U.S. Military Spending Compared {3}

The United States spends almost as much money on its military as all other nations in the world combined.{1} Paying for past, present, and future
wars consumes 54% of our Federal budget.{2} These figures are not controversial, everyone on all sides of the debate acknowledge them. The dispute is over whether we need such a huge military, and why.

Why do we spend so much? Canada is not massing troops to pour over the border, Mexico is not arming for war against us. There is not a nation on the planet who poses any credible military threat to America.

Where Your Taxes Go {2}

Yes, terrorists have attacked us. But the bulk of our military budget goes for “big-ticket” items like aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines, stealth bombers and supersonic fighters, armored divisions and ICBMs. None of these expensive weapons are effective against terrorists who conceal themselves within a civilian population.

So, again, the question is why? This question is not new, and the answer has not changed. After resigning from the Marine Corps in 1935, Major General Smedley Butler (holder of two Congressional Medals of Honor) wrote the following:

“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscleman for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys [today Citi Bank] to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in threedistricts. I operated on three continents.”

Sources:

{1} U.S. vs. Global Defense Spending
{2} Where Your Income Tax Really Goes
{3} Military Expenditure Database

Military Spending — The Basic Truth [PDF version of this post, as a flyer]

The purpose of Nonviolent Resistance is to affect peoples’ thinking and build political movements for social change. From that perspective, Nonviolent Resistance is a broad concept encompassing education, organizing, alternative social structures, personal-witness, noncooperation — and, of course, direct action protests.

Some nonviolent actions are large-scale (boycotts, mass marches, strikes, civil non-cooperation, etc) others are engaged in by small groups (pickets, sit-ins, freedom rides, occupations, etc). Regardless of size, the point of a demonstration is to influence people towards affecting some kind of social/political change. When we study the actual impact of nonviolent protests it’s like peeling away the layers of an onion, with each layer representing a different audience. From the core to the outer layer, the effect of a nonviolent protest on each audience varies in the number of people who are influenced, the intensity of the effect, and our control over the content of the message they receive.

At its simplest, the four basic layers of the protest onion are:

1. Participants. The nonviolent resistors engaged in the protest.

2. Observers. The individuals at the businesses or institutions the protest is targeting, and the uninvolved bystanders who encounter or observe the protest.

3. Grapevine. Those who directly hear about the protest from some other person whom they know (including through personal social media such as Twitter, FaceBook, & etc).

4. Media. Those who learn of the protest through impersonal mass media.

Participants.

Participants are the first (inner) layer of the audience onion. For most small-group actions this layer is the least in numbers, though that might not be the case for a mass action. Nonviolent Resistance affects the people who engage in it more deeply than anyone else, and with participants we have the greatest control over the content of the experience.

When you’re a veteran of protest politics it may be hard to remember how your first mass march, your first sit-in, your first arrest affected you. But over and over in their Veterans Roll Call statements on the Civil Rights Movement Veterans website, people talk about how their participation in the Freedom Movement permanently changed and shaped their lives. In some circumstances and for some people, taking part in direct action is a profound expression of defiance and courage, for others it can sometimes be a living rejection of the conformist societal norms that previously governed their lives. In some instances, nonviolent protest can be life-changing affirmation of dignity and self-worth — I AM a Man — and a living experience and expression of human solidarity — I Am Not Alone. And, of course, actively planning and participating in a protest provides a depth of political education that no leaflet, speech, article or manifesto can match.

For participants, direct action organizers have the greatest control over the message they experience. In this context, “message” is far more than just the content of the slogans, speeches, signs, and leaflets that express the event’s politics. As we all know, “Actions speak louder than words.” Therefore, the “message” of a protest is a compound of the explicit politics conveyed by words, and the implicit content conveyed by what we do, the way we interact with and treat each other (and those whom we encounter), the emotions we share, and the bonds that we (hopefully) build. Unfortunately, some leaders concentrate so much on planning an action’s explicit political content (words), and how the media will view the demonstration, that they overlook the importance of shaping how it affects those taking part. Which is one reason we see so many sterile, boring, repetitive we-speak-you-listen-and-occasionally-chant rallies.

Of course, over time the personal effect of any given action tends to decrease as someone repeats that kind of protest. Baring some unusual circumstances, someone’s 10th sit-in affects their consciousness less than did their first. Which is why repeating the same action over and over with the same people often leads to diminishing returns. Though, of course, sometimes dogged stubborn repetition is necessary (a strike or boycott picket line, for example). But even in those cases, a creative nonviolent resistor can, and should, look for ways to vary the experience of the participants.

Observers.

