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The
Oral Majority will NEVER
FORGET the day Democracy Died.
A
Special Message about Activism I. E-Activism Since Election Day, a SPECIAL REPORT When we started putting this digest together, the idea was to do a recap. But of course any mention of this activism would be remiss if we did not also let you know what is happening right now. Of course the largest activities are plans for protests in Washington, DC, but there is activity all over. See http://13myths.org/losang.gif, for example. It is going to be a very interesting three weeks... A. Loudcitizen.com Right-wing web sites are putting out the message that "Democrats" are organizing a coalition of 300 anti-Constitutional groups to oppose the inauguration. Under a headline titled "DEMS WILL TRY TO DELEGITIMIZE BUSH PRESIDENCY" they offer a link to the International Action Center, a group in which Democrats are actually quite rare. See: http://www.loudcitizen.com/misc/protestors.htm At least they have good information on travel arrangements and http://www.loudcitizen.com/million/resources.htm which are useful no matter what side you are on. But if you want to join their bus caravan from Boston to DC, on "Freedom Express" busses, be forwarned. This form of travel is restricted to "all Bush supporters, all anti-Gore protesters, all anti-Jesse Jackson Protesters, all Constitutionalists, Libertarians, Independents, Conservatives and Republicans alike and anyone sympathetic to any one or all of these agendas." See: http://people.ne.mediaone.net/zed-lep/loudexpress.htm B. OK, enough of what the right is doing. What about people protesting the dubious circumstances by which Bush and the Supreme court disenfranchised Florida voters. As of 12/27 here are four major web sites circulating protest information. 1) votermarch.org -- information on a rally that is taking place at 10am on Inauguration Day, starting from Dupont Circle (on the Red Line Metro). This march has been organized by liberal democrats with some greens and independents. Lead Organizers: Louis Posner Esq. and Joel Landy. They are working fairly closely with countercoup.org -- the internet based network of 50 eGroups started by Zack Exley (see below). Excellent travel info on the votermarch web site! 2) inaugurauction.org -- information on the DC-based Justice Action Movement which includes dozens of groups who also protested against the IMF and the World Bank on April 16. Part of the theme is that the presidency was determined by corporate money, sold at auction to the highest bidder. They just posted a legal brief explaining what the laws are regarding protests at an inauguration. They are emphasizing creativity and decentralization. Expect puppets and theatre. 3) iacenter.org -- the International Action Center is a nationally organized group based in New York City that was planning for a January 20 protest well before election day. They are working in coalition with groups that support the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Because of their early start, they are very well-organized. Historically, IAC has been affiliated with the National Peoples' Campaign, an organization with strong socialist ("Troskyist") ties. 4) ippn.org -- The Independent Progressive Politics Network convened a Progressive Dialogue on December 2-3 which resulted in a national call for a "Pro-Democracy Week of Action" from January 15-20. This coalition already had 22 groups after only a day or two of endorsement collecting. It could potentially be the most significant because it is a coalition of many groups and it is explicitly encouraging local events in hundreds of cities from January 15-19. So if you are in Tulsa and you want your event on January 16 to get publicity it would be a good idea to hook in with this broad-based coalition. Includes Global Exchange, Inst. for Policy Studies, Tikkun Magazine, Center for Voting and Democracy, Wisconsin Green Party, etc. The ippn.org web site will be updated on December 31. If you want to help with their web updates, please contact them at: lcliggitt@mindspring.com Note: Operation Push (www.rainbowpush.org) is likely to work in coalition with some of these groups but until there is more definitive information I will leave it for later. They have big plans for Martin Luther King day and for Jan. 19. The web page is not their preferred method of reaching their base (only 10-15% of African Americans have PCs at home). So your best bet is to contact civil rights organizations in your area if you want more information or if you want to build a coalition. Or consult 13myths.org after January 2 for an update on the Rainbow's involvement. II. Case study: Zack Exley Recaps the Countercoup Experience Zack Exley has written an engaging piece about his experience organizing the network of "trustthepeople" email lists on egroups and the associated web site countercoup.org. Rather then include it here (we've said enough already) we have a link to it at: http://organizenow.net/techtips/countercoup.txt A bit of feedback on the this article: one immediate observation is that if Exley had had similar success organizing pro-Bush activities, he immediately would have received considerable administrative and financial support. Just look at how Matt Drudge quickly rose from relative obscurity (writing a small column on AOL) to receive enormous conservative backing. With countercoup, it appeared that there was far less structure in place to support him as compared with loudcitizen.com. 14 months ago, when Exley first got into hot water with a Bush complaint to the FEC after he created gwbush.com, a satire of the main Bush campaign web site, it was not the ACLU that came to Exley's aid but the religious right, in the form of the Rutherford Society, the organization that backed the legal case of Paula Jones. Finally, historians of the 2000 election might also ponder what the result might have been if the emphasis of countercoup was on organizing groups rather than on organizing individuals. Hooking up 1000 groups online might enable you to turn out 20,000 people nationally in a coordinated protest. Whereas hooking up 2000 individuals (roughly the size of the trustthepeople network) does not necessarily bring out support from organizations. If the countercoup experience is studied further by groups like the Benton or Merkle Foundations, or by academics like Paul Resnick at the University of Michigan, it is likely that researchers will notice that the largest turnout was produced by countercoup groups that build coalitions with existing progressive forces in their communities -- rather than relying almost completely on mobilizing people who were on a single electronic discussion. What are your thoughts on the Exley piece? Or on any of the comments of the past 2 days? Please share them and they will be printed in this page, in our "anniversary" issue in early January. Have a Happy New Year!!
-rich cowan, editor ===============================
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