Alwaysrandomthoughts's Weblog

Democracy?

alwaysrandomthoughts — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:51:16 +0000

If there is “true” democracy there should be no apparent need for social movements. Social movements may be a necessary step in the democrotization process, but once democracy has been established, all involved citizens are to have a voice…This is how I see it in my mind! Since it doesn’t quite work that way, social movements are necessary since sometimes those who do not have a voice are only heard through these movements. Because of this fact, I don’t believe they are a threat to democracy, they simply expand democracy to give liberties to those voices that go unheard…..If that makes sense….

Nonviolent Struggle

alwaysrandomthoughts — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:14:05 +0000

When I opened this document up the first thought that came to mind was that there’s no way I’m going to read all of this! So I went back to the instructions and realized it said to look through it. This publication pretty much outlines what the class is about. It could almost have been the course reading material. Of course the class would have been a little less interesting without supplimental readings. I found it interesting that the multi-level marketing idea is suggested for organizing. I am familiar with it as I have worked for a company that used the strategy. If you think about it, it works for a movement. The more people you recruit, the more people you inform. This is a nice way to grow a social movement or any movement.

Underground Railroad

alwaysrandomthoughts — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:09:15 +0000

Whenever we think of non violent acts on behalf of blacks and their freedoms, we think about the Civil Rights movement. While researching other nonviolent movements, I came across the notion that the underground railroad was a non violent movement. The underground railroad was a huge movement to free slaves. It was operated by hundreds of people seeking to give slaves their freedom. It consited of a number of people who offered their houses and businesses to help those seeking to escape slavery and be ‘free’. I believe this is an excellent illustration of a movement that operated with non violent actions to get something done.

Plane Stupid

alwaysrandomthoughts — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:45:03 +0000

An organization commited to climate change, specifically aviation’s affect on it. A brief overview of their website at www.planestupid.com shows that they consistently use direct action to make their cause known. They have seriously disrupted secure conferences and their main page shows a picture of one of their members throwing custard on a politician at the head of a decision to expand an airport. The activist says that she does not regret taking action and it appears the organization does not either. The person blogging for the website appeared to criticize Earth Hour implying that direct action is more effective than simply turning out the lights for an hour simply to turn them back on.

IMPORTANT POST!!

alwaysrandomthoughts — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:55:12 +0000

I debated long and hard before deciding to post this, but I think it needs to be heard. I’m not yet ready to give identifying information, so they names of people and institutions will be left out.

I have a friend whose brother in prison in Virginia. He was recently transferred from a facility where he felt his life was in danger. The prison had discovered that the young man(26 years old) had allegedly been having a relationship with one of the white female guards. Its important to point out at this time that the man is a black and the prison is in a predominantly white area. Most, if not all of the staff are white.

Upon discovering the alleged relationship, several (7 or 8 ) guards ran into the man’s room and beat him severely, yelling racial slurs while doing so. He was shackled and cuffed and unable to defend himself. When medical staff were called in, they were told that the man had slipped and fallen. The man was then placed in isolation and only after several pleas to the state was able to be transferred to another institution.

The man informed his family of this information only after being safely transferred and is still a little hestitant to discuss it. He says that this abuse takes place daily and there are a number of inmates still there being abused!!!

At this point, my friend and her family are afraid for her brother as he is serving a long sentence and they do not want to make him a target. They have contacted an attorney and are proceeding with caution.

I say all of this because SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE!!!! I’m not sure what, and I’m not sure where to start. Without proof, it would be hard to bring charges up against the guards or the institution and it’s difficult to obtain any proof as a prisoner. Prisoner or not, no one should be subject to this kind of abuse!! This should not be happening to ANYONE!!!

