Activism

Hundreds of thousands of protesters swept through Manhattan on Saturday in a march rallying against the war in Iraq and future US military action, particularly in Iran. But with a litany of abuses on their minds, demonstrators made it clear that the protest went beyond a simple anti-war stance to include broader critiques of US government policies.

"Think Globally-Act Locally," read the fading bumper stickers on thousands of cars and guitar cases across the United States. This influential statement has defined a popular activist strategy that politically connects our local movements with those in other countries. But what does this idea mean and where has it gotten those of us working toward social change in our communities and across the world? How does the challenge to think globally and act locally play out in our everyday lives? 

In his Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity Dan Berger takes older readers on a trip down memory lane and introduces younger readers to the world of '60s, '70s and early '80s aboveground and underground white New Left activism.

My 'self-report' date to prison is April 11th.  I will be incarcerated in FCI Danbury, Connecticut for 90 days. Prison, I'm imagining, is the exact opposite of my cat.

In my two weeks volunteering with the anarchist-friendly Common Ground Collective this past January, I met a lot of people who considered themselves progressives, radicals, and/or anarchists, enough to make it clear that a lot of them saw their sociopolitical views as having some connection to their volunteer work in New Orleans. That work consisted (and consists, as Common Ground will continue to drawn in hundreds and maybe thousands of new and returning volunteers in the coming months) mostly of gutting houses for residents of the devastated Ninth Ward and other impoverished areas, but also of providing medical services, distributing supplies (food, clothing, hygienic products, cleaning supplies, etc.), and doing outreach in an attempt to help the community organize its response to the city's controversial rebuilding plan.