Or, Where's the App for Revolution ?
About me : I live in the SF Bay Area and have for the last 30 years.
I’m not a professional writer, but do make posts and contributions from time to time through letters to the editor, blog posts, as well as discussion forums ( Dailykos, etc ) . I have always been concerned about the huge
socio-economic chasm which divides the 1% from the rest of us. I’ve become radicalized over the last few years from learning the truth about
the neo-feudal forces which have assumed total domination over our lives.
With the recent announcement of Bernie Sanders’ campaign for President,
there is a real opportunity now for creating profound and lasting change in this country as he speaks a raw and brutal truth which people are beginning to listen to. And as that happens, as momentum builds and as more of us wake up from the lies which have been foisted upon us by the corporate messaging of the media, our politicians, and corporate hegemony, a wave of resistance can be triggered which soon builds into a tsunami !
The 1% which have enjoyed its power over us for so long have only done so because we have not yet been able to sustain a mass resistance or general strike. Our protests have been too spurious, infrequent, fragmented, our voices marginalized. But now, with Bernie, Baltimore, 15anhour.org, Edward Snowden, the late great Occupy Movement, and many others speaking truth to power a new resistance movement can be ignited, using the vehicle of social media, crowd sourcing, and other forms of connectivity to carry forward the message.
The Logistics of a New Resistance Movement
or,
Where’s the App for Revolution ?
First I want to give Chris Hedges, one of our greatest living intellectuals
who articulates better than anyone I know our truly dismal state of affairs ,
full credit for planting this idea in my brain. It was a call to action he made at a recent Green Party talk for progressives to up the ante in making their
efforts more sustainable and ongoing in a major way. I’m taking his ideas
and hopefully making his point here in this diary.
The millions of words, countless videos and audio casts, and the impassioned pleas of our best and brightest on the immense, daunting, and seemingly endless challenges facing us in our struggle to overcome a craven, neo-feudal system of oppression, has been well documented in recent times by progressive media, or the remnant of journalists still reporting the truth from what once was the Fourth Estate. They have told us there is a critical, urgent need for change on a global scale. Their voices call to all who are listening, as the dark forces of global capitalism and trans-national finance consolidate even more concentrations of power toward absolute, total dominance of the planet and its inhabitants. They remind us just how toxic our way of life has become, and that it’s getting worse, from the catastrophic effects of climate change ( famine anyone ? ) being promulgated by a parasitic ruling corporate class in league with corrupt total governments, to wage slavery, to the massive theft of the public by predatory financial institutions, to the surveillance state, to endless wars, and to the poisoning of our air, water, and the earth itself.
This has been written about, analyzed, dissected, sliced, diced, sifted, opined, discussed, blogged, diaried, and reported ad infinitum for years now by liberals, progressives, and the Left. Yes, we all want to know
when another far right anti-drug politician gets busted with cocaine, or how much more carbon is still being pumped into the biosphere by unrestrained global capitalism, or the grotesque income disparity between the wealthy elite and most of the world, but let us ask ourselves, how much more must the obvious be stated when we can see the destruction lying all around us in plain sight ?
Do we really need to read yet another story about the decline of our democracy, and how much has been lost ? To a degree, yes we should, as it is vital we maintain a heightened vigilance as events continue to spiral downward along an increasingly destructive path. I confess that my own experience follows along a similar track, logging onto and avidly reading the insightful entries of dailykos, truthout and truthdig, opednews, and many others on a daily basis. I indulge in the same progressive “porn” as everyone else, and I learn a lot from all those great contributors. But at the end of the day, I wonder when our collective enlightenment will translate into the mass resistance needed for deep and broad activism.
Now that we are armed with understanding and knowledge of the disease, what is in our power to effect a cure ?
What could make it more possible for the millions of us sitting on the sidelines who want to take action make our voices and consciences heard, loudly and vocally ?
All of us who still have some human feelings left, and who haven’t been
brainwashed by Fox and the happy talk of mass media along with our
do nothing neo-liberal establishment, are doing what we can and making
whatever contributions available to us to right these colossal wrongs.
We are heartened by the Occupy movement, the protests at foreclosure
auctions, the naming and shaming of corrupt politicians on the take by
corporations, and the many outstanding progressive blogs on the web,
to name but an exemplary few.
All of these actions and more are moving us slowly toward the social change
so critically needed in our lives. I salute and applaud the efforts that these brave souls are initiating. They are having a real impact on many sectors of society. Perhaps in a small way for now, but growing.
Many pundits, commentators, bloggers, and diarists are asking what the next step will be toward a mass protest/social movement, how will we stage the next Occupy, what form will a true citizens’ revolution take ? What would it take to awaken the rest of the 99% from their conditioned slumber, to look up from their Xboxes, turn off the TV, ignore Miley Cyrus, and notice the carnage around them at last ? What indeed ?
I submit to you the answer could be in the implementation of a national/
international logistical support network as the vehicle for sustaining and growing a massive resistance movement. Is that naïve ? Too simple a
solution ? Perhaps. But, please read on.
Progressive organizations do what they can to support street protests,
civil disobedience, guerilla theater, strikes, and direct action. From providing food, shelter, transportation, and medical care, they use what resources they have. But, as their funds and resources are limited, it is difficult to sustain those actions for any lengthy time frame. Yes, Occupy has been the most successful effort thus far, and it has had a huge impact on moving the national conversation forward toward social change, yet it was not able to continue on the success for which it is credited, due, I believe, to lack of sustainable resources from which the protestors could access to continue their/our work.
