I really enjoyed writing my most current post on activism. What it says to me, is that we shouldn’t necessarily look at the big moments for insights in to how activists are changing the world. We often have to look slightly askew and examine the fringes.
Case-in-point: While it was certainly disheartening to see the vote on gay marriage inMain, there were smaller moment s that may be providing, eventually, a more cumulative effect. There were smaller victories. Marriage equality activists were successful in Washington. They were successful in a municipal vote in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The vaunted Conservative Party candidate, who was certainly being assisted by the anti-marriage equality forces was defeated in New York. These are smaller victories, through which we may see a cumulative effect.
I really believe that the anti-marriage equality cause is fighting a rear-guard action. Gay couples, good And bad, will continue to exist and show the rest of us that they are largely the same. I am now a married man, and I can tell you that the existence of gay couples, or gay married couples has no impact whatsoever on my own marriage.
I will probably be writing on Sunday about new developments on the Rainbow Family cases. I have some news that has wafted my way through the intertubes and I will be sharing them via suite101. Essentially, it looks like the feds are going to trial in Wyoming over one of the cases following the 2008 Rainbow Gathering. So, it’s a chance to report on a very timely subject. Long story short, I am contracted to provide at least four of these articles a month.
On some other fronts, we will probably see an early activism article from me this week as I am going to a conference down in Chicago to see if I can do something about my currently marginal employment status. On the other hand, I making some plans to increase my writing productivity so, we may be getting some more articles out on occasion.
Besides visiting my suite101 page, I have some other writing projects you may wish to take a look at. First of all, my local news franchise at NorthDakotaHometimes and my Newsvine page. Please visit them often. It’s off to face some new educational environments in the next calendar year, and hopefully I can keep my writing up through that.
That’s it for now, see you next month, On The Barricades
Has it been that long since I blogged here? Good gravy!! Well the unsettledness that largely has been my life in the last couple of week certainly bears that out!!
Other than that, I'm still experimenting with some quasi-open-source modes of writing and finding out about some other possibilities as to what is happening in realms of "citizen journalism" and what not.
I am happy to say that one of the activism features I posted recently has some original reportage in it. This is the feature about the "Rainbow Gathering" that I just did. It contains some comments from an e-mail that was sent to me by one of the principals. I knew there was going to be some original reportage at one of these points with one of these things, but I just didn't know when.
Open-source journalism is full of all kinds of original analysis, but, and I'll admit it for myself, very little original reporting. So, getting into one of those has been a pretty interesting coup for me. Outside of my activism page, I really have not seen much reporting, alternative or otherwise on the possibility of there being a trial of people involved in the movement, if that's the right word for it.
It was a weird case to be sure. The government seemed to be doing everything they could to back away from this case, without actually backing away from it. It just seemed really odd to me that the feds were really going to go ahead and prosecute what were essentially misdemeanors. I guess they didn't expect people to protest their innocence so readily.
I appears that they are not quite ready to drop charges against the last remaining person, but I do fully expect them to drop that also. When it does, I'll probably be the first one one on about this, also.
Actually. Facebook might be giving me another idea for a story, so we might be hitting the barricades on this soon.
I have to write this blog post in honor of Barbara Ehrenreich. When the foreclosure crisis first hit, she observed in a column, that people had, at one time in this country, offered physical resistance to foreclosure of people's home. She was lamenting that this was not happening. SOme of her books, especially, the under-rated, Bait and Swith demonstrate this. I call Bait and Swith underrated, because Nickeled and Dimed, gets all the love. The latter is about the alarmingly high cost of being poor in America. As a heavily-industrialized country, being poor is surprisingly, expensive. We have all sorts of things built into our economikc system that make climbing out of poverty, difficult.
The former book is about the decimation of the middle manangement in this country. It's very easy to hate middle management, becsause, when things are going well for them, they tend to look down their noses at others. Trust me, I lived in a city that had an insurance company with a large middle-management corps. Their children were near impossible to abide. But, the upshot of her book is that middle management, maybe more than the poor, are brought up to think that poverty, or any economic reversal is their fault and their fault alone. They are taught to be ashamed of economic reversal when it happens to them. In times of crisis, it's everyone for themselves and their is no class solidarity.
