Protesting Strategies

First I'd like to say that I have great respect for those that do this their entire lives. I've been working toward social change (namely to end the wars) for six years and honestly, I gave up about four years ago. Kind of been putting in a half-assed effort since then.
But the people who organize the protests and stage sit-ins in Congressional offices and work tirelessly to benefit people other than themselves, I'm not sure how they don't lose enthusiasm.
This weekend, I went to Boulder for the five-year protest of the Iraq war. I should have known better. The protest had been combined with Ceser Chavez day. (Back in 2003, the Martin Luther King Jr Day Marade was co-opted by peace groups so this was kind of similar but ... oh yeah ... without any impact.)

As I stood in the cold for an hour, trying not to listen to the speeches and wondering when the hell the march would start, I looked around at the group.

Cesar Chavez, Natives in traditional dress (did I mention it was 40 degrees out?), End the War, 9-11 was and Inside Job, Free Palestine, Free Tibet, even some Rocky Flats. While I agree with most of these groups and support their goals, I cringe at how they promote their message. It got me wondering, what are the end goals for the protest organizers and attendees? To get out and make some noise? To get people thinking about issues? To make a change?
How can an organization do this? I've come up with a list (Yes! A list!) of seven changes protesters need to implement to reach their goals. I'll be protesting the protests until I start seeing them. In fact, I've scheduled a day and secured the permits so that on President's Day, 2009, we can protest the protest methods while at the same time celebrate Washington/Lincoln, examine voting machines, end global warming and invite our senators to lick DU munitions to prove they're safe.
Sorry, got a little off track. Here are my Seven Demands For More Cohesive Protesting:

1. Dress nicely. Business casual at the very least ... oh wait, these are liberals -- business. Stuffy business. I know this is a really petty one. (Start with petty first, that's what I always say) Still, nobody wants to listen to a bunch of derelicts. Image is a key to success in this society.

Don't like it? Me either. And it can be our next cause after Iraq/Bush/Palestine/NAFTA/CAFTA/US foreign policy etc...

Dress like you respect the issue, not like you're advertising your bong club. That is, if you really want to start attracting people, be taken seriously, and have people stop to listen to you.

2. Stay on Target. Protest the war. All subjects are to be directly related to this. Not a tangent. Not some 'we are all connected' bullshit.
3. Don't Preach to the Choir. We show up because we care. That means we are informed. We know Bush lied. We know soldiers died. We know what the subjects are about. So you need to ask yourself, who's this speech for? The passersby? The protesters? What is the end goal?

If you want to get people fired up for the march, you need to choose a different tactic. Tell us something we don't know. Tell us when protesting has worked. Or if you want to provoke thought among the crowd, then find a different angle. Don't just read to us from a list printed from your website.

4. Provoke Without Provoking. Is their anyway to discuss these topics and generate discussion without being a complete douche bag?
If so, I'd really like to see some speakers find it. Let's draw people in, instead of having them run screaming from the protest. I know you're angry. I'm angry too. Can we bottle that rage up and save it for throwing eggs at Bush when he's in town?

5. Stick to a Timeline. Come on. No one really wants to hear you talk. Make it brief, make it short, and give clear directions.
6. Be Original. I protest the genocide in Darfur. What really sucked was going to a protest and hearing the same speech I'd heard the year before. Word for word. Even the death count was the same. So, if you're just trotting out the same old diatribe (and it isn't even funny) -- might want to rethink that. Hell, try having new facts that none of us know. Or, invite some right-winger in for a debate. God, then we at least would have good use for those eggs...

7. Have a contact booth. Here's an idea. Instead of many disjointed hubs running fifty agendas and stepping on people's feet, organize! People could sign up for email alerts to the next protest. Preplanning items could be sent out. A schedule of events even!
Those are my seven demands. I'll be holed up here until they're met. Or until the candlelight vigils on Wednesday, whatever comes first.

Lila Schow
Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government
http://goodusgov.org/

Brownback, Sudanese for WTF?

Try to ignore that George Clooney and Barak Obama are in this photo. It's hard, I know, but just try anyway. That rabbity-looking guy sliding off the left side of the photo? That's Senator Sam Brownback.

Brownback is perhaps the most outspoken member of Congress when it comes to demanding an end to the Genocide in Darfur. Indeed, Brownback has been involved in Sudan for years, before the genocide and during Sudan's 20+ year civil war.

He's sponsored and pushed numerous Peace Acts over the years. True to his morals, he's divested his personal finances from any company doing business in Sudan.

And then, today, this: Brownback Questions Abortion For Rape Victims

Rape is terrible. Rape is awful. Is it made any better by killing an innocent child? Does it solve the problem for the woman that’s been raped?

I should not be surprised at this statement. After all, Brownback is the poster-child for conservative Christianity. No gays, no evolution and for god's sake, no stem cell research.

However, for a man who's visited Sudanese refugee camps to then question abortion, it makes me wonder what exactly he saw while he was there.

Did he see the massive starvation of children?

The mutilation and disfigurement of the victims?

The denial of prenatal care? The denial of health care?
Did he even question the lives these children of rape face, the menacing retribution in their future?

Or do these not matter because he was talking specifically about American women?

In Sudan, boys are also raped by gangs. But as there is no living reminder, these crimes are ignored. Would Brownback like to draft a new law punishing male survivors of rape for engaging in homosexual activities?

It's not the hypocrisy that bothers me so much as the absolute lack of compassion from a man who claims to want to end human suffering.

~Lila Schow
Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government http://goodusgov.org/

Happy Rwanda Genocide Day, Sudan!

April 6, 2007 marked the 13th year since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that took over 1 million lives in 100 days. Four years passed, the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ) had not even convicted one person for their role in the genocide, and President William Clinton visited Kigali airport in Rwanda. With the engines of Air Force One running, he encouraged the world to "work together as a community of civilized nations to strengthen our ability to prevent and, if necessary, to stop genocide." He then laid out a plan that would "increase our vigilance and strengthen our stand against those who would commit such atrocities in the future."

I guess he didn't speak for George W. Bush.* Because four years ago, genocide slithered onto Sudan's horizon. Bush recognized it as such, all the way back in June of 2005 when he announced he would end the killings in Darfur by "working with NATO to make sure that we are able to help the AU put combat troops there. And, as a part of that, I believe a transport plane of ours, for example, will be a part of this mission."

Go Bush. His commitment to end the first genocide in the new millennium was firm, as evidenced by the complete lack of funding he provided in the budgets. USAID received about $20k a year to end the Darfur genocide and to keep the peace in southern Sudan, an area trying to recover after 22 years of civil war. He took further steps to shore up this commitment by excluding funding for Darfur from the 2008 US budget, set to begin in October of 2007.

The danger of this long and drawn out mass killing is that it becomes accepted. It becomes how the people living in the areas are defined. And while it is shameful that Anna Nicole Smith's death receives far more coverage than the intentional murder of 400,000 people (with 2 million to go), I find it even more embarrassing that college students are able to generate 12 times more money through a few bake sales and charity functions that my own government.

I don't want my country to be known as the number one exporter of hollow rhetoric and broken promises.** Help end the genocide.

Join. Act. Make a differnce.

~Lila Schow
Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government http://goodusgov.org/

*Given how quickly he forgot about Rwanda, I doubt he was speaking for himself, either.

**