Messages

We started out introducing ourselves.

Kevin Van Horn (KVH) described the "Beyond Ballots or Bullets: Creating a Free America" conference held in Provo last March (2007). About 15-20 people attended that event. Focus was on non-electoral, non-violent methods. One of the conclusions reached by attendees was the need for many local groups sharing supporting each other and coordinating efforts, but no central organization -- leave the enemy without a clear target to strike.

Utah Freedom Activists is intended to be one of those local groups. The hope is to inspire the formation of similar groups around the country. Proposed goal: "By January 1, 2025, every American who is determined to live free shall do so."

We briefly discussed the technique of nonviolent struggle. Key insight #1: Governments are not monoliths, but groups of individuals, each with their own personal opinions, goals, and agendas. Key insight #2: The power of rulers depends intimately on the cooperation of many groups both within and outside of the government, as well as cooperation and obedience of the populace at large. Nonviolent struggle works by attacking the networks of cooperation on which the rulers depend.

We briefly discussed the six source of political power: authority or perceived legitimacy; personnel; skills and knowledge; material resources; intangible factors; and sanctions (punishment for disobedience).

KVH proposed a "grand strategy" based on attacking the authority / perceived legitimacy of government. Our problem is that most Americans falsely believe they are free. A possible strategy is to focus on government's victims. This will help change perceptions of gov't from a largely benign organization to a largely criminal one. In learning to publicize gov't crimes against specific individuals, and learning to apply pressure for redress of these victims' grievances, we will also learn how to protect each other from the gov't, and build solidarity. We will gain support by publicizing and pursuing redress of harms done to others. Also, those most injured by government are ideal recruits for our cause.

We need to develop an information gathering network that

1) can quickly uncover new government offenses,

2) can identify effective pressure points for redress of individual grievances.

We need to develop the people and resources required to

1) effectively publicize gov't crimes,

2) create pressure for redress of individual grievances (releasing prisoners, releasing seized property, payment of restitution for damage done, etc.)

We then discussed several possibilities for immediate action:

A) Work on finding cases of gov't misconduct to publicize. This includes monitoring newspapers and other news media; using Freedom of Information requests and state-level public records laws to access complaints and lawsuits against gov't agencies, police misconduct reports, etc.; and working with other activist groups. [The "Resources" message thread contains links to short but free journalism courses that may be useful here, including one on how to submit FOIA and public records requests.]

B) Honesty in government. When gov't goes after some individual or group (e.g., the Branch Davidians in Waco, the FLDS group in Texas, the Lacrosse players at Duke University) they are able to smear their victims in the media because people tend to assume that gov't officials are telling the truth. It would be good to reverse that presumption. One way of doing that would be by keeping a database of statements by politicians and government officials. Scan newspapers and other news media, open meetings, public records, etc. for these statements. This would allow us to attack the credibility of any given government official by finding inconsistencies in past statements or verifiably false statements made by that person.

C) Fishing. This is a technique that has been used by other activist groups (usually leftist). The idea is to go door to door, asking people about their concerns. Example questions:
- "If you could change one thing about the local / state / federal gov't, what would it be?"
- "What is the worst thing the local / state / federal gov't does, in terms of how it affects you and the people you care bout?"
- "Have you had a negative encounter with gov't in the last six months?" (Follow up with additional questions if yes.)

We also discussed the definition of an issue. You have an actionable issue if you can answer "yes" to each of these questions: 1) Can people be mobilized around this? 2) Is it specific? 3) Can something be done to change the situation?

The consensus seemed to favor option A) above. Mark suggested creating a newsletter in conjunction with this, both online and in print. The newsletter can be used in publicizing the cases we uncover. It was also suggested that the newsletter could be used for C) also, by putting surveys in the newsletter from time to time, and inviting readers to submit story leads. We decided to move forward with A).