Off topic (but related to the footnote about our last couple days and how everybody's going through something). Remember how I said that the attempt to steal our bike was unsuccessful? Well, today somebody tried to steal our bike in broad daylight and were in fact successful, darn it!
Really cool to hear that background about Otpor!, I love hearing about the movement-building work behind big famous symbolic actions. It's always so important to place those things into a context where tons and tons of people were trying all kinds of different tactics.
The final lines of this poem are rightly quoted a lot, but the whole thing is so good:
Revolutionary Letter #8, Diane di Prima
Everytime you pick the spot for a be-in
a demonstration, a march, a rally, you are choosing the ground
for a potential battle.
You are still calling these shots.
Pick your terrain with that in mind.
Remember the old gang rules:
stick to your neighborhood, don’t let them lure you
to Central Park everytime, I would hate
to stumble bloody out of that park to find help:
Central Park West, or Fifth Avenue, which would you
choose?
//
go to love-ins
with incense, flowers, food, and a plastic bag
with a damp cloth in it, for tear gas, wear no jewelry
wear clothes you can move in easily, wear no glasses
contact lenses
earrings for pierced ears are especially hazardous
//
try to be clear
in front, what you will do if it comes
to trouble
if you’re going to try to split stay out of the center
"Thousands in NCW Strike, Stay Home In Solidarity During 'Day Without An Immigrant' Protest
Fruit packing warehouses, retail businesses and public schools were all affected by folks participating in the national strike to protest Trump administration immigration policies"
I have so many thoughts, none of which are perhaps helpful (?), but at least they're honest?
1) I don't think we can downplay the reality of gun culture in this moment. When I would run towards any protest in my teens and twenties I didn't worry that counter protestors, or even empowered military or law enforcement, would meet us with guns (despite Kent State), but now I do. And I realize protestors in other countries have been dealing with the potential to be fatally shot for a long time, but that's new for us in the U.S. and I, for one, am feeling intimidated, I'm not going to lie. Which, perhaps, is their goal. I don't know. But it's a consideration factor for me in a way it never has been before.
2) One of the funky things about growing up in D.C. proper is that I don't really understand how states, and protesting in states rather than just running down to the Mall on the Metro, actually works effectively. Is it better to organize street-level protests in every hamlet, or is it better to coalesce in state capitols? I honestly don't know and so feel at a loss how best to apply myself at a distance from D.C.
Re #2: I try to make sense of this as well. As someone who has participated in all kinds of protests and rallies over the years, from Gaza solidarity camps and small-town BLM protests, to traveling to DC for inauguration protests and the Women's March, I often feel kind of empty and ineffective after many of them, and have struggled to either reframe my thinking or find ways to feel more useful. I always enjoy the energy of being surrounded by like-minded people, and I recognize that I, personally, have really outsized expectations for myself regrading what is useful. So maybe the gathering is the point?
I also think it's really easy to fall into the desire for heroics when in reality, the work of change can often be slow and thankless and boring. Wouldn't it be great if we could just plug in somewhere at our convenience and have a direct hand in a thing that tips the scales (not to be critical or sarcastic--I often feel this way!)? Which I think speaks to Garrett's point: that all of the road-building we do for each other matters.
And getting back to protest effectiveness, I've also been thinking a lot about the idea of joy as resistance and the gathering being the point. I think it helps to ask oneself and one's organizing groups what the goals are and work toward specific goals, but also to make fun and joy and connection part of those goals. Of course, I always come back to punk rock, and that catharsis of dancing and getting sweaty with my friends, but I also get excited knowing I will get cookies and a fizzy water and some good conversation with great people at an organizing meeting. The fun and the connection makes the slow and thankless less boring. I fell like I've been seeing reminders that we are the point of all this, and I appreciate that. Because who are we fighting for if not each other?
I do think that all of it matters. Every way that we come together to try and enact change. And I'm not really interested in heroics anymore. But as a single mom with limited energy and time I am trying to think about what will be most impactful to do with what limited energy and time that I have. After a lifetime of protesting and seeing so much of what we grew up thinking could never be undone being undone, I'm not looking for the satisfaction of getting what I want accomplished in my lifetime. But I am looking to be strategic so at least I can feel like (hopefully), I'm helping us shuffle slowly in the right direction.
So much really smart stuff in this thread from both of you. A few thoughts:
1. The gun thing is real! And it's just one of many reasons why street protests don't feel as accessible to everybody-- not a perfect answer, but what that makes me think is (a). how important it is, in a diversity of tactics, for those who do feel more able to take to the streets first to do so-- both because some won't ever be able to and because the number help other step up (b). we need to keep celebrating all the things we can do and all the ways that we can make opposition a discipline in our lives, even if it feels (or is) Sisyphean.
