Please read the short essay, or just click the answers to these simple questions. You may need to *enable popups.
1.Why were the anti-war activists in the video disappointed?
A. They didn't have enough different events
B. Authorities did not respond to them
C. Their goals were higher than their perceived accomplishment
2. Gandhi led a boycott of British textiles and Cesar Chavez led a boycott of California grapes. What can we learn from their successes?
A. Great men can make anything work
B. Boycotts are the best tactics
C. Only economic tactics matter
3. Of the various tactics mentioned, which ones will probably be effective?
A. Most of them, in the right time and place
B. Only those that confront authority
C. Only those with a direct economic connection
D. The ones that small groups do
*If popups don't work when you click on the answers, you will probably get a yellow line across the top of your screen. Click on it and choose "temporarily enable popups."
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Tactics: Good and Bad |
One can cruise around YouTube and get a lot of opinions on strategies and tactics for progressive change. An instructive case is
"The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War"
It's a video from an anti-war demonstration in San Francisco and some after-thoughts by participants. It is proudly described as, “A true carnival of resistance.”
Some of the actions illustrated:
- Mass demonstration in city streets
- Knitting by a group named “Crafty Bitches Knitting for Peace”
- Turning over a trash bin
- Painting grafitti
- Sit-down to stop traffic in an intersection (“They had the fire department out and ready...”)
- Other traffic blocking exercises: “Moving blockades.”
- Interrupting “business as usual” with demand “Don’t go to work.”
- Setting a fire in the street, apparently with a flag or other symbolic materials on it
- Showing pictures of the atrocities of the war
The organization may have fallen apart. Different activists are interviewed. One young man comments, “It is hard not to feel disappointed... about the fact that the occupation [of Iraq] continues to this day...”
One interviewee says, “There was a good spark, but of course a spark is not the same as a fire.”
A couple of activists express doubts and divisions about the group itself and “...how consensus can be manipulated.”
One very serious young man ends with a call for learning from what has happened so far, and to be “more strategic” in future. He asks, “What would a real strategy to stop the war look like?”
Change comes from great mobilizations
It is sadly true that some people do not believe that mobilizing significant parts of the population is the key to social improvement. There is an unfortunate quote from a popular archeologist going around the internet. It says that only small groups of people have ever made progressive change. Nonsense!
The great changes have come about when great numbers of people demand them. Small groups are more likely to confuse the issues than to help. Individuals who are credited with having made great changes are individuals who knew they had to mobilize great numbers. The list includes
- George Washington
- Cesar Chavez
- Mahatma Gandhi
- V.I. Lenin
- Abraham Lincoln
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Good tactics come from good analysis
One could add a great number of possible tactics to the ones already mentioned:
- fasting
- extended vigils
- prayer meetings
- petitioning
- voter drives
- press conferences
- letter writing campaigns
- product boycotts
- etc
None of them are intrinsically work-every-time "good," and none are necessarily bad. All of them have to be judged in terms of their effectiveness in the time and place that they are implemented.
No tactic deserves to become a fetish
Correct analysis of ever-changing conditions and available resources is the key.
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