Politics and Social Movements

There are a lot of misconceptions among American liberals, progressives, and radicals about how the political process in the United States works. Most people feel that they are trapped in a system where they must choose between two political parties (Democrats and Republicans) if they want their vote to count. In fact, I will argue that voting for either of these political parties is the least effective thing you can do!

Myth #1
Your vote for a D or R candidate will make a difference in the election outcome.

If you want to stop global warming then you need to know about the False Solution known as "Biomass Energy" (it produces CO2, methane, particulate matter, SO2, NOx, and other harmful impacts). The Energy Justice Network is building a network of activists fighting biomass incinerators and working for clean energy alternatives.

You can subscribe to the monthly Biomass Monitor.

Date: Nov 30th, 1999.
Location: Notre Dame, Indiana.

I had heard rumors of a big mobilization for the anti-WTO protest in Seattle, but I had ignored them and Seattle was very far from Notre Dame (and I was cheap). Also I was trying to complete my course work on time (ahem!). However for the first time I could follow everything online with Seattle Indymedia's radio station!

As the Occupy Movement is re-examining the role of the General Assembly it is important to ask what kind of democracy do we want in our movements?

Up until now the Occupy Movement has used General Assemblies as a primary method for making main decisions. While General Assemblies can make movements more democratic it is a misconception that they are examples of participatory democracy. In fact they largely follow the representative democracy model (and representative and participatory democracy aren't always as far away from each other as people think).

This is a pretty amazing high resolution map of the French 2012 Presidential Election results

The Problem
The Occupy Movement is in a serious decline. Occupy Philadelphia turnout is down to a fifth (or less) of its regular attendance for key events like General Assemblies, occupations (ex. the Independence Mall 6 month anniversary), and protests. For instance, our General Assemblies will have twenty people instead of over a hundred. Several of the working groups are very successful, but in general the level of participation has fallen dramatically.

The US presidential nomination and election system is profoundly undemocratic. The primary problem is money aka corporate power or capitalism.

The primary/caucus process varies greatly by state and the differences are HUGE. Delegates can be directly chosen by the primary, or there can be a process which requires a county convention followed by a state convention. Delegates can be bound (required to vote for a candidate) or completely unbound.

The Democratic nomination process is more democratic than the Republican one as it makes greater use of proportional voting.

Occupy Philadelphia is having a ten-part series on Dissecting Capitalism. It is organized by the Education and Training committee.

A first edition of a new publication about the Occupy Movement: Occupy Theory

Read it!

(Note: this article is currently being written. It is a draft! Added Campus Activism events analysis section on March 20, 2012.)

How much do social movements depend on good weather for their success?

Will the Occupy Movement be able to survive the winter? If so, when will it come back a full-strength?

To answer these questions, I examine several indicators of social movement strength over time. I focus on the United States as it generally (outside of Hawaii, some territories, and parts of the West Coast) has a strong variation in temperature between summer and winter.