Violent action will not panic the power-holders, but it will push away the general populace. Power-holders, in fact, love it, because it gives them an excuse to destroy movements. Social change depends not on creating chaos and social disorder, but on mobilizing the power of the people for change.
Archive | Commentary
RSS feed for this section
Bulldozing People’s Park Is Not User Development
University of Calfornia officials are trying to erase history. The incursion is a test to see if the People will hold this place as the sacred ground we liberated from the folly of UC officials in 1969 and have held all these years. Bulldozing is not user development.
Read More
Comments Off
A Modest Proposal for Building Community in People’s Park
After all of these years of police repression in People’s Park, is it not glaringly apparent that the City of Berkeley treats People’s Park like a pariah, and University of California officials would just as soon get out the tear gas and the truncheons?
Read More
Comments Off
Federal Voucher Reform Bill Will Harm Poorest Tenants
The federal government is about to remove the cap that limits the amount of rent that can be charged to the poorest of the poor. Yet, there are no caps on how much money the executives in the so-called affordable housing industry can grab for their often excessively high salaries and wage compensation.
Read More
Comments Off
Political Art Keeps the Flame of Justice Burning
From the Great Depression to the present day, many artists have expressed solidarity with the 99% against the monopolized wealth of the ruling elites. Art has been a powerful catalyst for building solidarity with workers and poor people because the artists saw themselves as workers and poor people.
Read More
Comments Off
Nonviolent Resistance and the Occupy Movement: Throwing Out the Master’s Tools and Building a Better House
We have another kind of power, though the term nonviolence only defines what it is not. Some call it people power. It works. It’s powerful. It’s changed and it’s changing the world. We’re unconventionally dangerous, because we’re not threatening physical violence but the transformation of the system (and its violence).
Read More
Comments Off
Nonviolent Direct Action: The Best Map for the Movement
Nonviolent direct action clearly dramatizes the difference between the corrupt values of the system and the values we stand for. Their institutions silence dissent while we value every voice. They employ violence to maintain their system while we counter it with the sheer courage of our presence.
Read More
Comments Off
Stop the Attacks on OccupySF
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee admits that “economic disparity and joblessness” are major problems, so why does he condone the police raids on OccupySF? Squelching legitimate protest is not going to make these problems go away. Only the creation of jobs and better housing will begin to end these ills.
Read More
Comments Off
From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy the Neighborhoods
It is a victory that the occupations have led the media to even briefly question America’s economic divisions. Now we need to find creative ways to take the issues of the Occupy movement to every neighborhood, workplace and campus, even those that don’t seem natural hotbeds of change.
Read More
Comments Off
How a Nonviolent Struggle by Workers and Farmers in Sweden and Norway Broke the Power of the 1 Percent
Both Sweden and Norway suffered horrendous poverty when the 1 percent was in charge. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a right, and created a system of full employment.