action

I hear tell there's some sort of athletic contest being held today.

Hey, I like football.  I like sports in general.  But last year our nascent family (more on that in a postscript) started a new tradition and quit the Super Bowl. Read below the fold...

In light of last Sunday's post about the strike as a force for social and policy change, I'd been meaning to discuss what's been happening in Greece recently.  Deutsche Welle: Read below the fold...

Back in 2006 there was a pretty nice example of hartal to protest bigoted immigration policy being debated in Congress, and to support the idea that immigrants are an integral part of American life economic and social life.  At the time the AP reported: Read below the fold...

I'm going to stick with economic noncooperation this week since I think that's an integral part of an intervention strategy to force Congress to pass real reform, as I outlined the other day.  I've generally thought that a combination of boycotts and strikes were the real key to success, hindering our corporate overlords' ability to function.  Read below the fold...

So, let's reset the discussion, m'kay? Here's the crux of what I wanted to discuss the other day about actively, aggressively advocating Medicare for All:

Start with petitions and e-mail campaigns issuing the demand for HR676 and specifying our collective response in the event of capitulation, to include withdrawal of support from incumbent Democrats in primaries and general elections, and the following direct action:

o Weekly vigils in front of local Congressional and insurance offices.
o Coordinated national marches in state capitals and/or major cities.
o Weekend march in DC in conjunction with mass lobbying on the Hill.

Read below the fold...

I was originally going to do one of my patented And Fuck...rants: And Fuck Progressives. Just thinking about the post, I essentially got enough catharsis so I'm going to dial it down a notch, though admittedly I still harbor some of my original annoyance.

It has been interesting to post at different places outside my usual haunts with their predictable audiences. There's been such an array of reactions to what I've been writing about reform and action lately, often surprising to me because many comments are about little asides, my choice of titles and other things instead of my actual thesis or conclusions. Read below the fold...

He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing.

- Paul "Muad Dib" Atriedes

Sorry for the scifi references, but it's really true, eh? It's something the GOP has learned quite well: they destroyed American freedoms and the US economy, and they still control us even in the Minority.

The difference between them and progressive Kill-the-Billers is that their end goal is just to destroy, whereas we want to wrest control from them to actually protect reform. We don't want to destroy HCR in order to save it; we want to destroy a specific thing that is to our mind anathema to reform. Yet the threat to kill this particular bill can, in the end, save it along with reform itself. Read below the fold...

I thought perhaps yesterday's example of British abolitionists' sugar boycott was a bit remote for Americans, so today I'd like to introduce a few consumers' boycotts closer to home.

First, the AP reported on April 5, 1960: Read below the fold...

I recall the first time I went to the Soviet Union in 1986.  I spoke very little Russian at the time, not even enough to get by, but our group sponsored by Putney Student Travel was led by a couple Russian majors from Dartmouth.  Read below the fold...

I began a couple weeks ago to try introducing direct action to a wider audience by covering the Move Your Money campaign.  I followed that up the next week with a discussion of sedition, which bloggers can engage in to some extent. Read below the fold...

While we were sitting around drinking Kool Aid, writing agitprop and plotting the demise of HCR, fellow unqualified progressive MBW observed that there's a possibility that the Senate bill could run afoul with SCOTUS if challenged by virtue of the Printz decision over a decade ago.  Rightwingers certainly love that idea, some Read below the fold...

Experience has abundantly proved to me that to every honest man there come in his life occasions for parting of ways which I have termed “Non-co-operation”. - MK Gandhi

Yes, I want to abort the Health Care Deform Bill of 2010.  Read below the fold...

Read below the fold...

There's an interesting phenomenon I've noticed when working for change.  I've heard people criticize Code Pink for our "stunts" because "they just alienate people", presumably people who would otherwise sympathize with our position if only we didn't wear tiaras and dance joyfully.  During the 2008 election cycle, I had folks tell me that reaching out to voters on the phone or at home was dangerous to your cause because hey, what if you piss somebody off when you interrupt their dinner or whatever. Read below the fold...

Since I've already posted about a fairly tangible resistance method and a tactic that's a bit controversial, I thought I'd go more in the direction of something that bloggers could buy into pretty easily.  First, a reminder:

Activism, by definition, cannot be done online.  At best you can be an online advocate.

Read below the fold...