Dru Blood - I believe in the inherent goodness of all beings: More from an article quoted in the previous post...

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« Responses to Cindy Sheehan posts... | Main | Progressives, Sexism, Accountability, and Moral Authority »

More from an article quoted in the previous post...

August 15, 2005

BRC 2002 Events: Social Justice in the 21st Century--What's It Going to Take?

I have been on a journey now for several years—a journey I will probably continue for the rest of my life — to discover answers to building a winning movement for real and transformational social change. Part of that journey took me to Peace Development Fund where we conducted a National Listening Project. We asked organizers and activists across the country what we needed to do in order to build a winning movement? What was currently missing?
People identified three key areas about when they thought about what it would take to build a winning movement:

First, we have to create a vision of what it is we are trying to build. People will not join us when all they see us talk about is "what we are against" instead of what we are for.
Secondly, folks said we have to learn new ways to communicate and connect with each other. We often recreate the competitive and distrustful environments that we are trying to work against in our organizations for change. There are also issues of racism, classism, and other oppressions that affect how we work together; we have often learned to look at each other with the most critical eye, rather than at what each other's best gifts are to the work.
The third thing folks talked about was hardest to put into words. It's what I call "spirit." I define "spirit" as a connection to something greater than ourselves, a connection to the whole. It is our connection to each other, to the earth, to the ancestors, and to our deepest self.

Many activists we interviewed talked about the fact that they were drawn to the work for social justice from deeply held heart-values or spiritual beliefs. Yet there is often no room for paying attention to spirit in our political work. As a result, many people don't feel they have the support to sustain them through this difficult time. People also attributed this to the reasons we don't connect with each other as deeply as we should.

So how do we go about addressing these issues?

First, we have to create a common vision of what kind of world we want to live in. I'm not talking about a utopian fantasy, but a vision based on what we know is possible, a vision that answers certain question. What is the world we want to create? We have to explore and figure out what kind of government we want and how to make it truly representative of the people. What kind of education system? What kind of economic system? Justice system? Medical system? In all of these areas, there are examples of what is possible. But often we are so focused on the problems that we can't see the possibilities. And that destroys our capacity to make change.

We must develop and move toward positive visions of the future. And to do that we have to create positive compelling images that will draw us toward them. Once we do, we must act as if the world we are trying to create already exists. Gandhi says, "Be the change you want to see in the world." We must create experiences and models so people can feel and understand what it is we want to build.

I'm bubbling over with things to say about this that are only tangientially related to what's going on in Crawford right now. But I have to take the kids to an appointment, and can't say more.

If you have any comments, please feel free to email me. I will post them if I feel they are worth posting...even if I disagree.

Posted at August 15, 2005 10:00 AM

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