OMNI
ACTIVISM,
ACTIONS, RESISTANCE FOR PEACE, JUSTICE, AND ECOLOGY NEWSLETTER #11, October 5,
2015.
Compiled
by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology.
(#2: June 23, 2011;
#3 1-1-2012; #4 April 9, 2012; #5 Nov. 27, 2012; #6, March 24, 2013; #7 Sept.
15, 2013; #8 March 4, 2014; #9, June 1, 2014; #10, August 2014)
For a discussion of
“activism,” OMNI, and these newsletters, see Activism Newsletter #9 (June 1,
2014).
What is the mission of OMNI?
With the Quakers (AFSC, FCNL) we seek:
a world free of war and the threat of war,
a society with equity and justice for all,
a community where every person’s potential may be
fulfilled,
and an earth restored.
LOOKING FOR A GUIDE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS MISSION? SEE OMNI’S ACTIVISM NEWSLETTERS.
Contents
of Activism Newsletter #11 Oct. 5, 2015
Insurrection
Against a Corrupt, Tyrannous Corporate State
The Dandelion
Insurrection: Love and Revolution by Rivera Sun
Orange Rain by Jan
Smitowicz
Ethics
Ervin Staub, Good
and Resistance to Evil
Individuals
Kathy Kelly
Emma Goldman
Allan Adam (a Giraffe)
Andy Hall (another)
Organizations, Groups,
Movements
Giraffe Project (see above)
Earth First! And Earth
First! The Journal of Ecological Resistance
Catholic Church, Pope Francis for Peace Education
The Catholic Worker
Dick, In These
Times
Radical Brownies in Oakland
Brave New Films on a Dozen Justice Topics
Broad’s Book, Citizen
Initiatives
After Ferguson, Youth in Revolt
Methods, Tactics
Dick: Winston
Alpha, Don’t Just Protest, Make Demands
Ann White, Food Protest Tactics during the Depression
Onion, Blockade
Smitowicz, Hoaxes
Chris Crass, Towards
Collective Liberation
Contents of #10
AND!!
Blog: The War Department and Peace Heroes
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/
Newsletters
http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/
index :
http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/dicks-newsletter-index/
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The Dandelion Insurrection by Rivera Sun
"When fear is used to control; love is how we
rebel!" Under a gathering storm of tyranny, Zadie Byrd Gray whirls into
the life of Charlie Rider and asks him to become the voice of the Dandelion Insurrection.
With the rallying cry of life, liberty, and love, Zadie and Charlie fly across
America leaving a wake of revolution in their path. Passion erupts. Danger
abounds. The lives of millions hang by a thin thread of courage, but in the
midst of the madness, the golden soul of humanity blossoms . . . and miracles
start to unfold! LEARN MORE>> http://www.riverasun.com/online-store/the-dandelion-insurrection/
Quantity:
Price: $19.99
From the desk of Rivera Sun comes a novel about the
refusal of the human heart to submit to destructive authority.
“In a time that looms around the corner of today, in a
place on the edge of our nation.”
Under a gathering storm of tyranny, Zadie Byrd Gray
whirls into the life of Charlie Rider and asks him to become the voice of the
Dandelion Insurrection. With the rallying cry of life, liberty, and love, Zadie
and Charlie fly across America leaving a wake of revolution in their path. Passion
erupts. Danger abounds. The lives of millions hang by a thin thread of courage,
but in the midst of the madness, the golden soul of humanity blossoms . . . and
miracles start to unfold!
Read more excerpts from The Dandelion Insurrection . . .
“The Dandelion Insurrection is as small as baking bread
in your oven, and as large as bringing down dictators.”
The Dandelion Insurrection is the story of
nonviolent revolution in the United States. This book offers
through its story many tools and strategies developed by countless leaders
throughout history, including Gandhi, Dr. King, Cesar Chavez, and Professor
Gene Sharp. From marches to cazerolazo pot-and-pan protests to strikes to
Victory Gardens for the People; the Dandelion Insurrection shares ideas that have
changed the world. (You can see a sneak peak of the book in our gallery!)
“Be like the dandelions, spring up in intolerable soils,
dare to stand up against violence, and blossom into love!”
More Praise for The
Dandelion Insurrection
“This is THE handbook for the coming revolution!” -Lo
Daniels, editor, Dandelion Salad
“Close your eyes and imagine the force of the people and
the power of love overcoming the force of greed and the love of power. Then
read The Dandelion Insurrection. In a
world where despair has deep roots, The
Dandelion Insurrection bursts forth with joyful abandon.” – Medea Benjamin,
Co-founder of CodePink
“I predict it will be a major contributor to the change
in history that WE are all being called to write together.” -Malathy Drew,
founder of Whispering Energy
“This novel will not only make you want to change the
world, it will remind you that you can. Let The Dandelion Insurrection take
root in your heart.” – Gayle Brandeis, author of The Book of Dead Birds, winner
of the Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction
“I love this book! It beautifully captures the revolution
of love that is sweeping the globe, told as an epic novel that will set your
heart on fire. A rare gem of a book, a must read, it charts the way forward in
this time of turmoil and transformation. If you loved Occupy Love, you will
love the Dandelion Insurrection!” – Velcrow Ripper, director Occupy Love, Genie
Award Winner
The Dandelion Insurrection
"When fear is used to control; love is how we
rebel!" Under a gathering storm of tyranny, Zadie Byrd Gray whirls into
the life of Charlie Rider and asks him to become the voice of the Dandelion
Insurrection. With the rallying cry of life, liberty, and love, Zadie and
Charlie fly across America leaving a wake of revolution in their path. Passion
erupts. Danger abounds. The lives of millions hang by a thin thread of courage,
but in the midst of the madness, the golden soul of humanity blossoms . . . and
miracles start to unfold! LEARN MORE>>
Price: $19.99
More Quotes from Readers and Reviewers:
“Rivera Sun’s The
Dandelion Insurrection takes place in a dystopia just a hop, skip and jump
away from today’s society. A fundamentally political book with vivid characters
and heart stopping action. It’s a must and a great read.” – Judy Rebick,
activist and author of Occupy This!
