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Popular Resistance Newsletter – People Joining Across Spectrum To Stop War On Syria And It’s Having An Effect

September 5, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org , ,
Last week we wrote about what you could do to stop the war in Syria. This week we can say – many Americans are taking the action needed to stop this war. If we succeed, and it is still a very big ‘if,’ it will be a historic. We cannot remember when the American people stopped a war after a president said he wanted to bomb a country. How close are we? The Washington Post is reporting that 180 members of the House of Representatives are leaning toward a ‘no war’ vote. FireDogLake reports 216 are leaning no. To win requires 217 votes. We need to solidify those who are leaning toward voting ‘no to war’ and convince enough undecided votes to vote ‘no.’ Click here for an updated tally. The media is reporting that Congress is being flooded with phone calls and that at constituent meetings people are telling their representatives to vote ‘no’ on war.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – Stopping War On Syria And More

August 29, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org ,
While there is a lot going on, this week our primary focus is on stopping the war with Syria. In the last paragraph we provide links to other active issues in the resistance movement – there is a lot going on! A few days ago it looked like the US would already be bombing Syria by now, but enough hurdles have been put in front of the Obama administration and the UK that war has not yet started. People are organizing to stop the mad dash to another unnecessary war that will have unpredictable and dangerous repercussions. Here is a list of protests planned this weekend to stop the war. War on Syria is not popular with Americans. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only nine percent of Americans support it which makes a war on Syria even less popular than Congress. There has been consistent propaganda for war on all the networks for months now, but the people are not buying it.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – Ironies Push Resistance Forward

August 22, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org , , , , , ,
Irony can also be a powerful tool when used by activists in their actions. We love this action against the Keystone XL pipeline. Farmers, ranchers, clean energy and climate activists came together in Nebraska to construct a wind turbine and solar-powered barn immediately in the path of the proposed pipeline. They created a dilemma; if President Obama approves Keystone XL, he’ll then have to tear down clean and locally-produced energy to make way for dirty energy from foreign tar sands. 1BoulderAnd, in Boulder, CO activists have been working for nearly a decade to get their utility to switch from coal to green energy. The company, Xcel Energy, refused so they have been working to create a municipal utility instead. They’ve won three votes by city residents, but XCel keeps fighting them.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – Summer Of Our Discontent

August 16, 2013 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org , , , ,
Retired CIA Officer, now a peace and justice activist, Ray McGovern recently wrote in an article called The Moral Imperative of Activism that “This is our summer of discontent. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether that discontent will move us to action. Never in my lifetime have there been such serious challenges….” These serious challenges exist in the form of the multiple crises and the obstacles we face in overcoming them. Powerful forces are aligned to maintain the status quo and are adept at preventing disruption of it. Corporations control the political process, the courts, think tanks, the media, education and many non-profits. The vast national security apparatus monitors us and does what it can to prevent effective resistance actions through infiltration of activist groups, as was recently discovered in Washington, DC and Oklahoma.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – Vibrant Movement For Green Energy Economy

August 9, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org , , , , ,
Impressive environmental protests have been organized by a wide range people calling for an end to radical energy and a transformation to a clean energy economy. Radical energy includes fuel derived from extreme extraction methods like tar sands, hydrofracking and off-shore drilling for oil or methane gas and mountain top removal for coal. This is costly energy, not only in dollars but in its impact on the environment; and it is causing an impressive growth in people taking action to protect the planet. Rather than building the upgraded energy infrastructure we need to reduce wasted energy and to efficiently store and transport energy from the sun and wind, the United States has embarked on building pipelines as well as relying on trains to carry oil and gas.

Popular Resistance Newsletter: A Smarter, Stronger Movement

August 1, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org , , , , ,
As one would expect, the opponents of change have developed strategies to undermine social movements. Steve Horn reports, based on leaked documents from the private security firm StratFor, that their strategy is to divide activists into four groups: Radicals, Idealists, Realists and Opportunists. Opportunists are in the movement for themselves and can be pulled away for their own self-interest. Realists can be convinced that transformative change is not possible and settle for what is possible. Idealists can be convinced they have the facts wrong and pulled to the Realist camp. And finally, Radicals who see a corrupt system as corrupt that requires transformation. They work to isolate and discredit this last group. Using false charges to assassinate their character is a common tactic. They divide and weaken movements to protect the status quo.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – Creating The New World

July 25, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org , , , ,
An important component of resistance is building systems based upon our desired values and principles to replace the current dysfunctional systems. This is a powerful and positive way for communities to work together to solve local problems and meet their basic needs. People around the world are engaged in this constructive resistance. We will share some of the most recent efforts to build the world we want. Landfill Harmonic OrchraestraWe are inspired by the human potential to create, even in dire economic circumstances, illustrated by this story of children from a slum dwelling in Paraguay. Out of the trash in the landfill their community is built upon, they created the “Landfill Harmonic Orchestra.”

