This is an open letter to you.
Yes, you: You! Are! The 3.5%!
We are in a historic moment where a new cultural, political, ecological reality must emerge and replace the dominant paradigm. The planet itself, to say nothing of the overwhelming majority of human beings, can no longer live with the killer that is global corporate capitalism in our midst.
Research of hundreds of resistance movements shows that no resistance movement in the last 100 years has failed when 3.5 percent of the population participate. How close are we to that tipping point? We may be closer than you think.
So, you are cordially invited, challenged even- to become one of the 3.5 percent; to commit to an action or actions starting April 4, 2014 against the corporate controlled State and it’s paradigm that preys on the resources and spirits of people. Your actions, and the actions of others, will become a ripple that crisscross with other ripples, each coming from their own centers of daring. These ripples can build a current that can wipe out the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Okay, so Robert F. Kennedy said that. They killed him. So it goes.
You who else they killed? Martin Luther King, Jr. Think they killed him because he had a dream? No. they put him on a stamp because he had a dream. They killed him, neutered him, and packaged him up all nice and delivered a version of him to your children’s history books that omits the really dangerous ideas he was proposing like a guaranteed income for all. King was ready to wage a war on poverty, and today we have the reverse: a war on the poor.
It is perhaps for that reason that the recent call for a crowd sourced worldwide wave of action put forth by Anonymous suggests a 3 month span beginning on around April 4, 2014: the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther Kings assassination. The naysayers and propagandist will be quick to dismiss the next fissure that erupts through the façade of Empire by saying we are not focused enough. Once again they will ask: what is your demand?
As the call from Anonymous states:
“Throughout history, when people have fought against tyranny and oppression, they didn’t have one perfect utopian model outcome agreed upon beforehand. They just knew that the invading and old systems were detrimental to their wellbeing and had to go. We are now in that position.”
You are now in that position. Leverage it.
Become one of the 3.5 %.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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