How to Respond to this Moment in Time

 We on the left are having a hard time knowing what to do in this particular and hugely significant moment. Emotionally we perch somewhere between still being in shock, the bargaining stage of grief that does not want to believe that this is really what is happening – to being incapacitated by grief for all that has already been lost or will be – to raging anger about it, a further stage of grief.  We are also looking for leaders, and right now there are no clear candidates. We are just plain out beyond the last page of our instruction manual. 

Adults in the US were raised in or immigrated into a not ideal but functional democracy. People here are deeply trained in the idea that if change is necessary at the national level, it must happen through the channels of Congress and elections---the process of democratic change. Many of us have long been frustrated by how capitalism has captured and poisoned that process. But it was what we had to work with, and we plugged away—eithermaking some changes in the system, trying to reform it, or trying to act around it. But after decades of conservative think tanks having planned this coup, we now find democracy being dismantled.

Inspiration and Strategy 

We need to apply nonviolent social change tactics – but these are skills not learned or mastered inside the democratic change process.  To the degree we know them, we know them as skills to win civil rights, end a war, or protect the environment.  We do not know them in terms of how to overthrow a dictator or stop a fascist coup. 

For those familiar with the history of the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy before WWII, that history is predictive of the steps unfolding before us right now. But because Hitler and Mussolini were only crushed after a long, violent world-wide war, that history does not tell us how to nonviolently defeat fascism before it is enthroned. Also, never before in history has there been the sort of power that social media exhibits to replace traditional media and to produce unchecked and biased misinformation - resulting in such deep divisions among the US population.

However, there are many, many examples of nonviolent overthrow of dictators, documented by activists and academics.  For example, if you do not know the work of Elizabeth Chenoweth, please familiarize yourself with her research on nonviolently overthrowing a dictator. A quick summary is at https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/how-to-topple-a-dictator/

While these tactics to overthrow dictatorships were successfully used in the 80's in Poland, the 90's in the Philippines, and the 00's and 10's in various central American and African Countries, these are very small countries or countries where the majority of the population is concentrated in a small area.  All of Poland is the size of California’s population. They often did not have even a titular democratically elected leader before having to depose the dictator.  So these recent historic examples do not translate easily to the US. However, they do still hold useful information.

Cory Booker in his recent historic Senate floor speech of 25 hours called on his ancestors and mentors: Martin Luther King, John Lewis, and even Patrick Henry. He called on them for inspiration and guidance, and with a battle cry to fight for our democracy. 

Similarly, I call out to other progressives. We need to reach into that bag of 101 nonviolent tactics catalogued long ago by Gene Sharp, and we need to think very strategically. As lifelong nonviolent strategist George Lakey has long preached, a protest is a one off - it cannot win anything, no matter how big the number of attendees.  We have to have a strategy - one that builds on itself and employs different tactics.

Why nonviolence you may query.  Many people believe violence is more effective and necessary when the stakes are high.  But the most amazing part of Chenoweth’s research was that the nonviolent uprising were more likely to be successful, and in a shorter time than the violent ones.  Additionally they were more likely to result in a government afterwards that was democratic.

So Why Demonstrate?

Right now we are having a lot of demonstrations: "No Kings" on Presidents Day; a Save Science one, and Hands Off on April 5th.  A friend of mine who has gone to few protests in her life declared:  "And even I had to go to it."  I asked her why.  She said that normally she sees them as pointless, a lot of people yelling, maybe making themselves feel better – but achieving nothing.  I asked therefore why she went.  She said:  "Everything is so awful. I did need to be with people who are also upset."  That, I told her, is one of the purposes of a demonstration, to gather together those who share common cause and to lift their spirits for the work ahead.  A demonstration is also an event to share ideas and information about the issue. If done well, attendees can also learn next steps they can take. It is a way to build a movement by bringing out more and more people with a voice for change. But protest is also to build pressure on those doing wrong.

If one looks at historic examples like during the Vietnam War, the demonstrations got bigger and bigger and spawned more and more groups against the war and eventually pushed over into various acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, such as burning draft cards, refusal of inductions, sit in at the Pentagon, etc. Huge demonstrations also happened in the civil rights era. But they were often only a stepping stone in the arch of a campaign that included boycotts or lunch counter sit ins. However, a whole generation of late Gen Z and early Millennials see protest as pointless because they participated in huge protests against the Iraq war - in about a one month span of time - and those had no effect.

One bright driving line is the media covered the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights protests. They barely and grossly under-reported the anti-Iraq war and pro-Palestinian protests.  The George Floyd protests were only covered because they grew bigger and bigger and followed a murder that captured the nation.

For demonstrations to matter now, they will have to grow in size and frequency and be sustained over time. We will have to figure out how to capture the media or create our own.  I noted one relatively small April 7th demonstration that got mainstream press was a die-in at Wall Street with quite dramatic tomb stones naming everything that is being lost. 

On April 1, Cory Booker very movingly said in his marathon speech before the Senate, "The Constitution is only a piece of paper unless we live it and protect it."  We are all the way fully into Constitutional crisis in the past week as the President has refused to obey the directions of either Congress or the Courts. This is a constitutional crisis in a country that was designed with a careful balance of power that appointed to each of three branches unique powers designed to keep checks and balances on any one branch to prevent it from usurping too much power.  So now we will wait to see if the military enforces the rule of law – the requirement that the President follow the Constitution and obey Congress and the Courts when they operate within their roles.  But really we cannot just wait – we have to act.

Non-compliance and Over-compliance to Evil

One of the first principles of nonviolent resistance is noncompliance with evil laws and decrees.  Examples are men refusing conscription or even the requirement to register for the draft.  Another during the civil rights movement was the non-compliance with Jim Crow segregation laws: refusing the ban on segregated lunch counters by presenting for service; going into segregated places like swimming pools and joining in; and, famously, refusing to sit at the back of a public bus. 

