I've been thinking of how we can survive through the Bush years, where, basically, very little of good for the planet and other countries will get through the US congress, senate, courts, and legislative branch. The first thing is this: We must _not_ be reactive. The second thing is this: We must _not_ hope for action through normal legislative channels. The third thing is this: We, acting together, can accomplish almost anything, using directed economic actions and not taking no for an answer. I do not speak from theory. I live in Seattle. Myself and my friends and, one hopes, you too, get up out of bed ready to eat major corporations and governments for breakfast. In a Bush administration we need to focus on acheiving economic actions through directed, concerted, and determined pressure. This is not just emails. This is action such as: A. Finding a company which mistreats animals used in producing food (MacDonald's) and concentrating a "reasonable" economic request for change through the media, their consumer outreach, their web sites, letters (preferrably handwritten) to executives (especially those in marketing), and shareholder resolutions. This worked. Now, Burger King will understand what that means. B. Working on corporate, state, municipal, and federal levels to increase the amount of recycled non-old-growth paper used by suppliers. There was a time when most software companies produced their manuals on virgin forest products - this has changed for the most part. C. Working on polluters to make sure that pollution becomes a cost - by filing suit for pollution, by massive claims from those affected, by using endangered species designations for salmon and other animals to file suit against such companies and to publicize those actions in such a way that the corporate behavior must change. This is only the start. I'm currently thinking of setting up some kind of web site to publicize such reproduceable actions, script books, methods of filing suit, and so on. And perhaps an email list or two. Because, no matter how you slice it, you can forget about the US federal government being proactive in a good way until 2005. So let's all rally and protest, but let's take the fight to them. We can resist - we can create change - we can win - we just have to strategize how we do it Will Affleck-Asch Seattle email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
