ricken patel

intro’d to Ricken via disobedience (doc)

13 min

sept 28 2015

ricken patel (@ricken_patel) (exec director avaaz – https://www.avaaz.org/page/en/) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricken_Patel):

Ricken Patel (born January 8, 1977) is the Canadian/British founding President and Executive Director of Avaaz, a major global civic organization with the world’s largest online activist community, including over 40 million subscribers.

Patel was voted “Ultimate Gamechanger in Politics” by the Huffington Post, and listed in the world’s top 100 thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine. He was also named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, referred to as “the global leader of online protest” by The Guardian and listed as one of People Magazine’s most eligible bachelors.

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In 2007, Patel founded the online campaigning organization Avaaz – with the stated goal to “close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want”

this.. on closing the gap.. for (blank)’s sake…

ricken: civil disobedience is a powerful tool in social justice work.. the law.. it’s not sacred.. and to challenge it shakes our consciousness.. if you can take that radical action in a way that genuinely speaks to everybody else.. then you not only have their attention..you have their inspiration.. and you build movements that way

keystone pipeline protest – aug 20, 2011

ricken: 1\ prep – calibrate what you are asking for so you can win it 2\ choose strategy.. a tactic/target.. that can successfully grab public attention 3\ flawless execution.. the media will look for every opp to de legitimize you.. one misstep.. on e act of violence.. it’s over..

14 min

bill mckibben: i’ve never been to the white house… but the ability to chain myself to the outside of the white house.. turned out to be important..and empowering.. and anyone could do it… most of us don’t have huge sums of money.. all of us have a body that we can .. put in the way….. i want to say very clearly.. that civil disobedience is but one tool in the activist tool box.. it’s not the first one that you should reach for and if you use it all the time.. like any other tool.. it’s going to get dull.. that said.. civil disobedience has a roll to play

15 min – bill: nobody should have to go to jail about climate change.. in a rational system that would be the last thing that would happen.. but because the way power is distributed in our world.. sometimes we have to

ricken: one of the central threats to democracy today is the corporate capture of govt… we are up against tremendous resources.. and those resources are smart.. the corp goes straight to the politician that’s going to be on the committee that’s going to pass the law that they want to pass and threatens their re election at exactly the right time.. the strategies of global corps on climate change was partly to recognize that they had a trump card w the us govt… they could stand in the way of global action by blocking american action

16 min – ricken: there’s a level of state failure in the us.. the legislature is bought and paid for by oil co’s and other co’s… we have to roll back corp capture of our govts if we want to try and fix these problems that conflict directly w their industry bottom line

or just do/be/live a completely other way.. where all the rolling back ness isn’t necessary.

ricken: the secret of civil disobedience is moral clarity.. ghandi said.. i am a human being first.. and a citizen of my country second.. he targets the fact that indians aren’t allowed to make their own salt.. and has a massive salt march.. across india .. to the coast.. where he bends down and picks up sea salt.. how could someone possibly prevent you from doing something like that…he’s taken the weakest point of his opponent and targeted it to generate the most moral clarity

nationality: human

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