The flip side of this is over-compliance with a rule or law for the purpose of jamming the system and rendering it meaningless. For example, in 1980 when men were required to register again after a decade-long break in the draft, women registered, causing the Selective Service and the FBI to have to spend time sorting out what registration was valid from that which was invalid.  Perhaps one of the most famous and moving case is when the Nazis required all Jews in Denmark to wear yellow stars on their coats, the Danish king and quickly then the Danish general public began wearing yellow stars both in solidarity but because their over-compliance rendered meaningless the attempt to single out Jewish citizens. 

How might we apply non-compliance or over-compliance to the current situation?  One of the difficulties in the present moment is most of the horrors are a lot of US laws being violated or attempted to be eliminated by presidential order, which was not the founding fathers’ intention for presidential orders.  Also a lot of federal employees are being fired and their departments being eliminated. While it is clear to progressives what is wrong with this, it is less clear what to do.  Those who are actually being fired can attempt to non-comply up to the limits of being barred from buildings.  Supervisors can refuse to fire people.  ICE officials could refuse to arrest immigrants. (Although realistically by having taken ICE jobs in the first place they are unlikely to take such conscientious positions.)  However, certainly schools and hospitals and employers can refuse to cooperate with ICE as is already taking place throughout WA.  How might you apply non compliance or over compliance to the current situation?

 

 

Boycotts

It became very clear at the presidential inauguration with all the trillionaires standing behind Trump and the insane role of one of the richest men in history in the DOGE nightmare, that this is a takeover of the US government by the multinational corporations and the oligarchy that runs them. They are acting quickly to enact laws and strike down others that will create an ideal business environment for their further profit and to reduce protections or wage gains for workers. 

An important strategy of nonviolent resistance is to understand the sources of power for oppression and to weaken those sources for the oppressive power. For example, in the 60’s during the civil rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama, the organizers knew that progress was being blocked by the power elite in the town, which were about a dozen owners of white-owned businesses. So the civil rights organizers instituted a boycott on white businesses. The African-American community refused to spend one penny in those business for just nine weeks--well timed, busy Easter season weeks. The white business owners made concessions that led to the end of the boycott. 

Other boycotts have been made against products, like the boycott in the late 70’s and early 80’s against Nestle to get them to stop selling baby formula in countries where, when mixed with contaminated water, it was killing babies. Thirty-five years of consumer products made in South Africa, combined with many other tactics, eventually led to a change of power that could bring about the end of the apartheid system. 

Therefore, a powerful way for us to say “No” to the trillionaires running the show means boycotting their companies and their profits – to vote with our wallets. Many have expressed frustration that no one voted for Elon Musk and thus they feel they cannot vote him out.  Yet his stock has dropped by 42% (and still continuing) since his involvement in this far-right takeover started.  Boycotts against Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Walmart will also be necessary.  While inconvenient, there is a feeling of freedom from no longer giving any of your life energy to those folks. Some have been convinced that Amazon now has such a tight grip it is not possible to shop without them. I assure you from my experience of a personal 15-year boycott of that company, that it is possible.  What companies will you no longer support?

Creating the World We would Rather See

The sad over-reliance on rallies and marches reflects a misunderstanding of how big movements effected change in the past. Yes, they did all use rallies and marches, but just as one of a mix of tactics. And again, Elizabeth Chenowith's research shows the most successful movements used a mixture of movements.  An important principle of non-violence is taking actions that show the world that should be. History offers some good examples of protest actions that embodies the changes the protestors wanted: the lunch counter protests in the 1960’s made the point that African-Americans wanted to be served in public venues; the early twentieth century women who tried to vote before it was legal; and Gandhi’s defiance of the British salt tax by making his own salt during the 1930 Salt March. There are literally hundreds of creative and powerful examples of this principle. Can we continue Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies because it is what we want? Can we continue to embrace Trans people because it is right?  Resistance does not all have to fight and struggle - some of these acts of creating the world we want can be full of fun and joy.

Alternative Institutions

When this principle of creating the world we want is taken far enough, it takes the form of making alternative institutions and the alternative institutions increasingly holding the real power.  The most obvious examples might be cooperatives, worker-owned work places or credit unions which model a form of worker/consumer ownership that is not dependent upon multinational chains.  (If you have not already done so, dump your corporate bank or store for credit unions and coops.)  An interesting form of this is when the first Trump administration was trying to control the National Parks. Resistance sprang up in the form of an Alt Parks Facebook page where disgruntled staff planned their resistance anonymously.  They were forming an alternative Parks Dept.  Currently the Democrats in Congress are having to hold alternative hearings because the Republican -controlled Congress will not give official space for any Democratic initiatives.  Spend some time dreaming - how can you live right now in the world you want rather than the nightmare which is being created?

One day when I was mad about reading that the Trump Administration’s removing all acknowledgements of People of Color war-time units in past generations from military museums, I dreamed of other museums or any place we as people have control over, such as churches and schools, displaying that same removed material. This would show that honoring is a choice we still have.

General Strikes

One of the most powerful tools throughout history used by the people is a general strike. A general strike is the refusal to work, not at just one company for workers’ better wages or conditions, but a nation-wide strike by all workers. It is a refusal of the population to do any work until something ends.  The general strike by the Solidarnosc movement in Poland was used to respond to the imposition of martial law and forced an election.  In Iceland on Sept 24, 1975. the "women's day off" strike saw 90% of women refuse to work at home or in paid employment to force changes for women's rights and equal pay. The next year an equal pay law passed.  In a bold act of solidarity with the Ukraine, long shore workers around the world in 2022 refused to unload any Russian goods, thus doing economic harm to Russian in retaliation for their invasion of the Ukraine.  What act of violation of the US Constitution would you lead you to join a strike?

