The first time I heard the chant it was while helping to block the street in front of leading fossil fuel financer Black Rock in lower Manhattan last Wednesday the 13th: “We need clean air, not another billionaire!” The dozens of people I was taking action with also liked it, and we kept chanting loud and long while we watched the traffic back up and for when the police were going to move in on us.

Then there was the other one: “Tax the Rich, Tax the Mother-F—ing Rich!”, also a big hit all throughout the week of actions in New York City. The most memorable time chanting it for me was on the morning of the 18^th. I was with a group of 27 other people arrested, handcuffed and stuffed into an old police bus after blocking one of the entrances to the Federal Reserve bank in the Wall Street area. As the bus pulled away heading towards 1 Police Plaza and hours of processing, someone started up this chant. We must have chanted it for at least 5-6 minutes with no let up and loud-loud-loud as the bus traveled through the Wall Street area streets. And since our windows were partly open, there’s no question a lot of people heard us.

This was the spirit of the week of resistance to end fossil fuels and build another world, another world that looks much more possible now that we’ve shown each other just what we can do when we work hard together in a cooperative and respectful way.

It is just tremendous, a huge and very important thing that, according to mainstream media reports, 75,000 people took part in the March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17. The organizers of the march did their job and did it well, and masses of people responded. It was and is, clearly, a movement moment.

It’s special that almost 200 arrests were made for the many acts of determined nonviolent direct action throughout the week.

It is a very big deal that there were many hundreds, possibly close to a thousand, local actions happening around the country and around the world over this weekend. The world is rising up together again on this most critical of issues, the rapidly deepening climate emergency.

And the mix of people! From where I was on Sunday, deep in the middle of the march, it was great to experience:

-the racial diversity—predominantly white but with a stronger mix of people of the global majority/people of color than I expected; and,

-the issue diversity—anti-militarism, feminism, youth, plastics, labor, elders and more, all in the context of the overall climate justice focus of the action.

Then there was the press coverage, lots and lots of it. One of special note is the New York Times on the day after the march displaying a big color picture on the front page, with a very good article and more pictures inside that front section of the paper.

This was a week not to be forgotten. This week really can be a turning point moment for climate justice-centered, mass movement-building. But what is next? Here are my thoughts:

This showing, this showing to one another what we can do when unified, has to continue. A top priority has to be support for the many battles raging against new fossil fuel pipelines like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, LNG export terminals in the Gulf states and elsewhere, other infrastructure, and oil and gas leases. All of us need to do whatever we can when the calls go out for supportive acts of resistance, whether electronic or in person, responding as best as we can.

But we need more. The success of this week that was, this historic week in NYC and around the world, was seen and heard about by literally tens of millions of people who had no idea that our movement was this big, this unified, this organizationally capable. We need to take visible action in local areas all over the country, and maybe the world, on a regular basis, in part to give these new people an on ramp into the world of activism for justice.

Young people with Fridays for Future gave leadership on this tactic beginning years ago via the local, distributed-but-connected actions on the same Friday day. Jane Fonda’s Fire Drill Fridays did something similar for a while, and national webinars are still being done monthly.

What if one of the main follow-ups from this historic week is something similar: End Fossil Fuels Fridays, every month, like the first Friday of every month. Local groups would use the political framework of the March’s four demands and the context language going with them—see below–but they would determine what specifically is done each month, what important local or other fights are prioritized and what exactly happens. A diversity of nonviolent tactics would be the overarching tactical approach.

Can we do this? After what we’ve just done, of course we can. Is there a better idea? Very possibly. Let’s discuss! But not too long, sisters, brothers, cousins, friends. Every day we need to go about our life-saving work acting with the urgency, but also with the love and compassion, that the times require.

We need clean air, not another billionaire!

From www.endfossilfuels.us:

We call on Biden to:

-STOP FEDERAL APPROVALS for new fossil fuel projects and REPEAL permits for climate bombs like the Willow project and the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

-PHASE OUT FOSSIL FUEL DRILLING on our public lands and waters.

-DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY to halt fossil fuel exports and investments abroad, and turbo-charge the build-out of more just, resilient distributed energy (like rooftop and community solar).

-PROVIDE A JUST TRANSITION to a renewable energy future* that generates millions of jobs while supporting workers’ and community rights, job security, and employment equity.