As the Rosemary Williams case shows, their is class solidarity forming at the lower reaches. Their are people still fighting foreclosure of property. Those who are helping Rosemary, have little of their own, yet, they are making common cause.
What will be interesting to see, is if the middle management hit by the foreclosure ciris ever get to the state where they fight foreclosure together and with the the poor. The one thing they have in common with the poor, is that they are not on the top. There are people above them. Will they come to think of themselves as part fo a collective? We will know there is a sea change over how we look at economic reversals when we see the middle class fighting foreclosure as the poor are just starting to do now.
Protest and activism can take many forms. Protest and activism are not always loud and destructive. Sometimes it can be quiet, and that is when it can be most effective,
Which brings us to the subject of this week’s article. A secular student group is quite simply planning on visiting, en masse, a museum that they say misrepresents evolution and natural selection.While the museum is planning and warning against disruption, I fully expect there to be none from this group. They are merely showing up to register their displeasure.
I also chose this piece of activism this week, because it is being instigated, in part, by a Midwesterner.While the Midwest is often regarded as stodgy and conservative, it has a rich history of political activism. Why, just here in North Dakota, alone, grange activists of the 19th century successfully battled banks and other interests with a variety of protest weapons. As a result, conservative North Dakota has the only state-owned bank!
I have been following the career of biologist and instigator, Paul Z Myers for quite some time. While I don’t agree with every position he takes, I find his willingness to take on entrenched power, quite refreshing. He is an atheist and quite outspoken about his opposition to religion, organized, and otherwise. I’m probably a little more accommodating of religion than he is. I don’t necessarily see it as the enemy.
I do no that a number of forces have been very unfair and callous in their treatment of him, and as I am a regular reader of his blog, I find him personally quite pleasant and I would be proud to meet him some day.
He also represents part of the Midwestern tradition of activism, and a very good part at that.
Ghandhi taught that some of the most effective protest can be quiet. I see many parallels between what is being planned by these people and Ghandhi. But, I should point out to Myers, that Ghandhi was quite religious and saw it as a vital component of social justice.
I’ve tried to get a whole gang of writing done in anticipation of my wedding, which is going down this Saturday. When I blog next, I shall be a married man. I know that I am already a lucky man, as my betrothed puts up with many weird habits of mine, such as this my blogging.
Boy Howdy! I have not had an opportunity to write for the ol’ activism blog for about a month. Well, job searching, setting up housekeeping, and planning for a marriage will do that. Oh, that wedded bliss did not interfere with one’s blogging!!
I like to keep the ol’ activism column as local as I can. Goo writers can make much from their own backyards. It’s also a way for me to explore issues in what may be my main locale for a while. I’m talking about Fargo, ND.
As I was driving about yesterday, I was certain that my column this week was going to be about the lawsuit against a state anti-abortion law. Considering that North Dakota is under a million people, and there is but one abortion clinic in the whole state, it is curious that abortion is such a lightning rod in this state. North Dakota is the front line of the abortion wars. For the above reasons , there simply cannot be that many abortions performed in North Dakota.
But then, the Forum hit me this morning, and I decided to write about this week’s topic instead. I did so for a couple of reasons: first of all, it’s interesting to explore rifts in one side, as opposed to two sides going at it. Second of all, health care, is once again the topic du jour. This, even though Harry Truman promised a single-payer system in 1948. That’s 61 years.
On the writing front, I’m back to being a volunteer writer for Fargo’s High Plains Reader. Check them out in hard copy, or on the web. My paid writing gigs still include Free Speech Radio and the Minnesota Independent. Please give them some web-love as well.
I continue to seek out paid writing gigs as I still have this insane notion that I can earn a living off of it. Hope springs eternal. I do really hope this Suite101 stuff continues to be a decent paid hobby for me. I like writing t for them, and it keeps instilling a writing discipline in me.
