what to do on election day (other than voting)
After you've voted, or if you aren't voting but still think it's important that the voices of people who do vote are considered, please see this message I've reposted from Adrienne Marie Brown who works with the Ruckus Society. I especially like their Election Action Memo: Scenarios, Targets and Messaging.
Best,
Geoff
Why?So this is the 4th federal election in which I've done some level of organizing and strategizing. I don't have false hopes that change trickles down from the top. I do think there is an untapped potential power where community organizing meets electoral organizing, as election seasons can catalyze communities around issues that grassroots organizers are trying to change every day. But as folks who do radical work every day, or at least think radical thoughts, supporting communities to get heard on election day is not optional.
Each election, I have watched the swell of hope, dreams, plans and focus whip up for (or against) a candidate (or party). Each time I have watched people watch from the sidelines, pontificate on the pros and cons and then all of the sudden it's go time, and folks want to be useful. I love those people! That last minute energy is crucial!
This year, we want to make it as easy as possible on the last minute types! We've been thinking through action scenarios at The Ruckus Society, and have an Election Action Kit and other resources for y'all. But I also thought it might be useful to write up everything I know about last minute non-partisan election actions.
(Note: Some folks are comfortable jumping into the plans of one of the campaigns. Others have been doing electoral organizing for months. If you're already tapped in, this isn't for you. Do your thing! Pass this to folks who may not have a thing to do yet!)
These are the best last-minute tips I can gather for organizations who want to make sure their voter organizing work is reflected in the number of votes counted. This is for organizations that don't do usually do electoral work, but want to contribute their efforts at this moment.
This is for folks who have suddenly realized that voters names are being purged off the rolls and folks are being turned away from the polls, and that we have no idea how big of an impact any planned election fraud and unplanned systemic break downs will be.
This is for folks who have put all of their eggs in the voter turn-out basket and have gotten wise to the reality that turn-out doesn't matter if the votes don't get counted.
This is for folks who are down to be a part of the action solution and just need to be plugged in.
This is for groups or individuals who are down to take autonomous actions in the event that the fraud and incompetence do overwhelm the system.
INFORMATION:
- 866 OURVOTE is a central source of information needed to protect the vote, including the registration and identification guidelines for each state. This site is also covering the legal side of election protection!
- Twitter Vote Report is a space to do a quick and easy report of how your voting experience is going. The most important part of this is the change to Twitter in calls for Election Protection support.
- In terms of educating voters, Generation Vote has developed an amazing youth agenda and voter guide which is vetted and on-point. Also check-out a community developed ballot for your community at www.theballot.org . Organizations - direct all your members to ballots in their area!!
ACTION:- Poll watchers are still needed in many locations around the country. In some places poll workers are also still needed. Poll workers handle checking names and deciding who can and can't vote, and in most states it's too late to score this all-powerful job. Poll watchers are assigned by various parties to be witnesses, make sure things are functional for a fair election. It makes a big difference to have our folks out there. Google "local county election office" and your zip code or the name of your city to get the number, call it, and go be the eyes on the street. This is a great last minute volunteer opportunity. Employers, give your folks the day off to volunteer!
- Video the Vote: Having citizen documentation of voter issues is crucial in terms of being able to prove that our folks are being disenfranchised. It helps on the day of to support media outlets to keep a story live until it's resolved, and it helps afterwards in terms of showing the specific issues. You can be a videographer, you can drive a videographer to poll sites, or be a dispatcher. If you got the skills, go sign up!
- Direct Action: Ruckus has brainstormed a variety of potential scenarios, and the most logical targets and messages we could think of for each of those scenarios. We will have action experts on call around the country (email Sharon@ruckus.org if you want in that loop!), and we've partnered and developed relationships with several organizations working on election protection. We also want to honor the power of autonomous actions. Get together with your friends, your collectives, your organizations, alliances and coalitions, and take action. Employers, encourage your employees to take action, this is work too!
We've posted our action planning manual, action checklist, action ideas, creative visuals manual and other resources on a wiki and as a downloadable PDF for y'all, so the actions can be effective. All of this is at www.ruckus.org/electionaction. Our goal is to have actions prepared to protect our voters, and encourage our politicians and election officials to stand up for election integrity.
