Thursday morning, thousands of people moved into Freedom Plaza, Washington, D.C., site of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign’s Resurrection city.

Can a movement of the 99% of us who are living off the plutocrats’ crumbs pick up the cause of social justice?

Day 1 was largely speeches and music, but energized by the sense that something new is building. We went over to the Chamber of Commerce and shut that criminal operation down for a while, and as we marched through the streets, including read more

I sat down during a lengthy protest occupation to play a game of chess, but my friend was better than I am. So, halfway through the match, I said to him, “What’s your one move?”

He didn’t know what I meant. “What’s your one winning move,” I said, “and which piece are you going to use? Get all the other pieces off the board. If you can’t win with one piece in one move, you’ll never win!”
My voice was getting louder as I said this.

He read more

At the conconcon.org conference we just had a good workshop on left-right organizing. Some asked that this list be posted where they could find it.  This was produced by 3 people, no one of whom necessarily agrees with all the proposals in it:

The individual national right to vote with automatic registration, and with votes publicly and transparently counted at each polling place.

A ban on gerrymandering.

A ban on the revolving door of politician-lobbyist.

A ban on reductions read more

LISTEN TO DAVID SWANSON:

The Fight Back

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We will be nonviolently shutting down buildings and offices and hallways and streets. – David Swanson

Oct. 6 marks the end of the first decade of the U.S. war in Afghanistan and the beginning of a nonviolent action that may make D.C.’s Freedom Plaza feel a bit like Egypt’s Tahrir Square. “Thousands and thousands of people have pledged to be there, and not for one day,” said author and activist David Swanson, who is helping organize the read more

September 9, 2011, edition of Electric Politics

Praxis

I’ve admired David Swanson for a number of years. He’s one of the most active progressive activists I know — indeed, both astonishingly productive and absolutely on message. Since he gets out and about all the time, and I don’t, it was a real treat to hear his sense of where things stand politically, and his advice regarding what people should be doing. (Think read more

Here’s a simple proposal. I’m sure it’s too much to ask for, but I’m asking anyway. Let’s set aside a single month, say the month of April, following each federal election, and for that single month behave like the citizens and elected officials of a normal representative republic.

For this month, there will be no election campaigning. All the campaigns that were launched in December will be suspended for the entire month of April. They will not exist. Nobody will read more

The Solution Zone

Topic: THE REAL PEOPLE’S PROTEST!! – October2011.org

Guest: David Swanson – Author of “War Is a Lie” and “Daybreak and Progressive activist and blogger at DavidSwanson.org , WarIsACrime.org and toyysaction.org

On October 6th 2011 people from across the nation will come together in Freedom Plaza Washington DC to light the spark that sets off a true democratic, nonviolent movement. We will make it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin and through NON_VIOLENT civil read more

LISTEN HERE.