THE OLD WAYS OF PROTESTING ARE NOT EFFECTIVE IN MODERN TIMES

In the Political Activist's Guide To St. Louis ( pag2stl.blogspot.com) I say that violent revolution won't work in a world of 7 billion people and the kinds of weapons that police and the military have now.  We live in a world now where if we are going to survive and thrive, we need people to begin actively running their governments.  Mao once said "all power comes from the barrel of a gun".  That has to change.  Violence just changes the faces in power, not the power itself.

Protests and counter protests, in the past, served to bring large groups of like minded people together, to raise energy, and to spread messages through the media coverage.  That's the plus side, and those things are still effective.

But large protests and counter protests often end up as screaming matches, the arrests only benefit the police and courts, and the real work of educating the general public and making material changes still falls to a few dedicated people who do the solitary work of calls, petitions, education, etc, for weeks, months, years, after the protests are over and most of the people have returned to business as usual.

(The upcoming RNC counter protest in Cleveland bought the police a bunch of fancy riot gear and big budget for the summer:  http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/uncucumbered/cleveland_prepares_for_republican_convention_riots?recruiter_id=17 )

Instead of counter-protesting when Drumpf or the KKK is having their rally, do it the day or night before, and go to the people that aren't in the KKK.  You will reach more people about your concerns, and likely get the same or more media attention.  And little chance of getting arrested and creating revenue for the cops through arrest fees and fines.  (If you do get arrested PLEASE don't just take the plea and pay the fine, GO TO COURT and challenge everything you can.  Even if you lose you will do the First Amendment a great favour.)

Instead of clumping together and focusing on the idiots that aren't going to change their minds no matter what you say, not too mention making it easier for the police to arrest you, stretch out side by side on the sidewalks, single file.    You will still be protesting, but you will reach more people, and will have time to talk to them because you aren't shouting at the idiots.

I am NOT criticizing people that demonstrate, or shout at the cops or counter protesters (during Ferguson the police were the counter protesters).  It's just that it is not effective anymore. We saw very clearly in Ferguson that they just send in the tear gas and jack up all the fines.

To change things means we need to protest every day, or every week, or every month, to the people in power.  We have to educate the people that aren't paying attention to the issues on how the issues effect them.

For example, if all of the people that counter protested at the Drumpf rally yesterday had held the counter protest Thursday night at rush hour, on the sidewalk, single file, and then the next day during the rally called the Drumpf campaign headquarters here in St Louis, nationally, and also called local representatives and media, and told them why they think Drumpf is dangerous, it would have had greater impact.  It wouldn't have made the same thrilling headline news of bloodied protesters and Drumpf drones screaming "fuck you whore" at counter protesters, but it would have had greater impact on the people who are on the fence or who aren't involved in politics at all.

And in Drumpf's case, it would have been a bummer for him and his supporters.  They WANT a fight. We already know that.  That's all he talks about.  And they love being vilified.  Being met with "crickets" would have been a let-down for Drumpf and his drones.

 As someone who has worked for many years as a receptionist, switchboard operator, desk clerk, etc, I can tell you that the phone is one of the most effective tools of disruption to "business as usual".  And it is invisible to anyone outside of the office.  An overload of phone calls puts massive stress on any government or business entity.  There is no nightly show that is going to run footage of Drumpf's office staff answering angry calls (unless it shuts the phone lines down).

No heroism to bask in on the nightly news, no vilification to uphold, no cross for the martyr to bear publicly.

For example, 35 people were arrested yesterday.  A phone "demonstration" by 35 people for 6 hours, taking in to account breaks for the bathroom, etc, time waiting on hold, etc, could still have made approximately 20 calls each an hour, which totals 4200 phone calls.  This would have taken extra time to prepare 120 short "scripts"- one for each call, or compiling 120 places to call with one script.

So- a list of 120 - the Mayor, the Governor, state and national congress members, Republican party hq's, Drumpf's headquarters, the board members of Peabody Opera House, the local and national media, etc- with the same message "I oppose Donald Trump, do you stand with me? etc".  Which means 120 places getting 35 phone calls each. Or 120 places for each caller- Drumpf's business entities, elected officials, etc- with a tailored message for each place.  35 extra calls over a 6 hour period is a pain in the ass.  Even if you are paid employee, and a lot of the people at the Drumpf offices are volunteers.  Even the most hard-core believer would get worn out if this happened every time Drumpf spoke somewhere.  Especially if the calls asked a lot of questions and requested detailed answers in a calm way.

Getting Drumpf's staff to quit is more effective than yelling at his followers.  Convincing his fellow Republicans to come out publicly against him is almost too easy these days.  And making Peaody Opera House sorry they booked the event would be a cakewalk. And you don't end up in jail and paying out money to the courts.

