Strategize!

The section provides articles on strategy to assist you in making your campaigns more effective. They include case studies of social movements and information about the current resistance environment. Visit the Resources Page for links to organizations that provide both online and in-person training on strategy and tools for designing and evaluating your campaigns and actions.

French Streets And American Sofas

March 31, 2023 Patrick Lawrence, Scheer Post. Strategize! Culture of Resistance, France, National Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

You might be Brazilian or Malian or Singaporean, it is remarkable the world over to watch the French explode into the streets of dozens of cities and towns to protest the imperial president residing in Élysée Palace. It is altogether singular to follow the demonstrations against Emmanuel Macron as an American. The French are still citoyens and take to their streets and public squares. Americans long ago cashed in their citizenship to live as consumers—and take to their sofas no matter how abusively political elites treat them, no matter how many wars they start, no matter how corrupt the financial system, no matter how many people live in poverty, no matter how grotesque the “defense” budget, no matter how poisoned the environment, no matter… let me not go on.

A Four-Day Workweek Trojan Horse

March 31, 2023 Adam Barrington, Labor Notes. Strategize! Four Day Workweek, Unions, Wages, Worker Rights and Jobs

It’s never a bad idea to be suspicious of your boss, especially when they act like they’re doing you a favor. For workers at FrontLine Service, a Cleveland non-profit that serves the unsheltered, distrust of our employer is one of the critical sentiments that binds us. FrontLine workers, members of Service Employees Local 1199, provide crucial services to some of the most marginalized and neglected people in Northeast Ohio. Every day, we assist folks struggling with mental health crises, substance abuse, lack of housing, and other hardships. The work is arduous and the pay is low, but we do what we can to serve the communities in which we live and work.

America’s Fossil Fuel Economy Is Heading For Collapse

March 29, 2023 Nafeez Ahmed, Resilience. Strategize! Big Oil, collapse, Energy, Finance and the Economy, Oil and Gas

US oil production is about to peak, but the world is unprepared for the tremendous economic and political consequences. The only path through is energy and economic transformation. The global economy is currently teetering on the edge of a banking crisis. The IPCC has just released its final major report warning that global carbon emissions need to peak and decline immediately if we are to avoid plunging into dangerous global warming by breaching the 1.5C ‘safe limit’. And in recent weeks and months, industry leaders have announced that the US shale oil and gas revolution is over. Yet few if anyone is talking about why these things are happening at the same time, and what they really mean.

Beyond Fatalism: Renewing Working-Class Politics

March 26, 2023 Sam Gindin, The Bullet. Strategize! Canada, Labor Movement, Politics, popular power, Working Class

“We need to ask ourselves,” Leo Panitch and Donald Swartz stated in the third edition of From Consent to Coercion, “whether free pertains to those who do business or whether it pertains also to the majority of Canadians who do not do business.” Their book, now a classic, focused on a critical expression of the tension between liberal democratic principles and capitalist realities: the substantive right of workers to strike. Canadian workers were officially granted the basic democratic right to form unions, but the substance of that right – the withdrawal by workers of their labour power – was regularly suspended when workers successfully used it.

Venezuela-US Relations: When ‘Maximum Pressure’ Fails

March 24, 2023 Carlos Ron, Orinoco Tribune. Strategize! Juan Guaido, Latin America, Nicolas Maduro, US Imperialism, Venezuela, Washington

The strategy of “maximum pressure” imposed by Donald Trump on Venezuela has failed to achieve its goal of changing the Venezuelan government and pulling the country back into Washington’s sphere of influence. The resilience of the Venezuelan people led by President Nicolas Maduro has not only survived the attacks by the Trump Administration, it has resulted in adjustments to Washington’s strategy and has proved that resistance, creativity, and commitment to dialogue can pay off. On January 23, 2019, the government of the United States quickly recognize a little-known deputy of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the Interim President of Venezuela, undermining the constitutional mandate obtained since May of 2018 by President Nicolas Maduro.

Make One Big Higher Education Union

March 23, 2023 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. Strategize! Higher Education, Unions, Unity, Worker Rights and Jobs

Higher ed is unionizing. Like crazy! Last year, every single one of the five largest filings for NLRB union elections in America — each representing more than 3,000 members — were for graduate workers at various universities. University of California workers pulled off the biggest strike of 2022. New units of more than 1,000 people, rare in most of the union world, have become commonplace in academia. This wave shows no sign of slowing. Just this month, thousands more grad workers at the University of Minnesota and Duke filed for elections. Since the beginning of 2022, more than 45,000 graduate and undergrad workers have made moves to unionize, according to Daily Union Elections, a site that catalogs union filings.

Dancing Revolution: ’90s Protests Used Rave Culture To Reclaim The Streets

March 21, 2023 Brittany Gaston, Unicorn Riot. Strategize! Art, Blockade, Direct Action, G8, History, Reclaim the Streets

Thousands gathered on May 16, 1998 in Birmingham’s famous Bullring district, located in the city center. They were instructed to meet by the New Street Station subway stop and make their way towards the Bullring’s roundabout. The mood soon became nothing short of intoxicating as a roaring sound system hidden inside an ordinary car blasted techno to the masses. Fire eaters, drag queens, and clowns were normal amongst a crowd of lamppost climbers and stilt-tripod walkers filling up the streets, creating a gridlock of traffic that purged vehicles from the area and prevented drivers from coming in.

