I thought of Frederick Douglass, the former slave and leading abolitionist of the 1850s and '60s. So much for monthly missives to Clinton or seeking to influence his friends. What must be done to transform the visions of Hibakusha, peace activists, and even admirals and generals into policies is to replace the power of the privileged with the power of the people. In the United States, the lessons of the Civil Rights and Vietnam-era peace movements, the women's movement, and the Nuclear Freeze movement are that the ultimate way to move the U.S. Congress is to threaten its members with electoral eviction. To create such people's power, requires popular education and popular organizing - different means in different cultures and political systems.
Individual actions can be powerful catalysts for profound change.
In the US, it was Rosa Parks' refusal to ride at the back of the bus which launched the Civil Rights movement, Daniel Ellsberg's decision to release the Pentagon Papers which further weakened Nixon's ability to wage the genocidal war in Indochina, and Randall Forsberg's call for a nuclear weapons freeze that undermined Reagan's ability to intensify the Cold War. Each of these critical moments in our history, however, grew out of and required the continuing engagement of organized popular nonviolent efforts that first transformed and moved the nation and then the government. Let me add a few words about fear and hesitancy. Most of us, I believe, hesitate to take risks. Dare to win.