I have to keep putting up four activism columns a week for them as per my contract. Please give the people who write for this service a bit of your web love also. As for next week, we’ll see what materializes, on the barricades. Hope to see all of you there.
I love it when the news I write shows that the right-wing is wrong.
There really is no other way to describe it. On this issue, they are categorically, officially, indubitably,wrong. A right-wing narrative these days seems to be calling for some sort of action in Iran and since the left. for the most part, is not advocating such action, they don't care about the protests in Iran.
The right is simply wrong.
Let's dispense with their notions first; We don't know what kind of action they are advocating, so, it's kind of hard to judge their full position. But let's face it: a lot of Iranians are suspicious of our government, and rightly so.
We helped overthrow a parliamentary government in the 1950s. We kept the Shah of Iran propped up for 20 plus years. We also, more recently supported the government, that started a war with them that lasted ten years. Remember when we supported Saddam Hussein? It happende, and flushing things down the memory hole isn't go change reality.
Also. Ahmadinejad has many. many supporters in Iran. He may have rigged this last election, but his first he won hands down. He has been very popular in Iran. Any action on our government's part would lead directly to a terrorist army being formed to fight us.
So, let's look instead at the unoffiicial actions that students at those hotbeds of radicalism, the college campuses are doing.
As this week's column points out, students at the University of Iowa are asssiting by resetting the GPS and time coordinates of their Facebook and Twitter feeds. Students at the University of Chicago have set up a fax machine line to get reports out. There. Left-wing American students are taking positive, unofficial action that may really assist the protesters in Iran.
You’re probably wondering why this week’s column is NOT about Iran. After all, isn’t that the big story in the world of activism this week? Well, yeah, and there is a lot to say. For instance, while watching the news last night, I nudged my fiancée and told her to notice the cell phone in a protester’s hand. That’s how they’re getting the images out of the country. Right now, the Iranian government is trying to lasso water. They can shut down Facebook and Myspace, but it will do no good.
I’ve always been interested in American activism, and as an American, I kind of see it as my obligation to report on what’s happening in my country. I can tell you how I write one of these things. As I graze the week’s news, I light upon an article. I then see if I can find any links associated with the original article. Most activist groups, not just in Iran, use the Internet to unite people to their cause. I do a little cutting and pasting, and voila, that’s how I produce an activism piece.
What I liked about the story I wrote this week, about the logging protests, is how smart the activists are.They know that they can’t just use one modality of activism. In the case of these protesters, they are using the courts, the legislative process, public awareness, and yes, a little direct action to do what they think need to be done.Direct action can be messy, but as the IWW used to always say, “Direct Action gets the goods.” Direct action forces the authorities to either fight or surrender. As activism is often guerilla warfare, just because the authorities choose to fight, does not mean they will win.
I am almost always surprised by what I choose to highlight in my weekly look at the world of activism.A column like mine, has to let the news flow dictate the direction. But sometimes, you have to highlight an issue that is not well-known. I could have easily done Iran this week.For the above reasons, the logging activism sparked me this week.
I’m enjoying being back on the prairie these days. As I am continuing to decide how much I want to get back into traditional academia, I will probably always have this column to keep me interested in the world of activism.
Well, it’s back to the blog for this week. Moving 1,500 miles and planning a wedding can put paid to a lot of blogging. I’m also trying to firm up my regular employment plans a bit and that is also putting a bit of a crimp in the blogging.
Writing a current affairs based column is quite a challenge. One has to regularly rely on other sources to drive the column and to ferret out ideas worth writing about.
One of the best sources for writing about the world of activism would have to be the alternative media website, Alternet. Alternet was a pioneer in the non-profit news world. This is a world I’ll have to do a whole song and dance about sometime. Alternet culls some of the best news from the world of activism and generates its own content as well. I really do not my weekly activism column without it.
