Elliot Crown

Images operate the same way that memories do; images have this deep-seated attachment to your mind and I like to think that the images ingrain themselves into people…It really makes them want to stop for a minute and read the article. And hopefully it’s not a terribly biased article. And hopefully the image, in itself, …

Narrative, comedy, and a message: The Internet Must Go

In 2012, market researcher John Wooley was dispatched to help the big ISPs figure out how to sell their vision for a “faster,” “cleaner” Internet.  Six months later he produced this report — and shared it with the world. A great example of using comedy to play the villain, a great narrative, and still able …

Escrache in Spain

  The term “escrache” comes from Argentina, where it was coined in in 1995 by the human rights activist group H.I.J.O.S, to condemn the genocides committed by members of the military dictatorship that had been pardoned by Carlos Menem, who was prime minister at the time. When justice fails to signal a violation of human rights, the …

Protesters Against Wall Street – NYTimes.com

It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation. That’s the job of the nation’s leaders, and if they had been doing it all along there might not be a need for these marches and rallies. Because they have not, the public airing of grievances is a legitimate and important end in itself. …

Pie-ing Murdoch: Activism or Egoism?

An “activist” just tried to pie Rupert Murdoch and The New York Times Blog put it very simply: Unless the activist who charged at Mr. Murdoch wanted to help distract attention from his testimony — and that of Rebekah Brooks, who is now giving evidence to the Commons select committee — he seems to have …

New ‘Tactical Urbanism’ guide for aspiring guerrilla urbanists | Grist

The Next Generation of New Urbanists yes, these are young New Urbanists, because New Urbanism has been around long enough that it’s getting a little … old and the Street Plans Collaborative want to help. They’ve put together a “Tactical Urbanism” guide that you can download for use when you need some ideas about how …

Culture Gap – New York Bike Lanes

Duncombe and I have said more than once “you can change the laws, but it won’t matter if the culture doesn’t change with it.” For lack of a better term, I’m going to call this – for now – a Culture Gap. A change may be “the right thing,” environmentally, economically, socially, for justice, but …

UCSD arts professor cleared in at least one investigation « Last Blog On Earth

UCSD arts professor Ricardo Dominguez did not use school funds inappropriately, according to the findings of a University of California official investigation into Dominguez’s involvement with a controversial art project. On Jan. 11, the UC system began investigating Dominguez’s use of just under $5,000 of grant money to fund the Transborder Immigrant Tool (TBT), a …

What is Winning? Results. – Indymedia Ireland

Via Indymedia Ireland Activist Questionnaire Results This is an attempt at a summary of the results of questionnaires, interviews and a focus group at the Dublin Grassroots Gathering in June 2008 on the theme of what is winning in horizontal activism. This was done to hopefully be part of a broader movement discussion on goals, …

God Hates Flags

The infamous westboro baptist church visited San Francisco. WBC’s hate-promoting signs were answered by multiple signs of randomness, nonsensical yelling, and even a unicorn. A portable stereo blared Lady GaGa, while press and people passing by ignored the WBC signs and took pictures and videos of the more entertaining signs. I was also there and …

Miami's Community Avengers

Have No Fear the Community Avengers are Here! As the right wing mob mobilizes to shut down democratic debate on health care reform; as Van Jones is forced from the White House through distortions of the truth and plays on racial and political fears; as the recession deepens – the masked marauders known as the …

Gihan Perera: Internal Efficacy

Gihan Perera: Grounding our Inner Leadership Spirit & Sustainability Profile “In so much of my political work, the benchmark of that was external. It was intellectual, and I mentally related it to my impact on objective conditions. However, so much of what I felt about my larger purpose was so non-related to those benchmarks. What …

There is no "win"

Ok, I am kinda lovin’ Jay Smooth right now. http://blip.tv/play/gaEW57FkgpNs Success means that we move further towards the ideals. Victories are only evidence that progress is possible, and that we are moving further towards those ideals. So measuring success is acknowledging the victories along the way, and realizing there is no end.

The power of the symbolic win (do-over)

apparently I added the wrong video the last time I tried to do this, so let me try again. http://blip.tv/play/gaEW3O5ygpNs Mainly for Jay and Duncombe. I think at the core, one of the things he’s talking about, is if all that work getting Obama elected actually mattered…

Utah Student Wrecks Federal Land Auction

This guy is great. He saw an opportunity and jumped on it, disrupting a corrupt auction, costing major corporations money, and drawing attention to an issue that easily could have been buried under the mountain of year-end top 10 lists and countless other examples of Bush Administration corruption. What started out as a spur of …

George Bush discusses what's effective

Not effective: Simply drawing attention to yourself. Yelling at him at a political rally.  Flipping him off. Effective: throwing a shoe at him and the press asking questions. Conclusions: The more unusual things one does that stray from U.S. norms and culture that cause the press to ask questions, the more effective you will be.  …