Overthrowing Dictators

It is most important to understand that Chenoweth identify dozens of incidents over the last few decades of dictators being nonviolently removed from office. One of the best-known examples is the "People Power Revolution" that removed President Marcos from office after two decades of corrupt wielding of power in the Philippines, the last eleven of which were under martial law and suppression of free press.  Opposition had grown for several years after the assassination of his electoral opponent, and because the economy was very bad due to his policies.  People began wearing yellow to show solidarity with the opposition leader, and finally in the last days of his reign people flooded the streets of the capitol. There were so many people that the entire capitol was in gridlock. No one could get around. The tanks that had been sent to protect Marcos could not get through to the presidential palace. The generals looked out from the palace on a sea of citizens that way out-numbered the soldiers, and they told Marcos that they could no longer protect him and to flee in a helicopter from the roof of the palace And so his rule ended.

There are many similar stories of the end of dictators’ reigns.  I have been frustrated for months trying to apply this to our gigantic country.  We cannot all to go to Washington, D.C., where there would not be enough food and lodging for people.  I live almost as from D.C. as you can get, except for Hawaii and Alaska.  But I have finally realized. When a general strike shuts down all airports, train stations, ports and highways throughout the country, it will have the same effect as bringing the capital city to a stop.

In the meantime we all need to be studying up on the history of nonviolence and techniques, strategies and tactics of nonviolent resistance to evil....because apparently we will need them.  George Lakey has suggested everyone get together a pod of eight of your best buds and call it a bridge group, a kitting club, or a book group but actually be discussing all of this and figuring out together what you can do. That sort of decentralized and grass roots action is impossible for any dictator to strike down and is exactly how resistance operated in all Nazi- occupied countries.  Start thinking now with others how to apply tactics of resistance.

  

The use of Boycotts in Fighting an Oligarchic take over of the US

 Many years ago now a woman named Erica Chenoweth decided to do a thesis on the effectiveness of violence vs non-violence based upon the study of civil wars.   She thought violence would be more effective and was surprised to see that non-violence was.   She went on to study how dictators are overthrown.  She discovered there to her surprise again, that it only took 3% of the population protested the dictator...although they had to be consistently in the street over a prolonged period of time - they could overthrow him!  She also found that the most effective movements did not rely too heavily on one tactic but used a variety of tactics that escalated over time.

This resonates for me with a long held frustration with US protest movements that they rely almost exclusively on marches and rallies with a slight peppering of civil disobedience.   A movement leader, George Lakey, has often lamented that US movements try to get by on one off events (like rally's and marches instead of building a campaign with a strategy over time.  And sadly many movement leaders do not even know what that means to build a campaign.  (Histories of the Civil Rights movement are very instructive in terms of the strategy and many steps that were planned for in each campaign.)  I have often lamented that Americans are taught in public school that the only way to effect political change is through Congress.   So we write our Congress and then don't know what to do.   This is sadly evident right now during a crisis of democracy where the phones are ringing off the hook in DC and there are some protest rally's happening...and yet mostly people are sitting in silent horror.

So this is a clarion call to ask you to start understanding the difference between protest and resistance and that it will take organized campaigns of resistance to stop this fascist coup.  We must stop acting like this is just a bad presidential election outcome, or that we just have to make it two years to an imagined next election.   We must actively try to stop the destruction of our democracy and resist by not giving our cooperation to any of the evil.  One such kind of tactic which can be organized into a campaign with goals and timetables is Boycott.

By now it is fairly well known that a loose coalition of groups called 50501 have called first for a President's day protest, then a day of no spending on Feb 28th (which was again a one off and not as effective as needed) and now for a longer week of boycott against  Amazon this week March 7th to the 14th.   This to be followed by a week long (March 21- 28th) black out of Nestle  (know of old for things like selling poisoned baby formula in 3rd world countries) and then April 7th thru the 14th of  Walmart (whose family wealth if combined would make them wealthier than Musk.) and then April 21st thru April 28th of General Mills.  (They are not just a cereal company....look for the extensive list of food companies they own.)

Now given the information at the beginning of this post - why this strategy?                           Essentially we have had an oligarchic take over - it may look like the Republican Party took over to some- but as Musk's role in this and the attendance of all the top Billionaire's to the inauguration makes very clear - the rich are now running this country and the policies that are being made are for their advantage and no one else's.   (The cutting of medicaid to make a tax break for the rick also frames that very clearly.)   We cannot vote out of office the megalomaniac Millionaires running Congress or the White House.   But we can refuse to participate in their wealth machines.  This is how you vote against them with your wallet!

Is this strategy effective?

While the corporately controlled media many failed to report on the outcomes of these boycotts here is some information.  

The WA Post lost 17% of its readership after it came out that Bezos (its owner) squashed their editorial endorsement of Kamala Harris.

After a bunch of companies dropped their Diversity and Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies a boycott of Target was held for dropping theirs (I did not feel this was entirely fair since many companies had done this and Target had been more robust previously than many places that had no policy to drop) None the less they lost $15 billion in stocks due to that (before the whole stock market started dropping.)  But the point is the boycott made its impact.

Tesla soared as Trump came to office and Musk gained power - but once it became clear how evil Musk is, protests started at his stores and people started trying to sell their Tesla's - the value of the used Tesla dropped, but the stock is down 43% since the beginning of the year.  See chart below.  And this is all mostly not from an organized campaign but from people hating him.  Granted as the richest man in the world he is not probably feeling it yet...but let's keep it up.  He is feeling the political problem of it.

The Guardian reported on Feb 18th that 24% of Americans had already reported shifts in where they bought things based upon politics

The day long boycott:  The traditional media did not even cover the out come at all. But Amazon who was included since everything was - saw an up to 19% drop, Forbes (of all things) reported Target's web traffic was down 9% that day and in stores shoppers down 11%.  Also a poll of customers reported that 16% said they participated in the day of boycott - which would mean 40 million people nationally!  The People are just getting started.  People are getting madder and madder and looking for things to do and the word is just getting out.

