Bulletin #180
13 March
2005
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
The contemporary anti-war movement is building in the United States and not the least challenging obstacles are the completely
mastered tactics of wedge politics --of penetrating movements with the
purpose of dividing them into factions, all of which eventually abandon their
original objectives for lesser aims. That and the iron law of oligarchy,
whereby an association for human liberation becomes a caricature of itself, are
easily recognizable today. In both cases the production process stops:
isolation and the "politics of exclusion" replace the earlier
dynamics of democratic exchanges and growing alliances for mutual benefits.
Professor Israel Shahak, who was arrested by the
Nazis in his homeland of Poland, speaks to this political failure to identify fully with
humanity. After escaping his death camp in Poland, he fled to Palestine where he taught chemistry and authored several books,
including Jewish History/Jewish Religion. In this critical history
Professor Shahak quotes the ancient Chinese sage, Mencius, who wrote in the 4th century B.C. :
This
is why I say that all men have a sense of commiseration :
Here
is a man who suddenly notices a child about to fall into a well. Invariably he
will
feel
a sense of alarm and compassion. And this is not for the purpose of gaining the
favour of the child's parents or of seeking the approbation
of his neighbors and friends,
or
for fear of blame should he fail to rescue it. Thus we see that no man is
without a
sense
of compassion or a sense of shame or a sense of courtesy or a sense of right
and
wrong. The sense of compassion is the beginning of humanity, the sense of shame
is
the beginning of righteousness, and sense of courtesy is the beginning of
decorum,
the
sense of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom. Every man has within
himself
these
four beginnings, just as he has four limbs. Since everyone has these four
beginnings
within
him, the man who considers himself incapable of exercising them is destroying
himself.
Wilhelm Rich, also, spoke of the spiritual and psychlogical
mutilation which the human being experiences in capitalist society. Today we
are witnessing, once again, extreme forms of militarization in the political
economies based on war production. The casualties are not only to be found in
the killing fields; the walking wounded are to be
found in the streets at home, within the Empire, as well.
In the items below readers will see various aspects of the anti-war movement in
America, actions which are rarely seen in the mainstream media and
which speak to the hope for a brighter future for humanity.
In item A. we
are invited to share the experiences of a 7-year-old who is attracted to an
American icon for reasons of his own and for which there is much empathy on the
part of older journalists.
Item B. is a
piece by student activist Asad Haider from Pennsylvania, who is trying to understand what it means to be a student in
today's political economy.
In item C. Grenoble undergraduate Frédéric Méni shares with us a new web site, useful in identifying
the financial costs of the war in Iraq.
Item D. is an
article by Norman Solomon in which he criticizes the leadership of MoveOn.org
for betraying the anti-war movement which it helped create.
Item E. is the
description of a cultural movement in American within the anti-war movement,
where we are introduced by Doyle Canning to the new and
experimental meme campaign against Bush (and the hegemony of U.S. mass media).
And finally, in item F. we provide readers with a series of internet links on Activism
and War from the www.zmag.org
site organized by Michael Albert in Boston.
Sincerely,
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies
Director of Research
Université Stendhal
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/
________________
A.
From Russel Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
March
10, 2005
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2005/000197.
html
A Little Less
Conversation, A Little More Action
by Russell Mokhiber & Robert
Weissman
We traveled
to Graceland last year, and picked up a CD. 30 Elvis Number One Hits.
A seven-year old we know borrowed the CD. He had never heard about Elvis or
heard an Elvis song. His favorite song?
It wasn't Jailhouse Rock. It wasn't Hound Dog. It wasn't Heartbreak Hotel. It
wasn't Hardheaded Woman. It was none of the 30 Number One Hits.
It was the last song on the CD. It was the bonus song. Number 31: A Little Less
Conversation.
Refrain:
A
little less conversation, a little more action please
All
this aggravation ain't satisfactioning
me
A
little more bite and a little less bark
This is the seven year old's favorite song. He plays
it over and over and over.
This song came to mind after scanning the web and picking up the flood of
writing and criticism about the state of the world. Here are three stories
dated from yesterday, March 9:
In the New York Observer, Nicholas Von Hoffman writing about his son's return
from Iraq, in which he observes: "It is the incontestable truth that the
politicians and news personalities who talk so blithely about war would adopt a
different and more cautious tone in their advocacy of killing others were they
to know that a degree of risk attaches to themselves and their own kith and kin
should war ensue. It would be a more peaceful world if the law read that the
children of every elected official and every TV news celebrity would
immediately be drafted on the commencement of hostilities."