Observers are the second layer of the audience onion. Observers include both the people at the institution/businesses the demonstration is targeting and the passers-by who happen to encounter it. These people have a direct, personal experience of the action, but for most of them it is at one-remove from the participants. For small-group protests the number of observers is usually greater than the number of protesters, and that might be the case for a mass-action as well. The effect of the action on observers is less intense than on the participants, but greater than with the two outer layers. And we have less control over what they experience and how they perceive our message.

Marshall McLuhan made famous the now-hackneyed cliche, “The medium is the message.” For a protest action, it’s more accurate to say that “The medium is a crucial component of the message,” as important as the signs, leaflets, chants, and speeches. One aspect of a demonstration’s “medium” is the tactics employed — rally, picket-line, sit-in, occupation, etc. Another, and probably more important, aspect is the demeanor and discipline of the protest participants. During the Southern Freedom Movement, young, Black, protesters nonviolently defying segregation with discipline and determination was a message in and of itself beyond the content of the specific demands, targets, and rhetoric. When Malcolm-X organized Black Muslims to protest police brutality in Harlem by facing the precinct station in silent, orderly rows, their quiet discipline was a powerful message delivered through a nonviolent medium. A message quite different, and far stronger, than rowdies smashing windows, spraying graffiti, or setting trash fires as we occasionally see today.

In essence, nonviolent direct action is speaking truth to power. Our society conditions us to accept and obey both custom and authority. A protest says “NO!” “No!” is the most powerful word in the English language.

No! We don’t accept segregation any longer!
No! We won’t allow ourselves to be abused
No! We won’t support a war for oil in Iraq!
No! We won’t allow Wall Street to rule our lives!

When people see others saying “No!” through a protest, it (hopefully) awakens in them the realization that they too can say “No” in their own lives. This is one of the most important effects that a demonstration can (and should) have on observers. But in order for that effect to occur, the action has to be designed to encourage sympathy and support rather than fear and opposition.

Obviously, bystanders are not the adversaries against whom the protest is directed. And in most cases that is also true of the people who work at the institution or business being targeted because they are rarely the decision-makers. Therefore, it does no good (and some harm) to direct rage, hatred, and hostility at bystanders, clerks, and mid-level bureaucrats. Of course, for some kinds of disruptive nonviolent actions those who are inconvenienced are, in a sense, unwilling and unhappy participants who will probably have at best a mixed reaction and at worst quite a hostile one. But even for them, our stance should be one of education, not anger at those who do not bear responsibility for the abuses we are protesting.

Yet before we can begin education we have to allay fear. It is astounding how many people are made nervous and upset by even the most peaceful nonviolent demonstration. By definition, a protest is a defiance and disruption of social order, and that violation of everyday tranquility is frightening to some folk even when there is no threat whatsoever of violence. The problem for us is that what people fear they come to hate and oppose. (Which exposes the fundamental fallacy of terrorism whether committed by a government or an underground band — yes, in the short-run terror can violently coerce people into obedience, but in the long-run it creates ever more enemies.) So for us, an essential rule of effective nonviolent direct action has to be: Don’t frighten the observers!

Which brings us back to education, because that which is strange and unfamiliar is for many folk frightening. In this context, signs, chants, and speeches are not all that effective. For one thing, at a half-block or across a wide avenue, the chanted words become hard to make out even if amplified, and at that distance signs start to become unreadable. But even if the words are perfectly clear, they’re still part of an “us-them” paradigm which contributes to observer fear. Therefore, nonviolent protest organizers need to assign some of their best people — those most able to communicate with strangers on a friendly, non-hostile basis — to work the periphery of the action handing out flyers, talking to bystanders, answering questions, and even, if feasible, explaining the underlying issues to those being inconvenienced.

3. Grapevine. I heard it through the grapevine!

Those who hear about a protest, and form an impression of it, from someone they personally know are the third layer of the audience onion. Hopefully, the number of people who hear about an action should significantly exceed the number who participate in it or directly observe it. But because they are hearing about it at second or third hand rather than experiencing it themselves, the intensity of impact is less than with participants and observers, and our control over the content of the message that comes through to them is greatly diminished.

In the real world of people-power politics (to say nothing of commercial advertising), word-of-mouth is far more effective than media sound bites or column inches. Word-of-mouth can be via conversations (face-to-face or phone), or through some social media such as FaceBook or Twitter. The key point is that the information comes from a personal acquaintance because that kind of connection usually carries more weight and greater influence than anything received from the mass media (even if the person they’re hearing from did not personally participate in, or observe the demonstration).

Thus, an important goal of nonviolent direct action is to be talked about in a positive (or at least neutral) fashion, one-on-one or over social media — ”Did you hear about…“

While violence on our part against people or property will certainly generate a lot of talk, that kind of negative buzz does not build mass political movements for social change, in fact it does the opposite. What gets the grapevine humming in a positive way are nonviolent actions that incorporate Audacity & Humor. Audacious nonviolence should provoke a “They did what!?” response that spreads far and wide. In this context, “audacity” means nonviolently breaking the paradigm of business-as-usual social behavior. Audacity is doing the unexpected. Audacity is violating cultural taboos in ways calculated to provoke a reaction without alienating potential supporters (or, at least, not alienating them too much).

