Click right here, or on the image, for an interview with Stephen Lerner, a labor organizer who created the successful Justice for Janitors campaign.Lerner likes the "Occupy" movement, which he says is "sort of theory and practice meeting." On the "theory" side, Lerner says that one of the reasons that his Justice for Janitors campaign worked was that "we had an analysis of who had power."
Thinking ahead to 2012, we of the 99% party need to base our efforts on just such an analysis. As we do that, I don't think we should overlook the power of local government. Local government agencies are "our" institutions, supposedly responsive to our concerns. We need to start having our local governments become part of the "Occupy" movement, not the locus of efforts to displace and destroy it, by acting as agents of the 1%.
My experience convinces me that local government can act as a kind of "megaphone" for community level concerns, aiming the arrows of local government power at targets at the state and federal level.
Next year, "Occupy Local Government" might be a good slogan to consider.
Perhaps the "Occupy *" actions are a call to all of us to occupy our own space and time. In other words, to pay attention and participate in the real life around us where we have a good chance of making an impact.
ReplyDeleteI like that thought!
ReplyDeleteI will occupy local government to help protect all the good work you help move forward with our County General Plan.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like we need an Environmentalist on the Board of Supervisors who has been through the battles for the past decades.
It would be great if Sup "Pave It!" John understood how the earth works as he does how politics works.
He is not the person I thought I was supporting.
If no one else is willing to take on his machine, I guess it is up to me.
Volunteers needed
paulden4supervisor@yahoo.com