Thanks Eamon for pulling it all together as well as the supporting systems for spreading word etc... See attached map of the warport, the subject of so much... Regards the movement, posts here, where to from here, the war... When war broke out I was living in England, very near Fairford where the B52 bombers flew from. Feb 10th's global day of action was the largest mobilisation of people in a single 1 -action in the recorded history of man, thats a big thing in itself, but, it did not stop things, the war happened, the occupation is still on and the film questioned what we did then, did later, did now to actually affect real change. I agree there is "im ok cuz i protested that day" element to things, people feel good, and although we all have "real world stuff to do" I agree that there is a need for a mechanism to take things from there on the streets to things that could have stopped the war. In England there was BIG problems too between the SWP / anti war movement and the NVDA groups, after F10 a big big call was put out for people to come to the nerve centre of the war machine fairford warport and to attempt to take action there. Once the call went out and a day chosen, the 2nd "big demo in london" was announced, NVDA groups were outraged as the 2nd demo took many whom might have gone to fairford. In the end @ 3000 people arrived to be met by @ 3000 cops, US army inside, armed gunship... ie: not a chance of breaching the lines. How to win? What do we want to win? I was lucky back then to see and hear Micheal Albert, speak after his years of activity, he made some excellent points, id like to just make a few pointers to some of them 1- why is it many of us feel "im ok cuz i protested that day" is enough and how that can be changed. 2 - What makes movements grow, what makes them effective. Albert talks about stickiness... "Fighting the good fight" Both of these points lead to what is, or maybe should be, the core of what our activist is about: VISION. Its not enough to simply want the change, even if it seems utterly unatainable, we must have HOPE that our alternate vision is achievable and secondly that we can create mechanisms to bring about the change to lead to that vision..... What little steps can be taken, what would make someone want to take those steps, what joy do they get from being involved with things.... As someone who tried to plug into things after returning home, there were indeed problems in our movement(s) at all levels in all camps. Thanks to Deirdre and others who have posted, sometimes its just the awkwardness of meeting new people and making new friends.... some are good at it...apologies if I was one of those who unintentionally sided with the lads. Anyway heres a few links to audio, video, text that I feel is critical for us all to adress think about and apply to our own groups, networks etc ______________________________________________________________ Audio and video from Democracy Now from We know what you oppose, but what’s your alternative? http://www.democracynow.org/2007/4/17/from_sds_to_life_after_capitalism 31.33 in vid: noam chomsky talking about todays level of hope.... 35.20 in vid intro + discussion with micheal albert some bits in words: How do we win? Vision.... Understanding where it is we are trying to get to can inform what we doing, give us hope, give us a reason for our activism.... Capitalism is a horrific system. Capitalism is a system that breeds an environment in which dignity is robbed, in which people are out—nice guys finish last...... And the question for me was always, starting right at the beginning in 1968, ‘67: what do we replace it with? ... it (parecon) represents an answer to the question, “What do you want?” It represents a rejection of the idea that Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister, put forward: TINA, “there is no alternative.” One obstacle was ignorance of the reality, ignorance of the injustice. And that was the primary obstacle in the ’60s. But there was a second lurking obstacle, and that was the feeling that there was no alternative. So you need the vision to overcome that obstacle. But Thatcher was right: TINA is a big obstacle to building social movements for social justice. ______________________________________________________________ Albert in a few other places Michael Albert at "Beyond Bush", opening plenary for the Life After Capitalism Conference, New York City. Vancouver Cooperative Radio. August 20, 2004 http://www.zcommunications.org/zaudio/144 some previous mentions of Alberts views on imc-ie: Can we win? What sort of world will that look like? response to Whatever Happened to Anti-Capitalism? http://www.indymedia.ie/article/80676#comment183032 a few points on how the global networks that we are part of ARE changing the world response to Not Guilty. The Pitstop Ploughshares All Acquitted on All Charges http://www.indymedia.ie/article/77460#comment161103 ______________________________________________________________ Micheal Albert - founder of Z Magazine, Znet and co-founder of South End Press. He is the author of numerous books, his latest is, “Remembering Tomorrow: A Memoir.” Also "Parecon : participatory economics" http://www.zmag.org/ http://www.southendpress.org/ 1- The Stickiness Problem http://www.zmag.org//ZMag/articles/jan98albert.htm The Stickiness Problem: audio descriptions of Whats wrong with the left - its not stickyhttp://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/lifeaftercapitalism_cut1.mp3 2.16 mins making the movement Sticky - how to do ithttp://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/lifeaftercapitalism_cut2.mp3 these are audio cuts from the "Life After Capitalism" that was referred to earlier (imc-radio is still down so files presently unopenable, but perhaps found on : [R-G] Audio Links - Life After Capitalism Conference in NYC - Beyond Bush Opening Plenary http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/2004-September/015737.html )

[ Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:09:00 +0000 ]

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