Clearly the current course we are on leads to disaster. There is no way to change it because the system is set up to be conservative and slow reacting in order to preserve the status quo. Doing anything that actually works is illegal. Some Pissy one day "demonstration" with some speeches wont work. They are expensive, they wont reach enough people and are only useful for rallying people to vote.
There are plans to save us that rely on advances on technology, that will at least significantly slow things, we could realise these advances if we reorganised the economy to prioritise scientific advancement with a green moonshot. This kind of crisis, and this kind of contradiction of capitalism is the thing revolutions are made of.
You cant convince anyone to go on strike because they are in debt and will lose everything they own, and of course striking is illegal.
Something illegal has to be done. The solution is a general strike, but to not give anyone a choice as to whether they strike.
This is actually the idea of any normal general strike btw. Everyone on strike goes out and tries to rally everyone they can find to join them. Its not just about staying home. Its a mobilisation.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/01/worried- american-democracy-study-activist-techniques
During a time at which concern over climate change was peaked and peoples hopes had been been dashed, such as during some bad news like trump pulled out of the Paris accords, could we not get 3.5% of city dwellers onto the streets?
In my country 52% of people think climate change is an urgent problem and are dismayed nothing is being done.
If the roads are blocked, people cant get to work. You don't need to make every road impassible, you only need to create a traffic jam bad enough that it will take so long to get to work that by the time they arrive they will need to leave again to beat the traffic. If they do arrive at work there will be noone else to work with and no customers to serve. Most will give up and hopefully some will join.
The truth is there are many choke points in cities. Rivers, parks and stormwater ditches and train lines are impenetrable barriers to cars. Bridges and highways create chokepoints. There's only a manageable number that needs to be targeted im order to make it impossible for a large percentage of the population to get to work.
This on its own would not be enough. The police will brutally clear the blockers from the streets. To counter this the blockers will need to chain themselves to the roads and be willing to put their bodies in between the chains and the powertools that will be used to try to dislodge them. It will need have a radically nonviolent ethos. Hopefully more people would join to defend the blockades who were unwilling to take the risk of chaining themselves. The more people at a site the more reluctant the police would be to attack. There will also be abandoned cars all over the roads that will make it harder to clear blockades, and easier to reestablish them. Sabotage could also create road blocks, but that could be counterproductive to the public image.
Everyone who tries to dislodge or cross them should be reminded they are picking the wrong side, and attacking the people trying to help them and their children. If not now, when? Convert those who we would be inconveniencing. Having slogans and facts prepared for the speeches and media interviews would help. It would have to be completely committed to non-violence in order to tempt less radical people to join, and to make sure public sympathy is winnable when the brutality comes. People who did this would need to be willing to be maimed or killed and not respond with any kind of violent resistance in order for it to work. They would also need to know they are going to prison even if they win, so its a tough sell.
We could commit to letting emergency vehicles through as long as no violence was used against us, once it is shut it down. Have as many escalating cards to play as possible.
