And all you have to do is write a letter to a politician who can be bought by Bloomberg for a few bucks.
The pillars of building an effective, commited rank and file are informing/educating, organizing beyond short time actions, and the ability to mobilize people for effective action.
Did today's rally empower the membership or organize for further action in a meaningful way?
Did it educate them beyond the narrowest band of information? Maybe the leadership feels empowered, though I don't really see how with these one shot mobilizations.
Well, we were there anyway.
The best part for me was a group of teachers going by and one of them screamed my name. "Mr. Scott was my 6th grade teacher," she told her colleagues.
The bad news is she's been teaching for over 20 years.
Waving the banner in Les Mis
See more of Angel Gonzalez' Facebook photos.
2 comments:
Couldn't agree with you more. It was a ho-hum demonstration. Like a B movie.
If it were a "success," I should have been able to read about it this morning. Didn't find much about it in the google search, but enjoyed this beauty:
FAIR BUDGET RALLY AT CITY HALL – MARCH 5, 2009 @ 4 P.M. HUGE SUCCESS!!
Trouble is, it was written on March 3rd.
And what was the name of the thing anyway, the Rally for New York, which is what the "broad coalition" announced it as on Feb. 23rd, or the Fair Budget Rally as some others call it.
Edwize told us to rally to "make your voice heard in support of our schools and our children," which is I suspect a bit different than what the others in the coalition told their members the rally was about.
Hillary'sVillage website says it was "against proposed state and city budget cuts to public services, education, health care, along with other programs that impact families and the economy in New York.."
Honestly, when the organizers can't even get the message out of why we have to bust our butts to get there after a hard day's work, I give up.
I have to say one more thing.
Bloomberg's cages do not make for exciting rallies. They are designed to dampen solidarity and protest. When you are in a throng of barricaded, imprisoned people going nowhere except into the inevitable bottleneck, I don't think that's what the Constitution had in mind:
"Congress shall make no law respecting ... the right of the people peaceably to assemble . . .."
The right of people to peaceably assemble in protest is not the same thing as asking people to voluntarily put themselves into lockdown to get the job done.
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