*Our renewable energy future must not repeat the violence of the extractive past. Justice must ground the transition off fossil fuels to redress the climate, colonialist, racist, socioeconomic, and ecological injustices of the fossil fuel era. 

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

Three weeks ago there were 370 organizations which had endorsed the March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City on September 17. Today, there are about 530. There were 335 local Fridays for Future climate strike actions around the world planned for September 15 and 17. Today there are 570. There were 35 other local actions planned for September 17 in other parts of the USA and around the world. Today there are 115. In addition, in New York City, there are nonviolent direct actions from September 12-15 and on September 18-19 being organized at the headquarters of fossil fuel companies and the banks and other corporations which prop them up.

Why is all of this happening? One reason is the fact that on a worldwide level the month of July was the hottest on record ever, leading to massive wildfires and brutal heat waves in many parts of the world. It is very clear, absolutely factual, that we are in a worldwide climate emergency.

Another reason is the leadership of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who called for and has been organizing a Climate Ambition Summit at the United Nations in NYC on September 20^th. He has been consistently saying that the price of entry for countries to take part in the summit will be specific, new, upgraded plans by individual countries to step up their actions to shift away from fossil fuels. In his words, “there will be no room for back-sliders, greenwashers, blame-shifters or repackaging of announcements of previous years.”

But the most important reason for these exciting and historic developments is the skillful and dedicated organizing of many people and organizations, grounded in many years of collective experience, including effective unity-building among a broad cross-section of movements.

Because of this collective movement experience the lead organizers had the wisdom to strengthen the demands of the march a couple of weeks ago, adding a fourth demand calling for “a just transition to a renewable energy future that generates millions of jobs while supporting workers’ and community rights, job security and employment equity.”   They also strengthened the environmental justice language of the march, adding: “Our renewable energy future must not repeat the violence of the extractive past. Justice must ground the transition off fossil fuels to redress the climate, colonialist, racist, socioeconomic and ecological injustices of the fossil fuel era.”

As I write there are two weeks left until the big September 17 day. That’s a lot of time for many more people to learn about and plan to attend the actions in NYC and around the world. More groups should be endorsing. More of us should be making phone calls and talking up September 17^th. More of us should be checking out the plans for nonviolent direct action in NYC September 12-19.

It’s an all hands on deck moment for our severely wounded earth, its many struggling peoples and our children and grandchildren, born and unborn. It’s rise up time.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

The work I have been doing the last two months helping to organize a massive March to End Fossil Fuels September 17 in NYC has brought back memories of something that happened from April 19-24, 1971 in Washington, DC.

Over the course of that week, while the war in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos raged, the then-newly-formed organization, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, camped out on the DC Mall and each day engaged in anti-war actions that received a ton of press coverage. The culmination was an action at the US Capitol on the 23^rd where 700 or more veterans threw away medals they had received for their Vietnam actions over a high fence and onto the steps of the Capitol.

Then, the next day, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took part in permitted demonstrations in Washington, DC and San Francisco. Four years later, on April 30, 1975, the US military was completely out of Vietnam. There’s little doubt in my mind that this week of creative, determined and massive action was a turning point in the decade-long effort to end that war.

Will the actions planned for the week leading up to, after and including the September 17^th mass demonstration, and the September 20^th United Nations “Climate Ambition Summit” which is the reason for all of this mobilizing, be ultimately seen as a key turning point in humanity’s efforts to end the era of fossil fuels and shift rapidly to wind, solar and other truly clean renewable energy sources? Only history will answer that question, but I think it is a real possibility.

One reason is that it is looking like UN Secretary Antonio Guterres is standing firm against what must be more than a little pressure on him to moderate his intentions as far as the Climate Ambition Summit. When it was announced months ago he said that the purpose is to generate “credible, serious and new climate action and nature-based solutions that will move the needle forward and respond to the urgency of the climate crisis. There will be no room for back-sliders, greenwashers, blame-shifters or repackaging of announcements of previous years.” Indeed, one of the reasons why this mass mobilization is so important is to have his back and strengthen him in his strong stance.

Another reason is the positive response to a coalition organizing nonviolent direct actions in the week before September 17^th, beginning on September 12^th. Throughout that week and then on September 18^th, many hundreds, possibly thousands over the course of those days, will be taking action at some of the myriad number of corporate and financial targets in Manhattan: oil and gas companies, and the big banks and insurance companies which are propping them up.

