Planning Our Way to Victory

I swear that there is no more fulfilling or happier way to live than to take a stand for something you think is right--Srdja Popovic, in Blueprint for Revolution (2015). 

Next to the puppet representing the Statue of Liberty is Domyo Burk, who was inspired by Popovic’s book to create the bit of street theatre we will hatch on Sunday. Bonnie McLean built the puppet after Sue and I got it started, and our group of six people has secured a sound system and a musician, invited speakers and peace-keepers (an alternative to police), created a flyer and a program, publicized the event, studied the site and planned the procession, assembled a list of resources for people who want to work together after this is over, and selected and practiced the songs. We still have to buy candles and flowers to hand out, but we are almost ready, after four meetings, hundreds of emails and texts, a mock run-through, and (yet to happen) a final rehearsal. 

One of the points Popovic makes is that spontaneously organized events (like Occupy), do not succeed in challenging the power structure. He says only careful planning can do that. So if you want social change, he says, you have to think in terms of years, not actions. You have to have a grand strategy, a specific strategy, some tactics, some people-skills, and endless patience and persistence. Popovic writes:

This, I think, was the true reason for Otpor!’s success. Sometimes we were a bit more disorganized than I care to admit. But we always knew how to stay ahead of the game...so we followed up a prank with a concert, a concert with a march, a march with an election, and election fraud with civil disobedience and strikes.

We don’t expect our little event to change governmental policy, but it is a way to connect activists with each other in ways that are life-giving: so that we learn to work together and trust each other; so that ultimately we triumph over fear, hatred, and xenophobia. By unchaining the symbol of welcome to immigrants and refugees at the “Wall of Freedom” created by Swift Agency, we support what encourages us and gives us hope to go forward.