- DONATE! If you've been holding out on throwing your financial support behind a fair election, this is the time to contribute. Pay for travel, materials and media for actions!!
Of course our hope is we won't need any of this :) But history repeats itself, and we want to be prepared for the most strategic action possible if/when it does.
Love, luck and plans!
AMB
[11/03/2008 08:55:00 PM] [(1) comments]
Radical Votes
Two days ago, I voted early in Bloomington, Indiana. It took me around forty minutes and was a pretty great experience. I want to encourage everyone who is registered to vote, to do so, but even if you aren't registered to vote, can't vote, or choose not to, please go to a polling place on an early voting day, or election day, just to see what it looks like. For me, the early voting location in Bloomington provided me with a great vision for what I want the things that I do to look like. For all its limitations, the electoral process, for a moment, had engaged a multiracial, multigenerational group of people who spanned classes and backgrounds, thus involving a far more complicated mixture of people than my community's power structure and the cultural and political projects that I am a part of. I want the things I do to involve and be accountable to people in this broad and complicated way.
I voted for Barack Obama in the presidential race and for a number of other candidates in state and local races who I believed reflected my ideas and values in a way that was substantially stronger than their opponents. I ask you to do the same. If you are registered to vote, please take the time this week to vote for Barack Obama and any other candidates who might create a better context for the cultural and political work that many of us are doing. If you are registered to vote, but are not convinced that you should take the time to vote, please read on.
I am under no illusion that this election, or any election, can bring the kind of radical societal change that I ultimately want to see. Moreover, I see how the electoral process can oversimplify, distort, and silence a vibrant set of beliefs and proposals and reduce them to vague generalizations or culture war. I shudder at the way in which the candidates change their ideas to appeal, not to the needs and concerns of real people, but to amorphous demographics. Watching the presidential race, I cringe every time Senator Obama talks about hunting down and killing Osama Bin Laden or changing the focus of U.S. military intervention from Iraq to Afghanistan. Even more, I am sickened by the way that Senator McCain has changed his rhetoric and selected a running mate to appeal to a bigoted and narrow-perspectived brand of conservative that was once his adversary. And, even though I am glad that Senator Obama's fundraising might help him win the presidency, I am disgusted when I think of what could have been done with that money other than winning an election. Despite all of this, I feel good about voting for Barack Obama for president, as one part of all the commitments I hope to make towards building a different world. I can't pretend to believe that I can convince anyone about why *they* should vote as I have. All I can do is try to explain why I have chosen to vote in the hopes that some of these things may resonate with some of the things that those reading this are feeling.
Context Matters
Radical community organizing, making independent art and music, direct action – these strategies of change happen in a cultural context that plays a huge role in the success or failure of these pursuits. As I stated earlier, I do not believe that any president can bring about the kind of change that I want to see, but I do feel like Barack Obama would, as president, set a powerful and positive context for my work towards that change. I see this election, not as a battle of competing policies, but as a referendum on very different views of the world and how one can engage in it.
What is Experience?
I think grassroots community organizing is extremely important. I think it can bring about the kind of changes in communities that politicians can't. My vote for Barack Obama is an affirmation of this. His work as a community organizer in Chicago has obviously informed his politics and vision. I want to express that this kind of work, and not just military service or a political career, commands power and respect. Moreover, the Obama campaign itself is an affirmation of grassroots organizing. In the past, I advised people to vote, but not to let the campaign distract them from the work they were already doing. I now question the soundness of this advice. I have heard so many stories of people, working on the ground for the Obama campaign, having the really tough, soul-wrenching conversations in their communities about race and class that are so needed everywhere. In trying to convince others of something, they have had to think, and really think, about why they are themselves so committed. This is in stark contrast to the dangerous tendency I see in myself and many of my friends to settle with being right about something rather than engaging others to actually change things. For many, it is the first political movement to which they have ever given sweat or monetary resources. If the unpaid work and small monetary donations of so many can win an election, I can't wait to see what else it can do. I hope that those who committed themselves to this one type of political involvement will continue to apply their passion and resources throughout their lives, regardless of the outcome of the election, but I feel that an Obama victory would do much to ensure this.