I really would like to get back to using one of the first open-content, collective news sites, Indymedia, and probably will some day. Indymedia was born during the “battle of Seattle” and at about ten years old, it is one of the longest running radical sources of news of all time. The only one that I think lasted longer, was the old Guardian newspaper, which unceremoniously folded in the late 1980s.
Radical and alternative media has been an obsession of mine for a long time, and I’m happy to bring a little of the radical world to this corner of suite101.
I’m kind of deciding these days how much of a full-time academic I want to be, and how much of a full-time alternative journalist I want to be. By the way, I make no bones about getting a lot of my material from the above sources because I figure, not every reader of suite101 is aware of them. I like to think I’m bringing a little of this world to the pages of suite101.Whatever happens, I will probably keep my suite101 column for as long as it exists. It helps keep the discipline I need to enforce myself as a writer. That is probably the greatest value to sites like this. It helps keep writers focused on regularly producing because of the contract we have with suite101. It also doesn’t hurt that we get paid for what we do. It helps put a little money aside.
This week’s column was, in some ways a joy to write. I don’t think it’s good that Fargo/Moorhead area journalist, Roxana Saberi was imprisoned by the Iranian government. What I do think is beneficial, and was a joy to write about was the way in which the community has come together to support one of their own. Some competing news agencies are on the list for rendering support to Saberi, they include, radio, TV, and newspapers. The list also includes conservatives, liberals, Republicans, and Democrats. They are all people who believe that freedom of the press is not an optional part of civil society. The news also demonstrates how people are coming together to support one of their own.
This quality of the Fargo/Moorhead area was also demonstrated in the recent support of people during the floods. Friends, neighbors, and even some transient college students all chipped in to help. As a journalist, it was also beneficial to see how news media in the area stepped up to help people. The local news media became a place for people to get helpful information, and to tell their stories.
I will be going back to the Fargo/Moorhead area, a place that was beneficial to me for three-and-a-half years for an indeterminate amount of time. I expect Fargo/Moorhead to be as beneficial to me as it was then.
Onto the world of activism for the past week: I still have not written about the activism surrounding the creationism/evolution debate, maybe that will be next week. I expect political activism around the economic news to be on the radar screen for the time being, and I may have a chance soon, to write about it again. The Obama administration is going to have to pay attention to the left-wing. Anti-torture activists made their presence known at the White House this past week, and many were arrested. It would appear that the left is well-prepared and willing to hold the administration’s feet to the fire. As a side-note to the torture issue, how come Ann Coulter doesn’t even have the courage of Sean Hannity’s convictions to be water-boarded for charity, if truly is no big deal? On the other hand, there seems to be no-movement by Hannity to accept Keith Olberman’s generous offer of a thousand dollars per minute for charity if Hannity undergoes water boarding. Come on Sean, take up the offer. What’s stopping you?
We have more evidence this week, that my regular articles are largely dictated by the news of the week. I have planned in previous weeks, and still plan on, doing a column about the unusual amount of political activism around evolution and creationism/intelligent design. I should do this, because this is the one country where evolution is not a settled issue. It is still fodder for political activism.
The one column I wrote this week, I honestly have mixed opinions on. I really have not settled on whether animal testing is perforce right or wrong. I guess I’m kind of in the muddled middle and say that it shouldn’t be unnecessary or cruel. I think there is animal testing that is both unnecessary and cruel. I have read some stuff from people I respect who argue for the necessity of animal testing. I really don’t know, and so, it may be one of those cases in which I have an article that is completely “objective” in that I have not determined my position in it.
One issue on which I firmly am not objective is the death penalty. I am unalterably opposed to it. I have genuinely wrestled with this issue, and it always seems that the more I investigate it, the more I am determined to be opposed to it. Therefore, I do not believe that Mumia Abu-Jamal, nor anybody should be put to death by the state. I believe and support any roadblocks that have been put in its way. I have live in death penalty, and non-death penalty states, and for some odd reason, I have always preferred those that are non-death penalty. I will be moving soon from a death penalty state to a non-death penalty state. I think it will be better for me.