A report out by the American Society for Civil Engineers, showing how our
nation's infrastructure is crumbling, as we spend billions overseas in wars of
destruction.
In the Brown Daily Herald, a report on Seymour Hersh's talk the day before at Brown University. "The
problem is that George Bush is convinced he's doing the right thing," Hersh said. "It doesn't matter how many body bags come
back. At some level he thinks he'll be vindicated. It doesn't matter what we
write, we can't shape [Bush]. If you think it's a little terrifying, it is.
Other [presidents] felt the heat, this guy doesn't."
There's just a non-stop flow of factual reporting and critical analysis. Those
are three stories, just from yesterday. And we could deliver 50 more of equal
quality and interest -- just from yesterday.
It is all here at our fingertips. True, it doesn't often make it onto the
mainstream media. But click a button and there you have it. It is all right
there. Available to anyone with access to the Internet.
The concentrated corporate mass media is the primary source of information for
most citizens in the United
States. But the fact remains that we have
access to every news outlet and web site in the world. We can communicate
instantaneously with anyone we wish. There is a flood of quality information
and informed criticism, more than we can use.
We can't keep up with it. You can't keep up with it. We are drowning. You are
drowning.
We know this may sound strange coming from two writers who spend most of their
time researching and writing and contributing to the flood. But someone has to
come up for air and scream: It's not making any difference!
Or as Hersh put it -- "It doesn't matter what we
write. & Other presidents feel the heat, this one
doesn't." To which we would add -- other politicians feel the heat, these
don't.
As a citizenry outraged by this war in Iraq, and the
possibility of wars against Syria and Iran, we must ask
ourselves: will the flood of information break the dam? Or are we deluding
ourselves into thinking that information matters?
Shouldn't we be spending less time writing and more time organizing? We can't
predict. But we suspect this:
We are at a tipping point. Bush can be pushed over. And we know for sure that
Elvis wasn't talking about politics. But his advice holds true for the here and
now:
A little less conversation. A little more action.
_________________
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington,
D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter, <http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com>.
Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington,
D.C.-based Multinational Monitor, <http://www.multinationalmonitor.org>. Mokhiber and Weissman are
co-authors of On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and the Destruction of
Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common
Courage Press).
__________________
B.
From Asad Haider :
http://www.counterpunch.org/
March 8, 2005
Seven Theses On The Anti-war Movement And Student Resistance
by Asad Haider
"The old SDS dictum, 'People
have to be organized around the issues that really affect their lives,' is
really true.... That is to say, that racism and imperialism really are issues
that affect people's lives. And it was these things that people moved on, not
dorm rules, or democratizing university governance, or any of that
bullshit."
--Mark Rudd, Columbia Notes on the
Spring Rebellion
THESIS ONE:
The war on Iraq represents,
among other things, a crisis in education. It has been proven beyond a doubt
that the war was waged on false pretenses, that the consent for the ongoing
imperial occupation has been based on the inability of the American public to
access real and useful information. Often, when students are exposed to
alternative information in progressive classes their reaction is one of
frustration. They realize that our education has failed us: we have not been
provided with the intellectual resources to understand political questions
within the context of history, we have not been trained to practice the public
debate and civic engagement that are the necessary precondition of democracy
(as argued in Henry Giroux s writings, http://www.henryagiroux.com
). Instead, the academic-military-industrial complex has trained us in
the logic of empire, leaving us prey to the invasion of our campuses by the
empire s vultures: military recruiters who promise to make up for the state s
unwillingness to fund our education.