When an audacious action is not feasible, sometimes humor is almost as effective. Laughter and ridicule undermine authority and diminish its ability to compel obedience. You can weaken, unbalance, and ultimately overthrow the king quicker by laughing at him than by screaming futile fury at him. Humor appeals to observers and potential supporters — rage frightens and alienates them. Humor disarms and confuses adversaries — anger triggers ingrained patterns of defense and counter-attack. Humor is more sustainable than anger because rage is exhausting, few people can sustain intense fury over long periods of time. Humor, however, is energizing, both in the short-run of a single protest, and in the long- run of an extended campaign.

Humor and audacity work hand-in-hand, reinforcing each other. Humor reduces and defuses hostile reaction to broken taboos, and nothing spreads faster by word-of-mouth (or Twitter tweets) than tales of audacious humor.

4. Media (if any).

Those who learn of a protest, and form an impression of it, through impersonal mass media (TV, newspaper, radio, websites, etc) are the fourth and outermost layer of the audience onion. If the mass media covers a protest, the number of people who hear of it that way will almost certainly be larger than any of the inner onion layers. But the impact will be far less than on participants, observers, and those who hear about it through the grapevine.

Leaving aside the small-scale media organs we ourselves might control (newsletter, website, YouTube clips, maybe a radio show), our influence over the content of what people hear about an action from the mass media is almost nil. The corporate media operates on its own — often hostile — agenda which rarely supports changes to the established order. I learned this the hard way back in 1964 when I saw 800 completely nonviolent protesters dragged out of Sproul Hall while the cops kicked and beat on them, and the headline in the morning paper read “Berkeley Students Riot!” And today, as I write this 47 years later, the mass media coverage of the “Occupy Wall Street” protests is telling the public that the demonstrators have no clear idea or purpose behind what they are doing even though their detailed 21-point “Declaration of the Occupation” has been all over the web for more than a week.

Therefore, given that the media may not cover a protest at all, and the low-intensity impact if they do, plus our inability to influence media content, nonviolent resistors cannot rely on the commercial media to achieve our ends or build a political movement for social change. Which means that the effectiveness of an action cannot be judged by the amount of media coverage it generates (if any). Nor should tactics be chosen based on assumptions of how much media attention those tactics will (or won’t) garner.

Since the purpose of a nonviolent action is to build a political, people-power movement, if it positively affects the first three layers of the audience onion towards that end it is a success regardless of media coverage. More than 90% of all the nonviolent protests conducted by the Southern Freedom Movement of the 1960s had no media coverage whatsoever, not a single radio sound bite, not a single newspaper sentence, yet they profoundly changed the participants, observers, and grapevine as well as their communities and the nation as a whole.

Yes, at times the media is needed to publicize an issue and the struggle around it. So sometimes it is appropriate and necessary to engage in protests designed for the media. But media-oriented actions are just one instrument in the Nonviolent Resistance orchestra, just as you can’t compose a symphony using only bassoons, neither can you build a movement using nothing but (or mostly) media-oriented events.

And, of course, the fact is that protests of all kinds are only one component of building a political movement for social change. Like the tip of an iceberg, demonstrations are what is visible to outsiders (and the media), but that tip exists on a foundation of outreach, organizing, conversations, education, meetings, planning, and many other forms of quiet, non-glamourous, hard work.

 — Copyright © Bruce Hartford, 2011

Laying Out the American Game

The game was laid out on the central lawn and composed of paths marked by lines of rope on the grass that players walked along. The lines were divided into segments of American life with “Choice” and “Chance” points directing people to different paths. Posted on each path were facts, photo collages, and hand-written commentary signs giving our jaundiced (and, yes, sometimes bitterly angry) view of that segment of life. The commentaries were not sophisticated or arcane political analyses, rather they were the political equivalent of leaflets. But unlike our typical flyers, they used sarcasm and humor instead of slogans and obscure jargon.

The game paths were:

• Mainline: childhood to college to activism
• Black/Latino (Ghetto)
• Draft, Army, Vietnam
• Working Class
• Middle Class
• Hippy/Artist

Students Playing the Americana Game

We laid out the game early one morning, and in the two days it was up before the administration tore it down, hundred and hundreds of students played it — walking the lines and reading the signs. It generated a lot of comment and discussion.

Some students accused us of presenting an “unbalanced” view of society and failing to be “academically objective.” Charges to which we proudly pled guilty, citing the 1st Amendment right to express strong opinions, and then countering with the class and political biases of the supposedly impartial content of the courses we experienced every day at S.F. State.

