Organizing

Occupiers Flock To Sacramento For Meeting

August 4, 2014 Darrell Smith, www.sacbee.com Organize! Activism, California, Occupy, Organizing

They gathered Thursday under a stand of redwoods near the steps of the state Capitol, a modest mix of young people and the graying veterans of the progressive and protest movements. They came to Sacramento, in the words of one, to reclaim the public square. Three years after Occupy Wall Street and the larger Occupy movement sprang into the national consciousness with rallies across the country and calls for economic justice, foot soldiers of the grass-roots movement are arriving in Sacramento for the third annual Occupy National Gathering. Previous gatherings were in Kalamazoo, Mich., and Philadelphia. “All of our grievances are connected,” said Nikohl Vandel of Palm Springs, who is advocating to close the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo County. Activists from across the country and as far away as Europe and Australia are meeting in the capital city over the next three days – a rally is planned Saturday at Sacramento’s Southside Park – to mobilize, strategize, share ideas and take the temperature of a movement that has seemingly faded from the limelight of its heady early days.

Goals Of The New Way

August 3, 2014 Graham Peebles, www.nationofchange.org Create! Community, Environment, Organizing, Sustainability

Well-informed, well-read, and by nature compassionately optimistic, a dear friend recently expressed our collective concern: “I am more worried about the state of the world now than at any time in my lifetime.” Given the fires raging throughout the world it is difficult to remain hopeful for the future of humanity or the planet. With the Middle East tearing itself to pieces, extremism and intolerance reasserting themselves and far right groups in a variety of countries gaining support, and in many cases political influence, not to mention the worldwide environmental mayhem, man-made climate change (the most serious single issue facing us) and the suffering of billions of people living in suffocating poverty, these are indeed deeply worrying times. However, at the risk of being labelled a deluded dreamer, these are also times of tremendous opportunity. Transitional times of pain and discord, potentially of growth and renewal as we inch forward, stepping cautiously out of the familiar and into the new and undefined, and begin to discuss alternative, more sane ways of living. Throughout the world large numbers of frustrated and angry people have been coming together: peacefully marching calling for change – broad and often undefined, but heartfelt. Others in groups and forums discuss alternative ways of living together, a myriad of sharing schemes have sprung up facilitated by that miracle of the age, the worldwide web.

Medicare Birthday Events Across The Country

July 26, 2014 Healthcare Now, www.healthcare-now.org Organize! health, Healthcare, Medicare, Organizing

July 30th, 2014 – Medicare Turns 49! Medicare is the Solution… Not the Problem! Events listed here and updated daily! Medicare is a the nation’s most popular social program. It has been working to provide those 65 and over, those with disabilities and certain medical conditions, with access to comprehensive healthcare without fear of bankruptcy. We need you to join us and stand up for the right to healthcare! Let’s improve and expand Medicare to everyone living in the US. Here’s what you can do: 1) Organize a public event in your community in July! Check out the organizer’s tool kit (.pdf) from last year for examples of what you can do to celebrate the anniversary of Medicare in your community. For those who organize public events, we will send signs and booklets that explain Medicare for all. Be sure to let our organizing team know you are pulling together an event. Email ben@healthcare-now.org.

Left Solidarity: Supporting Grassroots Movements In Syria

July 19, 2014 leilashrooms, www.leilashrooms.wordpress.com Organize! Left, Organizing, Solidarity, Syria

Much of the debate on Syria by people who identify as being ‘leftists’ both in the West and the Arab world has been dominated by issues most prominent in the media such as a focus on geo-politics, militarization, Islamism and sectarianism. It’s ultimately been a very State-centric discourse. Conversely there seems to be very limited knowledge or discussion about popular struggles or grassroots civil movements in Syria. This is strange because the politics of liberation should not be grounded in discussions between political leaders and States but grounded in the struggles of people for freedom, dignity and social justice. The consequence of this uncritical adoption and regurgitation of top-down narratives is twofold. Firstly, it detracts from any real discussion of how to give solidarity to those on the ground that are struggling to realize ideals the left supposedly shares. And secondly, it detracts from any real discussion amongst the left as to what can be learned and gained from the experience of Syrian revolutionaries and their courageous struggle, as well as the many challenges they face (we’re all aware that the Syrian revolution is under attack from all quarters). Ultimately the failure to support popular movements on the ground, and a lack of ability to respond flexibly to real revolutionary situations as they unfold, is making the left less and less relevant as a political movement

The Ten Commandments Of Movement Solidarity

July 12, 2014 Josh Schlossberg, www.energyjustice.net Strategize! Movement, Organizing, Solidarity, Strategy

After a decade of grassroots advocacy, my personal belief is that the greatest obstacle to positive change in the world isn’t corporations, the government, or the 1%, but lack of movement solidarity. And no, I’m not pretending to be some modern day Moses bringing the divine truths down from the mountain. I’m just someone who has participated in the entire spectrum of the environmental movement — from mainstream to “radical,” on both coasts — who has witnessed a lot of unnecessary failures over the years, in large part because people can’t figure out how to work together. Since my work these days focuses on the health and environmental impacts of dirty energy — nuclear, fossil fuels, and biomass/trash incineration — most of the specific examples I give in this article will come from that realm. However, chances are the “Ten Commandments of Solidarity” can also apply to your movement, whatever it is…unless it’s evil. In which case, it won’t, so don’t bother.