THESIS TWO: Higher education has failed the student because the university,
along with most of domestic American culture, has been militarized. The most
direct expression is in the military s major investments in research funding;
but it goes beyond this. The standards of free political debate, so crucial to
an atmosphere of intellectual growth, have been replaced by standards of
defending Western civilization against the terrorism of dissent: look at the
repression of Ward Churchill, Joseph Massad, and
countless other professors. These professors are persecuted because they have
not been playing their roles as American intellectuals, which, as Chomsky has
tirelessly demonstrated, is to manufacture the consent of the masses. This is
the future role of college students, who are learning early that those who
question the currents of mainstream thought are punished and those who deceive
the public and rationalize war crimes are rewarded. As future intellectuals,
students are carefully taught the doctrines of imperialism: the Orientalist demonization of Arabs
as a civilizational Other, a neoliberal
economics that portrays the victims of transnational corporations as the
beneficiaries of development , the political mythology
that portrays American military hegemony and its acts of aggression as benevolence.
The university ensures the transmission of a system of ideology which
guarantees that the decisions made by the corporate-authoritarian elite remain
unquestioned by the disempowered American public.
THESIS THREE: The academy acts in the interests of corporations because the
university itself has moved toward a corporate structure. Former CEOs are hired
as presidents, research funding comes from corporations, corporate sponsorships
impose brand names on students, and the corporate ethic of competition and
hierarchy are imposed upon faculty and students. Graduate students are often
unable to unionize, and service and clerical employees are paid low wages. This
corporatization arises as an expression of the role
of the university within capitalist society: to reproduce the relations of
production by training the majority of students to be laborers and consumers
rather than citizens. Gramsci said that every
relationship of hegemony was necessarily an educational one, that class rule
was secured by training the working class to accept its exploitation; but he
could not have foreseen that capital s invasive violations of the public sphere
would make every relationship of education a hegemonic one. Historically, the
mission of the university has been defined by the tradition of humanistic
education, which seeks to develop the individual into a participating social
agent. This democratic ideal has always coexisted with the pressures of the
market and the ruling class, which varyingly attempt to turn the university
into another kind of industry or an ideological state apparatus. The movements
of militarization and corporatization have caused
education to lose the battle.
THESIS FOUR: The unusual socioeconomic role of the student has made the
university a crucial battleground (see the work of Andre Gorz).
The necessity of a techno-managerial elite in the
workplace and the ongoing transition from material to immaterial production
brought on by recent advancements in communications technology create a need for
rigorous training in the universities. Of course, the students must develop the
necessary technical ability, but they must also learn the ideological dynamics
that preserve the social and economic hierarchy. Instead of doing useful or
fulfilling work, students must practice rote memorization under the regime of
exams, controlled by the absolute authority of teachers and judged by the
artificial standards of grades; students are alienated from the teachers, who
are often overworked and are equally constrained by the system; students are
divided into hierarchies based on grades, class ranks, and social status;
decisions are made exclusively by the administration or through a petty and
useless student bureaucracy; the curriculum and pedagogy suppress critical
thought; students must pay the constantly rising tuition, often forcing them to
pay off loans for 10 or 20 years after graduation.
THESIS FIVE: The alienated structure of education results immediately in a
generalized discontent, and because of the transience and inconvenience of the
student life, the student is not integrated into the system. A contradiction
emerges, nascent within the intellectual rigor demanded by specialized
training: the intellectual and social development that is necessary to the training
of the specialized class creates a potential for critical thought, which
contains the potential for radical action. After all, the university is not
just an ideology machine it is a battleground, a space in which the struggle
for the human mind is fought. In exchange for incorporation into capitalism s
bureaucratic class, the student is granted an unjust privilege access to
knowledge on a scale denied to those unable to afford it but this privilege is
a double-edged sword.
THESIS SIX: In preparing us for alienated labor and consumption, student
privilege brings us the stupidity and banality of student life, the emptiness
of campus culture, the intellectual charlatanry of professors who use terms
like humanitarian intervention and free market. At the same time, it grants us
the time, energy, and resources to study and understand history; it gives us a
space in which to revolt and make history. In the face of a schooling system
that seeks to train us for an intellectually, culturally, morally, existentially
bankrupt life under the regime of bureaucratic capitalism, we can use our empty
privilege to demand a real, critical education that prepares us to participate
as active citizens in an autonomous society of our making. This entails nothing
less than the abolition of the student; it means the institution of free
education as a universal right of the citizen. Our society has developed the
ability to realize this ambition, but has instead summoned its vast
technological, intellectual, and physical powers in the service of death and
destruction. Our training as students plays a central role in the perpetuation
of the system which demands that violence rule the global order. To resist the
ongoing occupation of Iraq is to resist
a growing empire that robs the wretched of the earth of their lives and robs us
of the potential to fulfill the dream of a participatory and cooperative
society.
