Tim Mocarski"I and mine do not convince by arguments, similes, rhymes. We convince by our presence."
Walt Whitman
Jim GarrettI posted this back in the Trump 1.0 days but with 2.0 coming, it's worth a repeat:
If 10% of activists read George Lakey's "How We Win", we'd be in a different sort of country.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600693/how-we-win-by-george-lakey/
Here's an outline:
- Identify a specific objective and the people/entity that is empowered to deliver it.
- Identify key parties who play a role. Who opposes your objective? Who supports it? Who leans one way or the other? Line the parties up on a spectrum.
- Develop a campaign of actions that ratchet up in severity. Actions should be designed to bring most parties towards you at least one step on the spectrum: maybe those leaning against you will become neutral, those leaning towards you will become more vocal etc. Above all, persist: your opponents must come to realize that if they do not accede to your demands, their costs will only grow.
- Protest/march can be an action but there are many other possibilities. A one-and-done protest is useless: your opponents will just wait until it's over.
- Don't campaign for recognition of a general non-specific principle; instead, identify multiple specific goals and follow multiple campaigns. (I scratched my head over this one and asked Dr. Lakey about it in a workshop, and he was insistent on the point.)
This is based on analysis of a database of civil action campaigns, and written by someone who helped train Freedom Riders in the '60's.
If you read this, you'll realize how many earnest efforts are wasted. We can't afford that!
Jim GarrettNonviolent direct action is fun and empowering, the opposite of despairing. You're doing something and creating the dynamic, not responding to it. And if your opponent doesn't accede, you escalate.
#HowWeWin
#HowWeWin
A searchable database of historical direct action campaigns hosted by Swarthmore College, GNAD:
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/
Non-violent direct action campaigns have had 2x the success rate of struggles that used violence. It has unseated despots.
I just started reading "How We Win" by George Lakey. Lakey has a long history in training activists in direct action methods, including training civil rights activists at the Highland School.
His language is so direct and clear that as soon as you read a statement you think "But of course!"
If 10% of Americans read this book we could turn the country around.
I'll post thoughts from the book occasionally.
#HowWeWin