Movements Of 2011: From Occupation To Reconstruction

July 1, 2014 Nathan Schneider, www.america.aljazeera.com Create! Commons, Cooperatives, Mass Movement, Occupy, Organizing, Politics

Ever since I wrote a book about Occupy Wall Street, I’ve often found myself being asked, “What happened to Occupy, anyway?” Now, more than two years since the movement faded from the headlines and in the wake of French economist Thomas Piketty’s best-selling diagnosis of economic inequality, the urgency of the question is mounting, not diminishing. The answer is also becoming clearer: The networks of activists that formed in the midst of 2011’s worldwide wave of protest are developing into efforts to create durable economic and political experiments. Rather than focusing on opposing an unjust system, they’re testing ways to replace it with something new. The 2011 movements were always prefigurative in some respects. From Tahrir Square in Cairo to Zuccotti Park in New York, protesters eschewed formal leadership in order to practice direct democracy, a means of revealing just how false our societies’ claims to being democratic have become. They built little utopias that provided free food, libraries, music, religious services and classes, trying to put on display what they thought a good society should look like. The 2011 movements also reflected the emergence of a global community that spans borders as protesters in different countries borrowed strategies and slogans from one another.

Winning With Each Other: Organizing The South

June 26, 2014 Ngoc Loan Tran, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Movement, Organizing, Solidarity, South

I have spent most of my life growing up in the U.S. South. I was raised in North Carolina and growing up here meant receiving perplexed looks, condescending questions and upsetting dismissals from non-Southerners because of the many stereotypes that comes with being from the South. Needless to say, I have learned a lot about how other people perceive this region. While most of these conversations have been between friends, comrades and allies, most of these perspectives — whether well-intentioned or not — are misguided. Oftentimes, it has been heartbreaking to find out what non-Southern organizers think they know about organizing in this region. Many have told me that organizing in the South isn’t worth it or assume that there actually isn’t any organizing happening in the South at all. And perhaps the one perspective that has been the most infuriating to me is the idea that Southern organizers need to be rescued from the supposedly most backward region in the country. What I want to speak to is how we start moving towards actually building relationships with each other across political, geographical and cultural lines.

Moral Movement Launches ‘Freedom Summer’

June 26, 2014 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org Resist! Elections, Moral Mondays, North Carolina, Organizing, Protesters, Religion

Protesters who for over a year have railed against the "extremist" policies of the North Carolina legislature are now bringing their fight to the voting booth as the movement known as Moral Mondays launched a bold initiative to get-out-the-vote this week. “We have exposed the hypocrisy,” Rev. William J. Barber II, chief organizer of the protests and head of the state chapter of the NAACP, said during a rally outside the General Assembly in Raleigh on Monday. Now is the time to organize.” Organizers estimate that upwards of 3,500 protesters from across the state attended the mass demonstration before splitting up into smaller factions for "teach-ins" to discuss the group's new voter outreach strategy. In what the group is calling an "aggressive" statewide voting campaign, several dozen youth activists who have undergone extensive training are now being deployed to hundreds of communities in North Carolina to initiate "deep organizing work and voter registration." Dubbed the Moral Freedom Summer, the new campaign is a nod to the 1966 Mississippi voting rights drive when youth activists partnered with local civil rights organizations to educate and register disenfranchised African American voters.

Spread The Word: Time For World Beyond War

June 24, 2014 David Swanson, www.indiegogo.com Organize! Organizing, Peace, Wars and Militarism

World Beyond War is a global nonviolent movement to end war and establish a just and sustainable peace. This fundraising and advertising campaign is step one in bringing together people and organizations around the world to work toward the complete elimination of war. This campaign itself will have a major impact, and we will maximize media coverage of our billboards, signs, and other ads. Through this campaign, when fully funded, millions of people will become aware of exactly how popular and mainstream the idea of war abolition has become. And many of those who become aware will also become organized to take useful steps in that direction when they sign our Declaration of Peace at WorldBeyondWar.org -- where, already, before any promotion, individuals and organizations of all kinds have signed from 58 countries and rising fast. We have begun working with those groups and individuals on projects that advance the goal of the elimination of war.