THESIS SEVEN: We came to college for an education, but education is impossible
in a society ruled by the logic of empire, which has reached its alarming peak
in the subjugation of the people of Iraq. To realize
the principles of a real education inside and beyond the university means an
upheaval against empire. In the words of Che Guevara,
Revolution is the best education for honorable men.
Visit http://www.tools4change.org/wcr/ to learn more
about and participate in the Week of Campus Resistance.
Asad Haider is a student and activist
in State College, Pennsylvania. His writing has appeared on ZNet, Politics and Culture, Left Hook, Dissident Voice, and
elsewhere. He can be reached at kingoffunk@hotmail.com.
______________
C.
From: MÉNI Frédéric
Subject: A new anti-war link
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005
Hello Professor FEELEY,
Here is an interesting website: http://costofwar.com/
Have a nice weekend.
Frédéric Méni
______________________
D.
from Norman Solomon :
http://newstandardnews.net/
11 March 2005
MoveOn.org:
Making Peace With the War in Iraq
by Norman Solomon
Sadly, it has
come to this. Two years after the invasion of Iraq, the online
powerhouse MoveOn.org -- which built most of its member base with a strong
antiwar message -- is not pushing for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
With a network of more than 3 million online activists, the MoveOn
leadership has decided against opposing the American occupation of Iraq.
During the recent bloody months, none of MoveOn s
action alerts have addressed what Americans can do to help get the U.S. military out
of that country. Likewise, the MoveOn.org website has continued to bypass the
issue -- even after Rep. Lynn Woolsey and two dozen cosponsors in the House of
Representatives introduced a resolution in late January calling for swift
removal of all U.S. troops from Iraq.
That resolution would seem to be a natural peg for the kind of kinetic activism
that established MoveOn s reputation. A movement
serious about ending U.S. military
activities in Iraq could use
the resolution as a way to cut through political tap dances and pressure
members of Congress to take a stand. Down the road, generating grassroots
support for a get-out-of-Iraq resolution has potential to clear a congressional
pathway for measures cutting off funds for the war.
But, tragically, MoveOn s leadership is having none
of it. Over a period of recent weeks, the word Iraq appeared on
the MoveOn.org home page only in a plug for a documentary released last year.
Inches away, a blurb has been telling the website s visitors: Support Our
Troops: Contribute your frequent-flyer miles so that American troops can get
home. (But not stay home.) Many soldiers are returning to the killing grounds
of Iraq, while a
growing number are vocally opposed to this war.
Why won t MoveOn support our troops by supporting a
pullout of our troops from Iraq? We believe
that there are no good options in Iraq,
MoveOn.org s executive director, Eli Pariser, told
me. We re seeing a broad difference of opinion among our
members on how quickly the U.S. should get
out of Iraq. As a grassroots-directed organization, we won t be taking
any position which a large portion of our members disagree with.
In sharp contrast, early in the 2004 primary campaign, MoveOn
committed itself to endorsing any Democratic presidential candidate receiving
more than 50 percent of the Internet ballots cast by its activists. (Howard
Dean fell shy of a majority, so there was no MoveOn
endorsement.) But now, evidently, a majority of MoveOn
members in favor of swift withdrawal from Iraq would be
insufficient if a large portion disagreed.
When I asked Eli for clarification, he replied: We ve
been talking with our members continuously on this issue. We ve surveyed slices of our membership in January and in
December, and surveyed our whole membership last spring. That
s how we know there s a breadth of opinion out there.
But last spring was a year ago. And any surveying of slices of our membership
in January and in December came before the Woolsey resolution offered an
opportunity to find out how the MoveOn base views the
measure. In any event, there will always be a breadth of opinion about this war
-- a fact that does not trump the crucial need for clarity of purpose.
If MoveOn leaders were willing to submit the House
get-out-of-Iraq resolution to MoveOn s rank-and-file
in an up-or-down vote, the chances of a substantial majority would be
excellent. Too bad the leadership of MoveOn.org is currently unwilling to find
out.
The 29 members of the House now sponsoring the resolution are hardly radicals.
