Dear cj,
It was on 5 Feb that I announced the shift of focus for cyberjornal. Has
it been only three weeks? ...so much has happened.
I'll post two other messages very soon, an update on Iraq and one on MAI.
The traffic there is getting heavy, and I hope soon to have a website
system going so that information can be made available beyond what can be
posted. There are of course web references in many of our postings, but
cyberjournal should have a good web presence of its own in these areas,
with links to other sites.
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There have been many good contacts made to the Canadian anti-MAI movement,
and some local assistance has been offered in coordinating the
workshop/conference. The working title of the gathering is "Seeking a
Democratic Response to Corporate Globalization" and I'm still trying for
Prince Edward Island (PEI) as a location.
My original reason for choosing PEI was symbolic: PEI was (as I understand
it) the first Province to come out against the MAI. Since then I've
learned the symbolism goes deeper: PEI is evidentally recognized as the
Birthplace of Candadian Demoracy - the Charlotte Town Conference (c. 1860)
was the moral equivalent of the American colonists signing of the
Declaration of Independence. (If I've got this wrong I'll post a
correction - let me know).
Meanwhile, we are beginning to identify potential delegates to the
workshop. The idea is to include people with diverse viewpoints and
backgrounds from around the world, people who are in the leadership of
activist movements, and people who have a good sense of vision and
strategy. If consensus can be reached in such a group, given the
diversity, one can then hope that the result would be worth promulgating
for more general global review, endorsement, and refinement.
Part of our research is finding out about similar efforts that have been
carried out or that are now underway. My sense, so far confirmed by early
findings, is that good preliminary work has been done, and that useful
momentum exists - but that the "revoutionary step" has not been very often
taken. That is, anti-globalist activity is currently focused on
pre-revolutionary activities.
Such activities include public education, appealing to current leaders,
opposition to current policies, aiming for specific victories, etc. What
we aren't seeing much of is REVOLUTIONARY CONSCIOUSNESS: acting from the
knowledge that the POWER IS with the people, that complaints MUST be turned
into PLATFORMS, and that only a lack of WILL and UNITY keeps us from
dethroning the elite fat cats ALTOGETHER. We are not the oppressed
minions, we are the sleeping GIANT, and we've HAD ENOUGH.
The purpose of the workshop, through the Manifesto that will be adopted,
and through the organizational network that will be started, is to launch
the development of a global coalition aimed at the democratic reversal of
the suicidal elite/corporate path the world is now following.
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The elite, let me assure you, are well aware of the revolutionary seeds
(collateral damage, if you will) planted by globalization. They know you
can't exploit without upsetting the exploited, and they have been
implementing counter-measures to popular revolt for quite some time.
There's the radical erosion of civil liberties, paramilitarization of the
police, wholesale building of prisons, emergency executive powers,
ever-more sophisticated propaganda, etc.
But in terms of our coalition efforts, the elite tactic of most concern has
been the systematic encouragement of factionalism at both the international
level and within national populations.
It was the US that engineered the installation of the fundamentalist
Ayatollah in Iran. It is the US that facilitates, covertly and overtly,
constant tension and instability in the Middle East. It is US media
propaganda that continually demonizes Muslims and encourages Western fear
and hostility towards them. It is the elite's darling Samuel P. Huntington
who openly preaches a doctrine of regional factionalism, as a means to
geolopolitical stability in a globalist world. And it is the US-NATO
hi-tech strike force that will exploit this factionalism as a cover for its
globalist geopolitical adjustments.
Within national populations we have European National Fronts and other
neo-fascist movements, devolution movements, fundamentalists of various
stripes (Christians, "libertarians", various cults), narrowly focused
special-interest groups, Militias, Patriots, etc. One can argue the degree
of elite covert encouragement behind all this factionalism, and I would
argue for quite a bit, but the consequence in any case is that overcoming
factionalism is a major task of a wide-reaching coalition effort.
Factions divide the population into "chunks" which can then be played off
against one another by the corporate media, neutralizing and mocking
popular power. But beyond this, factions provide a mechanism to undermine
popular revolutionary consciousness. For example, the concept of the NWO -
the New World Order - has been successfully identified in the popular mind,
due to media spin, with alleged right-wing conspiracy kooks who fantasize
about liberal conspiracies to implement world socialism, and who swap
pirate videos of UN blue-helmets training in black helicopters somewhere in
Montana.
Meanwhile the NWO - the overturning of the principle of territorial
sovereignty - is being carried out right before our eyes in Bosnia and Iraq
without being identified for what it is. The television images of paranoid
conspiracy nuts, with the words "New World Order" on their lips, served as
a vaccination, preventing the development of the dreaded disease, Seeing
The Truth.
We must realize that people aren't really the stereotypes they may seem to
be - it is not only "us" (whoever _your_ "us" is) who are "real people"
underneath. Just because "they" seem captivated by bizarre and dangerous
beliefs does not mean they lack common sense or that they are incapable of
learning or that we can afford to dismiss them.
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This is why, ever since the 16 November posting "Who is the enemy? How do
we fight them?", I've considered it important to persue communication with
groups many of us have dismissed as being beyond the pale. That piece,
under various names, made it into militia and patriot newsletters and has
led to some very positive and interesting responses.
