Political Activism?

Are you involved?

  • Yes, I'm an activist, I stood for office, campaigned, rioted... etc.

    Votes: 2 11.1%
  • Yes, i'm a member of a political organisation, i went on marches ... etc.

    Votes: 8 44.4%
  • Yes, I vote & that's enough, ain't it?

    Votes: 6 33.3%
  • None of above = inactive

    Votes: 3 16.7%

  • Total voters
    18

sufi

lala
to distinguish the reactionary armchair prognosticators and from the genuine street- fighting agitators?
(particularly aimed at the more prolific politics forum contributors... ;) )

question is:
what do you actually do with your heartfelt political convictions?
 
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ripley

Well-known member
  • worked for the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers
  • marched + organized protests on various issues
  • supported folks who worked on abortion/planned parenthood clinic defense (front line of only sustained US terrorist campaign in the past 20 years. but i wasn't out in front myself at the time)
  • part of underground party scene and organized benefits for several good causes (not automatically activism but sometimes was, whether benefit or no)
  • a tutor and a teacher (not automatically activism either but it is how i do it)
  • volunteer medic at protest and demonstrations in the US
  • volunteering in the Jamaican prison system
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
  • a tutor and a teacher (not automatically activism either but it is how i do it)

No 'fence, but I can imagine your students groaning inwardly at the prospect of double Class Struggle with Prof. Angry... ;)

Edit: that sounds really harsh, just kidding, y'understand.
 
N

nomadologist

Guest
  • worked for the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers
  • marched + organized protests on various issues
  • supported folks who worked on abortion/planned parenthood clinic defense (front line of only sustained US terrorist campaign in the past 20 years. but i wasn't out in front myself at the time)
  • part of underground party scene and organized benefits for several good causes (not automatically activism but sometimes was, whether benefit or no)
  • a tutor and a teacher (not automatically activism either but it is how i do it)
  • volunteer medic at protest and demonstrations in the US
  • volunteering in the Jamaican prison system

I've been thinking about doing the Peace Corps, but mostly just so they'll forgive my student loans. J/k

How do you go about volunteering in a prison system?? This sounds rough...
 

john eden

male pale and stale
I've been quite active for the last 4 years or so, and up and down with various things before that.

I don't really like talking about the specifics on the net tho. Not because it's cloak and dagger or anything (quite the reverse), but because I don't want the random shite I spout online to be used as capital by my political opponents.
 

ripley

Well-known member
No 'fence, but I can imagine your students groaning inwardly at the prospect of double Class Struggle with Prof. Angry... ;)

Edit: that sounds really harsh, just kidding, y'understand.

I get you, but you've lost the distinction Sufi was making in the question.

Activism is when it works.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I get you, but you've lost the distinction Sufi was making in the question.

There's not necessarily a distinction if, by talking to people, you influence their opinions to the extent that they start talking to others about important issues, voting differently, engaging in activism or whatever.

Sorry for taking the piss earlier, I think it's good that people get off their arses and try and make a difference about things they think are important (as long as they're not bonkers, obviously).
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
What's the most effective form of political activism?
It's the effectiveness bit which concerns me above all else... fills me with doubt about (certain) forms of activism... Also "heartfelt political convictions"...?

Incidentally I prefer to write lengthy letters to my MP, and to track his voting patterns and complain every time he does something self-serving, rather than vote for him. From this I have learnt he "wants to make Britain more like China". Fantastic. :slanted:
 

zhao

there are no accidents
i go to protests and rallies when i find the time, when i feel strongly about the issue - last one was at the Israeli embassy in LA, when they first started bombing Lebanon (again).

and since i am absolutely certain that the elections have been fixed in America, i did not bother to vote in the last one. i don't believe in the system. and even though i do most of the time, i think voting, more than anything else, only perpetuates an illusory freedom, an imaginary democracy, the emperor's new clothes, the BIG LIE.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
What's the most effective form of political activism?

I think there are no really easy answer to this one. If there were then everyone would be doing the same thing.

I think the most important thing, after having decided what you believe in and feel strongly about, is just to do something. When you've done something you will be better placed to consider whether or not it was effective, at which point you have a rethink, and do something else - or the same thing but better.

So it's a feedback loop really.

A lot of it depends on what you feel passionate about and what your short and long term aims are. Additionally, what campaigns are active near where you live or work, and can you actually stand working with the people involved?
 

zhao

there are no accidents
it's all very useless. we must all give up trying to change anything.

fundamentalists gaining power everywhere, the left ate its own liver for breakfast. soon fascism and milliatarism will be flavor of the day as resource-crisis escalates (along with increasing extreme weather patterns).
 

john eden

male pale and stale
it's all very useless. we must all give up trying to change anything.

fundamentalists gaining power everywhere, the left ate its own liver for breakfast. soon fascism and milliatarism will be flavor of the day as resource-crisis escalates (along with increasing extreme weather patterns).

People have been saying this since I became involved with politics 20 years ago and it hasn't happened.

I think people are lead to believe that they are powerless and useless and that it's better to give up. But it isn't true.
 
N

nomadologist

Guest
@zhao and john eden:

I think this is why the right is culturally hijacking the "global climate crisis", so they can use it as another tool of disempowerment of the masses.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
well i moved to a place where i don't have to drive. i eat much much less meat than 3 years ago. i recycle every day. and feel pretty fucking powerless in regards to political situations around the world and various scenarios playing out in the next 40 years.
 
N

nomadologist

Guest
well i moved to a place where i don't have to drive. i eat much much less meat than 3 years ago. i recycle every day. and feel pretty fucking powerless in regards to political situations around the world and various scenarios playing out in the next 40 years.

it'd be really hard not to, no matter where you live
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
I think there are no really easy answer to this one. If there were then everyone would be doing the same thing.

I think the most important thing, after having decided what you believe in and feel strongly about, is just to do something. When you've done something you will be better placed to consider whether or not it was effective, at which point you have a rethink, and do something else - or the same thing but better.

So it's a feedback loop really.

A lot of it depends on what you feel passionate about and what your short and long term aims are. Additionally, what campaigns are active near where you live or work, and can you actually stand working with the people involved?

Its interesting that the forms of political activism mentioned here are all very micro-political- issues based rather than party political. No one thinking of standing for parliament/congress etc then? Me either. The problem I have I think with single issue activism isn't whether if given enough time and support it can't achieve its aim (I think it can in many cases)... but rather whether it is self-defeating (ie- it serves to ameliorate the underlying structure which gives rise to it, thereby effectively perpetuating said structure). This is my issue with the majority of left wing politics- in its successes it achieves only a grander failure. Its the paradox I'm wrestling with: such politics can work at the micro level, but at the macro level is it possible to achieve change by pulling in the right direction? So for a given group of people their lives may be immeasurably improved, but at the cost of allowing the structural reasons for their issue arising to continue to exist...
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
So for a given group of people their lives may be immeasurably improved, but at the cost of allowing the structural reasons for their issue arising to continue to exist...

Is that a "the worse things are, the better they are" I can smell?
 
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