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From: David Swanson via WarIsACrime.org [mailto:david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2016 11:31 AM
To: miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Acting on Bill Ayers' Radical Manifesto
Acting on Bill Ayers' Radical Manifesto
By David Swanson
http://davidswanson.org/node/5282
Bill Ayers' short new book, Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto, is
different from the typical liberal view of a better world in two ways.
First, its goals are a bit grander, more inspiring. Second, it adds as the
first and most important goal one that others don't include at all.
A typical proposal that a lesser evilist might give for "voting against
Donald Trump" might include minor economic or police or prison reforms, a
bit of environmentalism, healthcare, or education. Ayers wants to abolish
prisons, end capitalism, disarm the police, redesign schools, create
universal healthcare, and nationalize energy companies. And he's right. The
radical vision is the better one, not just because it leads to a better
place but also because the incrementalist approach will get us all killed --
only a bit more slowly than doing nothing.
The more important, because rarer, difference in Ayers' manifesto is the
addition of the missing topic. Most U.S. "progressives" imagine a world of
greater economic equality and opportunity, environmental sustainability,
fewer police killings, shorter prison sentences, investment in human needs,
and the withering away of all sorts of bigotries, prejudices, sexisms,
racisms, and other sorts of unfairness and cruelty -- resulting in a
multicultural community all united in our support for dumping a trillion
dollars a year into preparing for battle with our collectively loathed
foreign enemies, and supporting the weapons trade as a supposed economic
program.
Ayers takes a different approach. "What," he asks, "if we broke from the
dogma of militarism -- rejecting the anemic and seemingly endless debates
about whether the United States should bomb this country or instead boycott
some other country . . . -- and organized an irresistible social upheaval
strong enough to stop U.S. invasions and conquest[?] What if we occupied
bases, blocked munitions shipments and private militias, boycotted arms
dealers, sabotaged surveillance operations and drone manufacturers -- and
forced the U.S. government to disarm and close all foreign military bases
within a year? . . . Or what if we built a colossal transnational movement
that organized shadow elections (initially), inviting any resident of a
country with a U.S. military presence within its borders to vote in U.S.
national elections?"
Ayers proposes that we take on the culture of militarism, not just the
industrial structure of it. "[I]magine," he writes, "any bit of the war
culture transformed into a peace-and-love culture: the Super Bowl opening
with thousands of local school kids rushing through the stands distributing
their poetry, and then everyone singing 'This Land Is Your Land,' or 'Give
Peace a Chance,' or 'We Shall Overcome'; an airlines or bus terminal clerk
saying, 'We want to invite any teachers or nurses in the gate area to board
first, and we thank you for your service'; urban high schools eliminating
ROTC and banning military recruiters in favor of school-wide assemblies for
peace recruiters featuring Code Pink, and after-school programs led by Black
Youth Project 100 and the American Friends Service Committee."
Some of us like this idea so much we've organized an event this weekend to
try to advance it. The event is called #NoWar2016
<http://click.actionnetwork.org/mpss/c/2QA/ni0YAA/t.20t/npotHxodSl-eV_Y_xPbU
Hw/h0/Jb9ZUZ-2BHBLFAkQw-2FQ1kTOiWeTn5TBUHk-2Fzb6queU0oNvGbUoCdw5Qs1Dq8-2FPqI
GuLZAHOFFylV6WNP-2B20vI2oAfLu0B7wTlgPHw0Ieg7YNDVhY9OmjT5vZeGr6h0oe5ICVpMP9Jt
Urf3mBWSK2hM7cogbwule8CTXsu9bQ7Mmu2SMgCMncgOiefbqo7HZ9YBlW2OyTHrVZuYZg86dXhJ
5yOo1jSXMdkCq28F5nwHgs0oO0PrfQwi0FEOtJoYDf1F-2BnrgaKv4-2Fz6-2Bo-2BsGcpWDuI0x
H923II2uKrtT0KtRvQeWvyhFEtq9GgIrJuFndK98BtB3uh9jFK1eZCAwrmvsxA-3D-3D> . This
Friday and Saturday, you can watch the live stream at TheRealNews.com
<http://click.actionnetwork.org/mpss/c/2QA/ni0YAA/t.20t/npotHxodSl-eV_Y_xPbU
Hw/h1/-2B8-2BNnezHlzyF327ryShDD0hAWiTTCGoS6fuUKYdgSnI32gKS8GteEdom-2BUyhWpCy
Gb6BOblTTV-2FLOJkyd-2FN6DqngpV9MNUOL4-2B06-2F1UWWo86Dv6SClBidIc5GtvSFyFkph-2
Bc0ztknoJPh-2FRg3Lottp28-2BiL6TmTLmPR6E30n3N55mgbO94hmpC-2BvTNhwrkJ0y63yjEfr
04huvWpilqDOlsd1zFFCyovgFEO2oY3D6hXa9FrgipixmNi4iEOeGQANuWZkHznBimzkWHvtewFC
fbA7gZHOR9Ttb7NbUxgWeNCpY4G1FxpFfw9U5EX-2B3AX8> . Videos of Friday through
Sunday will be quickly posted online. Sunday will include activism workshops
and a planning session for a protest at the Pentagon at 9 a.m. Monday
morning. The details are all at http://worldbeyondwar.org/nowar2016
<http://click.actionnetwork.org/mpss/c/2QA/ni0YAA/t.20t/npotHxodSl-eV_Y_xPbU
Hw/h2/Jb9ZUZ-2BHBLFAkQw-2FQ1kTOiWeTn5TBUHk-2Fzb6queU0oP5uHJogOJy0k4SFNkbGMh4
Kjt1Jo1LveyYaXKoUqDntWDnIonfezzV57F28NnRjvVn-2F8pb5QPn6fsG7i-2BewfYXnvyoTPw8
bNJ6YlA91BxDF-2FqpQeSw9P5cteUVwApFZEmUm-2BjfDxVQhY5NyqpjYdvCUWWnSnVEVP5h1VXb
jyvs1ABjmvDhpx7OPnWvZdXbx3Q-2F2b74RZv8062VaE8EzD1Is-2FAICh52GtSrTcUE-2F228lc
1nBI6JiB-2BrIZuIU3K0CW-2FSHbdhO9pmef-2F4qgKfr84izdPUD0GE2oJwpR8EGt6tUg-3D-3D
.