But perhaps the most lasting effect was on ourselves within SDS — the result of the discussions, debates (okay, knock-down, drag-out arguments) that we went through planning the game, creating the content, and writing the commentary signs.

MAINLINE PATH, SECTION 1. Socialization.

Everyone starts at Mainline, Section 1. Our sardonic view of growing up in the 1950s and early 60s, the lies, myths, distortions, materialist values and corrupt politics.

MAINLINE PATH, SECTION 2. High School.

Our view of high school from a point of view somewhat different from that of the school principal and PTA.

[CHANCE] RACE Flip a card to learn if you’re white, Black, or Latino.

* Congratulations! You’re white, continue up the Mainline.
* Congratulations! You’re Black/Latino. Take the Ghetto path.

[CHOICE #1] on the Mainline. Choose a path:

1. Continue up the Mainline to college.
2. Drop out and join the Working Class path (start at the sign with the green balloon).

MAINLINE PATH, SECTION 3. College.

Our opinion of our college experience from a point of quite at odds with that of the administration — our critique of college life and the role that the university plays in society.

[CHOICE #2] on the Mainline. Choose a path:

1. Be a docile student. Follow the Career path to Middle-Class life.
2. Become a student rebel activist. Continue up the Mainline.
3. Fuck the whole thing. Take the Drop Out path.

MAINLINE PATH, SECTION 4. Student Activism

Re-cap of recent political struggles on campus (anti-ROTC, demand for Third World studies, Vietnam & draft protests, student rights, etc). Police & arrests on campus, etc. Administration suppression of free speech & thought, etc. Critiques of liberal Democratic Party politics.

[CHOICE #3] on the Mainline. Choose a path:

1. Continue on as a post-college political activist/organizer
2. Reform the system from within. Cross-over to the Middle Class path.

MAINLINE PATH, SECTION 5. Activist/Organizer

[CHANCE] DRAFT. Now that you’re out of college and your student deferment has expired, flip a card to learn if you’ve been drafted.

* Greetings! Uncle Sam wants you. Go to the Induction Center. (Sign with the red balloon)
* Congrats! You escaped the draft! Continue on up the Mainline.

Life as a radical political activist/organizer. Triumphs and heartbreaks. Problems, choices and strategies.

[CHANCE] FATE.

* Sorry, you’ve been assassinated by the cops. Thanks for playing the Americana Game.
* Sorry, you’ve been falsely imprisoned. Go directly to jail.
* Lucky you! Continue on organizing and struggling.

Radical organizer/activist continued. Meetings, protests, building grass- roots political power.

BLACK/LATINO (GHETTO) PATH.

[CHANCE] DRAFT. Now that you’re 18 and out of high school, flip a card to learn if you’ve been drafted.

* Greetings! Uncle Sam wants you. Go to the Induction Center. (Sign with the red balloon)
* Congrats! You escaped the draft! Continue along the Ghetto line.

BLACK/LATINO (GHETTO) PATH, Section 1. Life in the Ghetto.

Life in the ghetto. Poverty. Racism and discrimination in employment & housing. Police repression. “Urban renewal” (AKA “Negro removal”). “Job training” programs leading directly to the Army.

[CHANCE] DRUGS.

* You’ve gotten hooked on smack. Turn down the Junkie path.
* You’ve avoided addiction/alcoholism, continue along the Ghetto line.

JUNKIE PATH. The “high life.”

Life as an addict — miserable and short. Where’s all this skag coming from anyway, and who’s getting rich? Effect on your family. Jail. No help or treatment for junkies or other society rejects. Death in an alley with a needle in your arm. Thanks for playing the Americana Game.

BLACK/LATINO (GHETTO) PATH, Section 2. Struggling for a better life.

Racism on the job, tokenism, last-hired-first-fired. Black/Latino in a white middle-class.

[CHOICE] Choose a path:

1. Affluence, acceptance, accommodation. Turn right down the Lackey Line.
2. Resistance & change. Turn left up the Resistance Line.

LACKEY PATH. Selling your soul for a home in the suburbs.

Becoming the “first of your race to …” Ahhh, the joys of power and affluence, leaving the old neighborhood (and family) behind (way behind). Life as an Oreo.

RESISTANCE PATH, SECTION 1. Struggling for change.

Fighting for justice, issues great and small. Cops. Repression. Urban uprisings.

[CHANCE] FATE.

* Sorry, you were killed by cops in a revolt. Thanks for playing the Americana Game.
* Sorry, you’ve been sentenced to 20 years. Go directly to jail.
* Lucky you! Continue struggling.

RESISTANCE PATH, SECTION 2. Building a better world.