2. My current thinking on street protests is that the impact has less to do with location (it has to be in D.C. or in a state capitol) then (a). the more that they keep happening-- that they aren't just one day, over-coordinated official affairs and (b). the more that they happen everywhere. The goal is to make "the fact that opposition is not going away" the story. Recent examples when we experienced ("oh, the media can't avoid covering this, because it keeps happening") was in 2020 and the Gaza campus occupations.
3. Cathleen everything you say about the joy of resisting and organizing and remembering that you like and care about the other people doing so both resonates really deeply and strikes me as super, super important.
I hear you about the everywhere all at once-ness being the goal, but I'll confess that living in the sort of small-ish, college town that is a Blue speck in a sea of Red, it can feel like our gatherings here get blown off. Like, THERE GO THE ITHACA HIPPIES AGAIN. Even if the crowd is diverse, it won't be perceived in that way. I agree that in terms of being embedded in the work, everything matters, especially joy and togetherness, But we are also in the midst of a perception war, in a battle for people's imaginations, and so I can't help but wonder if there's something to be said for larger mobilizations, whether they happen in D.C. or state capitols.
As another resident of a blue dot in a red state, I feel this. Part of what my organizing group is working on is the fact that our state legislators blow us off constantly, because they're like "oh yeah, those Bloomington folks are always pissed at us." I even find myself being like THERE GO THE BLOOMINGTON HIPPIES AGAIN. Ha. So we're trying to use the dedication here to bring in more people from predominantly Republican districts who might have more in-roads with their legislators. And I have to say, the tactic seems to be working, which has been really hopeful to me.
I will also still go to the big stuff, because I think that you are definitely right that big mobilizations do matter, and that also doing it in a sustainable way so we can keep it up is also important. Aaah! It's all important which is why it can be so hard to focus and figure out where to be effective.
I think it's smart to ask "how can I help spread the message beyond the bubbles" (that's a key part of the Otpor! story) AND I think that it never hurts to keep the fires burning everywhere, even the usual suspect places.
Reading this in a Florida conference hotel that is literally attached to a mall (!!), here for the DART clergy conference where we build muscle and solidarity for organizing for justice in our communities. So - yes, all this. Doing what we can where we are etc but most of all together.
Dude! Just today I was on the phone with one of the logistics organizers of a conference I’ll be speaking at in Boulder, CO in April—I was feeling a little ambivalent about the conference and wanted some clarity as to who the other speakers would be, etc, basically what am I getting myself into and is it going to be radical enough for this moment, etc. also I’m bringing my 11 year old so I wanted to suss out how bored he’ll be, etc. Anyway after telling me about a bunch of things that make this conference very cool, the nice woman said “oh! Another speaker is bringing his kid! His name is…Srdja Popovic?!” I was like THE OTPOR GUY?!?! OK THEN! Point is I was excited to read your essay as always, AND now I’m pumped for the conference, AND my kid will prob be bored a lot but perhaps he’ll befriend Popovic’s kid?!!!
Thanks Sara (and as for the bike-- we were saved by the fact that the thief repeatedly tried cutting the lock angle wrong and so it looks like they had to try three times, and also that angle grinders are super loud!).
off-topic, but Garrett, I know that you & I share a love of Sweden, and I'm so heartbroken by what happened there today (the worst mass shooting in the country's history, for those of you who may not have heard the news—I hadn't, until my cousin texted me). Of all the things for the U.S. to export, that is truly the most awful.
I thought of you when we heard the news. So awful and shocking, and your last sentence rings so true. Our best friend there teaches in a komvux-skola (outside of Malmö so not geographically close, but still). Sending love to you and all your loved ones back there too.
Off topic (but related to the footnote about our last couple days and how everybody's going through something). Remember how I said that the attempt to steal our bike was unsuccessful? Well, today somebody tried to steal our bike in broad daylight and were in fact successful, darn it!
Oh no! Bike thieves ride Huffys in hell.
V. true.
Really cool to hear that background about Otpor!, I love hearing about the movement-building work behind big famous symbolic actions. It's always so important to place those things into a context where tons and tons of people were trying all kinds of different tactics.
The final lines of this poem are rightly quoted a lot, but the whole thing is so good:
Revolutionary Letter #8, Diane di Prima
Everytime you pick the spot for a be-in
a demonstration, a march, a rally, you are choosing the ground
for a potential battle.
You are still calling these shots.
Pick your terrain with that in mind.
Remember the old gang rules:
stick to your neighborhood, don’t let them lure you
to Central Park everytime, I would hate
to stumble bloody out of that park to find help:
Central Park West, or Fifth Avenue, which would you
choose?
