Posts

Framing the Debate with "Progressive" Values

Organizing people and campaigns is one thing, but any organized campaign must have a clear message to reach the people. After all, the goal of these campaigns isn't so much to "convince" those in positions of authority (often they simply don't care, because the system works for them), but to convince the people as a whole that change can happen. When the people are united and organized, they have the power to enact change. Convincing people that they do in fact have the power is the hard part, and part of that relies on spreading a vision people believe in -- a vision for how our social systems can be changed into ones that work for all people and not just wealth oligarchs. George Lakoff, a linguistics and cognitive science expert, argues in his short book "Don't Think of An Elephant!" that communicating that vision is one of the major failures of the left over the last few decades. In particular, right-wing ideas have permeated our culture and gove...
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Non-Violent Direct Action and Organizing

When considering the systemic change necessary to address the climate crisis and many related social issues, it's important to reflect on strategy and tactics. We can learn a lot from the activists that have come before us about what sorts of actions are effective, or not so much, and how to grow a movement for change. Recently a few books have been published on exactly this topic. Much of the leftist organizing tactics since the 1960s seems to have been forgotten in modern movements and so these books help save the learned lessons from the successes and failures of those movements. It is of course impossible to condense down a book full of lessons and discussion into a short essay, but let's at least list some of the main points in order to develop a stronger terminology and idea of what leftist organizing looks like. George Lakey's 2018 book "How We Win" offers the following points and advice for successful action campaigns (mixed in with a little of my own ...
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A Welcome Message - Audience and Message

One of the most important decisions when creating a news or educational work -- a blog, a pamphlet, a book, a podcast, a youtube channel -- is to decide who  the audience is going to be and what  you want to tell them, which requires that you know  why  your message is even worth spreading in the first place. This blog is no exception. The "why" is fairly straight-forward -- with growing poverty, growing racism, sexism, and xenophobia, and a several ecological crises looming on the near horizon, we must  create cultural and institutional change and develop a new world where we can all live in peace with each other and with nature. We need a world free of pollution and climate change, free of war and poverty, free of racism and sexism, that encourages every single person to be the best they can be  and develop their own interests, hobbies, and lifestyle. In a word, a world where we can all be happy . Exactly what  to say about the topic depends heav...
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For An Ecological, Free Society

Welcome to the new Pittsburgh (PGH) Green Left blog. I am hoping to provide essays and educational material about a new kind of leftist politics: one that integrates the best ideas of socialist and anarchist thought, with the views and ideas of modern movements for environment, social justice, and peace. As a short introduction to the ideas, let me present a recent thread I wrote about how the ecological crises we face such as climate change are deeply tied to a large number of other issues: poverty, racism, imperialism, much as Martin Luther King, Jr., originally spoke about, but also issues of healthcare, education, and democracy itself. Only by a holistic study of how all of these issues are interrelated and connected can we develop a plan for real system change. I hope the following thread, which forms sort of a short essay, helps provide context for why we need a new political and cultural movement around green values. Once you look at the causes and solutions to ...
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