Continuing the struggle. Community organizing, building political power. Victories and defeats large and small. La luta continua.

INDUCTION CENTER (Red balloon).

[CHOICE] Induction.

1. Step across the line. Continue up the Army line.
2. Refuse induction. Go directly to jail.

ARMY PATH, SECTION 1. Basic Training

The misery and abuse of basic training, and the political indoctrination and socialization that underlies it. “The spirit of the bayonet is to kill” (whoever we tell you to kill). Smedley Butler quote.

[CHANCE] ORDERS TO…

* You’ve been assigned to Europe. Take the Garrison path.
* Oh, goody! You’ve being sent to Vietnam. Continue ahead.

GARRISON PATH. You’re in the Army now.

Life in the service outside of Vietnam. The world-wide political-economic role of U.S. military. Maintaining the global corporate order.

Congratulations! You’ve served your country well (or at least the corporate rulers thereof) and gotten a “good” discharge. As a newly discharged veteran, we welcome you to life in the Unemployment line. Go to Choice #1 on the Working Class line (the sign with the green balloon).

ARMY PATH, SECTION 2. Vietnam.

Vietnam! Vietnam! Lies. War. Racism. Drugs. The politics behind the war. Our noble “allies.” Who dies, who gets rich.

[CHANCE] FATE.

* That boy on a bicycle turned out to be a young guerrilla with a grenade. You didn’t survive. Thanks for playing the Americana Game.

* That carelessly-aimed napalm bomb almost missed you. Proceed on ahead to the V.A. Hospital.

* Congratulations! You survived (at least physically). As a newly discharged veteran, we welcome you to life in the Unemployment line. Go to Choice #1 on the Working Class line (the sign with the green balloon).

ARMY PATH, SECTION 3. V.A. Hospital.

How the government really treats its wounded heroes.

WORKING CLASS PATH

(Note: “Working Class” & “Middle Class” were very generalized distinctions of income-level, workplace power, and overall life-style.)

Start at the sign with the green balloon, after passing Draft Chance or finishing Army service).

[CHOICE] #1 on the Working Class line. Work or don’t.

1. Get a job. Continue along the Working Class line.
2. Drop out. Turn down the Hippy Path.

WORKING CLASS PATH, SECTION 1.

Life as a blue-collar or service worker. Low wages, lack of dignity & respect, speed-up & layoffs. What’s this talk about a union, aren’t they all rackets run by gangsters and reds?

[CHOICE] #2 on the Working Class line.

1. Join the union & go on strike. Continue up the Working Class path.
2. Become a scab. Take the path to the right.

WORKING CLASS PATH, SECTION 2. On Strike.

Why strike? Life on the strike line. Scabs & cops. Trying to survive without an income. -The union bosses sell you out.

[CHOICE] #3 on the Working Class line.

1. Fight on against both corporate and union bosses. Continue up the Working Class path.
2. “You can’t fight City Hall.” Turn right down the AFL Line

WORKING CLASS PATH, SECTION 3. Defying the Bosses

Rank & file activism against both the corporate and union bosses. Organizing a caucus. Snitches & stool pigeons. Struggling for union democracy. Wildcat strike. A long hard road ahead.

SCAB LINE

Turning your back on your friends and co-workers for material rewards. Learning new words like “Schmuck.”

AFL LINE

Acquiescing and copping out. Feathering your own nest. Dead end, thanks for playing the Americana Game.

HIPPY PATH, Section 1. Turn on, tune in, drop out.

Life on the Streets in the Summer of Love. Who needs money when you have love and pot? Living free off the grid ain’t so easy. Life as a free-spirit artist/writer/performer. Now you know why they call them “pigs.” Hippy capitalism, dealing dope.

[CHOICE]

1. Continue down the Hippy path
2. Cross over to political resistance & organizing (blue balloon)

HIPPY PATH, Section 2. Coming Down is Such a Bummer

Syphilis and the Free Clinic. Love turns to violence at Altamont Pass. Uh- oh, you smoked all the pot you were supposed to sell on consignment, your dealer is going to be pissed.

[CHANCE]

* You were warned about sharing needles. Welcome to the Hepatitis ward.
* This urban scene’s a drag. Off to a commune in the country.

HIPPY PATH, Section 3. Country living, commune style.

Hey, bean sprouts or pot, this farm work is hard. What’s the difference between a collective committee and a boss? Parents/pastors/teachers tried to mind-fuck/control you — now that you’re free, you have a guru.

MIDDLE CLASS PATH, Section 1. Grinding out the Degree.

Student careerism, kissing the ass of the professor class. Don’t make waves. It’s not what you know but the contacts you cultivate. Student government as career enhancement.

[CHANCE] DRAFT. Oh, shit! You’ve graduated and your student deferment has expired, flip a card to learn if you’ve been drafted.