By far the most intriguing was a thick posted package of literature that
arrived this week from a feisty woman many of you may know about - one
Carolyn Chute, Secretary to the Border Mountain Militia and the Second
Maine Militia. She is one "gas lady", as they say with great affection
here in Ireland. Her hand-drawn flyers and newsletters are strewn with
folksy emblems, logos, and cartoons higlighting such gems as:
* Big Biz EATS People for Lunch
* Border Mountain Militia - Your No-wing Militia,
Your Common Sense Militia
* The 2nd Maine Militia - "Your Wicked Good Militia"
* We are nice but we are _not_ pushovers
* No More funny business!
* Working Class and Proud of it
She has serious, clearly written articles, under such headings as "If You
Like NAFTA and GATT, You'll _Love_ MAI", and "Dear Revolutionary ABBY".
There's good discussion of corporations, small business, the potential
power of the people, and elite divisive tactics. There's a 9 page
broadsheet headed in 4-inch letters by "NOTICE TO ALL PATRIOTS" which
presents a good analysis of capitalism and reviews the experience of the
turn-of-the-century Populist movement. There is a lot more in the package
she sent me, and it exudes correct understanding and revolutionary
consciousness, at least as I see it. I'd paste all her stuff into Cyberlib
if it wasn't non-electronic and non-scannable.
Her return address is embellished with "NO PHONE, NO FAX, NO PAVED ROAD -
WRITE". I will indeed. Among the literature was hidden a personal note,
the kind you don't run across every day. Excerpts...
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Dear Roger [!]
We of the Border Mountain and 2nd Maine Militias take our hats off
to you. Your article in TAKING AIM was great. A lot of militia movement
people have gotten stalled on a few issues (just like the liberals do) or
blaming the liberals or Democrat politicians or this or that dang-fool
small thing. The "faceless finaciers" being so faceless don't attract much
attention. A lot of people are allergic to ragweed but they blame
goldenrod because they SEE goldenrod. Ragweed is made invisible by its
coloration and so on.
You have a little different perpective on history than most of us in
the Maine No-Wing Milita movement have, but that harldy matters. Your
vision of a unified people, all us ordinary people, is EXACTLY what we are
working for...painfully...painfully slow.
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If you are ever in Maine, PLEEEEEEEZ let us Know, please come see
us. We'll send you directions. We would love to yakk about this with you.
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We are no-wingers. We are working class people who are not into
Capitalism or Communism or Socialism but we all share the wish of getting
the government to represent the people not faceless financiers and their
corporations. A We-The-People government might come up with an entirely
new economic system...perhaps different regions live best with different
economic systems that reflect their needs...barter, cooperative...who
knows? But what we got now isn't working, only for the 'faceless
financiers' and thier corporate elite.
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I think all of us who think this way should get together. The
faceless financiers get together all the time to figure ways to keep us
down. Nothing wrong with us all getting together to try and figure ways to
free the people.
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Yours in Revolution, Carolyn Chute
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I've met, perhaps, a cosmic opposite - a woman, a low-tech approach, a
working-class orientation, a hands-on organizer - but at core with the same
perceptions, the same fundamental strategy, and with the same vision of how
to get started with the next level of revolutonary realization. I WILL
visit the 2nd Maine Militia and Ms Chute WILL make her unique contribution
at the Revolutionary Workshop. Or I'll eat my hat live on the web. How
serendipitous that Maine is right next to PEI.
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I don't mean to go x-files on you, but there has been a portentous
serendipity accompanying all these developments. The package from Carolyn
dropped through my mail slot just moments after I had added to my To Do
List the item "Begin outreach to diverse activists". And a few moments
after I sent out a request for contact information regarding Maude Barlow
of the Council of Canadians, a paper invitation arrived from the States to
a Book Launch she is giving next month. And there were other similars.
Coincidence or not, I'll take these as signs that we are going with the The
Tao (or The Force if you prefer).
By "we" I refer to the fact that the endeavor I'm describing is
increasingly becoming a collaborative one. I don't want to give a "credits
list" at this time because it's still early days in terms of developing our
working relationships and getting the various sub-projects underway.
Suffice it to say that members of the cj community, whose names are
familiar to you, are rolling up their sleeves for the revolution, and
paying their own postage.
We are always seeking additional volunteers, in all categories of skills
and interests. If anyone feels they would like to contribute, they are
always welcome to contact me. There are creative opportunities for all,
but this kind of endeavor requires grunt work at times as well - there is a
real job to be done with deadlines that are beyond our control. The
Titanic Western Democracies have been torpedoed by the globalist elite,
and the bulkheads are flooding at an alarming rate.
This collaborative process is a microcosm of the larger coalition project.
Now we have people learning to work with one another in a revolutionary
endeavo. Later we will have groups and organizations learning to work with
one another as they define a larger revolutionary endeavor.
The time is right. The need is urgent. The opportunity is real. What is
more important?
In Solidarity,
Richard
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Posted by: Richard K. Moore | PO Box 26, Wexford, Ireland
•••@••.••• | www.iol.ie/~rkmoore/cyberjournal
* Non-commercial republication encouraged - with this sig *
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committed citizens can change the world,
indeed it's the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead
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