Some activists think that it is better to work within the Democratic Party -- for example, by running in primaries -- to change the party. Yet it is very hard to run as an insurgent in a Democratic primary. Candidates will find themselves excluded from public events and not taken seriously by the media. Unlike in a general election, an insurgent Democrat does not have the power to impact the outcome of the election. (We are not saying that running an insurgent campaign should never be done, but its impact is not as great as a third-party general election campaign.)
Not only do we need to block candidates who put forward counterproductive policies, but the people-powered movement also needs to block infrastructure that is damaging to the people and the planet, strike at businesses that mistreat and underpay workers, move our money from corrupt big banks, and mobilize against injustice wherever we can.
We have seen the power of blockades in energy infrastructure. Just recently one of the biggest projects adding to the climate crisis, the tar sands of Canada, announced a massive 65 percent drop in profits in a single quarter. From Nov. 3-7 there were blockades against extreme energy extraction, which escalated with protests at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Building on Flood Wall Street and actions over the summer, there was a series of Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE) actions this month in Washington. BXE participants blockaded the FERC every morning and held other actions in the afternoon.
People are also currently doing great work blockading the Seneca Lake fracking storage facility. This is their third week of protests. Election Day saw the second blockade in two days at a Cove Point liquefied fracked gas terminal construction site. Another action was held on Tuesday and future actions are also being planned.
It is time to shed our fears and embrace our power: If we link arms in a movement of movements that recognizes our issues as connected, then we are unstoppable; another world is possible.
Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese are organizers with Popular Resistance, which provides daily movement news and resources. Sign up for their daily newsletter and follow them on Twitter: @PopResistance.
Reprinted from mintpressnews.com
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