Experience with Race
During the election season, NPR has had a great series of stories where they talked to voters in York, Pennsylvania (not too far from where I grew up!) about race and the election. What NPR got very, very right is that they framed the conversation, not in terms of the race of the candidates, but in how the voters' *experiences* with race affected their perspective on the election. To me, what is most paradigm shifting about Barack Obama's candidacy is not the fact that he is multiracial, but that he has been able to reflect on and articulate how his complicated experience with race has shaped his life and informs his worldview and political ideas. In the NPR stories, a white woman said that she didn't have much experience with race. As a multiracial person, I find this sentiment to be one of the most offensive and harmful examples of white privilege. It is, I believe, the reason I have heard, over and over, the misconception that people of color cannot be themselves racist, or that some white people fear reprisal if a black man is elected president. The United States is a multiracial country with an often shameful multiracial history. The assumption that only people who are not white have experiences with race is simply not true.
John McCain has experience with race. He is the adoptive father of a child who is not white. In fact, this was the subject of an ugly rumor, designed to hurt his chances in a Republican primary, that his daughter was actually his child from an affair with a non-white woman. The way that John McCain is perceived and the expectations, prejudices, and way of moving through the world that he has experienced will be profoundly different from his daughter. This is a challenge that many cross-cultural adoptive parents must struggle with, but McCain's experience with this has not been part of the campaign. John McCain fought in a war that pitted him against people of a different race. He was captured, and tortured by some of them. In the not-so-distant past, McCain continued to refer to some groups of Asian people with the derogatory term “gook.” Again, coming to terms with the racism, xenophobia, and dehumanization that comes with war is a part of many peoples', in particular soldiers' experiences. Yet, the loudest commentary on race that has come from the McCain campaign has been from a small number of his most bigoted supporters.
If we, as a society, are going to get real about ending racism, if we are going to get real about coming to terms with the reality of a multi-racial United States – past, present, and future, then we need to be able to reflect on, and talk about our experiences with race. This needs to happen in our neighborhoods, and among the most visible representatives of our culture.
Culture Wars
I grew up in a part of Pennsylvania that is getting a lot of news coverage as the election comes to a close. John McCain believes it to be a stronghold of the kind of conservative base that will allow him to win the state, and the election. Right now, I live in Bloomington, Indiana where, just outside of the city limits, many would believe the same unyielding conservatism is represented. If there is one thing that has been disappointing about Obama supporters, it is that so many are willing to accept the line in the sand between cosmopolitan liberals and “ignorant rednecks.” I think this perspective is offensive and narrow. Many studies suggest that the rural vote is every bit as divided as most other places. As I drove, this past weekend, from Bloomington through the countryside to another town, I saw as many Obama signs as McCain ones. Growing up in a staunchly conservative area, I know that these beliefs are powerful. I know that bigotry is real. I know that these things come with the weight of history, traditions, and culture. But I also know that there are some, who come from those same places, from the same culture, through the same history, who come to very different conclusions in their life. Belief that we are born into red states or blue states, enlightenment or ignorance sells us all short. It absolves us from the responsibility of examining who we are and where we come from. I think that Barack Obama's candidacy has consistently challenged this. John McCain, and especially his running mate Sarah Palin, are, quite cynically, suggesting that people should vote their race, class, and geography rather than their ideas, beliefs, hopes, and vision.
There are many other reasons why I felt good voting for Barack Obama, but the ones I've mentioned: that context matters and that we need to fundamentally challenge our ideas about where power comes from, how we think about race, and whether we view our world as a set of clashing monolithic blocks or a confluence of people with complicated interests and experiences, are the ones that mean the most. For the first time in my political life, they have made voting feel radical, in the original sense of the word, in the Ella Baker sense of the word, because I feel like, through this election, we could be that much closer to getting at the root causes of all the things in this world that we will change.
Love,
Geoff
[10/30/2008 01:35:00 AM] [(4) comments]
NEW SONG MP3 + t-shirt printing!
you can watch the video here..
http://www.ifyoumakeit.com/video/defiance-ohio/hair-pool/
and it now has a link to download the song.
also, if you sent in a shirt to get screen printed, they have all been printed and mailed as of last week. so, if you did not receive it, you should soon. sorry we got so behind with the printing, we know a lot of you waited quite a long time.
xoxo,
defiance, ohio
[9/24/2008 10:51:00 AM] [(6) comments]
Reason #3 to vote: local elections matter and votng is just the start
You can read the entire interview with Kevin Powell at Bigger Than Hip-Hop :: A Q+A With Kevin Powell.From back in the day to my campaign now, I cannot begin to tell you how many people, regardless of age and background, who do not understand electoral politics at all, be it the presidential election every four years, or local races like mine. In fact, I would argue that local races are far more important because they directly impact the day to day lives of our communities.
