activist
Blog: Theatre for Bread and Liberation: An interview with Janelle Treibitz
Photo: Philippe Duhamel
Janelle Treibitz is a proud puppetista, organizer and waitress who also likes to hone her training skills on the side. In this interview, she shares her passion for puppets, wholesome bread and liberation.
Q. Please tell me, Janelle Treibitz, how did you come to puppets?
J. T.: I have always cared about social justice issues and people. I attribute some of it to judaism and the way I was raised as a Jew, to my synagogue and to my parents teaching me to question, and make opinions for myself.
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Blog: The Whole World Stopped Watching (Part II): How "Diversity of Tactics" offers neither
Nobody can argue against the proven benefits of using a diversity of well-chosen tactics to wage successful struggles. The sequencing of multiple creative tactics ranging from protests to legislative pressures, from secondary boycotts to civil disobedience, has been a fundamental feature of countless successful campaigns. A wide variety of tactics lies at the core of the emphasis nonviolent activists have put for decades on knowing a repertoire of at least 198 methods of action, and on clever ways to sequence them.But dangerous slips of logic have presided over a protest framework known as "Respect for a Diversity of Tactics". I believe the failure of protests such as the one at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul (USA) last September is inherent in the Diversity of Tactics approach.
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Blog: The Whole World Stopped Watching: "Diversity of Tactics", Repression, and the RNC protests in St. Paul, Minnesota (Part I)
Photo: Diana Jou
On September 1, 2008, several hundred protesters from across mainland USA tried to stop delegates from attending the Republican National Convention at the Xcel Center in the business district of Saint Paul, Minneapolis, where they were going to crown presidential hopeful John McCain.
"Crash the Convention" was the order of the day. But politically and number-wise, whose side really got smashed and crushed?
Over 800 people arrested. Many more detained and released. House raids in the middle of the night. Eight organizers facing "Conspiracy to Commit Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism", a second degree felony charges. Maximum penalty: seven and a half years in prison.
Deep police infiltration. Pre-emptive searches and seizures. Baton rounds. Concussion and Sponge grenades. Tasers. Pepper spray. Tear gas.
The intense brutality of the crackdown in the Twin Cities was an awful, a hydra monster of gross violations. Outrage and indignation. These are healthy, vital reactions.
But once the emotion subsides, what should be the question?
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Blog: So the whole world can watch
From the video "We were warriors".
From
behind the stools, white men start taunting the mixed row of mostly
black students who had the audacity to sit there. "He's so dark the
whole room is darkened." "Nobody ain't gonna sit beside them dirty
niggers." Those on the swiveling seats at the counter answer only with
an unshakable look of dignity. Frustrated, the men from behind start
pushing and shoving. Still no response from those on the stools. Then
they launch the attack: hurling obscenities, throwing milk shakes and
live cigarette buts, grabbing and punching. Lenses capture the scene.
The whole world watches in shock.
Blog: Nine ways nonviolent action workshops make better activists
In
the yard behind Christian Peacemaker Teams' headquarters in Chicago,
trainees stage a realistic role-playing exercise to prepare for
nonviolent accompaniment work in Hebron. Photo cc: delayed gratification.
The goal of training in nonviolent conflict is to prepare activists and supporters politically, physically, and psychologically to wage powerful campaigns and actions. Here are nine ways nonviolent action workshops help individuals hone their skills and nurture the courage and resilience they need to withstand the pressures of unarmed struggle.
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Blog: Nonviolence training, what is it good for?
photo cc: treviño
There's an idea out there that anyone can take to the streets and make themselves heard. You just head out and start demonstrating to confront power. It's a beautiful idea.
Sooner than later, however, any assertive form of mass mobilization will cross path with agents of authority, be they security guards, police, or military. These forces are armed, and trained.
Blog: Four leverage points on the money
Photo cc: macca.
Do you feel the Earth is getting trashed faster than we seem to be able to save it? Do you sometimes share in the despair that our dependance on Big Oil & SUV's — with their attendant wars, food to ethanol follies, and other tar sands insanities — will bring down civilization faster than the ice caps and Greenland are melting?
Petroleum, mining and other corporate interests are in a head-on collision against local, land-based cultures, in a conflict so deep the whole world is its battlefield. Solutions based on morality, human values, respect for nature, and sheer common sense appear more inaccessible now than ever.
It's a battle of two worlds, simply said. A global clash: Earth and living creatures on one side, Cash on the other.
Well, here's how leverage works:
1. Find a place to stand (the support base, also called the fulcrum, or pivot);
2. Find a lever (a long enough stick);
3. Locate the pressure point (where you stick the lever);
4. Work like hell from your end of the stick;
5. Move the world (...thanks Archimedes!)
Because it funds and underwrites all large-scale projects, when you want to save some corner of the planet, you may find yourself in need of moving the world of Finance. That's when knowing about the following four leverage points could come in handy.
Blog: When they just don't care
It's not like you state your case, show the damage, the injustice... and then they say they're sorry and mend their ways.
Let's face it: some opponents are ruthless. They just don't seem to care. Public opinion doesn't sway their behaviour.
Take gold mining corporations that have wrought horrible, unspeakable environmental destruction. Some use cyanide — cyanide! — to extract from open pit wounds the 2% to 3% of precious gold content, leaving the remaining poisonous 97% to leach and seep, for generations.
Water. Public health. Farming and the right to eat. The environment. Global sanity. What can you do? Whole communities are at stake.
A number of mining companies don't care much about communities. They will, and they have, killed for the money. And once the money is gone, they're gone.
How do you influence a company that doesn't seem to care about anything? Faced with an opponent that is impervious to logic, human sensitivity and public pressure, where do you turn?
Blog: Organizing Tips for Citizens Tribunals
Photo cc: bloomsberries.
A mock tribunal is not a kangoroo court. The more your mock tribunal adheres to recognized standards of a fair trial, and resembles the existing proceedings in your country, the more credibility the endeavour can earn.
We have explained previously how citizen-based mock tribunals make good use of premonitory power, discussed the impact of repressed testimonies towards making truth and reconciliation possible, and covered 14 things to think about before you organize a mock tribunal.
In this last piece on paralegal forums, we turn to practical advice on conducting non-governmental "trials", with some ideas for follow-up activities that can prolong and widen the tribunal's impact.
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