Talk:Represent The People
September 17th 2011 -- Is America Ripe for a Tahrir Moment?
Links and notes (potentially) related to main article. Figure out where to insert later. Might fold into main article or jump to separate article.
The hope is for the main article's underlying theme to eventually lead into a discussion of strategies and tactics people can use to
- - recognize the benefits of organizing at the community level
- - refashion local and regional economies to directly benefit the long-term interests of the people who live there (as opposed to, for instance, a transnational entity with no interest in the community beyond the "value" it is motivated to extract)
- - build healthy communities while warding off any kind of Balkanization (self-imposed or imposed by other means)
- - understand the reasons why "business as usual" (ie: the globalized neoliberal economic policies imposed by the "developed world's" primary institutions and planners) is collapsing, and how people at the community level might respond
- Upcoming Actions / Events -- National
- A worldwide shift in revolutionary tactics is underway right now that bodes well for the future. The spirit of this fresh tactic, a fusion of Tahrir with the acampadas of Spain, is captured in this quote:
- The antiglobalization movement was the first step on the road. Back then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack, and those who followed behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of people.
- — Raimundo Viejo, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain
- The antiglobalization movement was the first step on the road. Back then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack, and those who followed behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of people.
- OCTOBER 2011: "Join us in Freedom Plaza starting October 6th (2011)!"
- October 2011 is the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan and the beginning of the 2012 federal austerity budget. It is time to light the spark that sets off a true democratic, nonviolent transition to a world in which people are freed to create just and sustainable solutions.
- Environment
- - "Phase out of emissions from coal is itself an enormous challenge. However, if the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over. There is no practical way to capture the CO2 emitted while burning oil, which is used principally in vehicles."
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- Relocalization; Degrowth; Economic Collapse
- Only Cuba provides a decent standard of living for its people without consuming more than its fair share of (global) resources.
- The Twilight of the Antipodes and the Cultural Flip (Power point presentation from talk.)
- Comment from viewer: "Very good synthesis, and honest, radical views. Think for a second about a future where you have to unlearn consumerism, bike around more and recycle your plastic bottles. Then ponder a future where the only reliable forms of transportation available are boats, horses and your feet! :D That's what I mean by an honest view on the current collapse. We're very far from sustainabilty, and it's time we get a clear picture. No matter how ridiculously scary."
- Dmitry Orlov, author of Reinventing Collapse:The Soviet Example and American Prospects, explored the question “What is it that we are looking at here, and what can we do about it?” He believes that there is not much hope for a global financial system and economy, nor should there be given the huge problems it is causing with the environment. If this is the case, then what can people do, in terms of coping with financial collapse, creating community resilience, and re-skilling for the new, local, self-reliant, highly manual age that is coming?
- Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation (Orlov's notes and power point slides.)
- Finance
- Rob Johnson: Financial institutions planning to use crisis to privatize and monopolize.
- EDITOR NOTES: This topic is crucial for people to understand. The same forces whose antics brought the global economy to its knees while accumulating unimaginable "paper" wealth are scooping up every tangible asset they can get their hands on while prices for those assets are cheap and before their currency becomes worthless.
- - Wall Street lobbyists trying to slow down trading regulations and defund Commission
- - Massive spikes in price of food, oil, natural gas and silver cannot be the result of supply and demand
- - For regulations to be effective, there has to be political will and proper resources
- - Regulator gets "around 100 visits from finance reps for every one from community advocates"
- Alex Carey: Corporations and Propaganda: How Corporations Destroyed US Democracy Through Propaganda
- - Summary: The people of the US have been subjected to the most costly, unparalleled, 3/4 century propaganda effort by corporations in order to expand corporate rights, limit democracy and destroy the unions. This two part radio broadcast explores the history From WWI to Reagan.
- Credits: Producer: Maria Gilardin tuc@tucradio.org
- - From Publisher: This compelling book examines the twentieth-century history of corporate propaganda as practiced by U.S. businesses and its export to and adoption by other western democracies, chiefly the United Kingdom and Australia. A volume in the series The History of Communication, edited by Robert W. McChesney and John C. Nerone
- - Praise: "A uniquely important work on the 'ideal of a propaganda-managed democracy."
- --Noam Chomsky
- - "Illuminates how big business propaganda, waged by PR experts, subverts democracy and ensures corporate dominance."
- --John Stauber, coauthor of Toxic Sludge Is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry
- - "A unique study of the growth and development of corporate propaganda in western democracies. . . . Timely, and useful for anyone concerned about the influence of methods of mass persuasion in undermining democracy."
- --Elaine Bernard, Harvard University Trade Union Program
- - Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, is an analysis of the news media as business. The title derives from the phrase “the manufacture of consent” that essayist–editor Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) employed in the book Public Opinion (1922).