* Greetings! Uncle Sam wants you. Go to the Induction Center. (Sign with the red balloon)
* Congrats! You escaped the draft! Continue up the Middle Class line.

MIDDLE CLASS PATH, Section 2. Anesthetize, fit in, sell out.

A functionary in a gray flannel suit. Life in the suburbs, bland, boring, and banal. Building that career, conscience and creativity not required.

[CHOICE] Choose your poison.

1. Corporate manager. Take the money line.
2. Government service. Take the bureaucrat line.

MIDDLE CLASS PATH, Section 3. Corporate manager, the money line.

Money money money, self self self. Climbing the corporate ladder. Middle management.

MIDDLE CLASS PATH, Section 4. Government bureaucracy line.

A cog in the wheels of power, you turn and turn and turn without a care of what the machine is producing. Keep the trains running on time and you’ll be safe and secure (though not rich).

• Communicate political ideas
• Generate discussion (and media coverage) of the issues
• Involve new people in activity
• Increase the commitment & understanding of participants
• Cause a visible reaction from authorities
• Win some positive change

By those measures, over the past year some of our most successful tactics were creative uses of nonviolence beyond the standard post-rally march around campus or occupation/sit-in. For example, the Wheeler Hall ledge sit-in at U.C. Berkeley that resulted in charges against demonstrators being dropped Protesters on Ledge at UC Berkeley, S.F. Chronicle, March 4, 2011).

Symbolic Building Closures

Buy a roll or two of yellow Caution tape and prepare some official-looking signs (including some that can be stuck in a flower-bed or grassy area) that say something like: “This building closed in order to pay for tax cuts & subsidies for [name of corporation or wealthy individual]” If possible pick a company or person associated with the school’s governing body. For example, for the UC system multi millionaire Regent Blum and his ITT Tech empire of tax-payer-funded for-profit diploma mills. Or an energy company receiving subsidies and tax breaks, or some other name that makes a political point.

Just before classes begin in the morning, post the “closed” signs on (and in front of) an appropriate classroom building, and string up the caution tape across the doors and wherever else you can (bushes, pillars, windows, bike-racks, whatever). Distribute flyers explaining the symbolic action to students as they arrive. Of course, they’ll break the tape to get into class (or you break it for them) and that provides good symbolism for us — students tearing down the barriers and stepping on the tape to get to class. So long as the signs and Caution tape that is not barring entrances remains up it continues to be a powerful visual.

A note on snitches. If you find the building heavily guarded before you arrive in the morning, you probably have a snitch in your committee. That’s a good thing, it shows they’re taking you seriously. Don’t over-react. The power of nonviolent resistance lies in tactics that don’t require secrecy. Simply go to another building that’s not guarded. Cops are good at fighting, and if they see violence they’ll chase after it, but absent some clear threat of danger to themselves or others they’re not agile because they can’t move from their posts until the chain of command orders them to. So quick-moving nonviolent protesters can stay ahead of them.

The campus protest rally with a handful of fiery speakers and  some mass chanting is a staple of protest  politics — a traditional method of expressing  opposition and anger. But as we’ve seen this past year, when it’s  repeated over and over with the same speakers, the same rhetoric,  the and same slogans its effectiveness diminishes and the number  of participants declines.

It’s now clear that the campaign to defend and reform public  higher education is going to be a long hard road. A struggle that  can only be won by building a broad-based mass movement. Mass  movements don’t just happen, they are built by committed activists. But as a general rule, most people don’t become  politically active from listening to speeches, reading websites &  leaflets, or receiving emails & tweets. Organizations and  movements are built by conversations and involving people in  activities — activities that are more substantive  than listening to rally speakers or shouting slogans in a group  chant.

Creativity is a pillar of nonviolent direct action. We  need to apply some creative thinking to the traditional campus  protest rally so as to more effectively involve people in active  participation. For example:

Speak-Out Circles. One technique that proved useful  during the long student strike at S.F. State in 1968 was to  occasionally replace the noon rally with speak-out circles.  Instead of making the usual speeches, we called on people to form  small circles of 6-12 where everyone was encouraged to discuss  the issues. Pre-assigned circle-leaders spread out, raised their  hands, and shouted “form a circle on me.” When folk gathered  around, the leader asked: “Well, what do you think about  [whatever]?” and encouraged dialog. Dialog and discussion were  the keys, not the typical “I’m-the-expert-you-listen-to-me” mode  of speakers/teachers to passive audiences & classes. When done  successfully, speak-out circles allowed strike supporters to  discuss and debate with uninvolved students and opponents.

