David Grenier has some thoughts about the anniversary of the WTO protests.
...if we're serious about social change we need to build local grassroots movements that will do the dull and difficult day-to-day nuts and bolts organizing work. These organizations need to be controlled by the people most effected by whatever situation they are fighting be it police brutality, unfair wages, or water pollution.
Yup.
The Argosy and CHMA both had parties last night, and I'm darned tired, so I'm listening to Vennaskond to stay awake.
Some thoughts:
We keep forgetting that the presidential election is already decisively undemocratic. We've known this since the primaries, when we found out that what really matters is money and backing from powerful people (i.e. money).
A trend that keeps popping up in my readings of Thucydides and Xenophon is justice vs. expedieny. Funny thing is, the two tend to get mixed up. For example, when debating whether to kill or enslave an entire city, the guy arguing for it will appeal to justice, whereas the guy who thinks the people shouldn't die appeals to expediency.
Something quite similar pops up in the present day. When we talk about universal health care as a good thing, it's generally from the point of view of expediency - "it'll be good for poor people", or whatever. What we miss is that health care can ends up costing less per capita in countries where the government provides it, plus they serve more people, regardless of economic status.