We call on all supporters of equality to sustain and intensify the nationwide campaign of mass protests and nonviolent civil disobedience, for seven weeks, starting on Nov. 27, the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Harvey Milk, and to then gather together en masse, in Washington, D.C., on the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 20, to honor the inauguration of our President Barack Obama.
During the next seven weeks, we shall:
- Strive always to maintain a positive message of hope and change.
- Keep organizational structure to a minimum.
- Encourage participants to express their anger and determination in creative, thought-provoking and peaceful ways.
- Respect the media and law enforcement officers.
- Avoid attacking people’s religions. Hate language is always inappropriate.
- Reach out immediately to racial and ethnic minorities, immigrant communities, labor unions, progressive religious denominations and other organizations working for social change.
- Take your actions to downtown retail centers, transportation hubs and shopping malls for maximum impact during the holiday shopping season.
- Insist upon a commitment from all participants to nonviolence when planning civil disobedience.
- Study the history and traditions of nonviolent action. Angry marches and rhetoric can be cathartic, but do not necessarily help win hearts and minds to our cause. Effective forms of nonviolent civil disobedience often follow the peaceful, dignified and disciplined examples of Gandhi, the Quakers and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
- Remember always, and reflect in all your actions, that we are not fighting against anyone, or anything. We are struggling for equality.
For more information, go to www.sevenweekstoequality.com.
Read the entire essay by Cleve Jones and Dustin Lance Black in the San Francisco Chronicle.