Popular Resistance Newsletter – Seeds of Rebellion Taking Root

July 19, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org , ,
Stephen Shapiro describes Occupy as a “dandelion moment” in which the movement successfully dispersed seeds to float and root, thereby growing into a bigger movement. We would not limit the seeds to the US Occupy, but include the Arab Spring, the Indignados, the current revolts in Brazil and Turkey and the new phase of revolt in Egypt. All of these mass actions spread around the world and spurred more mass actions. In the US we certainly see ongoing activism around many issues and flowers of resistance growing. Shapiro also describes the moment we are in as a potential pre-history moment, asking: “What if we are in a time akin to the early 60s and in a few years there is a May 1968 moment?” The actions around the country indicate a potential pre-history moment, a lot is bubbling around the country, not quite boiling but getting hotter.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – MIA: Rule of Law

July 12, 2013 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance , , , , , ,
At the entrance to the New York City Courthouse, the words “Where Law Ends There Tyranny Begins” are inscribed in the marble wall. Our constitutional rights, particularly the first and fourth amendment rights, are disappearing. And the US government and national security state behave as if they are above the law. MIA Rule of Law risks the further division in the United States as the people see no path to justice. Private corporations contracted by the US government and others are tracking activists by monitoring social media and using geo-location tools.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – Organized Resistance Brings Sweeping Change, Lessons for US

July 4, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org , , , , , ,
The big story of the week was Egypt. Protests organized by Tamarod (Rebel) that have been building for months, resulted in the biggest protest in Egypt’s history, four days of mass protest beginning on June 30 that ended the rule of President Mohamed Morsi. More than a week ago, Tamarod recommended that the head of the Egyptian Constitutional Court become the interim president and that is what the Egyptian military announced. The military made the announcement after lengthy meetings with religious groups, including minority religions; opposing political parties, including a Muslim party; and civil society including Tamarod.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – The Paradox of Power

June 27, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org , , , , ,
On Wednesday morning, attorney Lynne Stewart’s compassionate release from prison was denied. Stewart is suffering from breast cancer. Her husband, Ralph Poynter, stood vigil in DC to push for a decision, and then the decision came, with a result they did not want to hear. Stewart should not be in prison at all for her act of assisting her client with a press statement, but she continues to serve a 10 year sentence. By her grace and strength Stewart turned a seemingly devastating decision into a victory.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – We’re All Subjects of American Empire

June 20, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org
We are all subjects of the American Empire. Whether we live in North America, South America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East . . . we are all under the thumb of neo-liberal capitalism that puts concentrated corporate power in control of our lives. For decades, American Empire and wealthy elite have forced privatization of resources in developing countries and austerity measures on public programs. Now, we are also experiencing these same policies in wealthier nations like the US and Europe.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – What’s Your Breaking Point?

June 13, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org , , , , , ,
When Edward Snowden reached his breaking point, the world saw the truth about the vast extent of spying by the NSA on Americans and people around the world. In an act of conscience, Snowden released secret information, saying “My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.” Snowden sparked protest, lawsuits, criticism of the administration and US intelligence. His action shows the power that comes when someone inside the system break ranks and tells the truth. Successful movements depend on people breaking ranks: questioning, demurring, disobeying, defecting and withdrawing support.

The Inevitable and Unpredictable Mass Movement

June 6, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org
The events in Turkey show how unpredictable mass movements are. Turkey, which is in a difficult geographic neighborhood, with economically distressed Greece and Cypress nearby and Syria and Iraq on its border, seemed to be fairly stable with 5 percent economic growth in recent years. But, obviously that was not the whole story. In recent years, there has been growing opposition to the commercialization of Turkey and the crackdown on freedom as well arrests of journalists.So, when Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced the development of a park, in a city of declining green spaces, into a shopping area, the people revolted.The government’s response has been brutal with 1,700 injured and 1,900 arrested, but it has led to larger revolts.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – Announcing Our New Website, PopularResistance.org

May 30, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org
Two years ago, we launched October2011.org with “History is Knocking.” We asked if the time might be right for a larger mass of people to rise up against the corporate control of our government and US imperialist policies. We were not certain what the answer would be, but six months later hundreds of thousands of you did rise up in Occupy Encampments across the nation. Many more were inspired to join the work on a broad variety of injustices in their communities. Today we know that history is no longer knocking. History has opened the door and is standing in front of you. The broad movement for peace and social, economic and environmental justice is here and you are part of it. Today we know that history is no longer knocking. History has opened the door and is standing in front of you. The broad movement for peace and social, economic and environmental justice is here and you are part of it.
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