"Hi I am a registered voter and I was wondering if you could detail for me what era in American History your candidate is referring to when he says 'again?'  When was America great in your candidate's opinion, and why was it great then?  What specifically does he have planned to return our land to -this time in the past considered great-?"

(I took at look at the Drumpf supporters in St. Louis and I assure you that during Reagan's presidency these people were saying the same things they say now- replace "Muslim" with "Iranian".  Remember the Moral Majority?  Phyllis Schlafley hasn't written a new speech in 40 years.  Even from a Drumpf drones' point of view there is no "great" to go back to.   And it is not that hard to manipulate a conversation to get them to admit it.  These people are the ultimate haters.  And most lack the critical thinking skills that their candidate lacks as well.  Try it sometime, it is fun.  Ask leading questions, but frame them in their rhetoric.)

"Can you explain how your candidate's First Amendment rights were violated? I would like to see the First Amendment get a more thorough discussion in his speeches.  What will he do to protect Freedom of Speech?"  (Yes, really. Drumpf said his First Amendment rights were violated in Chicago last night: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/03/12/3759418/no-one-is-violating-trump-free-speech/)

"What is your candidate's stance on the TPP? Can you explain the TPP to me and how it will effect our economy for the better?"

"Your candidate says he is millionaire, but his tax returns say differently. He isn't evading his taxes or lying about his income is he? Can you explain the discrepeacy?"

"What does your candidate have to say about the Monroe Doctrine?"

"Many African slaves were Muslims, is your candidate going to deport anyone who has a Muslim ancestor?"  
 
These people don't know shit about history or politics.  Make them research the answers. Make them think.

I decided not to go to the Drumpf protest, but I was very proud of St. Louis to see that many people did, even though I am sorry that many were arrested.  I am suggesting though, that courageous, motivated activists channel their energy differently.  MAKE HEADACHES FOR DRUMPF, NOT HEADLINES.

CHANGES TO OPTINSTL COMING

It is shocking to me how many hits the posts about Ferguson last year still get.  (And how many errors and early information that wasn't verified I posted.  Will do edits with "the cross out line" where I find those errors.)  If you think a  little blog on blogger is a wasted effort, I am here to assure you it is not.  If you have something to say, start a blog.

Attached to this blog is one on Ferguson, and also another one Occupy Your Life (I think I had to spell it occupyurlife in the blogger url).  I am going to moving posts that aren't about transportation to those sites (I'll leave the post with a link to the new location).  I need to get this blog back on track about Metro and public transportation in St. Louis.

I am also working on a printed newsletter and/or "zine" for the STL area, and getting actual domain names and websites, not just Google blogs.  Also in the early part of next year there will be OPTINSTL public actions- meeting places to conduct mass phone-ins, sign petitions, etc.

I fund all of my activities with my own money, and I don't want to get into advertising or sales.  So things can be slow.  But if you agree with anything you read here, as I say in the copyright blurb, go ahead and reprint it.  You don't even have to give me credit (although if you try to pass off exact quotes as yours and someone searches, they will be directed here- so if you are selling something or writing a paper, better cover your tracks).

I think the most important post on this blog is I WANT TO LIVE IN A CITY WITH GREAT PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION:  http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/04/i-want-to-live-in-city-with-great.html

I hope you do, too, and I hope you will be patient while I try to get things sorted.   In the meantime, call Metro everytime you ride, and make the pledge "5 For 11" - to do five additional actions every month for the social change of your choice, during this year. 

HOW ANYONE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD, OUTLINED IN STEPS

1. PICK SOMETHING YOU WANT TO CHANGE
2. ENVISION THE END RESULT
3. RESEARCH THE HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF THE THING YOU WANT TO CHANGE
4. IDENTIFY WHAT ACTIONS COULD POTENTIALLY CREATE THE CHANGES YOU SEEK
5. FIGURE OUT EVERYTHING YOU CAN DO ON YOUR OWN AND DO IT
6. STAY PASSIONATE, BUT DON'T LET IT MESS WITH YOUR HEAD 
7. YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY MAY NOT BE INTERESTED
8. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

 
PICK SOMETHING YOU WANT TO CHANGE: METRO

ENVISION THE END RESULT: METRO provides services based on ridership and riders needs.  Facilities that are deemed important and necessary to riders are integrated into the overall development plans.  Executives have the public's interests at heart, and the agency is not run by or dictated to by businessmen.  The agency is totally transparent to the public, and the information about the agency's operations is made accessible and easily disseminated by the public.

