There is Another Way Tour

Many activists realize the importance of place-based community organizing, and understand that successes usually come from the perseverance of committed organizers who work over the long term. Recently, we experimented with an alternate approach by taking our activism on the road, visiting many communities briefly and exchanging our skills and resources with allies celebrating dissent in their own ways across the country. The Oxygen Collective is a group of artists, activists, organizers and musicians who set out in a 40-foot biodiesel tour bus to support the growing network of cultural revolutionaries while gaining skills to become better organizers ourselves. We offered trainings, films, independent media and music, as well as collaborative direct actions. Were we indulging ourselves in the romantic vision of a revolutionary road show? Or were we contributing something valuable to the movement by spreading solidarity and energizing local causes?

Operating as a collective for a sustained period of time challenges almost everything we learn about relationships from our society. We learned the difficulties of setting aside personal agendas and waded through the sometimes-tedious process of using consensus to make everyday decisions. Creating projects and implementing visions that would be impossible alone is empowering and extremely rewarding. Living in this way taught us to deconstruct the destructive patterns of our culture and required us to address these same patterns embedded deep inside each of us. One of our greatest successes as a collective is that we lived in tight space with each other for almost 80 days on the road and returned still loving one another.

Traveling through pockets of resistance from city to city and town to town allows for observations into the state of our movement as a whole. Contrary to the intricate deceptions of the mass media, there is a mobilization of people waking up to the mounting threats we all face. We witnessed disparate subcultures and whole communities growing into sophisticated understanding of the dangers imposed by a runaway corporate-capitalist society. George W’s visits in Medford, OR, Flagstaff, AZ and Dallas, TX, sparked the largest demonstrations that many could remember.

It was apparent throughout our travels that anti-Bush and anti war sentiment is acting as a catalyzing force bringing diverse groups together in a cause where they share broad solidarity. Young anarchists are in the streets with gray haired peace activists; labor groups, church coalitions and members of the mainstream are bringing out people who have never been to a protest before. People are pissed, and their rage is building bridges between factions who are not traditionally used to working together. This solidarity is what the empire ultimately fears most, and Bush’s maniacal policies are ensuring it will continue to grow.

A primary lesson that resounds through our travels is the fundamental value of working outside our established boundaries of comfort and familiarity. Some groups are more evolved in confronting social issues from racism and sexism to homophobia, while others are further along integrating sustainable agriculture, alternative transportation, or the consensus process. When the social sophistication of urban communities overlaps with the ecological understanding of backwoods campaigns, the whole movement is stronger for it.

The preconceived ideas of our collective were confronted when we found some of the most committed and inspiring activists of our journey in the heart of Dallas, Texas. Joining forces with urban organizers, animal rights activists, radical fairies and old Black Panthers helped broaden our awareness and fine tune our perspectives on what tactics are effective in challenging the hierarchy of power. At the same time, some of our earth based outlooks and ways of operating as a community offered useful insights our hosts were happy to integrate into their circles. The more the branches of our resistance movement intermingle, the more these developing skills can spread widely and adapt to the localized reality of particular places.

A common thread across the states we traveled through was the invigoration that individuals and campaigns expressed when receiving support from outside their community. While recognizing the importance of effective organizing in a time of industrial oppression, communities often overlook how to relate their local struggles to the larger movement. The illusion of separateness is oppressive and counter-revolutionary. Weaving together the communities of resistance and spreading awareness of the global movement is crucial to a mass shift away from the death culture we are experiencing. This reminds us to celebrate our victories and admit that the type of work we do is stressful, defiant, and demanding.

Another aspect of life on the road is the constant presence of unexpected encounters with people totally outside "the movement". The impact of our road show may be greater for its symbolic value than the objective achievements of our actions. We may or may not have stopped any timber deals with our actions targeting the North American Wholesale Lumber Association (NAWLA) in Dallas, or converted any communities to alternative fuel through workshops on biodiesel, but we definitely touched hearts and provoked thoughts in many individuals we met along the way. Rolling into town in a converted greyhound bus covered with political banners and filled with radicals speaking out against imperialism, ecosystem destruction and war always drew attention. The conversations that came out of people’s curiosity at the sight of us left some of the strongest impressions of our trip.

Many people were mystified that anyone would volunteer, let alone pay out of their savings, to charge at the windmills of corporate power and cultural conditioning. Behind their look of confused awe, people’s eyes often communicated an almost tearful appreciation for what we were doing. The spark of possibility aroused by encountering a group of people dedicating their lives to a call for revolution strikes a chord in all but the most cynical of hearts. It is easy to underestimate the value of just standing out as an overt voice for dissent. People are hungry for change and beneath their cynical shells they are often more sympathetic with genuine radical action than limp attempts at reformism.

We glimpsed people working from many angles to overthrow, undermine and deconstruct the patriarchy, the oligarchy, the hierarchy and the arrogant blindness of imperial mentality. The work that reached us most deeply was the work that recognized the need to create as well as resist. With few respectable elders to guide our path, we are building a culture as we grasp for a better way. It is not enough that we tear down the institutions of the old paradigm; we must also break the chains that hold back the rich expression of our humanity. We are playful, sensitive beings with passions, talents and desires. The most vibrant communities and the most inspiring actions we witnessed were those that integrated this into their efforts of opposition.

The blending of art and action was an important part of our journey, with the Sisters of the Revolution playing shows at nearly every stop. These women help ease the grave and muted monotony of empire culture through songs of revolution and love. Their presence offered an element of celebration and camaraderie that served to build community as only the rituals of art and music really can.

In the tapestry of tactics that makes up a movement, the activist-action tour is an important strand that builds solidarity among its many facets. A few people can reach thousands with a reciprocal exchange of lessons from the far-flung front lines of our struggle. Life on the road expanded the horizons of all of our members. The connections cultivated during our months on tour will continue to inform our actions and draw our circles closer together for years to come. Our community felt our absence, yet others emerged to build upon the struggles and campaigns and we now return with new roles to play and new skills to offer.