Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 00:55:33 -0800
Subject: RE: How do we win?


[thankx eddie!]

previously posted by me as part of "Re: ELF spikes trees in Indiana" -
but put here again by itself, as i thought this message was worth it
- very well put!


Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 03:11:57 -0500
From: "Eddie Black" <eddiecoyote-AT-earthlink.net>
Subject: RE: How do we win?

The question was posed:
How do campaigns win? How does Direct
Action fit into strategies, etc. Also, what things hamper or cause a
group to be self-defeating or counter-productive.

This is my response to that question.  To win you must know your weakness.

One of the most important rules in the art of war is to know the enemy.  Who
is our enemy?  Is it the drunken redneck who wants to fight us?  Is it the
pissed off timber worker who is trying to find a means to pay for his/her
food for the family?  Is it the shop owners who depend upon the electricity
from dams or products from corporations to sell so they can make a living?

None of these are our enemy.  Our enemy is the idea that a corporate entity
has the same rights, under the Constitution, as an American does.  And while
they may share our freedoms of speech and protection against defamation as
we, the human population which make up this nation, there is a power of
theirs that we do not share in and the lack thereof which has given the
power of law to those corporations which seek to act in a manner
inconsistent with the principles of Freedom, Liberty, and Equal
Representation.

That power is money.

We have bought into the notion that we must work for the corporation so that
we may obtain money in order to immediately turn around and buy goods and
services which we ourselves produce from corporations.  To become a normal
person in society is to act in a manner as perpetuated by popularized media
of every format, from the music we listen to, to the novels we read.  The
purpose of near every entity in our society is to make money.  Recall the
days of the depression era in U.S. history when corporations would set up
corporate towns.  Everything within the towns were owned by the corporation,
even the money which was printed, and the workers would in turn buy the
corporate goods from the corporate store.

I ask you this.  What is the difference between this is and slavery?  Yes we
may move to whichever city we choose, and we are able to train ourselves
into any number of endeavors and trades.  Yet a review of history will show
that African slaves were among the most skilled workers in the North in all
trades.

Ours is not a prison of walls, our chains are not of iron.  It is a matter
of perspective.  How did we get to this point where WE, the PEOPLE have to
protest the actions of a select FEW?  How did this blessed DEMOCRACY allow
for a new breed of aristocracy to appear upon our shores?  We were once the
grand experiment in the history of the world.  We were a shining city upon a
hill, a beacon of Truth and Liberty to all who scoffed at the notion that a
people could govern themselves.

We have lost that freedom.

What property ownership allows for the destruction of an eco-system which
influences all of Life?  Where is the Right, as outlined in the
Constitution, to destroy environments which have direct impact to say the
least about the countless invisible ties we have with the environment?  How
is it that water is to become a commodity to be traded upon the exchange?
How is it that we are accepting of the notion that those few souls who
recognize that all of our freedoms have been trampled upon, that our lives
have been forfeit into ownership by corporations and that these same people
who risk their lives to defend the environment against destruction are now
labeled as radicals, extremist, nutcases, among other names?  Some how the
notion has taken a deep hold that patriotism is not found in the ranks of
liberal environmentalist.  The idea that only the business minded
consumer/corporation can proudly wave the flag has taken hold in many
people's minds.

The government is not a representation of the people.  I cannot imagine the
widespread mistrust of a politician among the populace which appoints its
representatives to actually exist.  Yet we know who appoints the
politicians.  Corporate dollars.  Who else could possibly put their presence
upon the media in a realistic bid for public office save those of high
income or corporate sponsorship?  Where is the equal representation in that?
How foolish is a group of people to elect a member as it's leader and then
for the majority of that membership to distrust the leader?  Take a poll
about our level of trust in our elected officials.

The population is not our enemy.  Why then the need to spike a tree?  Why
then acts of violence against the human slaves of corporations.  They are
merely trying to live out the life that they know.  They have lost sight of
their freedom and what it truly means to have Life, Liberty, and the right
of Pursuit of Happiness.  They believe the lie that a luxury car, an extra
week vacation, a larger house, and all of the latest fashions and gadgets
will bring them happiness.  One look at the number of people who are unhappy
in their life, who are on depressant medication, who are searching for
things to make them happy... they don't know what it is anymore but feel the
loss and seek to fill that loss, turning to unhealthy activities and fantasy
behaviors.  Ever see a caged animal at the zoo act in a manner consistent
with the notion of joy?  It knows no freedom.

How can we become more effective in our campaigns?   We can continue to
fight to preserve what is left of the environment, be it for human-centered
or bio-centered reasons.  But a greater fight with more potential is to
enliven the notion within the American mind of what freedom truly is and how
it has been taken by the corporate world.  Corporations wield power much too
great, greater than any empire ever.  How can there be a patent on the human
genome?  And yet to counter the notion that a corporation is too large we
are given the answer of better television sets and better tasting cola.  We
have accepted the notion that our freedom, the livelihood of our
communities, the welfare of our young, the stability of the environment, the
voices and traditions of indigenous peoples across the globe are an
acceptable loss for a bigger television set, a cold can of cola, sporty
shoes upon our feet, and the remains of an ancient forest in our patio
furniture.

Edward Abbey said that, among other things, the preservation of wilderness
would be important as a last bastion of true freedom and liberty within this
American continent.  Is that time not now?

I will fly my colors proudly for to me they signify the ideal of a nation
where there is equality among all its citizens.  Not only those of color and
religion, but income and class as well.  Exactly what is class level and how
in the hell does it play into the notion of Liberty and Justice for ALL?

I will live my life in defense of freedom.  And in the words of Thomas
Jefferson I have sworn eternal hostility against the tyrannies over the
minds of men.



Eddie Black

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
pertains to "Subject: [EF!] How do we win? Why do we lose?"
http://fornits.com/renegade/peaars.cgi?fetch=4914
and to "Re: ELF spikes trees in Indiana"
http://fornits.com/renegade/peaars.cgi?fetch=4915
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