Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Please note I have a new phone number...

512-517-2708

Alan Maki

Alan Maki
Doing research at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

A program for real change...

http://peaceandsocialjustice.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-progressive-program-for-real-change.html


What we need is a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" which would make it a mandatory requirement that the president and Congress attain and maintain full employment.


"Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens"

- Ben Franklin

Let's talk...

Let's talk...

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

On movements

We heard this bit about how movements are needed before.


But the movements required to push these Democrats to make good on their promises has never materialized.


What we get is a bunch of little organizations headed up by people getting paid and all they are interested in is competing with other little organizations for funding so they can maintain their salaried positions.


This is from David Swanson; his article supporting Bernie Sanders:


“That’s the difference in this election. Bernie Sanders is a million miles from perfect. But he is radically superior to who he was four years ago, to the other Democratic candidates, and to the past 45 presidents. A greatly enlarged movement will need to move him and the Congress and the whole society in the right direction, but such a movement will be in a far better place with him than with any of the other candidates. If we must be tokenists, let’s just declare it time to elect a Jew. But if we care about the earth, let’s declare it time to stop being morons.”


When does this movement building begin?


Everything these people write always comes with a pitch for money... just like the politicians.


What’s happened to grassroots activism with people coming together around kitchen tables, in church basements and community centers organizing movements in their own neighborhoods, communities and after work?


We can’t be relying on people who bail out when their paycheck stops... we need to rely on ourselves to educate, organize and build movements with our family, friends, neighbors and the people we work with.


I can vote for Bernie Sanders as a way to get rid of Trump but I’m not going to waste my time working for any of these Democrats who lack a commitment to building movements... they take money from the people but don’t allocate a penny to movement building because all the money goes to over-paid staff who lack any commitment to anything other than themselves... when the money goes, they go.


We need movements of the people; movements that continue to struggle for peace, social and economic justice.


We need these movements more than we need any politician... real people’s politicians will come out of such movements.