“The seeds of Rivera Sun’s The Dandelion Insurrection are sure to blow across the hearts of
all who read this important novel, a beautifully written book just like the
dandelion plant itself, punching holes through the concert of corporate terror,
and inviting all to join in the insurrection.” – Keith McHenry, co-founder of
the Food Not Bombs Movement
“With all its twists of plot, and myriad of characters,
it is not only entertaining, it offers a lot of insights as to how the citizens
of the US can reclaim their country from the corporations and political stooges
which have taken it over.” -Guadamour, reviewer (read full review)
“You are a great part of today’s MOVEMENT!” -Joe Hock,
OWS, March Against Monsanto
“The words penetrate the mind, heart, and soul of the
reader in a way that is powerful and captivating.” -Rebecca Blackwell
“A life-changing novel … that describes how we, the
people, could take our rights back from the powers that be (politicians,
bureaucrats, and the corporate fatcats who own them) by peaceful action.”
-Karen Lane
“This book had me at hello.” – Chris Moats, reader
“Written on the winds of hope, this book presents a
political prophesy showing how a people united can defeat corporate/statist
tyranny through the force of their will.” Steven Jonas, MD, MPH, author of The
15% Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S.:
1981-2022: A Futuristic Novel.
“Be kind, be connected, be unafraid. With this slogan of
the Dandelion Insurrection, Rivera Sun beckons us to address the crises of our
day with kindness, in community and from courage. With these tools, we can
change the world one heart, one home, one block at a time.” – Anne
Symens-Bucher, Canticle Farm
“Rivera Sun knows how to articulate what is going on in
our country and the world and that’s a gift. I wish I could say this is some
far away future that could never happen here but alas it’s already arrived.”
Jill Dalton, actor, author
“The Dandelion Insurrection is reminiscent of George
Orwell’s masterpiece “1984,” the chilling prophecy about the possible future in
a totalitarian state. Rivera Sun’s new book is a wakeup call about a possible
military-industrial complex take over in the United States. This opus is a
well-written allegory of what could happen in the future and how only through
the power of love we can make real change in the world. Like Bayard Rustin who
brought the concept of non-violent change from Gandhi’s India to the civil
rights movement in the 1950s, Ms. Sun has eloquently shown us how ordinary
citizens can transform a repressive society through the power of nonviolence
and love. This book is a must read for anyone concerned about the future of the
planet.” – Ted Zeff, Ph.D. author of “The Highly Sensitive Person’s Survival
Guide” and “Raise an Emotionally Healthy Boy: Save Your Son from the Violent
Boy Culture.”
“It’s rare phenomenon when a writer can move a reader to
tears in the beginning chapters of a fictional novel. Wherein an inconceivable
swelling heart calls the Soul forward to imagine its grand mythic journey as
part of a great consciousness movement that delivers a bright future. Rivera
Sun paints poetry on the canvas of ‘possibility and potential’, while pressure
washing the grim dirty distortions of corporate/government/military collusion
to reveal humanity’s fertile common ground smothered by capitalism’s greed for
profit at all costs. ‘The Dandelion Insurrection’ is a personal invitation to
engage life, love, and liberty as an evolutionary revolutionary dedicated to
thriving cooperatively with the natural world, and each other, for shared
existence to continue blossoming … like dandelions.” – Kevin ‘StarFire’
Spitzer, ‘Conciliation Sunday’ radio host, KZSC, Santa Cruz, writer, mentor,
visionary thinker.