//
go to love-ins
with incense, flowers, food, and a plastic bag
with a damp cloth in it, for tear gas, wear no jewelry
wear clothes you can move in easily, wear no glasses
contact lenses
earrings for pierced ears are especially hazardous
//
try to be clear
in front, what you will do if it comes
to trouble
if you’re going to try to split stay out of the center
don’t stampede or panic others
don’t waver between active and passive resistance
know your limitations, bear contempt
neither for yourself, nor any of your brothers
//
NO ONE WAY WORKS, it will take all of us
shoving at the thing from all sides
to bring it down.
Lee this is actually my first time reading this poem, thank you!!
"Thousands in NCW Strike, Stay Home In Solidarity During 'Day Without An Immigrant' Protest
Fruit packing warehouses, retail businesses and public schools were all affected by folks participating in the national strike to protest Trump administration immigration policies"
https://open.substack.com/pub/dominickb/p/thousands-in-ncw-strike-stay-home?r=2y08b&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
From Wenatchee Washington. Also - there was a fun gathering midtown to wave to folks and support our immigrants.
I'm ready with the music. And i just re-watched Lord of the Rings - so there's that.
Love all this, Julie!!
I have so many thoughts, none of which are perhaps helpful (?), but at least they're honest?
1) I don't think we can downplay the reality of gun culture in this moment. When I would run towards any protest in my teens and twenties I didn't worry that counter protestors, or even empowered military or law enforcement, would meet us with guns (despite Kent State), but now I do. And I realize protestors in other countries have been dealing with the potential to be fatally shot for a long time, but that's new for us in the U.S. and I, for one, am feeling intimidated, I'm not going to lie. Which, perhaps, is their goal. I don't know. But it's a consideration factor for me in a way it never has been before.
2) One of the funky things about growing up in D.C. proper is that I don't really understand how states, and protesting in states rather than just running down to the Mall on the Metro, actually works effectively. Is it better to organize street-level protests in every hamlet, or is it better to coalesce in state capitols? I honestly don't know and so feel at a loss how best to apply myself at a distance from D.C.
Re #2: I try to make sense of this as well. As someone who has participated in all kinds of protests and rallies over the years, from Gaza solidarity camps and small-town BLM protests, to traveling to DC for inauguration protests and the Women's March, I often feel kind of empty and ineffective after many of them, and have struggled to either reframe my thinking or find ways to feel more useful. I always enjoy the energy of being surrounded by like-minded people, and I recognize that I, personally, have really outsized expectations for myself regrading what is useful. So maybe the gathering is the point?
I also think it's really easy to fall into the desire for heroics when in reality, the work of change can often be slow and thankless and boring. Wouldn't it be great if we could just plug in somewhere at our convenience and have a direct hand in a thing that tips the scales (not to be critical or sarcastic--I often feel this way!)? Which I think speaks to Garrett's point: that all of the road-building we do for each other matters.
And getting back to protest effectiveness, I've also been thinking a lot about the idea of joy as resistance and the gathering being the point. I think it helps to ask oneself and one's organizing groups what the goals are and work toward specific goals, but also to make fun and joy and connection part of those goals. Of course, I always come back to punk rock, and that catharsis of dancing and getting sweaty with my friends, but I also get excited knowing I will get cookies and a fizzy water and some good conversation with great people at an organizing meeting. The fun and the connection makes the slow and thankless less boring. I fell like I've been seeing reminders that we are the point of all this, and I appreciate that. Because who are we fighting for if not each other?
I do think that all of it matters. Every way that we come together to try and enact change. And I'm not really interested in heroics anymore. But as a single mom with limited energy and time I am trying to think about what will be most impactful to do with what limited energy and time that I have. After a lifetime of protesting and seeing so much of what we grew up thinking could never be undone being undone, I'm not looking for the satisfaction of getting what I want accomplished in my lifetime. But I am looking to be strategic so at least I can feel like (hopefully), I'm helping us shuffle slowly in the right direction.
So much really smart stuff in this thread from both of you. A few thoughts:
1. The gun thing is real! And it's just one of many reasons why street protests don't feel as accessible to everybody-- not a perfect answer, but what that makes me think is (a). how important it is, in a diversity of tactics, for those who do feel more able to take to the streets first to do so-- both because some won't ever be able to and because the number help other step up (b). we need to keep celebrating all the things we can do and all the ways that we can make opposition a discipline in our lives, even if it feels (or is) Sisyphean.