Right now the Amazon week long boycott is in full swing.  I know many people now think it impossible to get things without Amazon.  As someone who has boycotted them almost entirely from their beginning, I assure you it IS possible to live without them!  You can usually go straight to the manufacturer's site to order, or find another alternative and it feels so much better!

In the process of writing this post I found this amazing website: https://shophowyouvote.com/

You can click on any kind of good or service and see who those companies gave to - Dems or Republicans.   I clicked for example on rental cars...and found it is probably better not to rent a car because the best it gets is Avis, Budget or Payless.  They each gave 51% Democratic but 49% Republican.  The others were all heavily Republican.  

Is it somewhat time consuming to look this up...well yes but once you know it you know it.  I have known since 2016 that Home Depot heavily supported Trump and Lowes did not, so I have been shopping Lowes since.   I don't have to keep looking it up. It is a new habit.   Get in the habit of non cooperating with those who oppress us!

Resisting Fascism

Since Nov 3rd I have not been consuming the news.  It does not mean I don't know what is going on.  I probably still know more than many people who watch news.  I am far too connected to activists to not know.   But I want to report it is helping me keep my sanity.   For years I have not consumed tv news because it is presented with way too much drama.  I have chosen instead to just skim headlines and click on articles I was interested in.   I know right now that my nervous system cannot handle even the headlines.   But I am not living with my head in the sand.  On the evening of inauguration day I googled and thus zeroed in on an article that listed what Trump's Executive orders are.   I knew I did need to know that, and I do know.

I want to share what I have discovered by living this way.  I have discovered that there is an amazing way to take back our own power.  That I am in charge of who I allow to crank my chain, and what level of outrage I choose to engage.  I liken it to non violent resistance in the form of non compliance.   I am not complying with Trump's shock and awe plan.  I am not giving him any of the power to create despair and disempowerment for me.   This is not a platform for me to check out and live in privilege and unaffected.  Even those who normally live checked out and did not vote WILL be effected by this administration.  It is a method to preserve my energy and power in order to resist. I still have the same moral responsibility to help those in harms ways that those watching the news have.

I do not feel I need to pay attention to his insane nominations of incompetent and hateful people ill equipped for the cabinet seats they are being appointed to.   I already know they will be a group of Nazi's whose loyalty to him is their main qualifying characteristic.  So largely it makes no difference - we are not going to get a good Nazi out of the process.  It is more important to focus on how we will oppose the actions they take.

I initially the day after the election felt very powerless in the face of a Congress captured by Republican's along side the Presidency and the knowledge that the Supreme Court was already packed.  However, the following significant statistics have come to my attention.  Biden was able to place as many judges on the lower court Federal benches as Trump did in his previous term, and then there is also all the Obama judges, so at this point there is a much higher percentage of Democratically appointed lower court judges.  The Supreme Court can only take a relatively small number (but important cases) per year.   So most cases end with the decision of the appellate courts.  For this reason EarthJustice won 85% of their cases against Trump, and the Center for Biological diversity reports winning 9 out of 10 of their cases during those years.   The then attorney general of WA sued Trump 99 times.  Only 57 of those cases have been decided and Ferguson's team won 55 of those 57.    So in short because Trump keeps doing illegal and unconstitutional things he does wind up losing.   Is this still a huge waste of time and money from our side?  Yes, but it does work.

But I was also reminded by a unionist that the public itself, in public protest and non-cooperation is also a check against abuse of power.   We have already seen this in Trump's insane 1 day cancellation of all Federal Grants.  This effected so many things (one account I saw said 1/3 of all Federal dollars) that the out cry was immediate, intense and crossed party lines and within 24 hours and on the heels of lawsuits he rescinded it.   Mainly the significant lesson of that moment is he can be stopped by the public.  This unionist reminded me of the power of a country wide strike (think Korea).   If he does something egregious enough that a country wide strike happens...he does not then hold power.

There is a war going on right now for our psyche's.   Trump is trying to do shock and awe.  To come in with so many big and awful things as to overwhelm us and deflate us and make us feel powerless.  This is the same as what domestic violence perpetrators do to their partners.  So the partner will stop fighting and comply.   So it is big work to stay in your own head space and keep your own spirits up.

I am working on keeping my vision for the society I want.  Not surrendering it to some small and sad and hateful version of the world being offered by MAGA.  I am trying to align my energy with that and as much as is humanly possible non-cooperate with the new Oligarchical order.  This means I am trying to figure out how to not use companies like Amazon, or Tesla or other companies that give profit to megalomaniacs.

Other Suggestions:

Work on local issues which also matter but where you may have more power.

Reach out to provide aid (resources or emotional support) to groups who are targeted.

Do things and create events that life people's spirits and empower them.

Be careful about what you watch - look for things that remind you of the goodness and resilience of the human spirit!

Community build like mad.  We need to rest in each other's love right now.  To engage in dance, music, art, comedy, nature, and spirituality....all things that fill and nourish the spirit.

A dialogue with Martin Luther King, Jr. on Climate Change

Have you ever seen a quote and it spoke to your condition?  As regular readers of this blog know I am a climate activist.  I recently read over a long list of Martin Luther King quotes and many of them spoke to me and related in my mind to the current Climate Crisis.  I share with you today, on his birthday a sort of dialogue I made up of my questions or comments as answered by a real quote from Dr. King offered in the 1960s.

Doctor King, I want to call you that in acknowledgement that to receive the higher education to get a PhD has not been an easy path for African Americans whose path was blocked in many ways.  So I want to honor and not ignore your accomplishments.

Dr King, I have been an activist all my life and your legacy has shaped my activism.  I now work on climate change an issue which at the time of your death was only just becoming known to oil companies which kept this secret from the public.   So you did not address this issue during your life, but your words speak to me because of the eternal nature of many of the things you said.  They speak to our current struggle to try to protect our planet and life for our children and their children.

What would you advise us as we look at the issue of climate change?

