RE: [pf] Multinationals take aim at protesters [long!]

by Vicki Madden

19 December 2000 15:50 UTC

>My experience -- obviously my own and maybe not others -- is that
>"leftists," usually single males, tend to be intolerant of what they see as
>traditional lifestyles and personal values.


This is what I was getting at when I mentioned the Naomi Klein article in
my previous post. We must mobilize average people from vague concern that
the world is in trouble into ACTION. That will not happen when all the
activists act as though everyone is a single person with no priorities
except activism. Now, I am grateful that some people CAN devote so much
time to it. But I am in the householder phase of life with two young
children and three meals a day to make from organic, locally grown food.
Living the life does not always leave time for meetings that (I think)
often go on pointlessly for too long. If you had an infant with you,
believe me, you would learn how to get to the point quickly.

I think Mothers and Others (and many worldwide programs) has shown that
mothers are very powerful agents of change. But, if I may generalize, we
tend to be less theoretical than action=oriented. Perhaps for the time
reasons I stated above.

When I go to local currency meetings, etc, I am virtually ALWAYS the only
person who has children. Recently my family was interviewed for an article
in the New York Times about simplifying along the YMOYL lines. The reporter
sought us out specifically because we had children and no one else he had
contacted did.

Vicki