It is local electeds who determine what kind of money and resources flow back to our communities, what kinds of businesses and industries come, or don't come, what kinds of schools we have, and so on. So part of my mission as a leader in these times is very serious political education, not just getting folks to vote for me.
We've got to cease being a nation of hype. That is, we get hyped for a political candidate because she or he is younger, hipper, hip-hop, or something like that. And that is simply not good enough.
As I sat in that Denver stadium the other day listening to Barack Obama with those other 80,000 people, naturally I was very proud. But I also thought to myself I have been a part of incredible movements before, back in the 1980s when folks like Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan were moving millions of younger people. And there still has not been, for me, no single more incredible gathering than the Million Man March in 1995.
But we need movement in America now, a progressive and multicultural movement of people from Generations X and Y. Young people who understand hip hop and pop culture in general, technology including the various handheld devices and social networks, the history of America and the world on at least a basic level, contemporary issues on at least a basic level, and are able to relate to a range of people, because they are culturally multilingual.
My point in all of this is that this is so much bigger than me or Barack Obama. Because after I get elected and Barack Obama gets elected we are still going to have racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, religious intolerance, ignorance, poverty, a terrible healthcare system, wars everywhere, including in Iraq, a polluted environment, mediocre public schools, and so on.
So younger people, of all backgrounds need to do what some of us did back in the 1980s: Jesse Jackson and his campaigns for president were the spark for our activism, for our social awareness, but then we took upon ourselves to become full-fledged leaders because we began to understand voting was just a piece of the work that needed to be done.
And that is the case today, too. Young Berg, the new hip-hop artist, asked me recently when was this CHANGE Barack Obama is promising going to happen? My response was simple: When YOU become the change you want to see, when YOU make it happen, when YOU understand the leadership we are waiting for is US. That is the message we need to be putting out there very clearly to young America.
Take care,
Geoff
[9/10/2008 03:20:00 PM] [(2) comments]
Reason #2 to vote: stark differences when it comes to gender violence
Reason #2 is that while Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the police chief (who was hired after Palin fired the previous chief) made it the policy of the police department to charge survivors of sexual assualt for their own rape kit (the examination and collection of evidence that is used if survivors want to pursue criminal charges after they've been asaulted). In most places, survivors are not charged for this.
In stark contrast, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden was instrumental in drafting and passing the Violence Against Women Act which provides support to many national, state, and local programs that provide support for survivors of violence:
Senator Biden wrote the ground-breaking Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in the 1990s that set the national agenda on criminalizing violence against women and holding batterers truly accountable. It encouraged states to set up coordinated community responses to domestic violence and rape; was the catalyst for passage of hundreds of state laws prohibiting family violence; and provided resources to set up shelters so battered women abused by husbands and boyfriends had a place to go. The law also established the national hotline that over 1.5 million abused women have called for help.I know that such legislation and the programs it supports does not go far enough to address the root causes of gender violence in our culture, but I strongly believe that there is a huge difference in the cultural and political context that is created by the different candidates. In the case of Biden, the state is urged to support survivors of violence and in the case of Palin, the state acts to victimize survivors and place a financial burden on people going through some really difficult experiences.
This is an example of how electoral politics effects people's lives. Real talk - I've been fortunate enough to not have personally survived gender violence, but just like incarceration and many other cultural dynamics, gender violence not only affects the survivors of violence, but their families, friends, social networks, and entire communities. I can either look at this as an issue that doesn't affect me or I can look at this as a place where I have a responsibility to my friends and other people in my community and where voting a certain way is part of that responsibility.
Thanks,
Geoff
[9/10/2008 11:02:00 AM] [(0) comments]
More on supporting our friend Dave (and incarcerated people in general!)