Because of some changes in my life, I will probably be increasing my production of columns. I will be shooting for, about two a week. This way, I’ll largely be covered in my contractual obligations as a feature writer for Suite101 if I have to miss a week. I also may finally get to that column on political activism surrounding evolution, which I still find strange. But, that’s the world about which I write. I can plan columns for the future, but a current events-based column will always be dictated by the ebb and flow of the events in the news.
Life, and blogging is sometimes funny. I had fully intended another subject for my main column this week, and then the news changed my mind. In all of my articles, I have now written about protest actions surrounding the state of the US economy three times. I fully expect to be writing about this issue many more times before I’m through. People are frustrated. Unlike previous decades there seems to be a greater faith in collective action. I find this heartening, not only because I write about activism and that gives me grist for my articles, but we are a country based on voluntary association. I’m happy we’re turning to each other to vent our collective spleens. I think its healthy.
Here’s what I see happening on the activism horizon these days on some other fronts:
I may finally get around to writing about the activism on the evolution/creationism front. My major grist for this issue is the blog of biologist at tiny University of Minnesota-Morris, Dr. P.Z. Meyers. Meyers is becoming a major celebrity because of his blogging and activism on the atheism and evolution fronts.
It looks like there’s considerable activity on the gay marriage/civil unions front. The anti-gay marriage people have launched a serious TV ad campaign on this issue.
Being a media maven, I would like to pen an article on media activism one of these days, soon. I almost wrote a column this week on an unusual protest against a TV network. A group of media activists petitioned CNBC to do its business differently. You may recall that a number of CNBC personalities, such as Jim Cramer were very bullish on a number of financial stocks that went belly up and helped precipitate the recent financial crisis. The media activists petitioned CNBC to be less promotional and more journalistic in its coverage of the economy. They were lobbying a news organization, to be more journalistic.
Well, as you can see, that story came close to, but did not become the article this week. I guess this is what this blog is for, to write about the activism that doesn’t make the main column, but does have its interest and that people can read about.
I would like to do something about the greater number of non-profit news organizations that are springing up. I just don’t know if that necessarily counts as activism. Well. As always, we’ll see what the week brings.
Well, this week in the main column we looked at activism possibly being precipitated in what is called an “astroturf” fashion. “Astroturf” activism was coined by a wag to delineate activism that is purported to be grass roots but is, in reality, orchestrated by people who are far from the grass roots. This may be the case with the Tax Day Tea Parties being organized in a multitude of states. I have no doubt that there are people who are genuinely upset with the Obama administration’s budget plans and are right to lodge public protest against them, if that is their wish. These are issues that reasonable people can disagree about and I, as an activism columnist, would be remiss if I didn’t think that public protest is a legitimate thing to do.
I would not, however, be an honest broker of information, I didn’t also report that equally honest people see other forces behind these particular protests. This is why I reported on these particular protests in this fashion. My column and this blog are public forums, and if people disagree with how I report upon the activism scene, I want them to take issue with me.
I have this strange feeling that next week’s column will be a report on the evolutionism/creationism political activism that is happening around the country. We are the only civilized country in which the origins of life are an open question and the source of political activism. I guess Jay and The Americans, The Drifters, and Yakov Smirnoff are all correct, only in America and What A Country!
I’m not exactly sure what direction the controversy and activism over marriage equality will take. As far as I know, there is still activism being spearheaded by the LDS church to bring an end to the idea of civil unions in Illinois. The reports out of Iowa say that the anti-marriage equality forces could not get a constitutional amendment on that issue onto the ballot until 2012, but may try to get a law imposing strict residency requirements on gay couples getting married in the state. Federal Representative Peter Kings seems particularly bothered by the idea of gays coming to Iowa to get married. You would think people in Iowa would be interested in the tourism dollars!!
The ‘personhood’ movement to declare fetuses to be human beings was dealt serious blows in the heartland West: measure failed in both Montana and North Dakota. Organizers for this movement are continuing their organizing in places like Mississippi.
