It's not often that I post repeat song videos, but I am reposting a video for a song that I referenced in a post about the Scott Walker recall attempt. The inspiration for this post was a comment by Nasreen, who you should be reading, because she's awesome:
So much of the work needs to be about education, I think. I have done work with the Green Party, and it's frustrating, because simply putting up better or more progressive candidates on the ballot isn't enough.
People need to understand corporate power, women's rights, poverty, health care issues, the environment, American history, etc.before having a better candidate on the ballot matters.
I'm amazed by how many people say they became aware of the real situation either through the writings of Noam Chomsky or through the teach-ins that occurred in the Seattle WTO protests in 1999.
Education has to come before electoral successes, it seems to me. I'll do what I can.
The key to implementing change is to focus on a tangible goal, namely increasing the percentage of women holding political office, which is well below the percentage of women in the United States population. The various women's marches across the United States, and the world demonstrated the agitation that women have felt since an admitted sexual predator has ascended to the highest position in the United States. The next step, as Nasreen has so eloquently stated, is education- there is a need to learn about the structure of power and how to mobilize against it. Finally, there has to be organization, people need to network in order to ensure that better political candidates espousing better policies are able to win elections. I sure hope that a lot of contact information was exchanged at the rallies last Saturday. Agitate! Educate! Organize! Sounds like a chant from an anthem, doesn't it?
For the record, That Petrol Emotion featured guitarist Damian O'Neill of Bastard fave The Undertones, which meant that they never lacked for a killer riff.
If I may offer some feedback, 'Education' is to big, vague and nebulous a term to be useful. You need to think about a curriculum of sorts - the things you think are important and links to useful information about them. Because when you're talking about history, politics, economics, social sciences and reistance tactics you're just creating an impossible set of expectations. How would someone who hasn't been deeply involved before even begin to attempt to act on your suggestion.
ReplyDeleteMe, I've been on a sixteen year deep dive into politics, public policy, economics and the American system of governance since the Florida recount and resulting coup shook me out of my apolitical slumber and I still have much to learn.
And as far as resistance goes, what's your model? Is there a historical model that was both effective over the long term and didn't result in massive bloodshed? I mean, I don't think we're at a point in the US where IEDs and direct action is called for, so other than taking to the streets and trying to influence the electoral process in vulnerable geographies is about all we have...
I think the resistance really lies in political organization on all levels- the one thing the Tea Party succeeded in wildly was mobilization. No elections should be uncontested, and local seats, such as school board elections, should be filled. The whole 'every four years, we'll go out to vote for president' model needs to be dumped. I don't think it'll come to violence, except between the black bloc and the neo-Nazi fringes, but those fuckers have always looked for excuses to fight.
ReplyDeleteHaz zombie seen That Petrol Emotion? Well, of course!
ReplyDeleteSo, BBBB, are you going to the Robyn Hitchcock shows where he's being backed up by Yo La Tengo? I would give both of Scott Walker's testicles to see that....