What to Do?

Denver's activist community organizing against the DNC has been gnawing on the issue of self-defense vs. Ghandian non-violence since Recreate 68 began organizing. Both sides of this debate seem misguided in a city that lacks almost all resistance of either type. To advocate for non-violence ala Civil Rights, King encouraged people to be in the streets for months on end, not a few days a year. To advocate for self-defense, the Black Panthers had something worth defending, community based programs that met peoples basic needs. Sadly, uncouched in substantive movements putting consistent pressure on politicians or creative, community based direct action, these debates appear to be parodies of the past, something like Civil War Reenactments for the Left.

Of course, the impulse to create community based projects has been assimilated into what INCITE: Women of Color Against Violence has named "The Non-Profit Industrial complex" and the push towards reform minded politics has shifted from the Grassroots to gargantuan, professional activist organizations. Because these groups are accountable to the scrutiny of the government through tax laws, the likelihood of them actually organizing revolution through either reform-minded protest or direct action is low.

As the media conceals the actual effects of U.S. corporate and government behavior, the death, ecological destruction, suffering, and illness, we are left with a question about how to best act. Should we give our money to professional activist groups and give up the notion of the grassroots? Should we go to the handful of protests each year sponsored by these gigantic, unaccountable groups? Should we reject the non-profit world or throw our weight behind it? Should we organize community based programs without the aid of the state, foundations, and ruling class money? Should we enter the grassroots conversations about violence vs. nonviolence? There is much to figure our through practice.