We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

What would you advise this group of people who have gathered here today of all different faiths, races and classes, to honor your name, about this issue of climate change:

“If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional, our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation: and this means we must develop a world perspective. 

Dr. King, Naomi Klein has said that climate change cannot be solved unless we take on the web of interlocking injustices that face us at this time.  What would you say?

”Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.  Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”                       

And what would you say to her point that capitalism is the heart of the climate problem?

“Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That’s the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.”

What would you say to the corporations, such as DAPL and Kinder Morgan, who speak for their right to profit over the concerns of the public?

Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being.  It is part of the earth man walks on it is not man.”

Documents now show that they have waged campaigns of disinformation and withheld the science that shows us the danger we are in.

A lie cannot live.

People of color stand to be much more profoundly effected by climate change, should that divide us in the struggle to stop climate change?

We may have all come on different ships but we’re in the same boat now.

Dr. King as we in this room face the crisis of betrayal by corporations, politicians at all levels of society and even our own friends and family caught in the web of habit what should we do?

“If any earthly institution or custom conflicts with God’s will, it is your Christian duty to oppose it. You must never allow the transitory, evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God.”

I have been working hard at this Dr. King, for years now, but it is hard sometimes to speak up when I see my friends casually engaging in carbon burning, earth destroying habits or to confront public officials.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.

Most of us must work for a living so it is hard to find time to fight this battle on top or the normal demands of life.

We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.

But Dr. King, there are children to drive to things, there are holiday preparations to tend to, there are church responsibilies, and overtime at work, and sometimes the sun shines in Seattle

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

I wish everyone felt that way, we need more help, we are such a small number against well financed and powerful corporations.

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”

What would you say Dr. King, to those among us who know that Climate Change is a threat, but do not make the time to act on this?  To those who feel there is nothing they can do about climate change because we are dependent upon fossil fuels and the politicians won’t act?

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.  He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with evil.

Sometimes Dr King, I am angry.  I am just so angry about the way our planet is being destroyed and our childrens future being curtailed.  What should be do Dr King?

"History has taught...it is not enough for people to be angry--the supreme task is to organize and unite people so that their anger becomes a transforming force."

We have been organizing, but we have also encountered some huge defeats and set backs with the election of the climate denying, profit loving Mr. Trump.

I believe that the unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.  This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

It is so disappointing at times

We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.

Some of us in this room have family members who do not believe that climate change is real or view our actions and beliefs as crazy.

“But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love…Was not Amos an extremist for justice…Was not Martin Luther an extremist…So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.  Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?”   

Dr. King how can I have courage in the face of all of this?

“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles; Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances. Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it. Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience ask the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.”

We are organizing people to do nonviolent direct action against the fossil fuel companies, but for some of us to break the law is a big leap.

“One who breaks an unjust law must do it openly, lovingly …and with a willingness to accept the penalty.  I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.” 

Others don’t always see it that way. Forinstance, the people of ND saw the DAPL protestors as trouble makers and law breakers.
“We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.”

Dr. King where is God as we face this struggle for survival?

“The God whom we worship is not a weak and incompetent God. He is able to beat back gigantic waves of opposition and to bring low prodigious mountains of evil. The ringing testimony of the Christian faith is that God is able.”

What then should I ask of God?

Use me, God.  Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.

Thank you Dr. King for sharing your wisdom and your inspiration with us today.

To see the source for these quotes: http://www.keepinspiring.me/martin-luther-king-jr-quotes/

The Transformative Power of Love in the Face of Hate.

It has been a bad month for hate.  A man was driving in circles in a state park destroying the plant life.  Two Native American teenage boys in the state I live in called out to him to stop, and he ran them over while making stereotypical whooping noises. The media failed to report it correctly as a hate crime but called it "a dispute" between two parties.  One boy died. The tribe was particularly upset by the press misrepresenting what had happened.

In Portland two people died from stopping a person who was bullying two teenage Muslim girls in head coverings on the public train system.  One of the men as he lay bleeding to death told a supporter who was holding him: "Tell everyone on the train I love them".    I can only hope that after a fatal brutal attack I could still be focused on love!   Several weeks later without protectors a 16 year old Muslim girl was attacked and killed in VA.

After Fox news targeted the progressive school of Evergreen University in Olympia WA, White Supremacist groups came onto campus to protest and violence broke out between them and counter protesters.  An "anti-Shira Law" group (ie anti-Muslim group) not getting a permit to protest in Portland came up to Seattle where they were given a permit to protest.   A counter protest was held a half mile away (an effective way to show the Muslim community they had support) However, that group decided to march to where the Anti-Shari group was (a strategy which holds no merit I can see and simply raised the risk of a violent outbreak).  The Pretty Boys (as they self named themselves) chose to walk through the counter demonstrators gathering causing peace keepers to work hard to part the crowd so they could pass.  They then took punches at the crowd with the apparent intention of provoking a fight.   They did this in full view of the police who did nothing.  When the peacekeepers asked the police why they did nothing they said:  "If you are going to let them walk through your group, there is nothing we can do."  The result being that many counter demonstrators were assaulted by the Pretty Boys.  In terms of spiritual practices that I understand when you focus on violence you magnify it.   When you counter anger or hatred with anger and hatred you increase the anger and hatred.  King demonstrated to us that it takes training, grounding, preparation and love to face hatred and violence in a transformation way.

Most upsetting has been the police shooting Sunday in Seattle of an African American woman in her home after she had called the police after a break in.  She was shot dead in front of her three children because she got upset and picked up a kitchen knife.  She joins a long list of African Americans shot dead by the police across this country for the apparent crime of "being black" and freaking the officers out because of said blackness.