September 17^th itself is building a lot of momentum. There are now over 370 organizations which have endorsed, from local frontline groups fighting new fossil fuel infrastructure to major national groups like the NAACP, Sierra Club and Third Act. There are at least 90 “hubs,” groupings of people on the basis of geography, issue or some other affinity, which are organizing to bring out tens of thousands of people. 40 high schools in New York City have organized groups which are mobilizing. The action that day is going to be big and impactful.

The youth organization Fridays for Future has called for international days of climate striking on September 15^th and 17^th. As of now, more than a month away, there are 335 locations all around the world which have signed up and are organizing local actions. And there are other actions elsewhere, about 35 as of now, planned in other parts of the USA and the world.

A lot can happen in a month, an awful lot. We need to do something every day over the coming month, no matter how small or big, to make these September days of action all that they can be. History and a realistic hope for a truly new world are calling!

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

“Meanwhile, remember that attitude is everything. Live simply, be kinder than necessary, offer compassion, for everyone is fighting some kind of battle. Love generously, care deeply, speak kindly. Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. . . It is about learning to dance in the rain.”

Jyoti Chrystal, 2008

These words, written by a founder of a “yoga and healing” center in Montclair, NJ, have been prominently displayed in the kitchen of our house for many years. They may have been put there in 2009 by my wife, a yoga practitioner, when Jyoti passed on at the age of 64. I’ve read them probably hundreds of times, and when I do I take a minute to reflect on them.

They are literally words to live by, not just for individuals but for the internal life of the progressive organizations which are so essential, and whose ultimate working unity is so necessary if we are to prevent worldwide climate catastrophe and the breakdown of ecosystems and human societies; bring into being a truly different world.

Attitude is everything

For much of humankind’s patriarchal and warring history going back thousands of years, the most prevalent “attitude” of those with political and economic power has been all about control and domination: men over women, Europeans over everyone else, those with wealth over people working and struggling to survive. And that’s still, on the surface, predominantly the way it is. But over the past 70 or so years there have been major and successful challenges to the worst aspects of this imperialistic, arrogant attitude and set of practices:

-the overthrow of racist European and US colonialism in Africa, Asia and South and Central America;
-the rise of an international women’s movement advancing women’s rights and leadership and a more cooperative way of organizational decision-making; and,
-the challenge to deeply-rooted heterosexist and homophobic ideas and practices by a broadly based movement for the rights of lgbtq+ people.

Increasingly, as I observe and experience it, progressive groups in the United States have a very different attitude when it comes to ways of work. One example is from a group, Beyond Extreme Energy, which I work with. Here’s some of what we say in our organizational principles document:

“BXE is committed to the liberation of all people of the world, and therefore embraces anti-oppression action and opportunities for restorative justice. Power and privilege are omnipresent in our group dynamics and we must continually struggle with how we challenge them in our collaborative work. We strive to acknowledge privilege and domination when they appear and work to actively counter them as they manifest in our work in everything we do, in and outside of organizing spaces. The privileged need to keep other privileged people accountable and not rely on the oppressed to raise the issue. Listening happens first in our anti-oppression practices.”

Offer compassion for everyone is fighting some kind of battle:

On a personal level, both inside organizations and in our daily interactions with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and people we pass on the street, we must practice compassion. It is true that “everyone is fighting some kind of battle.” All of us will die. All of us will get sick. All of us have disagreements and fights with others that can be very difficult. All of us have fears and anxieties of one kind or another.

Knowing this, internalizing this knowledge, we need to be able to connect with other people even if we’ve never before met them, or even if we’ve known them a long time and have had more than a few serious disagreements. We need to develop our listening skills. We need to do unto others as we would like to have done unto us. We have to be willing to forgive. With this attitude, positive personal changes and, over time, political changes can come about.

Life is about learning to dance in the rain

Right now “the rain” we’re experiencing includes the climate emergency, the MAGA neo-fascist threat, war and militarism with the possibility of nuclear war, and widespread poverty and economic insecurity amidst increasing economic and racial inequality. But by building a loving, cooperative mass movement for systemic change, we can help one another stay strong individually.