RESEARCH THE HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF THE THING YOU WANT TO CHANGE:  METRO has a lot of reasons why it can't provide better services, and why the current structure is the best.  First and foremost in your mind whenever you encounter a "problem" or "obstacle" to your vision is to realize that within every problem is the solution to that problem. 

Metro says it is not in the business of providing toilets:  Not true.  Metro is about "business development" and doing whatever is deemed necessary to make the city more attractive to "business development." Metro is run Bi-State Development Agency.  Initially Bi-State started out in 1950 as the Metropolitan Sewer District.  They didn't get into public transit until they bought some private bus lines in the late 1960's.   

The addition of Public Transit to Bi-State is what began to bring in the large government monies to subsidize the bus lines (business developers need cheap labor, and cheap labor doesn't generally own cars).

Bi-State dba Metro is actually about any business it chooses to be in.  Bi-State dba Metro also owns and operates the Arch trams and Riverboat attractions, and the St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia Illinois.  The trams are the only part of their endeavors that makes a profit.  Metro bus and metrolink, the airport, and the riverboat attractions all operate at a loss.

However, their other enterprises are in the amount of a 2 million or less a year.  METRO bus and trains are worth 225 million a year.

Moreover, ALL of the money from Metro bus and trains comes from the public: government money (income tax), sales tax (city and country), and state money (property taxes).  And then that 22% that comes from rider revenues.

A businessman like Metro's CEO John Nations is not going to get elected to a senate seat from running Bi-State, or get a $250,000 a year salary from the airport, trams and riverboat attractions.  it is the 225 million a year from Metro that gives him the platform.  In his current position, he gets to hob-knob with the local rich boys and politicians, and begin creating the network he will need if he gets to office.

No one at Metro is looking to make the transit system self-sustaining because that would remove the government monies.  They would have to really work with the public to make transit feasible for people of all income levels, and to make public transit the first choice of people that owned cars.  That is a lot for an agency that is set up exclusively for the manipulation of private interests and does not have to do any "real" work.

It would also create a situation where the transit agency would have to work AGAINST the interests of private business developers and local government officials in many instances.  (For example, challenging the city and county towns to let Metro decide where bus stops were placed and where trains would run, etc.)  It would mean wresting Metro's checkbook away from the County Executive and a separation of "transportation" and "transit" bonds. 

The current situation does not work in the transit riding public's interest.  That is fairly easy to demonstrate.

If the agency were run by someone with urban planning at heart, the buses and train would be the first and foremost priority, instead of  developing personal relationship with future campaign contributors.

The riding public would be consulted first on future train extensions and bus lines, with the thought of attracting passengers with cars by making public transit more convenient than driving.

IDENTIFY WHAT ACTIONS COULD POTENTIALLY CREATE THE CHANGES YOU SEEK:  This is the part that calls for flexibility.  If you don't need the cooperation of anyone else to make the changes, you can do the work yourself, but if you need the public you will have to "try and try again."

Don't be afraid to fail.  For instance, if the "Jam the Phone Lines" doesn't work- either enough people don't call, or the calls don't generate any changes- I will have to devise another strategy.

http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/04/why-flooding-metros-phone-lines-is.html
http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/04/flooding-phone-lines-be-polite-but-dont.html
http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/03/actions-to-take-to-change-public.html

However, it may be that a lawsuit challenging Bi-State's ability to run Metro, and the contention that Metro transit is owned wholly by the people (all of their income comes from public money, as outlined above), and that public transit is a necessity for approximately 75,000 people in the city and 25,000 people in the surrounding counties.  (Roughly 5% of the entire metro area, and 20% of the city.)

That is a strong enough reason for a lawsuit.  However, I am not a lawyer, so I still need to engage some other people-- that are lawyers.

http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/04/call-for-public-audit-of-metro-bi-state.html 
http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/04/again-metro-has-long-history-of.html

FIGURE OUT EVERYTHING YOU CAN DO ON YOUR OWN AND DO IT:  This is fairly obvious.  But the most important thing is-- PACE YOURSELF.  I leaflet when ever I can. I talk to people when I can.

I call everytime I ride, about something-- questions about how they operate, demands for changes, and any problems I see. (A bus stop without a bus line number. problems with routes, etc.  Suggestions for immediate improvement.  The only thing I DON'T call about is the drivers.  They get enough calls about that and the bus drivers take enough crap about Metro's awful service.  I DO call about the fact that Metro has refused to reach a new bargaining agreement with the driver's union for 6 years.)

STAY PASSIONATE, BUT DON'T LET IT MESS WITH YOUR HEAD:  You are in this for the long haul.  Don't let them upset you.  The agency is going to say stupid things to you, insult you, insist that nothing that can be done.  You have to hang in there.  Don't work on it everyday.  Take a break.  Allot a certain amount of time each day or week or month and focus.

