How to survive the crash
The United States financial system is abandoning ordinary people at home just as it has throughout the world for decades. As a result, most of us are frustrated to the point that our upset is starting to turn into a clearly focused, highly determined anger. So how do we go from this place of anger to standing up and becoming the change we want to see, not just by voting, but by our actions as well? Read below for some ideas.
1. As Naomi Klein points out, the antidote to shock therapy is information. Share with others of like mind, and don’t be afraid to talk with those who aren’t.
2. Utilize your connections (friends, family, co-workers) to build active, engaged support networks, so when things really start to get tough, you’ll already have worked through the bulk of your interpersonal/cultural/ideological issues and conflicts while you still have the time to do so.
3. Don’t be daunted by fluidity — the world is changing rapidly. Be both flexible and immovable, depending on the situation.
4. Needless to say, use the Internet for all it’s worth.
5. If the people you work with are cowed into silence, regroup and find another way to keep the work going.
6. If “they” won’t let you do it, and it needs to be done? Do it anyway.
7. Promote and encourage as wide a range of responses as possible.
8. Don’t rely on the left-right dichotomy for your political anchor — but do know what you believe, and speak up if you are being messed with.
9. Read voraciously and live simply; learn about social movements throughout history, and take time to become fluent in social movements in the present. Read People’s History of the United States!
10. Recognize that there is a way to be a warrior for change. Key to this is getting your mind clear, as well as your heart.
11. Don’t get too stuck in the virtual. Trees are good — and I don’t just mean the virtual kind.
12. Be bold. Shout your truth from the mountain tops. Tell friends, talk with strangers, live the world you want to see.
13. Be really bold. During the elections, a Code Pink activist managed to get right up to Condi Rice and confronted her as a war criminal. We need to step up the heat, not turn it down.
14. Remember that organizations that don’t have clear goals that serve functional purposes become self-involved and self-interested. As such, focus on the work more than enterprise.
15. Horizontal organizing is more resilient than top-down organizing. As such, encourage forms of resistance that reflect this. Examples: Spokescouncils, APPO, Argentinian worker collectives and neighborhood councils.
