Despite the corporate media blackout about the growing and deepening resistance movement against the
increasingly sadistic and brutal Corporate State, people all over the country are finding ways to unite in solidarity at the grassroots level, and in the face of a total failure of leadership by the utterly corrupt political class, they are taking matters into their own hands.
What these people are doing all over the country is truly a beautiful thing! It's a true testament to the human spirit, to decency, to morality, to honesty.
Status of the Resistance Movement: Growing, Deepening, Succeeding
The movement continues to grow and broaden because of the very fertile environment created by a government that cannot respond to our demands for a fair economy, that tramples on our Free Speech and other rights and that puts profits ahead of protecting the planet. The hubris and greed of those with unfair wealth has not diminished. They continue to take more, want more and create a rigged economy that serves only them, not all of the people.
-- Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers , Truthout
Recently
I wrote a diary about my encounter with a group of young social justice activists at Lake Merritt, in Oakland. That experience gave me hope. These young people were not only fully aware of the true nature of the system, but they were also engaged in taking positive steps to bring about the type of (real) change we need in the face of the endemic corruption that has engulfed our entire system of government.
But this rapidly spreading movement is happening all over the country, as reported by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers at truthtout.
I encourage people to read the entire article, but in the meantime, let me highlight some of the hopeful developments about the movement.
Friendly Neighborhood TimeBank
At its most basic level, Time banking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. That hour goes into the Time Bank as a Time Dollar. Then you have a Time dollar to spend on having someone doing something for you. It's a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.Time Banking is about local individuals helping each other out, one-on-one or with group projects. They help rebuild neighborhood networks and strengthen communities.
Public Banking Institure
PBI's vision is to establish a distributed network of state and local publicly-owned banks that create affordable credit, while providing a sustainable alternative to the current high-risk centralized private banking system. This network will act in the public interest, using its counter-cyclical credit-generating capacity to stabilize potential credit crises, maintain the floor against threats of asset devaluations, build infrastructure, and fund expansion of critical industrial productive capacity.
One of the most exciting and promising developments I've seen is the growing realization that we can address the issue of unemployment and under-employment by embracing the concept of
employee-owned businesses.
Through his new project, , economist Richard Wolff strives to develop a social movement that puts in place a reorganization of the economy built on a foundation of employee control of the workplace. Employees would act together as their own bosses in a fully egalitarian, democratic workplace where workers run the business, share the assets and create a workspace that runs in harmony with not only its workers, but the entire community.
One of the best resources I've found when it comes to a resistance movement against the Corporate State is
Popular Resistance: Daily Movement News and Resources.
I like their straightforward approach: Resist; create; educate; organize; strategize. It coincides perfectly with Bill Moyers' advice in his book "Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements"
Social movements involve a long-term struggle between the movement and the powerholders for the hearts, minds, and support of the majority of the population. Before social movements begin, most people are either unaware that a problem exists or don't believe that they can do anything about it. They believe the powerholder's societal myths and support the high-sounding official policies and practices, all of which seem to be consistent with the culture's deeply held held values and beliefs...
~snip~
The strategy of social movements, therefore, is to alert, educate, and win over an ever increasing majority of the public. First the public needs to be convinced that a critical social problem exists. Then it must be convinced that policies need to be changed. And then a majority of people must be mobilized into a force that eventually brings about an acceptable solution.
The emphasis is mine
Bottom line? People have finally caught up with the lies, and are awakening to the reality of the situation: a government system captured by the wealthy; a surveillance police state to protect it; a corporate media conglomerate as its propaganda machine.
And now, with this realization, people are joining together, in solidarity to build alternative socioeconomic systems based on cooperation and sustainability principles.
Yes, on the one hand, as the brutality of the system increases, and as the economic depression continues, many people feel a sense of hopelessness. But this reality is creating impetus for real change--from the grassroots. And I think that's a positive thing. It may help bring about a better world!
As for me? I'd like to be part of this movement in any way I can. I started a project I'm developing, Market For The People.
And of course, some of my personal priorities include: the proper investigation of war crimes, followed by indictments and trials; the proper investigation of the Wall Street criminal racketeering cartel, followed by indictments, trials and long prison sentences for those found guilty; the entire revamping of the regulatory infrastructure reestablishing provisions meant to protect the public from the depraved predation and corruption of the current system; clawing back trillions of ill-gained dollars from the top one percent of income takers; increasing top tax rates to 90 or 95% for the top one percent of income takers...
Don't lose hope. Real change is coming. Regardless of your personal situation, reach out, find out about how people are joining forces to support each other, to build community based on cooperation, justice, equality, and sustainability.
Finally, I'm starting a team-building initiative I'm calling "The October 15th Movement." Basically what I'm trying to do is to recruit as many people as possible to take some sort of coordinated, strategic, and cohesive action (or actions) on the 15th of every month, starting on October 15th...
Here's what I'm thinking... Imagine 10,000 or 200,000 people coordinating actions (against the Oligarchy) every month on the same day.
There would be many advantages of doing this, including breaking the treasonous corporate media blackout on the movement coverage.
The first proof-of-concept test is a Fundraiser for Daily Kos on October 15th. I'm asking people to on that day donate a minimum of $3 to Daily Kos. I think there about 20 people who have pledged, but I want to get a minimum of 1,000 people. Let's see what happens...
(BTW, I have no official contact with Daily Kos management; this fund-raising call is just me as a user asking people to join me in making a small donation to support the site's mission, and also as a team-building exercise.)
Then every month on the 15th, we could coordinate certain actions according to people's interests as it relates to social justice and anti-corruption activism.
Imagine LGBTQ activists, and environmental activists, and housing, immigration, activists making a point to take some sort of high-visibility action on the 15th of every month! And these actions would be preceded by a month of public relation campaign, recruiting people, reaching out to media outlets, etc.
Here's more additional insight about the movement...
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