I was fully intending to give more coverage to the “fetal rights” or “personhood” political movement in North Dakota this week, but the flood in the eastern part of the state and a surgery that I had to get done put the kibosh on that. The surgery is done and I’m recovering well, and North Dakota will probably be a little out of the woods soon, so we may be able to get back to that.
This week I started posting about the protests surrounding the upcoming G-20 summit. I expect to be writing about this next week. British police have a way of being very heavy-handed with protest events. I expect there will be some activities to report on in my weekly postings, or at least, this blog.
Other forms of political activism and events that look like they may have promise for weekly postings would include the oddly continuing struggle to get Intelligent Design recognized in state school curricula around the country. Anti I-D advocates seem just as determined that they fail.
I’m continuing to be on the outlook for campus-based activism. Being a college educator, this is an ongoing interest of mine. I’m not expecting the issues surrounding school newspapers and college administrators to die anytime soon.
Here in Utah, I’m continuing to see pro-coal and anti-coal ads on TV. I have a hunch that when I return to the Dakotas, I’ll continue to see them there. The continuous spotlight on clean energy seems to keep these movements in the spotlight.
I’m not sure what’s going to be happening with the anti-war movement and it certainly bears watching. I think the left genuinely wants Obama to succeed, but he was hardly the most strident anti-war candidate available in the last election. The most anti-war candidates were Kucinich and Edwards. Obama then became the most “electable” candidate, whatever that means. Obama appears to want to send more troops to Afghanistan, forgetting that neither the Brits, nor the Soviets could pacify that country. I’m really afraid that Afghanistan may derail Obama’s ambitious domestic agenda in the way that Vietnam derailed Johnson. Will there be an anti-Obama left in this country nurtured by a continuous presence in Afghanistan? It’s really hard to tell at this point. Obama seems bound and determined to not be the president who “loses” Afghanistan. I’m just fearing for what I think are some initiatives on the home front.
Hello and welcome to the first official blog entry for SUITE 101’s FROM THE BARRICADES BLOG…the official blog of Suite 101’s official Activism Feature Writer, Jon Pike.
What I will be doing with this blog in the coming weeks is provide a weekly update on activist issues I DIDN’T cover this week as an article, but are still worth mentioning, and may in fact rate an article in the coming weeks.
I would like people to feel free to comment on this blog and to suggest the frontiers of activism I should cover in my role.
So let’s report….FROM THE BARRICADES
Evolution activism is heating up. The Oklahoma State Legislature has officially condemned evolutionary atheist Richard Dawkins. The original resolution condemned the University Of Oklahoma Zoology Department for teaching evolution and not intelligent design. Iowa and Alabama are both considering legislation that would allow for the teaching of intelligent design…..
The battle for abortion rights is active in North Dakota and Montana. The state legislature in North Dakota is considering a bill that would give fetuses, an official, “right to life.” Montana is also considering strict bans on abortion….
Yet another college newspaper is facing administrative sanction. Student journalists are locked in combat over control over the Oregon Daily Emerald. This follows similar battles at Chicago State and a move that put the student newspaper at the College Of Dupage under control of the college prez. This one I’m seriously thinking of doing as an article….
Labor activism is a hot topic these days. Labor has an issue it is seriously fighting for with at least some support from the Obama Administration. The Employee Free Choice Act continues to be characterized as “anti-democratic” by right-wing radio and Fox News….
The battle over marriage equality is far from over. The California Supreme Court is still deliberating over the constitutionality of Proposition 8. A bill allowing civil unions went down to defeat in the Utah State Legislature. The LDS church claims it had not role in that fight. But, the LDS church is telling its Illinois members to fight a civil union bill in that state….
That’s it for this week, join me in discussing these topics, won’tyou?, as we continue to file dispatches…FROM THE BARRICADES.
Check in here for a weekly update on activism news....what almost made the clumn, but didn't, and what may make it in the future. Also, your suggestions for activism coverage.
