A new angle....

[PuraVidaDreamin]

4. I will continue to add new articles to this new form of action

http://www.occupy.com/article/local-lawmaking-call-community-rights-movement


Why Liberals and Progressives Have Run Out of Gas

Cries about the corporatization of government, of course, are not new. Liberals and progressives have been screaming about it for years. They’ve never seemed, however, to invent a new kind of activism that isn’t completely dependent upon the very institutions and systems that have themselves been corporatized, to provide some kind of relief. Thus, liberal and progressive activism has been about asking regulators, politicians and judges to somehow rule against the very forces that live within those institutions.

Their tired activism remains one of pressure politics – that if you can mobilize enough people at the right time, those people can pressure the real decision makers to make different decisions.

But as communities have begun to move on their own, they’ve begun to ask some really tough questions of progressives, such as: if we really have government of, by, and for a small corporate minority, then does sending letters, filing lawsuits, or trying to elect the right people make any kind of difference at all?

It is here that these communities have departed from exhausted liberal beliefs – namely, the belief that we live in a democracy, and all we have to do is find a way to activate it so that it works in our favor. Instead, these communities – and the brave elected officials and community leaders who are now walking hand-in-hand with them – have seen this myth for what it is, and have begun to plow an entirely new path.

- See more at: http://www.occupy.com/article/local-lawmaking-call-community-rights-movement#sthash.ud2VaR30.dpuf