They recognize the kind of grisly consequences of equivocation that occurred
during the Vietnam War: Refusal to speak forthrightly about the urgent need to
end military involvement only fuels the war s deadly momentum.
It s all well and good for MoveOn.org to do superb work in
the current battle over the future of Social Security. And it s very
helpful to excoriate President Bush for his many big lies in the lead-up to the
invasion of Iraq. But such activities don t make up for going along with the
basics of the present-day Iraq war.
When a large progressive organization takes the easy way and makes peace with
war, the abdication of responsibility creates a vacuum.
Ironically, a group that became an Internet phenom by
recognizing and filling a void is now creating one. And other groups are bound
to emerge to fill it.
Among the emerging organizations is Progressive Democrats of America (www.pdamerica.org), a fledgling national
group with an activist focus on the Iraq war that is
laudably straightforward. We're organizing a new campaign in every
Congressional District we can to call for the end of funding for war and
occupation, and for the transfer of reconstruction assistance to Iraqis
themselves, says Tim Carpenter of PDA. He contends
that public pressure can awaken Congress to an opposition role.
War in Iraq requires
continual funding, of course, so President Bush s new supplemental boost of $80
billion in war appropriations has been moving through Congress in recent days.
Tacitly accepting the war s continuation, MoveOn
declined to take a stand against the essence of congressional backing for the
war -- the money that keeps paying for it. Meanwhile, PDA launched an effort
against the $80 billion; the organizing included a National Call-In Day aimed
at members of Congress on March 10.
MoveOn.org pioneered the use of email and web technologies as creative tools to
further its political agenda. Now that the MoveOn
agenda on the Iraq war has
tumbled into the shallow depths of the Potomac, some
similar online activism will be needed if MoveOn s
dive is going to be merely temporary. So, to help get the cyber-ball rolling,
please forward this article around the Internet and post it where appropriate.
Friends don t let friends drive drunk, and peace advocates do a lot more than
shrug when a previously great antiwar organization starts to get lost.
If MoveOn continues to abandon its antiwar base, that
base will get the picture -- and move on.
_______________________________
Norman Solomon s latest book, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep
Spinning Us to Death, will be published in early summer.
His columns and other writings can be found at: www.normansolomon.com
__________________
E.
from Doyle Canning
March 12, 2005
http://www.smartmeme.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7
Turn Your
Back On Bush, Experiments in Direct Action at the
Point of Assumption
by Doyle Canning
January 20th 2005 was a day of
profound public theater, and a grotesque spectacle of power. The Inaugural
ceremony was a stunning ritual consecration of control; each marching band,
each sleek stretch SUV limo, each biblical declaration, each tank and each
soldier, was meant to speak power in spectacle and force.
But this spectacle did not go unchallenged indeed there were other actors who
took the stage that day. Shoulder to shoulder with placard wavers and
cat-callers was a sizable contingent engaging in a very different act of
resistance, publicly withdrawing their consent from the Bush regime with
nonviolent direct action.
A group of 5,000 people from all walks of life from Iraq war
Veterans, to students from Ohio; from first
responders, to punk anarchists quietly turned their backs on George W. Bush as
his motorcade slunk down Pennsylvania
Avenue. Their simple and solemn act sent a
powerful message of non-cooperation, and directly challenged the Bush
power-spectacle.
The Turn Your Back on Bush (TYBOB) action itself was a moving moment that
galvanized key constituencies to publicly display their dissent to the Bush
agenda. This simple act of turning our backs was a potent symbol of the
opposition movement inside the empire, and has a symbolic resonance that can
carry more complex meanings.
Turn Your Back on Bush used an organic synthesis of organizing and messaging
strategies, and an arsenal of nonviolent tactics, to bring people from over 40
states and bounce the TYBOB story in hundreds of media outlets worldwide,
reaching over 50 million people.
TYBOB was not only an overwhelming tactical success, it was also an important
strategic laboratory of resistance, and in that way it was also a movement
building success. The action was an organic process of creative collaboration
that combined a number of age-old organizing techniques, as well as innovative
strategies, that are can serve as models for informing grassroots direct action
in the months and years ahead.