I imagine this might be hard to believe, but believe it!!! I have not been able to sleep all night just thinking about it. Again, I’m not sure what to do at this point, but I felt the story needed to be told…

Sociality…

alwaysrandomthoughts — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:14:26 +0000

Since I’m a Individualized Studies Major, I basically get to choose my own course of study. I choose the courses that interest me and ultimately hope that they somehow relate. What I’m enjoying most is that they do relate. I have chosen to combine Sociology, Psychology, and Social Work courses. Sometimes there are courses outside of those disciplines that interest me and this is one of them. This course gives me information that works right into the other courses I have taken. We discussed labor unions early in the semester and we’re now discussing them in my Social Freedom course(Sociology). We listened to the song from Harland county and since I’d already heard it in the Social Movements course, I knew it. The rest of the class was looking at me a little wierd when I sang along! In any case, I’ve been able to take information and knowledge from one discipline and use it to benefit me in another. That’s exactly what interdisciplinary studies are all about.

Walk off…

alwaysrandomthoughts — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:04:08 +0000

Am I the only one who can’t get the website with the Methods of Nonviolent action to come up? I’m not sure what’s happening, but I keep getting an error message when I try to click the hyperlink…There may be something else going on, but I looked at it last week and I remember “Walk off” or something like that on the list. When I saw that, I was reminded of a demonstration attempted a few years ago in Prince William County for the immigration situation. I cannot recall specifically, but everyone was supposed to get up and leave class at the schools at a specified time during the day. I unsuccessfully tried to look it up, but I vaguely remember something like this. This type of action would need to be done in large numbers to get a response. Imagine if more than half the class got up and walked out! That would make it more effective.

I know the assignment is to talk about how a movement could use the action, so to comply with the instructions….We could use this action for our social movement-RIGHTS TO U.S. Citizens BORN TO UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS-since we are most specifically focusing on the idea of allowing these citizens their right to pay in-state tuition in the states in which they have resided, we would use this demonstration on college campuses. –

By the way, I kept trying to get the site while I was writing this and it did finally come up and it’s Walk-outs, not Walk-offs, my bad…

Non-Violence

alwaysrandomthoughts — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 02:54:22 +0000

I believe in non-violence. As I understand it, non-violence means not resorting to violence. It means that even when threatened with violence by others, one would not retaliate with violence of their own. I think mostly it is effective. I’ve grown up with non-violent tendencies and it has served me well up to this point. Having grown up in an area where violence was constant, I was faced with the threat often. Lucky for me, it was always just threats, never any ‘real’ action. I learned to ignore threats and move along.

In terms of social activism, as I mentioned at the beginning of the semester, I think violence would defeat the purpose in most situations. Depending on what a movement is pushing for, violence would only cause negativity. I say most because usually there is an exception to all rules. This question makes me curious to see what this week’s readings and class discussion hold for us.

Gorby at Mason

alwaysrandomthoughts — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 02:37:23 +0000

I was glad to hear that I wasn’t the only one thrown off by the fact that Gorbachev’s speech was given in Russian. It took me about 10-15 minutes to focus. Gorbachev spoke about a lot of the issues taking place around the world. He spoke about the situation in Iraq and the concern with nuclear weapons. He believes the threat of such weapons will continue to spread. He expressed his thought that there has been a total failure of governments, which lead to the situation being what it is today. He said that the world needs to de-militarize politics and needs to address proverty and the conflict in the Middle East. His hopes are pinned on the new President and the new attitudes of the American people. Among the other thoughts he expressed, President Gorgachev said that one country cannot fix the diverse problems of the world, but is hopeful for the future.

Orange…OTPOR….Little Brother

alwaysrandomthoughts — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:43:35 +0000

The similarity between the organizing in Little Brother and that during the Orange Revolution was the fact that they both used the internet to organize. Most of what was done with Xnet in Little Brother was done anonymously and in secret. No one wanted to be identified out of fear for what might happen to them. Maiden, one of the groups from the Orange Revolution, suggested that people reveal their identity. I think the organizing in the Orange Revolution more closely resembles OTPOR in the sense that they were both politically motivated movments. I compared OTPOR to Little Brother because they both used similar tactics and resources and in this sense, they are alike the Orange Revolution as well. Orange Revolution also used technology for surveillance and used cell phones for quite a bit, as did the characters in Little Brother. Each of these movements had its own identity but were similar in the sense that they used technology to expand their movement.