“This is a very inspiring read…I got even more fired up
about what I want to create for our world at this time. My doubts and
hesitations were dissolved. I am now full of courage and fire. Thank you
Rivera; your words are contagious!” – Sheila Ramsey, Personal Leadership
Consultant
“If you are seeking to understand our evolved world and
how to unite and prosper, I urge you to read “The Dandelion Insurrection”. It
reflects intelligent thinking that can revolutionize who we are as a
civilization. You will read about ideas that connect with your knowing on a
deep level because make perfect sense. It is great entertainment and an
educational tool that can make a difference in living and understanding our
world. We are all looking for ways to harmonize, unify, love and collaboration
in order to create the harmony we all need and desire. “The Dandelion
Insurrection” is a must read.” – Lauren Taite Vines CHO (Chief Happiness
Officer) Ruts to Rainbows and author of The New Dawn on Planet Earth
“To weave reality into imperative fiction is the work of
creative genius. Rivera Sun has me weeping with gratitude as she brings to
character the real people who now place their bodies on the line because there
is simply nothing left to do but this, to rise with courage, hearts opened wide
in belief of the common thread. Rivera writes the revelation of revolution in
timeless fashion. Dandelion Insurrection is a prayer seven billion hearts
strong and counting.” – Megan Hollingsworth, Founder at Extinction Witness
“Honoring her name, sister Rivera Sun, nourishes us with
her warm rays of kinship, waters our hearts with the story telling of courage,
and composts our fears and oppressions into the soil of insurgent fearless
love. Moreover, her kind-connected-unafraid means keep igniting the supernova’s
aliveness of the Total (R)evolution of the human spirit one dandelion, one
star, at a time to form an entire galaxy of love warriors and love magicians,
coming from the North and the rest of the seven directions, now, today.” –
Pancho Ramos Stierle, Occupy Oakland, Peace Activist http://www.riverasun.com/online-store/the-dandelion-insurrection/
REVENGE AGAINST MONSANTO
A legless veteran and his
Vietnamese ir lfriend embark on a cross-country journey through the dark
heart of mid-1980s America to exact revenge on the loathsome Monsanto
Corporation, whose Agent Orange decimated both their lives.
From the illicit pharmaceutical
underworld of San Francisco’s Tenderloin to the cocaine-dusted film set of
amputee porn in booming Las Vegas; from the urban-industrial hideout of vegan
militant black revolutionaries to a botched backyard lynching by Texas frat
boys and the liberation of their chained, abused pit bull. . . Orange Rain hurtles from one stunning
scene to the next, swaying between the hilarious and the hideous. Its humor is
darker than the Marlboro Man’s coffee (and his lung cancer). A wildly twisted
novel, but also one with undeniable heart and compassion. It is an ode to
humans’ ability to endure in the face of horrific suffering. A celebration of
feminine strength and spirit. You’ve likely never read anything quite like it.
“The eco-warriors next door embark on a lightning round of
vigilante justice. Orange Rain is
what happens when the Monkey Wrench Gang
goes Death Wish and moves from the scrubland to the streets. Literature that
incites.” -Peter Young, former ALF prisoner, chief editor at Animal Liberation Frontline
Thanks to my wonderful,
egalitarian, vegan-owned, Eco-conscious publisher Trebol Press for taking this
on! www.TrebolPress.com
“Orange Rain is not a politically correct novel—which is why it is
so appealing . . . [the main] character has a clear revenge mission he never
wavers from. Revenge is exacted on more than one oppressor, including two
different rapists . . . [It’s] the type of book that could never be published
by a mainstream publisher, as they would be too afraid to touch the taboo
subjects it contains. Jan Smitowicz’s first novel . . . is fast-moving, fun to
read, and isn’t the same old tired thing we see coming from traditional
publishers.” -Kimberly Steele, author of Forever Fifteen and other novels
“A compelling, fast-paced
adventure through some of society’s most intriguing subcultures . . . filled
with incisive political commentary. This timely and important novel is a must
read for anyone concerned about the state of the planet, or simply looking for
a good read.” -Camille Marino, former political prisoner, founder of Negotiation is Over and Eleventh Hour for Animals
“An exciting new author with a
new voice to bring to the world of fiction. The literary world is in desperate
need of more writers like him.” Veronica Rosas, playwright
Share this:
ETHICS
Ervin Staub.
The roots of goodness
and resistance to evil: Inclusive caring, moral courage, altruism
born of suffering, active bystandership and heroism. Oxford U P,
2015. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-roots-of-goodness-and-resistance-to-evil-9780195382037?cc=us&lang=en&
INDIVIDUALS
DEMOCRACY NOW, DEC. 29,
2014
Peace
activist Kathy Kelly is about to begin a three-month prison sentence for
protesting the U.S. drone war at a military base in Missouri earlier this year.
Kelly, along with ... Read More
EMMA
GOLDMAN
Mother of determination. Remember her. May she be born again
among us.
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GIRAFFE HEROES PROJECT
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your address book so we'll be sure to land in your inbox!
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GROUPS,
MOVEMENTS
earthfirstjournal.org/
Earth
First!
Sample news from Earth First! and the radical
environmental movement; informative articles, debate, analysis.
https://twitter.com/efjournal
It’s Official: 19 European
Countries Say ‘No’ to GMOsearthfirstjournal.org/new…
Thousands March for the
Protection of Forests and Water Sources in Matagalpa, Nicaraguaearthfirstjournal.org/new…
The Badass Beaver-Like
Mammal That Outlived the Dinosaursearthfirstjournal.org/new…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_First!
Wikipedia
Earth First! is a radical
environmental advocacy group that emerged in the Southwestern United States in
1979. It was co-founded on April 4, 1980 by Dave ...
Founder: Dave Foreman; Mike
Roselle; ...
Slogan: No Compromise in the
Defense ...
Founded: 1980
Origins: Southwestern United
States
www.earthfirst.org/
Earth First! Worldwide. Worldwide. EarthFirst.org. About · Earth First!
Humboldt Croatan Earth First! Earth First! UK · Sourthwest Earth First! EF! Italy Katuah Earth
Pope Francis supports peace education in schools
2015-05-05 Vatican Radio
(Vatican Radio) The Director of the Vatican Press Office Father
Federico Lombardi said Pope Francis is an enthusiastic supporter of peace
education in schools. Father Lombardi was speaking at a press conference
in the Vatican on Tuesday held to speak about the “Factory of Peace” project
that has been launched by leading educational, political and church figures to
help schoolchildren realise the importance of peace and dialogue with
others. The press conference comes just days before a scheduled meeting between
Pope Francis and seven thousand children in the Vatican (on May 11th) to
talk about the themes of peace, love, welcome and integration.
