People need more tools than rigged elections to make things right. The purpose of this site is to give tools to people to organize people in many small groups. The group’s goal is to collectively maintain peaceful pressure on their representatives and media to leverage our voices, stand up to power comfortably, negotiate from positions of strength with little effort, and challenge the bureaucracy. The purpose of the FORUM is to help people find others in their Congressional District where they can create their own communities.
Overview
In 1440, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press and started an information revolution. The establishment fought back to maintain its power and made the printing press illegal. Several years later the printing press won out. The internet is creating another revolution. We can share information, fix our cars & houses without the experts. We can access information we couldn’t get before and we can stand up to power collectively. We don’t need leaders as we did before especially to tell us we can’t have healthcare, or we have to go to war, or need to be surveilled. We have the potential to weaken the establishment’s hold. The establishment knows this and they’re fighting to maintain their narrative and control through propaganda and censorship. The establishment can hang onto power because people don’t have an effective way to stand up to them. Protesting and marching are ineffective because those efforts can’t be sustained, and they can and will be infiltrated if they approach becoming effective.
What do we do?
We create many small local decentralized communities (within congressional districts) that can pressure politicians and media with little effort. Empowered with Mutual Knowledge we can effectively organize without marching, protesting, or even meeting. Once a group has organized about 100 people in a congressional district, they can start the effort by writing a letter with a simple question like, “Why aren’t you supporting Medicare for All?” The simpler the letter the better because there can be more agreement among the group. We are not trying to educate the representative about why we want it. It’s their job to tell us why we can’t have it.
I suggest a group starts with about 100 people with names and zip codes that appear at the bottom of the brief letters. This empowers the group while adding some protection. It creates mutual knowledge while initiating a sustainable dialogue.
The group sends the letter to their representative with 100 names and zip codes.
100 people know they sent a letter along with 99 other people.
The representative receives the letter and now has a letter with 100 names and zip codes on it.
The representative knows that the people know that the representative knows.
The people know that the representative knows that the people know.
Ad infinitum / This is Mutual Knowledge
The representative can now be held accountable. If the representative does not recognize the people or address the request then the people can challenge the representative for not representing the people. The representative cannot maintain the fiction that he or she is representing the people.
When we get a response or don’t get one, the group writes another simple letter. Depending on the representative’s response, the following letter can be more assertive. Hopefully, during this letter exchange, the group has added new members. Be sure to point this out in the follow-up letter. Once a group is established, they can negotiate. This dialogue and pressure continue until we get a favorable response or take another form of action.
How do we get to 100 like-minded people?
Many want Medicare for All, want to end endless wars, don’t want to be surveilled. These are popular issues that people feel strongly about and I think will gladly become a part of an effort if they see how this idea might get them there. Many like-mind people recognize that corporate media speaks for the establishment and that our government is not acting in our interests. Right now I’m looking for 30 or 40 people around the country who are willing to lobby progressive or independent media to discuss this idea and invite their audiences to participate. If I knew 30 like-minded people in my congressional district who saw how this could help, I feel confident that we could grow that number to over 100. I understand that no one wants to be the first one at the party. Talk it up with some of your progressive friends and start to create your group. The Forum is for discussion and finding people who want to help. Once a core group of like-minded people coalesces we can include others who we may not totally agree with us but want Medicare for All.
The initial letter to a representative should be short and simple. It should ask a question to invite a response and start a sustainable dialogue.
An example might be;
Dear Senator , Date:
We have started this group because Congress has
been ignoring the needs of the people. Please
introduce a bill and support Medicare for All.
What are your thoughts?
Thank you,
100+ names and zip codes
(Let the representative do the heavy lifting.
Have them tell us why we can't have what we
want).
Imagine our leverage when there are more organized districts working together.
Options
~ The Rep doesn’t respond. We decide how to respond.
~ The Rep responds. We publish the Rep’s response for members to see.
~ We may agree with the Rep and craft a polite letter back.
~ We may disagree (probably) and offer information to help sway the Rep’s decision, and we may use a more persuasive (aggressive??) tone. We hope to include more people in the group, So We could say… “oh and by the way, we now have 120 people instead of 100.”
~ Contact media (mainstream and alternative) / cc the Rep
~ Use blogs like Reddit to promote the idea. 100+ upvotes is a pretty good start.
~ We can boycott media advertisers or financial supporters of the representative.
~Call for a meeting with the Rep where we set the conditions. (No
writing questions on 3×5 cards to be screened)
~ File criminal complaints.
~ Provide cover for politicians etc., who do the right thing.
~ Organize a telephone blitz accompanied by a press release.
~ Spend a day doing community service in the name of that issue
(pics & vids).
It’s essential to encourage people’s participation and allow the group’s creativity to play a role. People might have different responsibilities. Some might maintain the correspondence with a US Senator then report their efforts to the group. Others might keep correspondence with the House Rep. Another small group might maintain correspondence with their State Senator or State Rep. A small group could handle media or reach out to other similar watchdog groups. A small group could organize clever actions like videotaped impromptu demonstrations that last minutes, recorded, and posted online. Other groups may organize civil disobedience actions.
Maintaining the integrity of the group
We do what we can to get the results we want, but we must maintain the group’s integrity. There are times we may disagree, and that’s okay. We can either reach a consensus or write two or more letters that people are comfortable with and sign on. The goal is to maintain viable organizations that become part of the national and state conversation that effectively influence policy.
This idea becomes more powerful when there are more groups. We will become more national. If there are two, three, or four groups in one media market, we can start to address the media for irresponsible reporting and boycott their advertisers. When there are several groups in one state, we can effectively address US Senators. When the idea becomes popular and effective, then these groups will become targets. Having many groups with many people makes it much more difficult for the establishment to control or stop us.
With 100+ people, we start to have leverage and we can let it grow. There may come a point when someone doesn’t agree with an action. Before any action is taken we would ask, maybe twice, if anyone is uncomfortable with this action to let us know and we will remove their name and zip code from that action. This is much easier than asking everyone to get back onto an issue and helps to keep the process moving.
What I like about this;
~ It’s free and sustainable
~ It negotiates from a position of strength. In other words, we are proposing the legislation not asking for it. They are not our parents and we do not assume a role as children.
~ No need to travel or give up an afternoon.
~ No marching in the rain, snow, cold, or heat.
~ No need for permits.
~ Demonstrate from the comfort of your own home.
~ We don’t have to worry about being arrested.
~ We don’t have to worry about agent provocateurs.
~ It costs nothing or little to nothing. (possible postage and maybe the cost of a website if you want to upgrade to a paid site.)
~ You can easily organize a march or demonstration from a platform like this.
Tips
An organized group might need five reliable people to make significant decisions, like removing posts or people. Still, I hope groups could organize horizontally as Occupy Wall Street did. I like the book, Swarmwise, http://falkvinge.net/2013/02/14/swarmwise-the-tactical-manual-to-changing-the-world-chapter-one/ as a way to organize. Each group works independently. I hope to coordinate our efforts with other groups on national issues like Medicare for All, ending wars, etc. I hope that many make small contributions and not become overwhelmed.
If you are interested or know of someone interested in organizing within their Congressional district like this, let me know on the Forum. I can help you set up a free workable website. This website and this organizing idea are pretty basic because I don’t have the expertise to make them much better, and I wanted people (the group) to develop ways to improve it. However this turns out, we will eventually need to organize to get our voices heard. This idea is one way to do it. Once people are involved, there are plenty of opportunities for everything to change or evolve.
Thanks,
Skip Moyer
skipmoyer1@gmail.com