Frankly, down through history, most of those who have come before us have faced worse challenges. They didn’t face the realistic possibility that ecosystems and societies all over the world would unravel, but the lived experience of many of them was much harder: Indigenous nations devastated by the European onslaught, Africans subjected to vile, debilitating chattel slavery and Jim Crow segregation, workers forced to endure 60 hours or more work weeks with subsistence wages, and more.

So what should our attitude be? I believe it should be one of appreciation that we are living at a decisive time in the history of the human race and the planet. We collectively have the opportunity to make a very big difference not just for our children and grandchildren but for many generations to come. Si, se puede!

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

An article in The Guardian caught my attention this morning. The title of the article was, “‘Anger and radicalization’: rising number of Americans say political violence is justified.”

What particularly struck me was poll results which said that “12% of Americans believe the government is run by Satan-worshipping pedophiles.” That’s about 40 million people, out of a US population of around 330 million.

This is the primary constituency for the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers and the tens of thousands of others who tried to overthrow US democracy on January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol. Fortunately, between the actions of Capitol Police and DC police and the relative disorganization of the ultra-rightist insurrectionists, they were defeated, and many are now in jail or on their way there.

Donald Trump is using his campaign for President to try to raise back up this 12% of the population, as well as others, and it is clear that he is having an impact, while turning off many more, including some Republicans.

Other polls indicate that Trump right now has the support of about 1/3 of the US population, roughly 35%, so this far-right lunatic fringe makes up about 1/3 of Trump’s support base.

My first appreciation of how many hard-core rightists there were in the US population came during the time in 1973 and 1974 when I was a national coordinator of the National Campaign to Impeach Nixon. Toward the end of the two year process leading to his resignation after the Watergate burglars were caught in the act, Nixon’s poll numbers dropped precipitously, from 67% positive to about 25% just before he resigned.

The Republican Party then was not the Republican Party of today. Many Republicans in Congress supported Nixon resigning, letting him know that if he didn’t do so he would be impeached by the House and possibly convicted with their votes in the Senate. That led to Nixon resigning on August 9, 1974.

Today’s Republican Party is dominated by that 12% who believe the US government is “run by Satan-worshipping pedophiles.” Trump plays to and uses them in his continuing quest to become the USA’s first dictator.

Some progressives are depressed by the fact that this wacko 12% exists. For myself, not so much. Indeed, given the racist/patriarchal/heterosexist/corporatist/militarist history of the USA, the current domination of the US economy and government by a tiny, obscenely rich and powerful ruling group, and the relative weakness (though this is changing) of the progressive movement, it’s not a surprising thing.

There is another side, of course, to US history, the peoples’ history, the many and continuing struggles for justice, peace, democratic rights, a healthy environment and power to the people. Mass movements in these various areas have sometimes won after difficult but inspiring, year-after-year battles. The 50s and 60s Black Freedom movement is one of the best examples.

We must continue building our respective organizations and movements, always interacting with each other in as honest and respectful a way as possible, building toward the powerful movement of movements that can finally bring about the system change so urgently needed. As we contend with the far-right lunatic fringe elements and the more conventional regressive corporatists while we are doing that work, we can’t ever forget that they are not the future, not if we do our work well and with love at the core.

In the amended words of a popular slogan, “there ain’t no power like the power of a loving people, and the power of the people don’t stop.”

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

The Biden Administration’s recent decisions to send deadly cluster bombs to Ukraine and to appoint despicable imperialist Elliott Abrams to a State Department Commission on Public Diplomacy are the latest examples of how progressives just cannot trust them to do the right thing.

Who is Elliott Abrams? Here is how he was described in an article distributed by the Fellowship of Reconciliation:

“Abrams was a defender in the 1980’s of the Guatemalan Montt government, a regime so brutal that its actions — mass murder, rape, and torture of the indigenous Ixil Mayan people — were later classified as genocide by the United Nations. Over the 12 years of the Reagan/Bush Sr. administrations, under Abrams’ watch,75,000 Salvadorians lost their lives. . .  Asked in 1994 about the U.S.’s record on El Salvador, Abrams called it a

‘fabulous achievement.’” 

And cluster bombs? 120 countries have ratified an agreement prohibiting the production, use, stockpiling, and transfer of this weapon. Among those who haven’t signed it are the USA, Russia and Ukraine.