Father Lombardi quoted Pope Francis’ words: “We will not change
the world unless we change education” and said the Holy Father has reiterated
the need to foster a “culture of encounter” which can then build a harmonious
and peaceful world. Such an encounter is not “vague and abstract, but an
invitation to genuinely meet real people in order to initiate a thorough
exchange and therefore a common path to a better society.” Father Lombardi went
on to stress that this message of encounter must be repeated over and over
again, in order to address world problems such as conflict, hardship, exclusion
and the plight of migrants and refugees. He said the Pope is convinced that
many of these problems can be traced back to a culture of waste, which itself
stems from a selfish attitude.
Pope Francis has been leading the way in this endeavour long
before his election as Pope. Whilst serving as Archbishop of Buenos Aires he
founded the Scholas Occurentes organisation to promote networking between
schools in different countries. The organisation uses sports, arts and
technology to bring young people together and create a common bond.
(from Vatican Radio).
[Sounds like a high school effort similar in spirit to the Fulbright
Exchange. What is the Vatican budget for
the endeavor?]
THE
CATHOLIC WORKER
(Oct. Nov. 2014). Includes:
Articles: “The Vision of Dorothy Day” by Cornel West;
“Her Name Was Charity” by Bill Kylie-Kellerman (Charity Hicks is “the Rosa
Parks of the Detroit water struggle”); Window of Hope in Afghanistan” by Carmen
Trotta (who rescues “abandoned children” in Kabul); and more.
Book Reviews: Jesus Was a Migrant by Deirdre Cornell
(2014), rev. by Amanda Daloisio; Pursuing
the Roots of Protest: Merton, Berrigan, Yoder, and Muste at the Gethsemani
Abbey. . . .by Gordon Oyer, rev. by Ted Walker; Hazard or Hardship: Crafting Global Norms on the Right to Refuse Unsafe
Work by Jeffrey Hilgert, rev. by Tom Cornell. --Dick
Along with the CW, IN
THESE TIMES Is One of the many magazines supporting peace, justice, and the
environment. If we don’t pay for our
news from independent sources like ITT,
then who will pay reporters and publishers for their writings? Corporations of course. If you seek cheap news, when you can afford
to pay, you are part of the problem of US information control by the
plutocracy. Dick
TOP STORIES THIS WEEK
Naomi Klein: 'We Can't Dodge This Fight' Between Capitalism and Climate Change
The author explains what right-wing climate-change
deniers understand and liberals don't.
BY MICAH UETRICHT
Christmas Comes Early for War Profiteers
It's a good time to be an arms dealer.
BY LEONARD C. GOODMAN
Naomi Klein's New Book Is a Manual for a Movement
This Changes
Everything argues that only grassroots movements, not politicians
or the 1%, can prevent climate disaster.
BY COLE STANGLER
A Summer of Rubble
What are we to make of the eruptions of violence around the Earth?
BY JANE MILLER
COMMENTARY
Is Obama Going Easy On Banks That Break the Law?
Credit Suisse employees have donated more than $376,000
to President Obama-is he repaying the favor?
BY DAVID SIROTA
WORKING IN THESE TIMES
Rank-and-File Rail Workers Rebel Against Single-Person
Crews
Railroad workers defeat a "recipe for
disaster."
BY KARI LYDERSEN
Like us on Facebook
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support to keep publishing. Donate today to keep independent media strong.
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CONNECT
IN THESE TIMES Is One of the many magazines supporting peace, justice, and
the environment. If we don’t pay for
our news from independent sources like ITT, then who will pay reporters and
publishers of their writings?
Corporations of course. If you
seek cheap news, and you can afford to pay, you are part of the problem of US
information control by the plutocracy.
In These Times is in part
sponsored by the United Auto Workers of America (UAW), the American Federation
of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Communications Workers
of America (CWA) and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace
Workers (IAM) and the Puffin Foundation.
Like what you've read in this newsletter?
GIRL
SCOUTS’BROWNIES RADICAL? NEW SOCIAL JUSTICE TROOP
Aviana Willis, “The
Radical Brownies.” In These Times (March
2015). Young girls in Oakland, CA have
a “social-justice focused girls’ troop” modeled upon the Girl Scouts’ Brownies
but not officially affiliated. “Its
mission: to “empower young girls of color so that they step into their
collective power.” --Dick
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Global
Backlash: Citizen Initiatives for a Just World Economy by Robin Broad
Global Backlash is the first book to move beyond the
monolithic portrayal of the globalization
protests that have escalated since Seattle and are not likely to abate
soon. With trenchant analysis and dozens of primary documents from a variety of
popular and uncommon sources, Robin Broad explores proposals and initiatives
coming from the backlash to answer the question, 'But what do they want?' A
range of sophisticated propositions and a vibrant debate among segments of the
backlash emerge. Highly readable and analytically powerful, this book is vital
to understanding the most potent protest
movement of our times.
After
#Ferguson
The protests
that followed the police shooting of Michael Brown created a network of youth
in revolt.