I struggle with this a lot. I bristle at the distinction between "political" prisoners and other incarcerated people because I think that many incarcerated people are behind bars because of politics, whether they were involved in direct action or because of systemic racism or other prejudice and limited access to legal support that many communities face. While its great to see the networks of support that have arisen to support people like Dave as well as people like Marie Mason, Daniel McGowen and others swept up in things like the Green Scare, its also frustrating to see the disparity between the resources of these networks and the privilege that some of these people already possess and the resources available to others incarcerated just as unjustly. Still, it is wrong to be arrested on the street because of perceived political affiliations, just as it is wrong to be arrested for protest, just as it is wrong to be arrested as a result of social inequality. Dave needs our support, but in doing so, we also need to support incarcerated people in general and work towards ending injustices in policing and the courts that affect so many. Please support our friend Dave and check out these organiztions that work for justice for lots of different people affected by incarceration:Critical Resistance
All of Us or None
Thousand KitesThe Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project
Sylvia Rivera Law Project
Education Not Incarceration
+ So many more!!!
Best,
Geoff
[9/10/2008 10:35:00 AM] [(0) comments]
Help out our friend Dave, detained at the RNC!
Two people from Milwaukee illegally imprisoned in St. Paul. Info on how to help Dave out is at the bottom of that article.
-Geoff
[9/08/2008 10:11:00 AM] [(0) comments]
Election
I urge everyone to read the post in its entirety. What I love about it is that it shows that political engagement is not about a singular decision or moment, it is not about investing oneself fully in the promises or rhethoric of a candidate (or a grassroots movement for that matter). To me, politics have always been about the constant process of questioning and requestioning both the external and internal messages. It has always been about reconciling hope, fear, anger, cynicism, and accountability to my history, my family, my loved ones, my community, and the social work that I do.
... i feel like two people watching this.one sees this strategic, dynamic, mixed race man, skillfully touching all the bases on his way home to the white house. that self drinks the kool-aid as much as a cynic can, i am impressed by his grasp and execution of community organizing and mobilization, how he has crafted himself as king and kennedy and more. he seems to have been made for this moment, even for skeptics and community organizers. i lean in when he speaks, trying to disguise my own smiles at some of the lovely lines that slip in between the ones that hurt me, or disappoint me.
the other side sees the parts i disagree with, the special interests, the effects of a broken and at this point actively stupid and elitist, capitalist, empire-protecting system. i see how he has to say things that are morally reprehensible if he wants to consider being elected to this position, and god knows which of his values will have to be compromised once he's in office, that place most distant from the people of the nation. i believe that we would need 50,000 baracks or people more radical than him running at the local level to experience any changes based on leadership like his. and yet...
what the rest of world will understand with this shift!
i am not on a fence between republican or democrat, i am not tempted by green at the federal level. i want a multi-party system with permanent records of voting (paper ballots), same day registration, a vote for anyone paying taxes, and proportional representation, but i don't think the path to get there is by placing us in john mccain's fragile, feeble, maverick hands by splitting the progressive vote. i specifically want barack obama to be the next president of the united states, in spite of all my doubts and cynicisms and fears. i like how he splits the difference on the hardest issues, i like his (or his speechwriter's) ability to find a common sense middle ground, and i like that he is passionate and visionary at a time when the easiest space to occupy is debilitating and isolating anger.
and because it scares me to feel even slightly authentic in my excitement about a candidate, understanding what i do about the history of candidate failures, disappointments, flip-flopping or sheer incompetence, the broken system, the inherent flaws of humanity that makes us desire hierarchy so...i will not hit the streets stumping for obama, i will not start a little fundraising page for him that spirits more money away from the projects i work on 365 days a year election or not. i will continue to pour my energy into election protection, and raise money to support grassroots organizations who make sure candidates who are willing to listen have organized bodies to hear from.
but behind a closed door, rereading the transcript of his speech on race, delving into his organizing analysis from his early years in chicago, seeing parts of my story in his own, and wanting to debate him about those issues on which i deeply disagree with him, i confess: i want barack obama to be the next president of the united states.
Take care,
Geoff
[9/02/2008 02:16:00 PM] [(2) comments]
tour and a new song!
while away, we recorded an acoustic version of a new song called hair pool for ifyoumakeit.com
if you are interested, it can be found here...
[9/01/2008 12:06:00 PM] [(6) comments]