How To Beat The ‘Fracking Frenzy’

March 18, 2023 Jamie Gorman, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! Fossil Fuels, Fracking, Ireland, sacrifice zone

The reality of the climate crisis makes it clear that we must leave the “oil in the soil” and the “gas under the grass,” as the Oilwatch International slogan goes. The fossil fuel industry knew this before anyone else. Yet the industry continues to seek new extractive frontiers on all continents in what has been labeled a “fracking frenzy” by campaigners. In Australia, unconventional fossil gas exploration has been on the rise over the last two decades. Coal seam gas wells have been in production since 2013, while community resistance has so far prevented the threat of shale gas fracking.

Don’t Let The Media Cheerlead Us Into More Wars Like It Did in Iraq

March 17, 2023 Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. Strategize! Ann Wright, Iraq War, US State Department

Twenty years ago on this coming weekend, I was in Mongolia as the Deputy US Ambassador. After writing a Dissent Cable in early March 2003 on the pending U.S. war on Iraq to my boss Secretary of State Colin Powell, I made the decision to resign from the U.S. government as it was poised to invade, occupy and destroy the sovereign state of Iraq. I was one of three U.S. diplomats who resigned—Brady Kiesling and John Brown resigned before me. For months, the Bush administration attempted to get the U.S. public to believe that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction and therefore was a threat to the United States and the international community.

How Canadians Are Losing Medicare

March 17, 2023 Dr. Susan Rosenthal, Consortium News. Strategize! Canada, Health Care, Medicare, Privatization

Ontario’s Bill 60 has delivered a potential death blow to public Medicare. If it becomes law, the provincial medical system will no longer operate as a public service but as a profit-taking business managed by the private sector. While defenders of public Medicare blame Conservative Premier Doug Ford, British Columbia, Quebec and Saskatchewan are going down the same road. If we hope to reverse this disaster, we need to know how Canadians won Medicare in the first place, and why they are losing it. World War II saw a global upsurge of labor protest.

French Socialists On The Potential And Strategy Of Working-Class Struggle

March 14, 2023 Révolution Permanente, Left Voice. Strategize! Class Struggle, France, Macron, Socialism

Romaric Godin is a journalist in the economics department of Mediapart (an independent French investigative newspaper) and author of La Guerre sociale en France — or The Social War in France — an analysis of the developments of French neoliberalism after the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017. Juan Chingo other is an editorialist and board member at Révolution Permanente, as well as the author of Gilets jaunes, le soulèvement — or Yellow Vests, The Uprising — an examination of the Yellow Vests movement and the contradictions of Macron’s reactionary presidency.Romaric Godin is a journalist in the economics department of Mediapart (an independent French investigative newspaper) and author of La Guerre sociale en France — or The Social War in France — an analysis of the developments of French neoliberalism after the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017. Juan Chingo other is an editorialist and board member at Révolution Permanente, as well as the author of Gilets jaunes, le soulèvement — or Yellow Vests, The Uprising — an examination of the Yellow Vests movement and the contradictions of Macron’s reactionary presidency.

Hugo Chávez And The Last Solar Eclipse Of The 20th Century

March 13, 2023 Andreína Chávez Alava, Venezuelanalysis. Strategize! History, Hugo Chavez, Socialism, Venezuela

With his arrival, Chávez broke 40 years of a corrupt system and established a participatory and protagonistic democracy that went beyond electoral processes. This has allowed for people to take power by organizing for social, economic, political and educational purposes. Today, plenty of popular organizations self-govern over their land, resources and production. Driven by his desire to build another society where the basic aspects of human life are not commodified, the revolutionary leader launched a myriad of economic and social policies to democratize healthcare, food, housing, and access to technology, sports, and even culture. The renowned social mission were at the heart of this battle.

Forward Ever, Backward Never: Grenada’s Revolution At 40

March 13, 2023 Ronan Burtenshaw, Tribune Magazine. Strategize! Grenada, History, Revolution, Socialism

When Maurice Bishop, the revolutionary Grenadian leader, appeared at Hunter College in Brooklyn, New York in August 1983, the Reagan administration was worried. Four years earlier, in 1979, a socialist revolution had installed Bishop’s New Jewel Movement (NJM) in power in the Caribbean microstate of less than 100,000 people. A state department report from the time summarised the Americans’ concerns. The revolution in Grenada, it said, was in some ways even worse than the Cuban Revolution that had rocked the region a quarter of a century earlier: the vast majority of Grenadians were black, and therefore their struggle could resonate with thirty million black Americans; and the Grenadian revolutionary leaders spoke English, and so could communicate their message with ease to an American audience.

Anti-Fascists Explain The Importance Of Anonymity In Demonstrations

March 12, 2023 Tom Anderson, The Canary. Strategize! Anonymity, Antifascist, Black Bloc, Police

New protest legislation is criminalising many forms of protest. Anti-fascists are labeled aggravated activists by the police, and you don’t need to have a criminal record to be added to a police database. Simply associating with a known person and going to several protests is enough to justify an entry. This information has, in the past, been used by the police to harass and intimidate campaigners. No-one should face police intimidation for standing up to fascists. Meanwhile, when the Public Order Bill comes into force, protesters who haven’t even committed an offence, can be issued with Serious Disruption Prevention Orders. These are essentially banning orders that will prevent people from attending protests, stop them seeing named people, prevent them from organising online and can even be enforced by electronic tags.

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