Harnessing the Psychic Break : November 3rd 2004
Turn Your Back on Bush (TYBOB) was an idea hatched by community
organizers in the lead up to Nov 2, who were grappling with the question of,
What s next? At 3 AM on Nov 3rd,
the website TurnYourBackonBush.org was launched, and by mid December, almost
10,000 people had joined the email list.
The action was designed to harness the psychic break the moment when people
realize the system is out of alignment with their values, and they are able to
break through the barriers that have kept them from taking action.
This element was successful, as people from across the country who had never
been active as organizers in public demonstrations before made commitments to
get involved, and explore a new kind of activism outside of the electoral
arena.
Some of these folks had been volunteers for efforts like MoveOn
PAC, or even worked for the Kerry campaign. Some were pissed off voters, or
disenchanted non-voters. When the psychic break hit, and folks realized that
the Democratic strategy had failed and Bush was still President, many of these
kinds of folks put their time towards mobilizing to bring busloads of people to
Washington to turn
their backs on Bush en masse. The action was an anecdote for despair, and
effectively channeled grief or rage energy into organizing.
Not Just on the Internet: Real
Organizing in the Real World
Turn Your Back on Bush had a sophisticated online strategy, building an
impressive email list, and putting up online forums for folks to connect about
anything from the post-election blues, to the best deals on busses from
Wisconsin. The URL was well branded through the organizers media work, and
during the week of action, downloadable flyers, scenario updates, and DC maps
made it a great way to plug in to the action.
This online strategy was used as way to drive organizing on the ground, in the
real world. The TYBOB core team recruited 41 state level organizers, who were
working in their home state, coordinating local groups and feeding information
from the grassroots to Washington, and vise
versa. A map on the website, showing states where there were
and were not organizers, drove email traffic to the local organizers, or drove
people to volunteer.
All of these people were volunteers. They were, for the most part, folks who
had a psychic break and contacted the website saying, I want to do something!
There were hundreds of emails like this. With a thoughtful email, and then a
phone interview, they were recruited by the TYBOB organizing director to plug
into the mobilizing machine. Those who could make the commitment of 15-20 hours
a week were given the responsibility of state organizer.
Because the project was operating without much funding (all monies raised were
from individual donors, and half was raised on the website) there wasn t much material support to give to these folks. The
support was in the form of one-on-one phone conversations, email updates, and
state organizer conference calls.
TYBOB was able to plug people in who had never considered themselves activists,
let alone organizers. The empowering organizing structure built up confidence,
deepened commitment, and activated new networks of folks.
The response was overwhelmingly positive, and refreshing. As state organizer
said, I ve never done anything like this before, but
I organized my kid s class trip to Washington, and this isn t that different! The organizing vehicle that was built
was strong, and the action was well executed. It was a dynamic mix soccer moms,
clergy, military families, hopeful young Deaniacs, with veteran labor organizers, antiwar movement
activists, and direct action-ites.
The TYBOB Meme
A meme is a unit of self-replicating cultural information a slogan,
melody, image or idea that bounces through the culture. Turn Your Back on Bush,
with its viral organizing structure and simple and powerful imagery, was really
in many ways a meme campaign.
The idea of the action was simple, and had clear logic to it. Anyone could
participate, and there was support for people to do so. The name of the action
framed it with an embedded story (i.e. message, logic, and actors).
The meme spread through the media, on the web, and through word of mouth. A
sophisticated and strong media plan moved the meme in the mainstream from
Saturday Night Live, to the Washington Post, to the Wisconsin State Journal, to
BBC World News Tonight. Targeted outreach and organizing moved the meme through
various networks and constituencies from Black Voices for Peace to students in
rural Pennsylvania to military
families in Georgia.
The TYBOB meme spread organically, across the US and even
overseas. On January 20th, students in London showed up at
10 Downing St. wearing the
slogan Turn Your Back on Bush on their backs. On February 16th, two women in New
Hampshire turned their backs on Bush at a
photo op about social security.
There was no global orchestration of this and other TYBOB actions that took
place simultaneously to the Inaugural parade rather, it was a good idea and
took on a life of its own. That s what memes do, and how a good meme campaign
can work.
SmartMemes are containers for collaborative story
telling that empower people, and have the power to challenge assumptions about
power. The smartMeme of TYBOB was its ability to
inject the action idea into the culture, creating an image that represents
resistance (backs turned), and an action that anyone can take (i.e. one need
not hang from tall buildings or lock themselves to things in order to
participate.) TYBOB became a space for the collaborative power of a story about
resistance that challenged the assumption of Bush s legitimacy and mandate.