Generational Struggle Needed To Re-Make The South

June 24, 2014 Chris Kromm, www.southernstudies.org Strategize! Activism, Civil Rights, History, Organizing, South

This month marks the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, the massive organizing project that brought more than 1,000 volunteers to Mississippi and drew national attention to the ongoing civil rights struggle in the South. Freedom Summer was launched as an assault on segregation and inequality on many fronts. Activists set up 30 Freedom Schools as an alternative to the state's underfunded and segregated education system. The Medical Committee for Human Rights offered free health clinics. While Freedom Summer went beyond electoral politics, a key focus from the beginning was breaking down voting barriers and harnessing African-American political power. Mississippi was chosen in part because less than seven percent of the state's black voters were registered in 1962, according to the Congress of Racial Equality, and Freedom Summer built on ongoing voter registration efforts. Organizers launched the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as a rival to the white-controlled state Democratic Party, and Freedom Summer helped pave the way for passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Transnational Social Movements And Power

June 20, 2014 Nation Of Change, www.nationofchange.org Organize! Brazil, Mass Movement, Organizing

Q: Why is it important to build transnational social movements? Of course, there are specific issues and power structures in each country, but it's important to overcome borders and make a transnational movement because the root causes of injustices, of exclusion, of the violence and discrimination we face are the same. They are systemic issues. They are global issues. As social organizations and movements, we need to move forward beyond merely the national level and see the big picture. And to understand how the specific reality we live in is related to the reality of other countries and other communities. Inasmuch as we're able to realize that, we'll also be able to raise peoples' hopes, to strengthen the struggles of each other and bring about transformation, on a much bigger scale than anything we could do at a merely national level. It would do no good or very little good to bring about some great transformation in just one country if things remain exactly the same in other countries.

Protestors Occupy Vacant House, Rally For Housing

June 11, 2014 Claire McNeill, www.bostonglobe.com Resist! Foreclosure, Organizing, Protest

The hardest part of battling eviction is the not knowing, Lavette Sealls said. “You’re always living on edge because you know eventually you might have to move,” she said. “You go on fighting as hard as you can.” The 58-year-old Hyde Park resident told her story to a crowd of more than 60 at a rally for affordable housing in Dorchester on Saturday. The day’s main event was the occupation of a vacant home owned by Fannie Mae, a symbolic step toward reclaiming a neighborhood plagued by rising housing costs that have led to foreclosures and evictions. “We’re making a demand here today that Fannie Mae create affordable housing,” Maria Christina Blanco shouted into a megaphone, receiving cheers. “We’re here to hold them to it.” A community organizer for City Life/Vida Urbana, which is part of a coalition that held the rally, Blanco said the event was about creating a home for a family who lost their Roxbury house after a foreclosure. Paul and Renée Adamson, the couple moving into the house, said they would risk eviction in order to make a statement: Housing is a human right.

I Let Go Of Being A Righteous Outside Organizer

June 8, 2014 Joe Solomon, www.medium.com Organize! Appalachia, Coal, Organizing

I want to share a story. And I should warn you: it’s full of hubris. I moved to West Virginia in December of 2012, thinking I could lead a blitz campaign to end the reign of mountaintop removal in the state. I spent a few months volunteering for local groups, like Coal River Mountain Watch, RAMPS, and so on, listening and learning, and trying to be of service — while looking for openings and seeing the need for an audacious all-out effort that would finally safeguard these mountains and her people. By the Summer of 2013, I thought I was ready to make my move. I wrote up a 7-page manifesto, which I have yet to share publicly, and mailed it (yes, snail-mailed it) to what I saw as some of the best organizers in the state (though not all). The manifesto was coupled with an invitation to join together for a visionary summit at the Southern Appalachian Labor School on August 17th 2013 — to brainstorm and possibly even launch a new campaign.

Los Angeles Resolution Opposing Obama’s TPP

June 8, 2014 The Orange Juice Blog, www.orangejuiceblog.com Organize! California, fast track, Organizing, TPP

Here’s John-Paul Leonard of The Progressive Press: In a story that has gone completely unreported in the media, the Los Angeles City Council has approved a resolution against the TPP. The Council made a very strong statement against the attempt to usurp city and citizen sovereignty by a secret and unconstitutional legislative procedure called “Fast Track.” Incredibly, under Fast Track Congress can’t even amend a law, clearly abolishing a basic right of the legislature. The arrogance and perfidy of the corporatists seems unbelievable, but we know how they are. Evidently, the Los Angeles Times did not deem it worthy of mention! To me it seems quite historic, like Los Angeles’ own contemporary version of the Declaration of Independence. The globalist corporate controlled media obviously don’t want any of that.

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