I have focused here on the hate violence that has happened in my part of the country - the NW (while noting the death of a Muslim girl in VA for contrast to what happened in Portland).  There has been similar violence throughout this country.   I also am not talking here about the numerous suicide bombings, and mass shootings and terrorist acts that have happened world wide.  (Although to be clear here - any mass act of violence against people simply because of who they are is a terrorist act.)
This national violence, I and many others, place at the feet of Donald Trump.   His hate speech and encouragement of acts of violence by his supporters at his speeches, his frequent display of contempt, disrespect, put downs and stereotypical descriptions of those he disagrees with has given a permission for hate and violence that has not been present in this society for decades.   I'm not so confused as to think that prejudice and racism had gone away - but they had become unpopular and disrespected ways to behave.  There have been numerous reports of people acting out sexism and/ or racism and saying things to the effect of "if the President can do it, I can do it."  Or simply saying Trumps name as they act.  And Trump has not condemned these acts after they took place.

I must confess my greatest fears about climate change have been how scarcity and fear might drive people to violence against each other.  I never dreamed someone would simply sprinkle a generous helping of hate on top of the difficulties we already have.  Although I guess if I had really thought about it I would have realized that throughout history dictators have used fear to control and direct the masses. By creating external enemies, or scapegoated groups they turn attention away from real problems and create a false sense of unity.  It is actually the oldest move in the play book.

So what about us?  What about those of us who don't want to live in a land of hate?  Those of us who want to live by Kingian principals of nonviolence that include staying centered in a spirit of Love?  A few weeks ago I woke up from a dream.  In the dream I left somewhere I had been and I came out and there was a group of people moving slowly in a coordinated fashion side ways across a hill, at times they would retreat in apparent fear, at other times inching forward.  But always progressing forward with determination despite something they clearly found scary.  I did not know what was happening, but I felt drawn to them and fell in with them to see what was happening.   They inched up towards a large building with big picture windows and glass doors and through it I could see some type of uniformed officers and also a group of teachers inside what I realized was a school building.  The teachers were some standing and some sitting in chairs but joined to each other by holding hands in unity.   The officers where walking rapidly up and down the line in a menacing way, clearly saying things to them, and randomly slapping or hitting various teachers on the head.  Despite this scary behavior the teachers were holding their ground.  And as the onlookers watched this a chant slowly came up:  Love,... Love,... Love,.. Love,... Love....  It was being made in solidarity with the teachers, it exposed the crowd and they knew it, and it sent an energy that was pure and disarming.

I awoke from the dream with a feeling of happiness, peace, and hope.   Hope that I have not felt for a while.  I felt clear that I want to be with the people who are chanting love in the face of hate and violence.  How about you?

Recently a friend of mine who is a librarian at a community college discovered that the campus security were planning a day of practicing a violent assault on campus.  They intended to use fake rifles with real loud sounds and actors with fake blood etc.   My friend was incensed by the idea of the campus being used for this sort of "military practice" and mindful that increased glorification of militarism is one of the signs of fascism.   She also believe guns have no place on campuses every by anyone.  Never having done anything of this sort in her life she crafted a dear colleague letter.  She feared only her friend would sign it.  In the end 63 faculty signed the letter.  The training exercise still went forward.  There was no time to organize the singing of "Love, love, love".   But she asked her friend if he could imagine doing that.   Yes he said I could imagine that. .....Maybe next year.

When will we next be confronted by anger, hate and violence?  Will you be prepared to sing?  To bring love not hate to meet hate?

NonViolence Applied

On May 8th I was arrested...on purpose, committing civil disobedience. At least 4 years ago I had, along eventually with 100,000 Americans signed the Pledge of Resistance, stating we could commit civil disobedience to send a forceful message to then President Obama to not approve the XL pipeline.  As we all know it was a very bumpy road with Obama, at times he looked on the verge of approving it and we would be all geared up, and then another delay would happen.  Eventually he did refuse to approve it, and we celebrated and the Pledge was laid down.   But of course Trump has tried to undo almost everything good Obama did, and to turn the hands of time back on things like coal that are beyond reviving.  So a call went out again for the Pledge to be revived.

The XL pipeline would move such a massive amount of oil, and the Tar Sands are the dirties oil with a much worse GHG load, that Jim Hansen has called it "Game Over for the Planet".  It is for this reason that 350.org and a coalition of national climate groups made it a target of their opposition and the focus on it ignited a movement to oppose fossil fuel projects, and Bill McKibben's famous "Do the Math" tour which brought powerfully to America's attention that not only do we have to stay below 350 parts per million to have a liveable planet (currently breaking 420...yikes) but that we have a "carbon budget" ....an amount we cannot burn, or we will never be able to keep the planet cool enough to support life.   Scientists say that at our current rate of burning it we have 4 years left before we pass that point.   So climate activists are pretty intense right now about trying to stop things like the pipeline.   To the uniformed Trumps attempt to "approve it" would seem like he has just ended the game for all of us.   However, the pipeline does not have project level funding.   And this is where the civil disobedience comes in.  The movement has targeted the banks with the hope of putting enough pressure on them to stop them from making these loans.   It is a good strategy because if they don't loan the money the pipeline will again be dead.

In Feb and April of this year, Bernard Lafayette of Civil Rights era fame, has been in Seattle and lead two trainings on non-violence (which I have previously written about.)   Hearing Bernard talk about the difference between non-violence with a hypen and nonviolence without a hype, as the difference between "not violent" and something far more complex and spirit based, really helped me put words onto something I have been struggling to articulate to the local movement for a long time.

Our Faith Action Climate Team, here is Seattle, planned how we wanted to go about our action. Mindful of the 6 points of nonviolence (listed again in that previous post) we committed to conduct ourselves from a peaceful spirit so our actions aligned with that spirit.  We met up on the day of our action and sang and prayed to ground ourselves.  We went over to the Chase bank (largest potential funder of the XL pipeline) and spent an hour sharing prayers, silence and song.

