Political Activism

Permaculture Solutions for Climate Change

The solution to both our social and ecological solutions is the same: community. Restore the community of caring and sharing, understand that community means the interconnection of people with the environment and natural communities that sustain us, restore power and resources to communities, and trust in the resilience of the community of life. We have already altered the world, and it will never be the same again. But if we take action to stop the damage and employ the solutions, if we partner with nature and our great earth-healing allies, it can still be a beautiful, thriving, life-sustaining place for ourselves, for the life around us, and for future generations. […]

Now That The Election is Over…

Organizing after an Obama victory is like bicycling with the wind at your back, instead of peddling into a stiff head wind. I’ve lived and organized through the victories of Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Bush, and believe me, this is better! And we have a lot of organizing to do. […]

Elections 2012: Lessons from Katrina

Yet there is a world of difference between the disaster response under Obama compared to that of the government-hating Republicans. Romney has explicitly proposed dismantling FEMA and turning disaster relief over to the states and to private enterprise. When we consider the prospect of Halliburton and its like profiteering on the pain and suffering of disaster victims in a world where floods and hurricanes and tornadoes are bound to increase, we should tremble with fear. […]

Elections 2012

Include in your ideals the real-life impact a Republican victory would have on a young black woman from the inner city, on an aging writer, on hundreds and thousands of other folks here and around the world for whom the nuances of difference might mean life or death. Then vote your conscience. But for Goddess sake, get off your high horse and your butts and get out there and vote! Include in your ideals the real-life impact a Republican victory would have on a young black woman from the inner city, on an aging writer, on hundreds and thousands of other folks here and around the world for whom the nuances of difference might mean life or death. Then vote your conscience. But for Goddess sake, get off your high horse and your butts and get out there and vote! Include in your ideals the real-life impact a Republican victory would have on a young black woman from the inner city, on an aging writer, on hundreds and thousands of other folks here and around the world for whom the nuances of difference might mean life or death. Then vote your conscience. But for Goddess sake, get off your high horse and your butts and get out there and vote! […]

Venus Transit and Recall Elections

So if you’re with me, let’s work on shifting the energy around all this. Why should we quietly lie down and suffer under the toxic thought-blanket the political fabricators are laying over us? What would happen if a whole lot of us used our intention and focused imaginations to shift the energies? And why not use some of the energy of this Venus transit—energies which will continue to flood in over the next weeks. […]

Travels and Occupies

But even more than troubles with the cops and city authorities, the biggest challenges the Occupy movement faces seem to be internal. How do we make decisions together? How do we resolve our own conflicts within our groups? Once we’ve said “We are the 99%”, how do we set standards of behavior and say what is okay and what is not? Once we’ve renounced force and coercion, how do we enforce those standards when we do set them? […]

My New Book: The Empowerment Manual!

When I began writing The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, I wanted to offer some of the benefit of my experience, including my many mistakes, to groups who were organizing without a top-down, hierarchical structure. I’ve been living and working in such groups for more than forty years, and I felt like the many dreadful meetings I’ve endured, the in-fights and the painful conflicts, as well as the glorious moments of collective creativity and spiritual ecstasy, should all count for something. I saw so many groups struggling with the same issues, whether they were spiritual circles, working groups, communities struggling to organize or activists planning a protest. And I had a few insights that I felt might be helpful. […]

An Open Letter to the Occupy Movement: Why We Need Agreements

The framework that might best serve the Occupy movement is one of strategic nonviolent direct action. Within that framework, Occupy groups would make clear agreements about which tactics to use for a given action. This frame is strategic—it makes no moral judgments about whether or not violence is ever appropriate, it does not demand we commit ourselves to a lifetime of Gandhian pacifism, but it says, ‘This is how we agree to act together at this time.’ It is active, not passive. It seeks to create a dilemma for the opposition, and to dramatize the difference between our values and theirs. […]

The Poetics of the Street

I’ve been on my feet all day, but I don’t feel tired. I’m exhilarated. What’s happening here is so beautiful, so powerful. It answers our most primal human needs: to have a voice, to have that voice heard and affirmed, to tell your story, to be seen, to be part of something, to stand for something, to stand together, to stand strong. […]

Return to Oakland

The only thing I hate worse than rallies is not having rallies. And I’m glad we’re having this one, and glad I’m here, aching feet and all. Because it’s the necessary response to the brutal police attack on Occupy Oakland. At 4 AM, the police surrounded the camp. According to reports, they ringed the square, fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs into the sleeping crowd, and then arrested over a hundred people, who are being held in custody for two days until their arraignment. […]