October 8, 2014 | This article appeared in
the October 27, 2014 edition of The Nation.
(AP
Photo/Jeff Roberson)
When Darren
Wilson, a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, shot and killed Michael
Brown on August 9, King D. Seals, age 27, was at the crime scene within the
hour. He lives just a few blocks away from Canfield Green, the predominantly
black apartment complex where the unarmed teenager was shot. He saw Brown’s
body, which would lie on the street for an additional three hours. “It wasn’t
even a protest yet,” Seals said about the gathering when he first arrived. “It
was a black boy being shot in the community. It was about ten other women and
men out there, and the family.” The next day, members of the community passed
around a large plastic bag for donations to Brown’s family. Seals put in $100;
others donated $50, $20, whatever they could. By the end of the day, the bag
was filled with money. “Before it became a riot, before it became a protest, it
was just the community coming together,” Seals said.
On the second
night, there was a protest on West Florissant Avenue, and the St. Louis County
police met it with armored vehicles, M-4 rifles and riot gear. Officer Wilson
remained unidentified and unarraigned, even as protesters called for his
arrest. During the first week, a few demonstrators resorted to property damage
to air their grievances. Seals remained on the front lines through the height
of the police crackdown—and not for the first time. Last year, he protested
when Cary Ball Jr. was fatally shot
twenty-one times by police officers in St. Louis City. He is still in contact
with Ball’s mother. Recalling the differences between last year’s
demonstrations and this year’s, Seals said that the protests in the wake of
Brown’s death were more effective. After Ball was killed, “we did everything
positive; we did everything peaceful…I feel like [the Ball protest] is a prime
example that when you do things quote-unquote ‘the right way,’ you don’t get
any results.” The internal police investigation later declared the shooting of
Ball justified.
The outcome of
last year’s protests left Seals distrustful of community leaders like Antonio
French, a Ferguson alderman, and the clergy in St. Louis, who have urged a
voter-registration campaign in the wake of the recent protests. After watching
politician after politician come and go without any improvement in the
communities he’s grown up in, Seals is skeptical that voting will solve the
many problems plaguing the area, especially the poverty and systemic
racism—problems he knows all too well from mentoring local kids, “the same
people out there fighting and putting their lives on the line every day [at the
protests]. The same kids that are written off as thugs and criminals and
nothing.”
Since the
protests began, a few people have started to call him and several friends the
“Ferguson Freedom Fighters.” Moving forward, Seals hopes to improve economic
security for the black community in Ferguson. Although the city’s resident
population is about 67 percent black, the majority of businesses there (55
percent) are white-owned. Seals plans to create a T-shirt print shop that would
provide local black youth with jobs. “We don’t need leadership; we need
ownership,” he said. “We need black-owned businesses in the black community. We
need a whole different system; we don’t need a different person in the [existing]
system.”
Seals recalls
getting harassed by police ever since he was old enough to leave the house
alone. “It’s like South Africa apartheid out here,” he said. “Why [are] all
these white people controlling these black communities?”
* * *
The Ferguson Freedom Fighters were not
the only ad hoc group to form in the crucible of the Michael Brown protests.
Marching for justice during the day, and running through clouds of tear gas by
night, young protesters bonded and shared ideas. Cliques formed, occasionally
along the lines of common interest or social class, but more often by
happenstance: the Lost Voices, the Millennial Activists United and Hands Up
United. When the protests slowed, these groups stayed in touch. They held
strategy meetings in churches and schools, attended training sessions by
national organizations, made T-shirts and solicited donations. They have
shifted the political culture in the city, and their goals, as they develop,
will be crucial to its future.
This new generation of protesters represents a marked break with the
older generations of black leaders in the city. They disagreed with the tactics
of the civic leaders and clergy members who, for example, urged protesters to
obey police curfews widely viewed by the young people as disrespectful of the
community’s legitimate outrage. Most of these older leaders already had a stake
in the political process in St. Louis through nonprofits or as politicians.
National figures like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were treated with similar
skepticism. Jackson was booed at a rally when he asked for donations. Resisting
co-optation, the majority of St. Louis’s young protesters took matters into
their own hands. As Dr. Reynaldo Anderson, assistant professor of the
humanities at Harris-Stowe State University, told The Nation, the
protesters “are not interested in hearing what the establishment has to say.
But that doesn’t mean they’re going to go off in the other direction and listen
to what the old-line…black nationalists have to say either. I suspect they’ll
come up with someone quite unique, [someone] that is empowering to them in
their community but still has the ability to cooperate with people who are not
members of the community.”
The young
activists have not, however, ruled out help from outside groups offering
training and expertise. Activist icons like Harry Belafonte and Cornel West
held a number of calls with them, offering counsel and encouragement. “What’s
happening in Ferguson right now is young black folks deciding they have the
ability within them and the power within them to change the conditions in which
they live,” said Charlene Carruthers, national coordinator of the Black Youth
Project 100, who traveled to Ferguson to teach St. Louis’s newly activated
youth how to organize and win campaigns. Much as the killing of Trayvon
Martin in 2012 galvanized national organizations like BYP100 and the
Dream Defenders, Brown’s death awakened many of St. Louis’s youth. “In
Ferguson, we’re going to continue to do that work in helping them build
capacity specifically among young black people,” Carruthers said. “So making
sure they have the training and also the critical analysis, [that’s] how we put
those things together and turn [them] into transformation in our communities.”