But, imagine if you will ( Rod Serling here, lol ) there was a massive, national and international logistics effort to extend Occupy far past its’ untimely end, for many more months ( years ? ) of street action and civil disobedience, all captured by the press and the public eye ? Food, shelter, warm clothing, transportation, and medical services all freely available on a continuous basis ? Now imagine this being duplicated all across the country, and other parts of the world, in a continuous, ongoing protest movement for radical change, so that we can begin putting the brakes on the planetary death spiral that will doom us all if not turned around.
The original Occupy, most admirably at Zucotti Park among other staging areas, had all of this available freely in abundance, for a while anyway, but not to the degree it could be sustained indefinitely. People were cold, hungry, some needed medical attention, others transportation.
Students had to return to class, workers back to their jobs, husbands and wives reunited with their families.
But with resources in place to support the protests, others could have taken their place to continue the struggle. The ephemeral light which shone only too briefly that Occupy winter might have been carried through to spring,
then summer, and just when it was expected to fizzle out and die, on into
the following autumn, and beyond, as the peoples’ disgust rose up into an army of light bearers while bringing into lurid detail a predatory system which only thrives because it stays hidden in the shadows.
With the help of an ongoing, operational, fully functional logistical support network, many others would have carried that torch forward, who would have then passed it on to the next wave.
I suggest this is what it will take to turn our limited, scattered, sporadic protests experienced thus far into a truly national and international movement. Progressive organizations could pool their funds and resources
in a co-ordinated and powerful way to help keep us in the streets long-term and in the public and media eye. But, they may have to give up some of their particular and limited turf for the greater good we all want.
Also, labor organizations could play a much bigger part in helping this happen as well, but they have yet to rise to the task in a significant way
by not employing more full time labor organizers to reach those Walmart
and McDonalds’ workers, as well as the vast numbers of us making poverty
wages or working in sweatshops.
As our 1% oligarchic elite may still be able to sneer at mass protests carried out by fed up citizens for the brief periods they’ve occurred, as they can always retreat to their opulent enclaves protected by private security, or sail off in their yachts, or depart in their Gulf Streams, they may find it far more difficult to ignore a sustained, quasi-permanent campaign of mass resistance which keeps the focus and the pressure on their form of parasitic priviledge.
As national and international attention increases, the movement could grow into a universal groundswell with millions forming the next phase of a citizens’ army of resistance, a general, national strike, which would mean the enslaved labor at Walmart and McDonalds would no longer be stocking shelves or flipping burgers to feed the ill-gotten profit of the wealthy elite. Our own homegrown general strike could mirror that of France in 1968, which shut down that country and led the way to major reforms, and helped usurp the reign of right wing tyrants like DeGaulle.
They hold up a sterling example of what is possible when citizenry realize,
own, and act on their own power.
Now, I doubt I’m the first person to put forward what I’ve suggested, nor will I be the last. I’m also not sure what kind of shape large scale progressive logistics will take, or who will be the major players in making it happen, but I do know without some real monetary and logistical muscle in the form of resources to support a mass movement, our struggle will be more prolonged, more incremental, and less effective than it has the potential to be. We can do this !
Yes, we should continue to give money and support the good work of Greenpeace, the SEIU, People for the American Way, and many others
fighting the good fight. ( but please, not the mainstream Democratic Party/DNC ! ) Yet, I believe we are all waiting and hoping, and many of us working toward, a way for these piecemeal and isolated efforts to combine synergistically in a more collaborative, powerful, and forceful way to bring real, lasting change to our lives and society. There are vast numbers of us, overwhelmingly more than the forces which beset us, willing to put our bodies and minds on the wheel of history to take back our power which has been stolen from us. But why would they/us be holding back ? What is keeping so many of us on the sidelines ? People living in grinding poverty, grossly underpaid with a non-living wage, or those with no job, college graduates bent over from crushing debt, the millions of foreclosed homes and bankrupt savings perpetrated by a craven and rigged financial system, on what once was the middle class : why aren’t they taking to the streets ? What would be necessary to help them make their grieveances addressed ? Again, I think it is more of a logistical problem. The will is there, the need is there, what is missing is the means. If food, clothing, medical attention, and transportation was freely and readily available to the desparate and the disenfranchised, then I believe the changes we all want will come.
The technological advances made during the last few years could be our greatest tool in this endeavor. We now have the ability to co-ordinate
huge amounts of activity through social media, crowd sourcing, and the
numerous apps available on our smart phones. A non-hierarchal information system could be launched which allows for all who want to
participate a way to do so without having to quit their jobs, abandon their
family, or give up their education. People could open up their kitchens and living rooms, offer transportation, provide medical care, offer security, become messengers, as well as offer other kinds of support as part of a major logistical operation to continue and grow the protests indefinitely.
In particular, crowd sourcing and social networking may turn out to be the best candidates for the kind of logistical network I’m proposing. A mobile, fluid, responsive, informational structure, but one which is also non-hierarchal and able to evolve and adapt quickly as events and circumstances change. Perhaps one or more organization can be created, or an existing one come forward, to bring all this together into a coherent whole under a
loose umbrella entity.
The earth is dying, and there isn’t much time left, but we still have it within ourselves to save it and the human species from the depravations of the parasitic class which currently keeps us under their yoke. I hope these words can serve as a tiny spark, one of millions perhaps, to ignite a new resistance movement which this time won’t be stopped. But we all have a common need, purpose, and the collective power of a people ready to throw off their chains and live in a just and free world.