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The SERE Manifesto: A Plan for Action |
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by Michele Haapamaki
Email: michele (nospam) eworksworld.com (unverified!)
Address: Vancouver, BC, Canada |
20 May 2001
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Survive. Evade. Resist. Escape. The four words that instruct a soldier caught in enemy territory. It is a plan not for comfort and security, but for life itself. Now the four words are the memory points for citizens everywhere to oppose corporate rule, globalization and the cheapening of democracy: The SERE Manifesto. This is a public declaration of our policy and intentions. |
Please distribute! **********
The SERE Manifesto: A Plan for Action. Survive. Evade. Resist. Escape.
Manifesto: (man-i-fes’-to, n.) Public declaration of policy by sovereign, State, or body of individuals.
Survive. Evade. Resist. Escape. The four words that instruct a soldier caught in enemy territory. It is a plan not for comfort and security, but for life itself. Now the four words are the memory points for citizens everywhere to oppose corporate rule, globalization and the cheapening of democracy: The SERE Manifesto. This is a public declaration of our policy and intentions.
SURVIVE:
Survival = solidarity + individual action. Solidarity must be both local and international. Solidarity results from the awakening of the fact that we are CITIZENS, we are NOT subjects. We have dignity. We have human rights. We are not guinea pigs for ad slogans, genetically modified foods, toxic waste. We are not pawns of the energy, chemical, pharmaceutical, agribusiness and technology corporations. Our worth does not consist of our value as consumers of overproduction. Above all, solidarity = the right to dissent + the imperative to inform and persuade.
EVADE:
Evasion is local and individual, and essential for preserving the soul of the individual citizen. Evasion = avoidance + disdain. Avoid the imposition on the mind, body and spirit: of advertising, acquiescence to corporate rule, society-mandated consumption, unsustainable growth, the worship of a capitalistic ethos. Disdain and place shame on the wasteful, the oppressors, and the evil. Shame is the only tool with which to educate and enlist the indifferent masses. But evasion of corporate rule is a temporary, partial, and only marginally effective measure. Evasion is incomplete without resistance.
RESIST:
As it is the duty of the solider to resist the enemy, so it is the DUTY of the citizen to resist when democracy is nullified. That which oppresses any or all citizens must be opposed. No one can live under the illusion that resistance is only for the \"radicals.\" Resistance is for all citizens, in many different varieties: some passive, some active, some strident, some low-key. But every citizen MUST resist to the extent they feel is necessary. Each citizen = the tiniest grain of resistance. Better than no resistance at all. Resistance is the essential, but most demanding responsibility of the citizen. Resistance is to withdraw the silent consent with which citizens live in cowering obedience to corporate domination. Without silent consent, they must change or cease to exist.
Resistance must be non-violent. No human life should be threatened or endangered by resistance, for the goal of resistance is to value life. But resistance must be continual, firm, and strident. Resistance = information + action. Resistance must be broad-based and decentralized, but united until the Common Front of shared goals. Only a small portion of possible action plans:
· Massive information campaigns. Draw attention to specific corporate, global and/or State abusers. A return to true muckraking journalism and the expansion of independent, non-corporate media. · Massive campaigns of legal harassment against the companies that every citizen is forced to do business with. Passive acquiescence no longer! Voice loud demands for clarification of corporate human right, environmental and community policies. Demand action, embarrass the paper-pushers who do not wish to be discomforted by the practices their corporate keepers engage in. · Rotating protests targeting all multinational corporations · Taking back economic control. For example, citizens must grow a portion of their own food (as possible, in summer)—one direct means of undermining the agribusiness conglomerates. · Campaigns of shame against practices grossly destructive to the environment · Civil Disobedience (non-violent) in some instances · A broad participation by all age, gender, ethnic and belief, and economic groups must be sought · A campaign to expose the sorry state of the democratic process and to re-democratize our government
ESCAPE:
Escape = resistance + positive, viable, and humane change Escape is the ultimate goal—resistance is but the means to the goal of escape. SERE is optimism embodied and the clarion call to change.
Escape = a departure from outdated political \"solutions\" and the adoption of a saner definition of community, society and government. Escape must include a revision of corporate power, a commitment to rational and sustainable economies, and counting the true cost of economic practices. The SERE Manifesto militates against meaningless Marxist, anarchist and/or violent rhetoric. The SERE escape seeks a common base of positive change to benefit all citizens within a just, responsible, law-defined society. SERE does not seek to abolish business but to make it responsible, community-based, non-destructive, and responsible for its actions. SERE seeks not violent revolution, but the reawakening of society to the crucial struggle for our economic, social and cultural future. Awakening = demands for change. SERE = the non-negotiable demand that we simply be treated with the dignity as citizens. We are not consumers.
The SERE Manifesto was penned May 18, 2001 by concerned citizen Michele Haapamaki in hopes that the pen is, in fact, mightier than the sword. The Manifesto is NOT copyright. It is for ALL citizens. It is for dispersal and distribution far and wide. |
See also:
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=41995&group=webcast
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