Understanding grassroots protesting
GUEST COLUMNIST: Mark Maxey a union journalist, NWA, UAW Local 1981/AFL-CIO. He writes for the Okemah Free Press, http://bit.ly/OkemahFreePress , is an author, http://bit.ly/OFP-author, he is an Yuchi Indigenous member enrolled with the Muscogee Creek Nation.
Norm Chomsky in a BBC interview said, “The US Republican Party is “the most dangerous organisation in human history”, Noam Chomsky has said.
The academic and author made the claim during an interview with the BBC.
“It’s an outrageous statement and when I said it, I said ‘Look, this is a very outrageous statement’”. he said. “But it’s true.”
Trump, Modi, Macron, Putin, and other fascist leaders are using the nationalism, neolibral umbrella of the Republican Party. This ulterior motive is to reward the rich while pushing back and subduing the working class. Global fascism is rising and the time for the working class to push back is now!
The Guardian reported on Trumps and Modi’s nefarious meeting. “The president (trump) has previously complained about immigration from “shithole countries” and suggested a policy that prefers migrants from “countries such as Norway”. And his administration has assiduously prioritized changes in immigration laws. Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, called for a return to something like the 1924 Immigration Act, which banned immigration from Asia and severely restricted the entry of other people considered racially undesirable.”
The first part of understanding the enemy of the people, the fascist government, has to be pushed back by the citizens. One can simply say that showing up to protest won’t change things. But two things prove this type of thinking wrong. First, over 100 years ago, many nations fought back on the rise of global fascism during the reign of Mussolini, Hitler, and others in the early 1900s. Second, it only takes 3% of citizens to protest successfully.
David Robson in his 2019 article for BBC explains, “Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts — and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.”
Ilana Novick duly noted, in her article, one way the fascist control the masses. “the Trump era has been threaded with two subtler but no less damaging afflictions: confusion and paranoia.”
Saul Alinsky wrote Rules for Radicals. A primer for any grassroots organization on how to combat fascist governments. However, it is unique to note that the Republican party also teaches their incoming congress members how to use it to push back the media. The enemy uses it, we use it, social change happens when looking at Rules for Radicals.
Alinsky from the 30s to the 70s organized poor, working people in Chicago and other cities and addressed countercultural and civil rights activists nationwide. The opening paragraph of the book makes it perfectly clear who his readers are:
What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.
The internet has opened up methods of learning social protest easier. The web has a lot of good tools for anyone to learn from. One such organization is Popular Resistance and their online 8-week course. An eight-week course covers basic social movement theory including models of power, stages of successful social movements, roles of individuals and organizations in social movements, overcoming obstacles and tools for developing strategy and choosing and evaluating tactics.
The Wellstone Way is a superb well written manual for any grass roots organization or cause. Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way is a crucial reference tool for campaign managers on races big and small.
A great book to buy is Organizing for Social Change. It’s a comprehensive manual for grassroots organizers working for social, political, environmental, and economic change at the local, state, and national level. Using this manual, organizers will learn a systematic approach to the techniques of organizing, of building and using power, and of creating lasting institutions that are both self-defense organizations and avenues for citizen participation in public life.
There is also a similar book that is free and online based on a film about Heather Booth. Heather Booth is one of the leading strategists about progressive issues and electoral campaigns. Tom Knoche wrote a great zine on community organizing.
She has been an organizer starting in the civil rights, anti-Vietnam War and women’s movements of the 1960s and continuing through today. She created JANE, an underground abortion service started before Roe.
So, we know we can learn the mechanics of how to organize, but where does one begin?
I am a student of history and over a 100 years ago it was through grassroots union organizing that turned the tide on fascism. Recent organizing through the Industrial Workers of the World shows how union organizing still is the means for fascist pushback. Other modern day warriors against oppression is exhibited by Trinh Duong’s story.
I am sure within the comfort of your own city or town is a meeting place for the workers. I would start there. Build friendships, relationships, help them organize. Then collectively you can build a strong coalition of workers, the common citizen, to push back on the rise of global fascism.
Business Insider warns, There need to be mass protests’: Authoritarianism experts say time is running out for Americans to stop Trump. One can simply say that showing up to protest won’t change things. But two things prove this type of thinking wrong. First, over 100 years ago, many nations fought back on the rise of global fascism during the reign of Mussolini, Hitler, and others in the early 1900s. Second, it only takes 3% of citizens to protest successfully.
The fascist regimes to push back against start with Trump, Modi, Putin, Macron administrations. They are joined in to the hip to the upper 10% of wealth, the common man must push back.
David Robson in his 2019 article for BBC explains, “Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts — and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.”
So Rise UP, push back against the creeping calamitous global rise of fascism. Organize, get unionized, show up and protest. We can fix this!
Originally published at http://okemahfreepress.wordpress.com on March 3, 2020.