METHODS,
TACTICS OF PROTEST
Dick, Make Demands
White’s Book,
Tactics of Food Protests in New Deal USA
Onion, Blockade
Smitowicz, Hoaxes
Crass’s Book, Towards Collective Liberation
Don’t Just Protest, Make Demands
Winston Alpha,”The Limits of #ICan’tBreathe,” Z Magazine (Feb. 2015).
Alpha visited several police violence protests and
concluded they “are going nowhere” because the protesters offered slogans but
no demands. He quotes Frederick
Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” What is “raising awareness,” he asks. The body-camera proposal is “a joke.” He’s right that many public protests were
only hot air, but he himself does not offer any suggestions as to meaningful
demands! Gandhi and King can be our
guides. Gandhi demanded elimination of the
British salt tax and British departure from India; he persisted; and won. King demanded the end of segregated busses
and lunch counters in Birmingham, persisted, and won (and then realizing those
demands were only symptoms of deeper evils—such as denial of voting rights—he demanded
its remedy also, and with Pres. Johnson persisted and won). An old friend of mine always sneered at
protests that pursued minor goals and didn’t really intend to succeed. Since my friend himself never engaged in any
social protest, he was perhaps using his
sneers to cover over his apathy or indifference, but he does make a good
challenge to peace, justice, and ecology organizations to protest with a
purpose and serious intention. –Dick
Plowed
Under: Food Policy Protests and Performance in New Deal America
Ann Folino White
PAPERBACK $30.00 EBOOK $29.99
During the Great Depression, with thousands on bread
lines, farmers were instructed by the New Deal Agricultural Adjustment Act to
produce less food in order to stabilize food prices and restore the market
economy. Fruit was left to rot on trees, crops were plowed under, and millions
of piglets and sows were slaughtered and discarded. Many Americans saw the
government action as a senseless waste of food that left the hungry to starve,
initiating public protests against food and farm policy. White approaches these events as performances where competing notions
of morality and citizenship were acted out, often along lines marked by class, race,
and gender. The actions range from the “Milk War” that pitted National
Guardsmen against dairymen, who were dumping milk, to the meat boycott staged
by Polish-American women in Michigan, and from the black sharecroppers’ protest
to restore agricultural jobs in Missouri to the protest theater of the Federal
Theater Project. White provides a
riveting account of the theatrical strategies used by consumers, farmers,
agricultural laborers, and the federal government to negotiate competing rights
to food and the moral contradictions of capitalist society in times of economic
crisis.
“The Mattole Blockade” by Onion. Earth
First! The Journal of Ecological Resistance.
(March-April 2015). http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/108984337/update-mattole-blockade
The article focuses on a campaign to protect an
old-growth forest at the Mattole watershed in California from logging. Topics
include the establishment of the Headwaters Forest Reserve which resulted to
the opening of other forest areas for logging, Humboldt Redwood Co. (HRC) which
eventually gained ownership of the forest after Pacific Lumber (PL), and timber
harvest plans for Mattole.
Past
& Future Potential Efficacy of Targeted Hoaxes by
Jan Smitowicz
Earth
First!: The Journal of Ecological Resistance (March-April 2015). Simul-posted with Negotiation is Over!
Imagine, if you will, a woman walks into a library or university
computer lab far from her place of residence.[1] She
wears loose-fitting clothes of a style she doesn’t normally wear, purchased
from a thrift store in a city she doesn’t frequent. Maybe she wears sunglasses,
a bandana over her scalp; she’s removed her piercings if she has any—in short,
this woman disguises her appearance from security cameras. Ones that are
becoming more and more common as this culture moves ever closer to a
techno-fascist police state. When she walks into the computer lab, she tilts
down her head and uses care to avoid raising suspicion or interest. Her goal,
in the end, is to be completely unmemorable in
every possible way. She’s also parked her vehicle well away from the computer
lab’s location—making sure it’s a place where getting a ticket is NOT a
possibility (since any paper trail that ties you to a certain place and time is
potentially catastrophic—this goes for buying gas or anything else on her way
to this distant-from-home location; cash, cash, everything in cash, always!).
Blending in with her surroundings, she sets up a new one-time-only email
account with nonsense information and password that has no connection to her
life or personality whatsoever.
From there, her possibilities are limitless. Maybe she learned
about a timber sale on a piece of beautiful, life-filled forest (one located
distant from her area of residence); in an effort to protect that ecosystem and
those trees, she sends emails to the Forest Service and logging company,
claiming to’ve spiked several dozen trees with metal and non-metal spikes,
encouraging them—for the safety of their workers and equipment—to cancel the
sale. Or perhaps she sends out a communiqué from the “Animal Rights Militia” or
“Justice Department”, saying her group contaminated an entire shipment of meat
from a particular slaughterhouse. Something like this could potentially cause
tens or evenhundreds of thousands of dollars in damage; if the
target is chosen strategically, she could theoretically force an entire
slaughterhouse out of business with just one email! Or a
final example: perhaps this clandestine activist—tired of the woeful snail-pace
of progress toward a sane/sustainable/just society, knowing the imminent
calamitous threat of climate change—sends emails to an oil refinery, the
Department of Transportation, and a specific railroad company (the emails for
which she memorized before her little adventure, and never wrote anything down
until the moment of action); she claims that her group sabotaged a stretch of
railroad tracks leading up to that oil refinery, and that the many hundreds of
tankers filled with crude oil that’d normally deliver to that refinery that day
could be derailed and cause a catastrophic spill if the shipment is not
cancelled or delayed. Keep in mind: a medium-sized refinery processes somewhere
in the neighborhood of 700,000 gallons
of crude oil every single day. If production is halted, even for just one day,
this would likely cost the refinery hundreds of thousands of dollars. This may
seem hyperbolic, but it’s anything but: the group with probably more environmental
success than any other group, EVER, is the Movement for the Emancipation of the
Niger Delta (MEND). A few years ago, by destroying a single bottlenecked/choke point oil pipeline, they
were able to keep approximately 30 PERCENT of the region’s oil in the ground
for a week—this one action raised the price of oil globally.