I was able to talk to the bank manager at length trying consciously to speak to that of God in  him. Our conversation was respectful.  I did not make him the enemy, I treated him as the person who would carry the message to higher levels of the bank that the people where rising up and would remove their accounts and hound the bank if they continued this plan to fund.  He told me he was sympathetic and agreed to communicate that message.  I was able to communicate to him that 4 of our group had accounts at Chase and would return another day to close them and that if Chase persisted they would just lose more and more public support.  He acknowledged that they already had lost accounts for this reason, and they knew that. He also told me that if we did not leave he would be forced to call the police.  I told him I understood that but that we were staying as long as spirit told us too. Outside the bank other supporters fliered the passers by and sang and prayed for the success of those inside.   Throughout our two hours there the customers came in and did their business and left. They were not interfered with by us nor felt threatened by our energy, they were not our target. But they were curious about our message, and they each left clear why we were there.

The police liaison, a Mennonite, also spoke to that of God in the police.  By the time the police arrived the bank manager was telling the police liaison that most of the bank employees agreed with us.  The police from the minute they walked in and found people sitting in a circle on the floor in the bank praying, did not want to arrest us.  They repeatedly tried to encourage us to go outside and protest outside saying they did not want to arrest us.  Eventually the Lieutenant in charge stated repeatedly that he was "begging us" to go outside and kept going away and leaving us to "think about it" in the hopes we would leave.  Eventually, I looked at him and said:  "I know you don't want to arrest us, and we have decided to stay, so I am sorry for you."  At that point he knew that he really would have to arrest us, and they did proceed to do so.  However, they also wound up releasing us without booking or ticketing us.

My co-defendant said in the holding cell that she felt sort of badly about making him have to arrest us.   I said: "No, there is nothing to feel bad about.  Everyone of us will have to face the ways in which we are complicit with climate change, and if he had to face how he is sometimes enforcing laws that keep the oppressive system in place and support climate change, and if that is what the bank manager has to face, his role in a bank that is making it happen...then that is actually the power of nonviolence to bring moral pressure to bear for social change."  This is important since people sometime ask me what good getting arrested actually does.

Friend George Lakey, author of Strategy for a Living Revolution, a classic work on nonviolence who was here speaking in Nov and then also in April, urges the movement over and over again to be strategic.  He says that he does not see much point in random marches or one off actions.  He wants to build campaigns that have clear goals.  Nonviolence researcher Erica Chenoweth also points out that successful movements use a variety of techniques.  They don't just do one thing over and over again.   For the most part American's response to Trump has been a lot of marching and lobbying. Marching has it's place as a beginning movement building stage.  So for example a lot of people came out for the first time ever to march in women's march and to the degree that their names got captured and they got hooked up to Communities Rising (the off shoot of the women's march) then the march served a purpose.  In a normal politician it would have also created some fear and the desire to pivot to protect popularity.  But on a narcissist this is completely lost.   So when we do marches we have to ask: Who is the target?  Is it to build coalition? Is to pressure certain key people? It needs to not be because we are mad and want to stomp around.  Because frankly that is not much different than small children tantruming.

The expression of anger by protesters is a seductive thing indeed.  We are mad about the injustices that are happening, and we have good reason to be mad!  However, who are we targetting and who are we effecting and to what outcome?   So for example, over decades various movements have felt moved to sit down in street intersections or to walk onto highways and shut down traffic.   There are times were what is happening in our whole society is so well known and outrageous (an escalation of the Vietnam war, or the shooting of a black man in the back by police) that this sort of "no business as usual" response is clear and powerful.   But too often it is actually an expression of the protesters sense of power that they can stop traffic.  It is a sort of waving a fist at the sky.  It leaves many people in buses and cars with schedules messed up and lives inconvenienced and leaves them angry and feeling disrespected.  (One must consider - someone is going to pick up a child from daycare, someone is going to a surgery, someone is going to an airport, or a job interview.  Is the fact that the President is doing something horrible or that climate change threatens them too, really a reason to cause them these problems?)  When we piss them off do we build a movement?  Is it strategic to have this effect on them?  Contrast this to when completely nonviolent protesters were maced by the police at Occupy or Black Lives matter.  In these cases the nonviolent behavior met with oppressive violence garnered public sympathy because if made more clear the oppression that is at work to keep our system in place.

When we say that we are targeting Chase bank as the primary funders of the XL pipeline that is a goal, but then the question has to be: how will we move them?  Is it again a feel powerful thing to "shut them down"?   What will actually move the bank management to decide that funding the XL pipeline is a bad idea.  I am not so naive to think that people calmly explaining it to them will accomplish this because those at the highest levels are so profit driven that it seems clear that they have not been considering human welfare for a long time.   But given that they are profit driven then things which threaten their brand and their profit do speak to them.  So protests of all kinds (not just those that shut them down) threaten their good reputation.  Do they lose business or profit from being shut down?   No not really.   This is the case if you block an oil or coal train, but with a bank people just deposit in a machine or the next day.  (And are again angry about being inconvenienced.)  People closing their accounts and telling them clearly why is what impacts their business.  Negative media attention affects their brand.  A wide spread event, closing many branches certainly creates a media event.  But unless their is a long term campaign plan, unless Chase has to worry that disruptions and negative attention will continue - they can easily weather one bad day.

Let us consider for a moment the psychology of stakeholder power holders like bank executive or politicians.  Like most humans when told they are bad or challenged in their actions the first reaction is to dig in and to justify to self and other, ones own actions.  When someone is identified as a villain they respond to this sort of polarization by seeing the other as the enemy.  What Martin Luther King showed us so powerfully is that when you treat an opponent with respect but with a firm demand it both confuses them and troubles their conscience, it leads them to self reflection and self questioning (with the few exceptions of those without conscience - who still must be supported by many other people to stay in power and those folks do have consciences.)  So they start by defending themselves, if things stay polarized they stay defended.  However, if they are challenged but on vilified there is room for them to start reexamining their position.  There is room for them to consider compromises or shifts.   There is also room as public opinion shifts against them and change becomes inevitable for them to find face saving ways to embrace the change they have to rather than to go to more violence or keep behaving in more and more morally repugnant ways to protect their position.   Like Aikido their energy is met and redirected in the direction of a more peaceful outcome.

