Civil Rights Strategies

3/25/2017

Civil Rights - Solutions, Reforms and Strategies

Get organized, connected, and educated

Know your state and local political representatives.
- Be aware how they vote.
- Attend legislative forums. Listen and ask questions. Look for patterns.
- Network with people and share information. Support/create groups that hold politicians accountable.
- Remember actions are more important than words.
Understand Progressive Values (read George Lakoff).
Support/Join/Collaborate with Social Media. Seek out progressive reform groups like Indivisible, QC Progressive Coalition, PACG, Iowa-CCI, etc.
Focus personal energy and resources for building community resilience:
- Share what you have learned/save time by listening to what others are doing. Spend time discovering what other communities are doing.
- Band together with like minds to form new groups and communities. Discover organizations that give back to the community. Support each other/make new friends. Know that you are not alone and let others know that you are with them.
- Stick together: Keep your eye on the bigger picture. Row in the same direction.
- Know that many small actions add up to something bigger. Be the change you want: Google “Gandhi's 10 Rules for Changing the World.”

Change how you think of your money/wealth

Change the narrative: how do we democratize capitalism with progressive values?
- If you have wealth, know how to manage it ethically.
- Disinvest in large “too big to fail” banks and move assets locally.
- Micro invest in local sustainable businesses with SLOW MONEY (Google Woody Tasch) and check out our neighbor local group (Iowa Pollinators in Iowa City).
Use progressive values as guiding principles. Create/support socially-responsible businesses:
- Act Local/Shop Local First (Food Hub, Farmers Market, non-chain retail)
- Support triple P businesses (people, planet, profit)
- Support B-corps (formally recognized in Illinois/not in Iowa) (Google: Benefit Corporations)
- Use software like Buycott to purchase everyday products ethically (Google: Buycott)
Support economic self-reliance through nontraditional community-based networks that share rather than compete
- Time banks/barter economy (Google: Life Without Money in Detroit’s Survival Economy/Bloomberg)
- Mutual aid societies (Google: Benefit society)
- Local currencies: (Google: BerkShares/New England)
Further reading: Support the new economy movement
- What Then Must We Do by Gar Alperovitz
- What’s Mine Is Yours by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers
- Deep Economy by Bill McKibbon.
- Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein
- Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawkins

Discover/promote alternatives to traditional jobs and living that build equity and share ownership