The genius of this young woman’s email actions is that she never has to actually commit any of these actions. She
merely has to make her targets believe she has
done so. The risk she’s taking is monumentally low, especially when compared
with the risk of actually physically committing these acts for real. She knows
that hoaxes couldn’t and shouldn’t ever completely replace real-world actions,
but a mixture of BOTH could make substantial gains
with a startling amount of ease and expediency.
If you’re still skeptical about the potential efficacy of
hoax-activism, how about a real-world example—one that helped win a major
campaign, one that I was involved in as a grassroots protestor (and ONLY in
that capacity)—would that lend credence to this tactical concept?
As it turns out, the campaign on which I cut my activist teeth
benefitted immeasurably from a high-profile hoax. In 2006 through early 2007,
Southern California activists were struggling hard to get the POM Wonderful
juice company to stop funding experiments on mice and rabbits. We did many home
demos.[2] The
vice-president of the company resigned as a result of our campaign. PETA
eventually got its high-profile stature involved. And then it happened: the
Animal Rights Militia (ARM) claimed to’ve contaminated nearly 500 bottles of
POM Wonderful’s famous pomegranate juice at Whole Foods stores across the
eastern seaboard. The supermarket chain pulled all POM products from its
shelves, and announced that if POM didn’t cease its animal testing by a certain
impending date, they would no longer sell their products. The next day, POM
Wonderful announced that they would cease all current and future animal
testing.[3] This perfectly displayed how effective a multi-pronged
approach could be; It was a triple-threat of local grassroots activism, a
monolithic national group, and underground illegal action. Turns out the ARM’s
announcement of juice-tampering was a hoax—but it worked. In the words of
Denzel Washington from Training Day, “It’s
not what you know, it’s what you can prove!” Well, Iknow the
POM campaign proved how effective a hoax
could be. Without a doubt, it would’ve taken us a lot longer to win that battle
were it not for the Animal Rights Militia’s communiqué. Instead we were able to
immediately move on to a new targeted campaign against ever-specious animal
testing.
Towards Collective
Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building
Strategy. Chris Crass. 2014
Oct 2, 2014
Chris Crass is a longtime organizer working to build
powerful working class-based, feminist, multiracial movements for collective
liberation. Throughout the 1990s, he was an organizer with Food Not Bombs, an
economic justice anti-poverty group, strengthening the direct action-based
anti-capitalist Left. In the 2000s, he was an organizer with the Catalyst
Project, which combines political education and organizing to develop and
support anti-racist politics, leadership, and organization in white communities
and builds dynamic multiracial alliances locally and nationally. He has written
and spoken widely about anti-racist organizing, lessons from women of color
feminism, strategies to build visionary movements, and leadership for liberation.
He graduated from San Francisco State University in Race, Class, Gender and
Power Studies and currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with his partner and
their son, River. He is a member of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist
Church.
"We Win Everyday"
To see the
whole talk click HERE
Towards Collective
Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building
Strategy
Author: Chris Crass with Introduction by Chris Dixon and
a Foreword by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Publisher: PM Press
ISBN: 978-1-60486-654-4
Published March 2013
Towards Collective
Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building
Strategy is for activists engaging with dynamic questions of how
to create and support effective movements for visionary systemic change. Chris
Crass’s collection of essays and interviews presents us with powerful lessons
for transformative organizing through offering a firsthand look at the
challenges and the opportunities of anti-racist work in white communities,
feminist work with men, and bringing women of color feminism into the heart of
social movements. Drawing on two decades of personal activist experience and
case studies of anti-racist social justice organizations, Crass insightfully
explores ways of transforming divisions of race, class, and gender into
catalysts for powerful vision, strategy, and movement building in the United
States today.
Over the last two decades, activists in the United States
have been experimenting with new politics and organizational approaches that
stem from a fusion of radical political traditions and liberation struggles.
Drawing inspiration from women of color feminism, justice struggles in
communities of color, anarchist and socialist movements, the broad upsurges of
the 1960s and '70s, and social movements in the Global South, a new generation
of activists has sought to understand the past while building a movement for
today’s world. Towards Collective Liberation contributes to this project by
examining two primary dynamic trends in these efforts: 1) the anarchist
movement of the 1990s and 2000s, through which tens of thousands of activists were
introduced to radical politics, direct action organizing, democratic decision
making, and the profound challenges of taking on systems of oppression,
privilege, and power in society at large and in the movement itself; and 2)
white anti-racist organizing efforts from the 2000s to the present as part of a
larger strategy to build broad-based, effective multiracial movements in the
United States.