Inevitably, some circles didn’t jell and dissipated, but  others became lively, loud, and argumentative and attracted more  and more people to gather around. (Yes, encouraging those who  disagreed with us to speak was part of the method.) When a lively  circle became too large, and people were becoming frustrated  because they wanted to contribute their opinions and weren’t  getting an opportunity, a new leader pulled some away to start a  new circle — “Let’s start a new circle over  here!” On our best day, we once built up from an initial 3 to  eventually 11 circles all going at once. The entire lawn in front  of the cafeteria (now the student union) was a bubbling ferment  of ideas and passion and involvement.

Speak-out circles were most effective when something  particularly controversial had just occurred (usually by us) and  people were already buzzing, but they could be used at any time.  More students were moved to support the strike from their  participation in the ferment of those circles than from our  typical we-speak-you-listen rallies. And organizers used them to  spot potential activists for longer conversations, personal  invitations to committee meetings, and so on.

Big Post-Its Campaign. Today we can buy pads of easel- size Post-Its made from newsprint paper. They’re used at meetings  where ideas are written down large and stuck up on the walls.  Instead of a typical noon protest rally, how about bringing out  some big Post-It pads and a bucket of Sharpies and ask people to  write down their own ideas on the issues and post them up on the  walls and glass of nearby buildings. Have cadre prepared to start  it off with some well thought out provocative statements and be  the first to post them up. Be sure to date each statement,  photograph them, and put them up on the internet to share with  other schools (that way they won’t be lost if the administration  orders them torn down).

Use rolls of Blue Tape to reinforce the paper’s sticky back so  that the Post-Its stay up even on concrete walls (brick walls  usually won’t work even with tape). Using Blue Tape is important  because it’s designed to not damage underlying surfaces. Our core  message is that the power-elites are trying to destroy public  higher-education and we don’t want to make it easy for them to  divert the discussion by accusing us of vandalizing school  buildings.

(For those of you with an interest in ancient history, look up  “Big Character Posters” which were powerfully used in the Chinese  Democracy Movement of the mid-1970s until the government  suppressed them.)

We used to say “If you don’t like the history they’re teaching  you, go out and make some of your own.” If these ideas from an  old geezer find no favor in your eyes, create some of your own,  because we all need to start thinking out of the box.

• Fewer than 7% of the American  colonists actively took part in the revolution against the  British.
• In 70 years of struggle, the largest Woman Suffrage  protest was 8000 marchers in Washington, DC in 1913.
• The Selma  Voting Rights struggle of 1965 was one of the largest Freedom  Movement campaigns of the 1960s. But if you add up all those who  marched, picketed, sat-in, went to jail, tried to register to  vote, or just attended a mass meeting, it totaled less than 10%  of Dallas County’s Black population.

*BUT* these struggles by a small activist cores succeeded because  they won the political support of the great majority. Going back  to the Selma Movement, while less than 10% of Blacks directly and  actively participated in the Voting Rights campaign, the  overwhelming majority supported those that did take action and  they honored the economic boycott that was a significant element  in the eventual victory.

During the long student strike for Third World Studies at San  Francisco State in 1968, we never had more than 1% of the student  body attending planning meetings, passing out leaflets,  organizing actions, or doing the other work necessary to call and  maintain a strike. And no more than 2000 — well under 10% —  walked the picket lines, attended the rallies, or marched on the  Administration Building. But a clear majority of all the students  honored the strike by not attending class. That mass support was  not an accident, it was the product of years — repeat, YEARS  — of patient education, consistent organizing, and a long  series of escalating protests all designed to educate and build  mass support.

The key point is that the 5% who are activists achieve victories  by winning political support among the 95% who are not activists  (and never will be activists). We don’t have to start out with  majority popular support, but we DO have to end up that way. If  we don’t end up with the support of a majority of the population,  we won’t accomplish anything of significance. Which means that  our strategies and tactics must be shaped towards the goal of  winning support among the 95% who are NOT activists. That is the  criteria by which we have to evaluate our strategies and tactics.

Tactics that alienate, or frighten, the people whose support we  need to win are counter-productive. What people fear, they come  to hate, what they come to hate, they oppose. Tactics that treat  the people we need to educate as if they were enemies turns them  into enemies in fact.

Kwame Ture (Stokeley Carmichael) of SNCC once observed that, “All  real education is political. All politics is not necessarily  educational, but good politics always is. You can have no serious  organizing without serious education. And always, the people will  teach you as much as you teach them.”

[On January 8, 2011 a gunman attempted to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, AZ. Nineteen people, including the Congresswoman, were shot and six were killed, among them Federal Judge John Roll and 9-year old Christina Taylor Green.]