Live your life, but incorporate your activism into it.   I find out stuff about Metro all the time now, even when I am not talking to people about it.  I've started to look and listen.

Also, determine how much of troublemaker you want to be.  I don't believe in violence, and I don't want to take on so much that I have to worry about being arrested.  Most changes can be done legally.

There is always a risk, when challenging the current power structure, that draconian measures will be taken if you really become a threat.  The police and the military are controlled and used by private wealth to maintain private wealth and to create "order"--  meaning "business as usual."  However, in those circumstances, your actions will uncover any lurking fascism.  

And in that case, they will have to come right out in the open.  And generally, the public will respond in your favor.  It is worth it to challenge the power structure in any society, because that is what keeps fascism at bay.

This is one of the reasons that "Occupying" needs to become a hobby of every single person in this country.  By "occupying"-- learning about and monitoring-- all levels of government and public structures, we can exert our power and demand accountability.  We can keep fascism and violent upheaval at bay.  The more people that "Occupy" the less work there will be for any one of us.

YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY MAY NOT BE INTERESTED:  The people closest you will be interested because they are interested in you, but they may not have the same passion or vision. After a while they may get bored with your cause.  This is normal.

Seek out the people that do, and form your alliances there.   Even when I am handing out leaflets, I ask people if they are interested in changing Metro to make it better for the people that ride it.  Not everyone is.  Save your leaflets and your energy.  Move on to the next person.  Identify the people most interested first.  The less motivated will become more interested as you continue to get results.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF:  In our society we are taught to believe that money is the only source of power.  But the wealthy are actually the least powerful among us.  ALL THEY HAVE IS MONEY.

When I was a radical political activist in my teens and early twenties (I am almost 50 now) we used to say "Money is the lowest form of participation."  TIME and IDEAS are the strongest.

Every person has something to offer.  The wealthy are the smallest part of the population.  There are far more of us than of them.  And without us doing the work or consuming to generate their wealth, they would have nothing.

Most social change has been generated by 3.5% of the population.  African-Americans are less than 20% of the population, and during the Civil Rights era, not all African-American's participated in the struggle.  Don't discount what a small but empowered group of people can do.  The powers that be cannot handle any disruption of "business as usual".  They are all about profits.  They count on the majority of the people being too downtrodden, or too unmotivated, or too divided, to work for change.

Prove them wrong.  Believe in yourself, your power, and your vision.

If you pace yourself and seek like-minded others, you will succeed.

WHY POLITICAL ACTIVISTS AND OCCUPY MOVEMENTS SHOULD TARGET PUBLIC TRANSIT FOR CHANGE

I named this blog "Occupy" because I thought Occupy Wall Street was a good idea, even if its' time hasn't come yet.

But I don't think that starting at the top, at a national level, is the best way to get things done.

In less than two weeks since I started this blog and began investigating Metro, I have learned how powerful public transit agencies are.

Public transportation is a microcosm for how government and business work hand in hand to make sure wealth flows into the hands of only a small percentage of the population.

They are a funnel for receiving government funds.

They contract local police departments.

They own A LOT of real estate.

They supply a necessary service for low-income people, but, at least in Metro's case (and the Los Angeles Metro) that is not what they are really about, or their primary function.

"Incarceration by lack of decent public transit" is used to keep poor people in poor neighborhoods.  People that will work for any wage and in any conditions, and be willing to travel 4 hours a day to get to those substandard jobs.

Moreover, anyone interested in making their city more "green" and eco-friendly does not need to be told that decent public transportation will help save the environment.

If you are political activist, please consider working with OPTINSTL to investigate and change public transportation.

Especially if you are lawyer or accountant.  To change things might require legal action- against Metro and the agencies that fund them.

And Metro definitely needs to be audited by the public.  They get audited to make sure they are spending federal funds as directed, but there is no one investigating if their budgets could be changed to better serve the public (instead of business owners).

Consider requesting all the information available through the Sunshine Act. I am going to:
From an email from Metro: These are the answers I can provide for you without requiring that you file a Sunshine request for research and compilation of documentation.  If you need such documentation, please contact Shirley Bryant in the agency’s Legal Department at sbryant@metrostlouis.org.

  (From this post: http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/04/metro-responds-to-my-first-round-of.html)

If you are a social worker or philanthropist, investigate setting up programs to fund low-income and unemployed people with discounted or free transit passes.

I will be adding more as I learn more, but I hope I have convinced you that taking on Public Transit is as effective as going after Wall Street.  The "Local 1%" is much easier to reach.

OCCUPY PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION FOR CHANGE!