Crass’s collection begins with an overview of the
anarchist tradition as it relates to contemporary activism and an in-depth look
at Food Not Bombs, one of the leading anarchist groups in the revitalized
radical Left in the 1990s. The second and third sections of the book combine
stories and lessons from Crass’s experiences of working as an anti-racist and
feminist organizer, combining insights from the Civil Rights Movement, women of
color feminism, and anarchism to address questions of leadership, organization
building, and revolutionary strategy. In section four, Crass discusses how
contemporary organizations have responded to the need for white activists to
lead anti-racist efforts in white communities and how these efforts have
contributed to multiracial alliances in building a broad-based movement for
collective liberation. Offering rich case studies of successful organizing, and
grounded, thoughtful key lessons for movement building, Toward Collective
Liberation is a must-read for anyone working for a better world.
Praise:
"In his writing and organizing, Chris Crass has been
at the forefront of building the grassroots, multi-racial, feminist movements
for justice we need. Towards Collective Liberation takes on questions of
leadership, building democratic organizations, and movement strategy, on a very
personal level that invites us all to experiment and practice the way we live
our values while struggling for systemic change. " —Elizabeth 'Betita'
Martinez, founder of the Institute for Multiracial Justice and author of De
Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century
“Chris Crass goes into the grassroots to produce a
political vision that will catalyze political change. These are words from the
heart, overflowing onto the streets.” —Vijay Prashad, author of Darker Nations:
A People’s History of the Third World
"A deeply important, engaged, and learned defense of
anarchism, class politics, and anti-racism. Grounded in study, organizing, and
struggle, Towards Collective Liberation is a significant contribution to the
recent history of the U.S. left." —David Roediger, author of Wages of Whiteness
"In his activism and writing, Chris Crass has been
able to articulate and practice a transformative model for social change.
Guided by a vision of collective liberation that centers the experience and
leadership of women of color, Chris has done groundbreaking work to realize the
revolutionary potential of grassroots multiracial alliances." —Harsha
Walia, co-founder of No One Is Illegal and Radical Desis
"Chris Crass offers penetrating analysis and a keen
understanding of the political and cultural dynamics shaping the U.S. We can
all learn from reading this." —Rev. David Billings, The People's Institute
for Survival and Beyond and United Methodist Church Elder
"Part political biography, part political history
and thoughtful political analysis, this book is on-time in its laying out of
personally tested strategies for eliminating racism, sexism, and
capitalism. The juxtaposition of
feminist, anarchist, and anti-racist thinking is a great jolt to the weary
practices of progressive non-profits that skim the surface of
change."—Suzanne Pharr, author of In the Time of the Right: Politics for
Liberation and Homophobia: a weapon of sexism
“In Towards Collective Liberation, Chris Crass has shared
with us a valuable collection of thoughtful, honest and humble reflections on
what it means to build the world that we are waiting for. Chris achieves the difficult task of practice
driven theory—encouraging and allowing all of us to be present in our work, to
lead with our hearts, and to embody the change that we seek. It is through these critical and sometimes
painfully honest reflections that we as organizers, activists and social change
makers are given the courage to do the same.”—Alicia Garza, People Organized to
Win Employment Rights (POWER)
What others are saying...
Towards Collective
Liberation: A Review
by Milan Rai. Peace News
October-November 2014
When I’ve heard white people committed to social change
start talking about racism and activism, the conversation has often veered
rapidly to the question: ‘How can we get more of them to come to our meetings/activities?’
In Towards Collective Liberation, a
powerful, humble and thought-provoking book that deserves the widest possible
readership, white US activist Chris Crass poses very different questions: ‘How
can white radicals work with other white people against racism?’ and ‘How can
white radicals be trustworthy allies to people targeted by racism?’ He poses
similar questions in relation to male supremacy and patriarchy.
Towards Collective
Liberation: A Review
by Joshua Stephens.
War Resisters League
September 2014
"With Towards Collective Liberation, veteran
activist and writer Chris Crass has filled a number of conspicuous voids in
radical literature, seeking to render the aspirations of feminist and
antiracist struggle plain, practicable, and their realization imminently
possible. Through autobiographical reflections on his early years as an
anarchist organizer in San Francisco, a few brief essays, and a series of
interviews with key figures in contemporary horizontal organizations, he has
crafted what might be the first primer on the intersection of
antriracist/feminist politics and anarchism aimed squarely at a white cis-male
audience..."
Contents
of Activism Newsletter #10
Chris Crass, Towards
Collective Liberation (DISCUSSION AT
OMNI)
OMNI)
Peace Corps
Comissiong, Hip Hop Analysis of Injustices and Solutions
Sierra Club, Why Bees Are Dying and How to Save them
Bill Moyers Interviews Jim Hightower
Ralph Nader’s Latest Book, Unstoppable (when liberals and conservatives work together)
Nader’s Books
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox: http://cindysheehanssoapbox.bmetrack.com/c/v?e=4F9572&c=1BD0F&l=54F366F&email=zyIQaVnAGJFyNtIdU8sMaTciHg%2FVbFy1&relid=4C4A98BD
Henry Giroux, Remember Then Act, Don’t Be an Amnesiac
Non-
Citizen
Citizen
END ACTIVISM NEWSLETTER #11 OCT. 5, 2015
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