Erica Chenoweth in her studies of non-violence tells us that when violence occurs within a nonviolent movement that movement can succeed despite, but not because of the violence.   In other words they must work to recover from the damage to their image that the violence creates.   Thus another indicator of how important pure nonviolence is.   Historically, it is also true that some movement followers impatient that success has not already been won begin to advocate property damage and or outright violence.   Movements have split over such disagreements.  So it is important as a movement that we know the history of nonviolent movements and that we carefully prepare the ground works in our movement for a spirit that supports nonviolence over simply non-violence.  Erica has also identified that movements succeed by using a variety of strategies and techniques, not by relying to heavily on one method which will lead to loss of momentum over time.  Additionally she tells us campaigns take about 5 to 7 years to succeed, so we have to have the faith, patience and determination to persevere.

So as a nonviolent movement to stop climate change, we must teach nonviolence which is not well understood in the American population. We must teach how to be non-violent not just in our actions but in our spirits.
We must choose our targets strategically and learn how to identify power holders and to make detailed strategies for how our pressure will work (Not simply say we will apply pressure).  We must be able to articulate a plan that uses different techniques and escalates pressure over time and how we think the tactics will be effective. We must think about how we interface with the public and do so in ways that engage them and bring them with us rather than alienate them.   We must learn how to activate our own centers of hope, love, courage, creativity and fun as we create these actions.  And we must with our eyes on a clear vision of where we are going dig in for the long haul!

With my Mind Stayed on NonViolence

Last weekend I went to a training on NonViolence by Bernard Lafayette and his wife, Kate, and Mary Lou Finley.  Bernard founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) when he was 20 and he was part of Dr. King's inner circle.  He is now 77, and still fighting for justice.

My reaction to the training was to feel like I was in a familiar place because as a birthright Friend I have literally been raised with the 6 principles of Nonviolence that Bernard shared with us.  In fact at one point when he named the influences on King's development of his own philosophy of nonviolence he mentioned "the historic Peace Churches" and then listed them out.  Dr. Lafayette also was one of the creators of the original Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) workshop at Greenhaven Prison in NYC.   So my many years of involvement in AVP also made the principals of nonviolence that he shared with us very familiar:

1. Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
It is a positive force confronting the forces of injustice, and utilizes the righteous indignation and the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual capabilities of people as the vital force for change and reconciliation.
2. The Beloved Community is the framework for the future.
The nonviolent concept is an overall effort to achieve a reconciled world by raising the level of relationships among people to a height where justice prevails and persons attain their full human potential.
3. Attack forces of evil, not person doing evil.
The nonviolence approach helps one analyze the fundamental conditions, policies and practices of the conflict rather than reaction to one's opponents or their personalities.
4. Accept suffering without retaliation for the sake of the cause to achieve the goal.
Self-chosen suffering is redemptive and helps the movement grown in a spiritual as well as a humanitarian dimension. The moral authority of voluntary suffering for a goal communicates the concern to one's own friends and community as well as to the opponent.
5.  Avoid internal violence of the spirit as well as external physical violence.
The nonviolent attitude permeates all aspects of the campaign.  It provides mirror type reflection of the reality of the condition to one's opponent and the community at large. Specific activities must be designed to help maintain a high level of spirit and morale during a nonviolent campaign.
6.  The universe is on the side of justice.
Truth is universal and human society and each human being is oriented to the just sense of order of the universe.  The fundamental values in all the world's great religions include the concept that the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice.  For the nonviolent practitioner, nonviolence introduces a new moral context in which nonviolence is both the means and the ends.

I realized among other things that having been raised in Chicago where various civil rights leaders from Dr. Lafayette to Jesse Jackson spent time, and also having spent time on the eastcoast in Boston and DC. I was exposed to peace and social justice activists who were deeply steeped in these attitudes so they were normative to me when I moved out to Seattle.  They are not typical attitudes in Seattle whose Wobbly past leans a bit more towards a Sal Alinsky approach that very much identifies opponents as enemies and directs anger at the opponent, often making a person the enemy.   This has also been a painful part of doing peace and social justice work in Seattle for me.  The 5th principal itself comes into things like do you chant angry chants or do you sing songs of hope and determination?  Principal 3 comes in for me to questions of how you pick the targets of protests and the focus of campaigns.

Since history is written by the victors for the most part the history of nonviolence has been obscured or rewritten.  It is way beyond the "white washing" of Martin Luther King's quite radical legacy.   I seriously during the debates around non-violence at Occupy Seattle had to endure people saying (and meaning it) that nonviolence had never been successful in history except in freeing India and sort of in the civil rights movement.  This is an ignorance of the dozen's and dozen's of successful nonviolent government change overs that have happened just since WWII and the fact that those are escalating. If you are not familiar with the research of Erica Chenoweth on the efficacy of nonviolence I encourage you to visit her blog https://rationalinsurgent.com/.  Dr. Lafayette did a wonderful job of telling us stories from his many decades of experience with active engagement in non-violence: from Selma, to Wounded Knee to being Kidnapped in Columbia.  I will write more about this in another post.  But I am left wondering why there are not camera crews following around Dr. Lafayette, Dr. Lawson and Rev Jessie Jackson while they are still alive, before this amazing oral history is lost forever.

Dr. Lafayette explained that the civil rights movement distinguished between "non-violence" (the absence of violence which can lead to passive peace) and nonviolence which is the whole significant "technology" that is represented by Kingian nonviolence as described in the 6 principles above and this he said leads to "active peace" a peace that includes social justice.  For me this was a helpful light into why I am often in the room with people who ascribe to non-violence as a tactic and yet know that we are actually not talking about the same thing.  I know I want to live and act from the true Spirit of nonviolence.  While we sang at the end,  sang: "Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Freedom."  I saw that the words stuck in my head were "with my mind stayed on Nonviolence"!