Direct Action at the Point of
Assumption
Turn Your Back on Bush publicly removed support for the agenda of the
Administration and interrupted the message from the White House the message of
mandate. Placing key constituencies turning their backs along the parade route
military families, veterans in uniform, first responders, clergy, students, and
people of a multiplicity of faiths, races, ages and backgrounds TYBOB told a
story that challenged those assumptions and showed the American people turning
against Bush.
The traditional points-of-intervention of the Left are interventions in
physical space: the point of production (workers strike), the point of
destruction (blocking logging trucks), the point of
decision (take over a congressional office). Rather than a protest looking to
hold tactical, physical space in the streets, TYBOB was an intervention in idea
space. TYBOB was a Direct Action at the Point of Assumption: an action that
contested the meaning of the inauguration and created space in the realm of
assumption and idea for a critique of Bush and his empire-building policies.
It was an effort to compete on the playing field where the Bush regime has
shown considerable strength (with their control-memes of WMD; partial birth
abortion; ownership society; etc.). It was also an effort to expose their
considerable weakness by showing the reality of an increasingly wide and deep
opposition movement of people from all walks of life. It was an action to show
that key actors in the Administration s story about their war (troops, military
families, first responders) are leaders in the ranks of an increasingly diverse
peace movement. It was specific about interrupting the Bush message of mandate
the assumption of power and consensus with a simple, elegant act of resistance.
Turning Towards New Strategies
Turn Your Back on Bush is more than an action it is a story, and it is a
political space. As we turn our backs on Bush, we are turning towards each
other to explore new strategies. And as we enter the next four years, we must
explore new strategies; we must make this story real with a movement of
organized resistance.
The next step for the TYBOB team and for the smartMeme
collective was to co-sponsor the people powered strategy to stop the war (http://www.mail-archive.com/nettime-l@bbs.thing.net/msg02014.html)
proposal at the national assembly of United For Peace
& Justice in St. Louis Feb 19-21.
This proposal is an attempt to articulate an evolving strategic framework to
end the occupation--to weave a more coherent story and strategy about the work
that is already going on every day at the grassroots level.
In 2003 the default strategic framework was to stop the war before the US strike; the US went to war
anyway. In 2004 the default strategic framework was to un-elect the war makers;
the Bush Administration took the White House, and more. In
2005?
It s going to take people power to stop the war in Iraq and the
related atrocities of the project of empire. No one in Washington is going to
do it for us. In order to mobilize the latent anti-war sentiment that already
exists in the U.S. we need to
overcome the assumption that we don t have the power to stop the war.
Let s learn some lessons from the TYBOB experiment: Let s learn how to
effectively harness psychic breaks people are ready to join this movement if we
give them a chance and have clear and accessible organizing models. Let s
explore the viral structure of meme campaigning, and combine real time
organizing on the ground with the power of the internet and the media to move
our action ideas. Let s scout for interventions in idea space, and engage in
mass nonviolent direct action at the points of assumption. Let s mobilize mass
non-cooperation with the US occupation
of Iraq and the
brutal realities of this endless war. Let s build a movement to stop this war
that can remake assumptions about power, and ultimately remake our society.
Let's turn our backs on Bush, and turn towards each other to have conversations
about our strategies to tell each other our stories about how we are going to
stop this war and strengthen the democracy movement. As we turn our backs on
Bush, we got each others back with solidarity, story, and the strength that
comes from strategies made of hope.
____________
Doyle Canning (doyle@smartmeme.com) works in
the core collective of the smartMeme strategy &
training project (http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mgj-discuss/2003-August/002329.html),
and worked with the TYBOB core team on action design, strategy and messaging.
This commentary was reviewed by Jet Heiko and Nick Jehlen, co-founders of Turn Your Back on Bush, and inspired
in part by the evaluative comments of the TYBOB core team meeting on Jan 26,
2005.
________________
F.
from Michael Albert :
www.zmag.org
Click here for : More on the Anti-War
Movement in the United States.
********************
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies/
Director of Research at CEIMSA-IN-EXILE
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/