As I try to absorb and understand the killings and attempted assassination of a Congresswoman in Arizona, my mind flashes back 50 years to the violent attacks on the Freedom Riders in South Carolina and Alabama and their mass arrest in Mississippi, a state transformed into an armed camp of raging hostility against anyone who supported equal rights for Blacks. The interesting connection is that the Riders encountered no violence in Georgia which was just as thoroughly segregated as South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. But in Georgia, unlike the other three states, on that occasion the reigning politicians chose not to publicly incite hatred and inflame passions against “race-mixers” and “reds.” Absent incendiary rhetoric from political leaders, there was no mob violence in Georgia.

The same pattern held true for school integration. The vicious mobs faced by the Little Rock Nine, little Ruby Bridges in New Orleans, and the children of Grenada Mississippi were fomented by racist demagogues creating fear and hysteria to advance their political careers. In other areas, where the politicians chose not to excite race-hatred, school integration occurred with little or no violence. We saw it back then, we see it now, when officials and candidates whip up fear and hatred, when they demonize opponents as enemies of America who must be destroyed, the inevitable end result is violence from mobs and “deranged lone gunmen.”

I started working on the Pen or Pencil Initiative at XXXX
High School in October, 2009. I usually go to the school
once a week to work with the students. What I found at XXXX
High School has been unbelievable.

First of all the facilities are some of the worst I have
ever seen. The bathrooms were filthy. I walked in to the
bathroom and had to immediately turn around and walk out.
The students told me that they did not use the bathrooms
because they were in such bad shape. A lot of the toilets
did not flush. Stalls are missing. Some of the sinks did
not work, or were leaking so badly that they had to
disconnect them.

There was no hot water, and in some cases no water at all in
the bathroom so that the children could wash their hands. In
some cases, there was no toilet tissue. So I concluded that
the “students could not wash their hands or wash their
booties”. The students told me that they would “hold” it all
day or call their parents to come sign them out of school,
take them home to use the bathroom, and then bring them back
to the school. In my opinion, it is not an environment
conducive to learning and growing for high school youth. It
is rather a very thuggish environment.

For Martin Luther King Day of Service, the Pen or Pencil
students and myself led a volunteer effort to repair and
sanitize the bathrooms (I paid for this), and then have the
volunteers clean, scrub, and paint all the bathrooms at XXXX
High School. Although the bathrooms were cleaned and
repaired on MLK Day, I do not know if the school has been
able to maintain them. The staff has said that they do not
have cleaning supplies, and with no hot water, it is not
easy to keep them clean. Also, on MLK day, we attempted to
steam-clean the carpet. It too was and is filthy. However,
with no hot water and 200 volunteers we could not get much
done.

Besides the facilities, I also discovered that the students
do not have textbooks. They have a few books in the
classroom, dated between 1984 and 1992 with most of them
torn and many pages missing, (not enough so that each child
can have one) and the students do not take any texbooks home
to do homework. My understanding is that they do not have
homework. (I personally have not seen a student with a
textbook).

The students have complained to me that they want to learn
and get a good education, but they feel that they are not
being taught by the teachers. The students have expressed
regrets about not learning very much at school. They have
also complained that the teachers are absent from school at
lot, and they get sent to the gym to sit until the class
period is over.

Additionally, there are very few computers in the classrooms
or the library that work. Probably, between 3 and 5 in the
library, and maybe 8 to 12 in computer-discover class. Some
students were assigned to this class, who are now being sent
home during that class period because there are not ample
computers.

Lack of ample textbooks, lack of ample computers — how are
children to learn?

The students have told me that they do not have enough
teachers for their required courses so they must spend a lot
of time in the gym and/or in PE for 2 class periods a day.
(One ninth-grader told me that she has only 2 academic
classes a day; the other time she must spend in the gym
either in PE or just sitting in the gym. Many of the
students in the 11th and 12th grade go home between 12 and 2
every day because they do not have any classes to go to.
Some of these same children are not passing the state
required test, and almost half of the senior class is not
graduating because they have not passed the required test.
Nevertheless, they are scheduled to end their school day at
12 noon every school day.

No music, no art, no band, no foreign languages, (at one
time, no English 1, because of a long-term teacher vacancy).
They do not have study periods or library periods or
activity periods.

There is no in-school suspension, and children are being
suspended from school on a regular basis.

Yes, I do know that “Glee” is Hollywood fiction, but I also know that real-life schools in affluent, predominantly-white districts across the country DO have full-time credentialed teachers, clean toilets, adequate books and computers, libraries, music, art, and other enrichment programs. And that all too many urban and rural schools serving overwhelmingly nonwhite or non-affluent communities do NOT have adequate facilities, equipment, supplies, books, or computers. I stand by the principle that equal access to a quality education is a fundamental human right, a right that increasing numbers of American children are being denied. It is not enough to just protest budget-cuts and tuition-hikes if we are not at the same time forcefully demanding an end to educational inequalities that are crippling our democracy and dividing our population into the haves and have-nots of the future.

“The real safeguard of democracy is education.” ~FDR