Cluster bombs that explode spray out as many as several hundred so-called “bomblets” over an extensive area. They are explicitly “anti-personnel.” They’re not intended to damage buildings but to kill and maim people. In addition there’s what’s called a “dud rate” as high as 40%, bomblets that don’t explode upon ground contact and which can lie on the ground for as long as decades. These bomblets can blow up when picked up or stepped on. Children who have done this while exploring or playing have been badly injured or killed.

Instead of a continual escalation in the amount and type of weaponry being sent to Ukraine, Biden and his people should acknowledge the reality that the war is stalemated, there is great risk that it could escalate into something much bigger, and they should move to advance a ceasefire and serious negotiations.

These outrageous recent decisions, on top of major problems with the Biden Administration’s climate policies and weaknesses in a number of other areas, will unquestionably have the effect of depressing and demobilizing the turnout of voters next year. They are a boon to Trump or whoever gets the Republican Presidential nomination.

All of this will also likely increase the number of votes the Green Party Presidential candidate will get, whether it’s strong progressive Cornell West or someone else.

There is zero chance that the GP candidate will win, and very little chance he/she/they will get more than a low single-digit percentage of the votes nationally, but it is possible they could be a factor in battleground states where it’s always a close race—Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Hampshire and possibly others.

This is assuming the Green Party does what it has done for every Presidential election it has taken part in since the Ralph Nader/Winona LaDuke campaign of 2000. Every four years they make major efforts to get on the ballot in every state and to campaign for votes in every state. In 2020 they nominated a Black woman, Angela Nicole Walker, to be Vice President from Wisconsin but because of mistakes made in submitting petition signatures to get on the ballot in Wisconsin, they were knocked off. If this hadn’t happened, it is possible, maybe likely, that Biden would have lost in Wisconsin.

There is an alternative for the Green Party, and its leaders know it. For many, many years the idea of a “safe states strategy” has been supported by some GP members. Before I left the GP years ago, I was one of the proponents.

The basic idea is simple. Instead of getting on the ballot and campaigning in battleground states, they should publicly declare that they are not doing that and will instead be focusing their campaign in the states where past voting history can predict whether it will be the Democrat or the Republican who wins. They can campaign hard in New York and California and Mississippi and Kentucky and Maryland and many other states. They can say to progressives in those states, don’t waste your vote, we know who is likely to win in this state; have an impact by voting Green and showing that there is mass support for what it stands for.

The USA’s corporate-dominated, winner-take-all, electoral college electoral system are the primary reason why third parties of either the Left or the Right have had a major problem showing political strength, which is needed if we are serious about substantive progressive change. Those impediments to democracy have to be removed. Until that happens, we need to use tactics that are appropriate for our current reality that both defeat the ultra-rightists and strengthen the independent progressives who must grow in strength in the face of the fascist danger.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

The need for unified mass demonstrations in the streets calling for urgent action on the climate emergency, with a central demand that the race and class issues involved be a top priority, is off-the-charts needed now. Fortunately, a worldwide mobilization doing just this is coming together for actions September 15-17 in New York City and around the world.

Why those dates? Because on September 20 there will be a “Climate Ambition Summit” at the United Nations convened by the UN’s Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres. The purpose of this summit, in his words, is to generate “credible, serious and new climate action and nature-based solutions that will move the needle forward and respond to the urgency of the climate crisis. There will be no room for back-sliders, greenwashers, blame-shifters or repackaging of announcements of previous years.”

These days of action will begin with youth-organized, Fridays for Future actions internationally. Fridays for Future began in August 2018 after 15-year-old Greta Thunberg and other young activists sat in front of the Swedish parliament every school day for three weeks, to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis. Since that time, according to their website, 14 million people in 7,500 cities all over the world have demonstrated at periodic, Friday climate strikes.

On September 17 in New York City where the Climate Ambition Summit will be happening, there will be a massive March to End Fossil Fuels. As of this writing about 80 organizations have signed on with many more expected. The primary target of that march is the Biden Administration, which has been a very big disappointment to many people when it comes to the issue of “climate ambition.”

Here is how it is described on the March website:

“President Biden can take breakthrough steps to end the fossil fuel era and build a just renewable energy future. He has the power to stop approving fossil fuel projects, phase out oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters, and declare a climate emergency to accelerate a just transition to clean energy run by and for the people. But so far, he’s broken his campaign promises to lead us off fossil fuels and champion environmental justice. Instead, he’s expanded fossil fuel drilling and production. Biden’s approvals for new oil and gas projects are disastrous for the planet – and disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, low-income communities and communities of color.”

