Forming Local Groups

Below is something I've been working on to contribute to the new "activism" page here at 911blogger. I'd like to get some feedback, especially from people currently in groups or those who would like to start them in the near future. Also, because this information needs to be edited for brevity, feedback about which points are most important and which may be "too obvious" is also appreciated.

911bloggers who come from the right side of the political aisle are especially encouraged to comment -- my organizing experience prior to my 9/11 work has definitely been among leftists. How would you get the word out to libertarians/ Libertarians, Constitutionalists, and other potentially interested groups? Could you leaflet a gun show? (I'm not kidding -- I've been to gun shows!)

Forming Local Groups

If you’re used to interacting with other truthers online for the most part, you will probably find meeting with a group of people in real life exciting and a great source of support and inspiration.

Starting your group.

First, check around and see if one exists in your area already! The places you need to check will also be the places you use to get the word out if you don’t find a group that already exists. Check meetup.com, yahoo groups, google groups – search under a variety of terms (9/11 Truth, 9/11 Skepticism, 9/11 Visibility, plain ol’ 9/11) or if possible, scan all the groups meeting in your community, especially under headings like politics and current events. Scope out your local version of craigslist if you have one, and likewise your closest community indymedia.org. Local independent weekly papers will sometimes list groups in their personals sections. Be sure to check 911truth.org and their list of grassroots contacts.

If you look and you can’t find one, then it’s time to get the word out and start your own. Submit an item to indymedia.org and run a series of notices on craigslist. Set up a group at meetup.com, but be aware that there is a moderate charge to organize a group through their site. (Meetup.com is also a great way to gauge local interest without spending money – they will keep a group list open for a period of time and notify you when others express interest, even if you don’t take the step of paying to be the group’s official organizer.)

Once you have met a few people who share your interest in forming a group it makes sense to look for a place to meet. Libraries and leftist bookstores often offer meeting space for no charge or a small one. Meeting in someone’s home is probably better avoided if possible, both for the safety and privacy of the home’s owner and the comfort of newcomers, who will more likely prefer to meet a group of strangers in a public place. Coffeehouses and restaurants are a possibility, but members of your group will need to be polite and buy something if you don’t want to wear out your welcome in short order. You may also prefer privacy, especially once your group is past the get-to-know-you stage and into planning events and actions.

With a meeting space and regular date set for meeting (Weekly? Monthly? First and third Tuesdays?) you can begin networking in earnest with other sympathetic groups. Show up for a movie like America: From Freedom to Fascism or an Iraq war protest, for example, with leaflets advertising your group and its meetings. Work with those dreaded left-gatekeepers (Locally, both the World Can’t Wait and Democracy for America have been very receptive to Truthers) and use their public events and online message boards to get the word out.

In addition to forming your local group, there's a lot to learn about how your group will function, make decisions, and sustain itself. There are some common pitfalls and strategies for success here which need to be addressed in a separate article.

I'm going to get Wendi...

To comment here... the founder of PA 9/11 Visibility. However, I do know that creating a 9/11 Group in your area is VERY easy. "If you build it, they will come..." Those poll numbers that we've been seeing aren't in our favor for nothing.
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"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this."

Analysis v. Activism; and the winner is...??

Though I haven't really checked out the new activism page here at 911 Blogger, I do have some personal experience over the past 7 months that might be useful in the Truth movement's push toward a more activist stance in spreading an awareness of 911 Truth.

In April, 2006, I initiated my solo protest against the Bush Administration's corruption, et.al., by posting on Craigslist's activities board looking for people on a Saturday that would want to do some "spontaneous protesting" on one of the many bridges here in Portland. Got some late responses, and I believe that the post was eventually removed for being miscategorized, but it was a valuable step I had taken.

I then started carrying signs to and from work, walking the 3/4 mile into and out of town, that spoke to numerous areas that I thought people should be thinking about, as BushCo drove America off a cliff. I did a 10 person Burma Shave with the War Resisters League on Tax Day, and by that time, I was hooked. To hear the support, in the form of horns honking, people raising their fists out the window, etc., is truly uplifting for the sense of community you feel vs. the solitude and despair that reflection and analysis of current events can so easily bring on.

Long story short, I decided to "post up" at a very busy intersection every weekday I could, for about an hour, to try to raise some political awareness. I made several dozen 2-sided signs, and I changed my message as often as I felt I needed to, to keep things fresh. I was joined by bikers and pedestrians occasionally, as well as by some fellow activists in the impeachment and 911Truth movements here in Portland, Casseia included. People recognize me all over town, even when I don't have a sign in hand on the bus, or walking up the street, and I hear a lot of "thank you"s for the effort I made to wake people up.

I still have to write a closing update of my One Man Parade article on IndyMedia.org, but my last day at the bridge was 11/8, and my audience was sure glad to see me out there celebrating.

I have to jam, so I hope that this is not too incomplete, but I did want to support Casseia's effort to move the 911Truth movement toward activism, with the realization that the analysis done to date is enough to show that the official story is bullshit, and now we just need to ease the bulk of Americans to acceptance of that.

One last note...during my months of interacting with the commuting public, I was intent on breaking through to those people that drove by shaking their heads, or who flipped me the bird. They were the ones that I felt needed to own up to the fact that America has been duped by the Neocons and the power elite. My signs said things that I thought might break through their self-protective veneer...such as "Ousting Bush Is Patriotic," "Denial is Not Patriotic", etc.

Start a group, or do it on your own and a group will gather around you!! Just keep fighting, and we will prevail!! Bush and Cheney will go to jail!!

it's a TIE!

Thanks for sharing your experiences Styve--I've been doing very similar things for months now, if not already over a year. Same things happen here around Boston-lot's of thumbs ups and thank yous, and of course the one or two morons who just can't handle the truth.

That said, I value the ability to interact online and continue to analyze the issues. Books are great but the online discussions help us all sort out what weve learned from them, and also sharing activism tips and materials is very important.

I'm a big fan of strategy based games, and in that world we have a term for overthinking and underacting--Analysis Paralysis. The best policy in my opinion is to have a regular schedule of activities so that you get in the habit, but also stay in touch with the online crowd because often that is where many people go after you awaken their interest in the street, and we can't let cyberspace be donminated by those who by virtue of not actually doing work in the streets have plenty of time to stir up trouble by poisoning the well online.

Good luck from all the east coast truthers to the westies fighting the good fight out there!

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Real Truther a.k.a. Verdadero Verdadero

WTCdemolition.com - Harvard Task Force

 

Thanks for the positive vibe, RT!!

I appreciate your perspective, but I also wonder what we could do/reveal that would spur an enormous interest in finding out the truth about how the WTC buildings were felled. There has to be a way to use, or make, the media (to) inadvertantly work for us, just as there has been such misuse of the media at the hands of Rove.

We need to think outside the box, so to speak, about what might prompt some renewed interest in answering the questions that were so evident after 9/11, yet were also so swept under by the "war" hysteria post-9/11.

I am a former east coaster, so I dig the connection!

We have lots to give thanks for, but more to regret and fight to correct!!

Best,

Styve