2. My current thinking on street protests is that the impact has less to do with location (it has to be in D.C. or in a state capitol) then (a). the more that they keep happening-- that they aren't just one day, over-coordinated official affairs and (b). the more that they happen everywhere. The goal is to make "the fact that opposition is not going away" the story. Recent examples when we experienced ("oh, the media can't avoid covering this, because it keeps happening") was in 2020 and the Gaza campus occupations.
3. Cathleen everything you say about the joy of resisting and organizing and remembering that you like and care about the other people doing so both resonates really deeply and strikes me as super, super important.
I hear you about the everywhere all at once-ness being the goal, but I'll confess that living in the sort of small-ish, college town that is a Blue speck in a sea of Red, it can feel like our gatherings here get blown off. Like, THERE GO THE ITHACA HIPPIES AGAIN. Even if the crowd is diverse, it won't be perceived in that way. I agree that in terms of being embedded in the work, everything matters, especially joy and togetherness, But we are also in the midst of a perception war, in a battle for people's imaginations, and so I can't help but wonder if there's something to be said for larger mobilizations, whether they happen in D.C. or state capitols.
As another resident of a blue dot in a red state, I feel this. Part of what my organizing group is working on is the fact that our state legislators blow us off constantly, because they're like "oh yeah, those Bloomington folks are always pissed at us." I even find myself being like THERE GO THE BLOOMINGTON HIPPIES AGAIN. Ha. So we're trying to use the dedication here to bring in more people from predominantly Republican districts who might have more in-roads with their legislators. And I have to say, the tactic seems to be working, which has been really hopeful to me.
I will also still go to the big stuff, because I think that you are definitely right that big mobilizations do matter, and that also doing it in a sustainable way so we can keep it up is also important. Aaah! It's all important which is why it can be so hard to focus and figure out where to be effective.
Really well put, Cathleen. And also: In a world where even Bloomington has Farmers Market Nazis, thank God for the Bloomington hippies.
I think it's smart to ask "how can I help spread the message beyond the bubbles" (that's a key part of the Otpor! story) AND I think that it never hurts to keep the fires burning everywhere, even the usual suspect places.
Reading this in a Florida conference hotel that is literally attached to a mall (!!), here for the DART clergy conference where we build muscle and solidarity for organizing for justice in our communities. So - yes, all this. Doing what we can where we are etc but most of all together.
So happy that you're at the DART conference-- huge thanks to all the big-hearted organizers in that Florida hotel right now!
Dude! Just today I was on the phone with one of the logistics organizers of a conference I’ll be speaking at in Boulder, CO in April—I was feeling a little ambivalent about the conference and wanted some clarity as to who the other speakers would be, etc, basically what am I getting myself into and is it going to be radical enough for this moment, etc. also I’m bringing my 11 year old so I wanted to suss out how bored he’ll be, etc. Anyway after telling me about a bunch of things that make this conference very cool, the nice woman said “oh! Another speaker is bringing his kid! His name is…Srdja Popovic?!” I was like THE OTPOR GUY?!?! OK THEN! Point is I was excited to read your essay as always, AND now I’m pumped for the conference, AND my kid will prob be bored a lot but perhaps he’ll befriend Popovic’s kid?!!!
KAAAATTTTEEE!! This is so rad and now I will be rooting so hard for your definitely-will-still-be-bored kid to befriend his kid!
Thank you for this reminder.
Thanks Ted.
Thank you for this today, Garrett. I especially needed to see the note on what people are already doing.
And I'm so glad you still have your very on-brand form of transportation!
Thanks Sara (and as for the bike-- we were saved by the fact that the thief repeatedly tried cutting the lock angle wrong and so it looks like they had to try three times, and also that angle grinders are super loud!).
Just a quick note to say, did y'all see the Quakers are stepping up: https://www.reuters.com/legal/quakers-sue-keep-us-immigration-agents-out-houses-worship-2025-01-27/
Oh you know it!!!!!! It's been so fun to see the pride and sense of purpose this has given to our local Meeting.
off-topic, but Garrett, I know that you & I share a love of Sweden, and I'm so heartbroken by what happened there today (the worst mass shooting in the country's history, for those of you who may not have heard the news—I hadn't, until my cousin texted me). Of all the things for the U.S. to export, that is truly the most awful.
I thought of you when we heard the news. So awful and shocking, and your last sentence rings so true. Our best friend there teaches in a komvux-skola (outside of Malmö so not geographically close, but still). Sending love to you and all your loved ones back there too.
And when things get really bad? That's when you need the killdozer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer
Just an absolutely incredible Wikipedia sentence right here:
"Heemeyer had various grudges against Granby town officials, neighbors of his muffler shop, the local press, and various other citizens of Granby."
The documentary is even better