Actions will be happening around the world on September 17. In the words of the website advancing these distributed actions, it is a “Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels: Fast, Fair and Forever.”

Based on my many years of experience with mass mobilizations on issues and my connections to many of the groups involved, I believe that these days of action in mid-September could be massive and historic. They can be what the USA and the world desperately need in the face of the intransigence of the fossil fuel industry and its continued dominance of governments everywhere, particularly in the USA.

My expectation is that there will be at least tens of thousands of people at the main NYC demonstration on September 17. There should be more.

What might hold some people back from attending who get it on the urgency of the climate crisis? Most likely, it’s fear that this action, which targets Biden and his team, will somehow weaken him politically, affect his chances of winning reelection.

I don’t see it that way, not at all. Indeed, this mobilization could do just the opposite, depending upon the Biden Administration response.

Climate is a huge political issue. Communities of color, young people and issue-oriented progressives, all of whom care a lot about the climate issue, will be decisive voting blocs come November, 2024. To defeat the MAGA Republicans it’s not enough that Biden do better than the Republican in all those demographics. A big voter turnout is essential.

Despite the disappointment that many millions of people who voted for Biden feel about his first two and a half years, on climate and other issues, he can change that somewhat if he responds to the Climate Ambition Summit by declaring a climate emergency and then acting accordingly.

It is a climate emergency!! Predictions are that Canada’s forests are going to be burning throughout the summer. There’s a massive and deadly heat dome right now in south central USA that’s moving east. These and other extreme weather events are only going to get worse. Even the Republicans in Congress are moving to try to forestall Biden declaring an emergency. They obviously see that this is a genuine issue that tens of millions of people are deeply concerned about.

In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

“Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men and women willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” 1963

Two days ago I publicly read these words during a time for public comment of a Newark, NJ-based state agency, the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission. In the Ironbound environmental justice neighborhood in inner city Newark, an area which already has three of them, PVSC plans to build a fourth fracked gas power plant. There has been a strong resistance movement against this plan for years, led by local residents, and we have jammed it up so far.

As one of the tactics used in fighting this project members of our movement have been attending, in person and virtually, the monthly meetings of this agency. This was probably the tenth such meeting I’ve attended and spoken at. Before each meeting I try to think of a different angle to get through to the PVSC board members. This time, because of my having read several months ago all five of Dr. King’s books, the idea came to me of reading from King’s Birmingham jail letter.

I don’t know enough about this group to know how “good” each of them are, but I’m sure most of them see themselves as upstanding citizens. So when I read it, I emphasized Kng’s line about the “appalling silence of the good people.”

What King wrote in 1963 is always applicable to some degree or the other. There are always people who live decent lives on a personal level, love their family and work hard but who never speak up or speak out about systemic injustice and oppression. Indeed, successful mass movements like the civil rights/Black Freedom movement of the 50’s and 60’s win important victories largely because they are able to dramatically expand the ranks of those willing to speak up and take action.

How can those of us already actively working for a just, peaceful and loving world do this today, right now, at this “worst of times” that can also become the “best of times” if we unite, stay strong and keep organizing?

The most important way is to be a consistently good example for others, day after day, hour after hour.

There is a deep and long history on the political Left worldwide of people who were once justice-seeking revolutionaries becoming corrupted after they individually or the movements they led got into positions of societal power. This historic fact is why we must reject individualistic, patriarchal and racist models of “leadership” and daily be all about building a progressive movement internal culture which is cooperative and supportive for all within it.

The building of this positive way of working together is most definitely another key way to help other good people—who most people are—to find their voice. It is extremely hard to have the emotional strength to speak out if there’s no community of support to do so. That community could be very small, even one or two close friends, but it can make all the difference.

But it’s more than personal and cultural. Also critical is not-yet-active good people seeing actions, events or demonstrations, in person or electronically, that make clear that there are a growing number of people joining in and throwing down. We need mass movements. Dr. King believed deeply that key to fundamental social transformation, to revolutionary change, is the tactic of mass nonviolent direct action. He believed that based on his practical experience in the brutally segregated South. Ever a visionary, he wrote, in the Birmingham letter:

“Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.”

True then, still true now. Good people, speak out and rise up!

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.