Activist Toolbox - For Future Reference

[Hannah Bell]

Reading up on Rick Warren-sponsored "faith-based waste" of 1/2 a billion dollars in Africa & credit card corps cutting people's credit because they shop at the wrong stores rubs my last nerve wrong.

I'm sick of these lying crooks. They need to be stood up to & cut down to size.

Posting this thead to compile examples of actions & ideas that have been successful.

Here's one for debtors: El Barzon

El Barzón is a movement of low and low-middle class private business and farming interests in Mexico. A Barzón is a part of a horse-drawn plow that joints the horse with the plow. The name comes from a Mexican revolutionary song that speaks about injustice in the fields. Their motto is: "Debo, no niego, pago lo justo" ("I owe, I don't deny it, I'll pay what is fair").

Members of El Barzón were responsible for massive amounts of debt in dollars; which they were expected to pay back with a peso worth half of its previous value. Their debts would amount to ten times the loan they had originally taken out, and El Barzon refers to the massive social movement where elements of the traditionally quiet middle class rose up and refused to pay the monstrous sums of money that were expected of them by lending institutions. It was an accepted public venting of frustrations and helped to set up the PRI's demise in the 2000 presidential elections.

...the group organized several sui-generis protest manifestations against liberal economic policy, including such acts as naked protests and sewing their eyes shut publicly. In one famous act Alfonso Ramírez Cuéllar, leader of El Barzón A.C. and congressman, entered the Mexican Congress riding a horse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Barz%C3%B3n