| By Clem Guttata Despite the limitations, I'm a big fan of citizen political activism. As Natasha Chart over at Open Left notes: - The problem with change is that, as it was once rightly said, power concedes nothing without a demand. Nonetheless, word your demand too politely and you will get exactly no response. Act like a bunch of violent anti-abortion, Operation Rescue-style terrorists, and the only kind of change you can guarantee is that you will shift the world by varying margins towards fearful authoritarianism, hatred and isolation along class, gender and/or ethnic lines - which makes violence a non-starter if you care about getting to a progressive end goal. So what should we do? Peaceful protest won out for the abolition, women's suffrage, anti-colonialism and civil rights movements, yet they all required great masses of people to demonstrate over periods of years. Though unlike other countries with active national strike cultures, not only has a strike ethic diminished in stature as an option in the activist toolkit, the national media barely reports on such events unless they are violent, represent authoritarian ideologies, or can readily be mocked. People seeking peaceful change in the US are often effectively isolated from sympathetic peers around the world and at home and turn only rarely to collective action solutions to shared problems. Maybe an idea like these Common Security Clubs, which try to gather small groups of neighbors to talk about economic issues face to face, could help. It's hard to say. But the injustices piling up in this world and this country have got to be addressed.
There's room for all sorts of tactics and I'm glad to see progressive individuals and organizations in West Virginia engaging in a full range, including: court and regulatory battles, advocacy, lobbying, petitions, marches, protests, and civil disobedience. Whatever path it takes for me what is important is to get involved. Pay attention to what is going on in your community. Run for office. (Few things make me as proud as having two active bloggers at this site who are also local office-holders.) Read, comment, and post at local and state blogs. :-) Democracy only works when we, the People, participate. |
