Don't worry about what your allies
think about other matters. Even gun owners and abortion haters
smoke pot. Furthermore, working together on one issue can bring
people together who might otherwise never talk.
If you're under 30,
do something. History
strongly suggests that change is dependent upon the young. Sure,
older activists can help, but the energy, enthusiasm, imagination
and noise has to come from the young. If you give up in your
20s you've given up for life.
Get a symbol. We haven't had a good activist
marker since the peace symbol. You'll know change is on its way
when we start sharing a visible sign of it.
Write and sing songs
- Few things bring
people together easier than a song they can all sing.
Go after the big guys;
be nice to the little folk
This is understood by the big guys which is why they have so
much fun setting one group of little folk against another. It's
in part what southern segregation was about: big white guys teaching
poor white folk to hate poor black folk. It's happening now as
liberals are encouraged to hate church goers and gun owners.
Go after the Pat Robertsons and the NRA but stop dissin' their
supporters. Convert them, don't condemn them.
Decentralize Don't rely on Washington based
action groups lacking a decentralized operation. From the civil
rights movement to the ACLU, the best national action groups
are the ones with the strongest local chapters.
Use boycotts. They're perhaps the most neglected
tool of activism and especially handy in a time when folks are
so busy. They may not have time for your rally, but they can
stop buying Koch Brothers toilet paper. Emphasize boycotts where
the alternative is easily available. If you boycott Coke or Pepsi,
for example, the other choice is on the same shelf.
Local lettuces, local
democracy, local action -
Those at the top of the system are stuck there. The local remains
remarkable free. This was true in Orwell's 1984 and it's true
in our time as well. Seize the local and define your own state
or town as America while Washington and Wall Street are occupied
territories.
Declare and define a
counterculture. The
first step in creating an alternative is to create it. Right
now there is little sense of what an alternative to the establishment
would look and feel like.
List your goals: No one really knows what the left
wants. If the left doesn't make it clear, the media and the public
will come up with their own wrong answers.
Bring back the cool
preachers: Back
in the 1960s the church was a key part of the social and political
movement. Today, religion is largely thought of as a rightwing
activity. It doesn't have to be. It's time to seize it back.
Come together: Whatever your cause, spare some
time to gather with those of other causes, share stories, and
find out what you have in common and can do together. As you
do, everybody's cause will grow.
