"The Democratic Party is the graveyard of social change movements." Amen and Amen.

Civil disobedience and other extra-electoral forms of activism are the major democratic safeguards against the tyranny of the majority which electoral systems (especially, but not exclusively, winner-take-all systems) allow for.

This is a book about the solution, as well as a book about the problem; but *mostly* about the solution. It is a hard message for many activists to swallow, but the authors lay out a theory that has incredible explanatory scope. Everything else FFP has written is great as well; check out Regulating The Poor and Why Americans Don't Vote.

Kim Moody writes for the excellent Labor Notes: http://labornotes.org/ Many big unions will allow concerned people to do volunteer organizing for them as unpaid interns. I've done it, it's very satisfying stuff to work on a campaign and see it through to the end. See also: Why Unions Matter by Michael Yates

Why is working class solidarity necessary? It sounds like a phrase out of a time capsule. I mean, doesn't the government take care of workers' rights? Short answer--hell no: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/03/25-3

Some national resources (you will have to find your own local resources/campaigns): http://www.livingwagecampaign.org/ http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/ http://www.epionline.org/index_lw.cfm http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/livingwage/ Living wage is a good campaign to get religious/church people involved in. Unitarians, Methodists and Episcopalians will often give at least a meeting space.

Here is probably the main reason we will never get very far in America through elections: the least informed/most manipulated get an equal vote with the highly informed. Activism weights the opinions of the more informed. But if the highly informed sit on their butts and do nothing but vote once every two years, their voices will of course be canceled out by an equal number of FOX viewers.

Don't expect a change from Obama: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080630/klein

If you thought that free trade was painful, but in the long term produced better growth than protectionism for developing economies, you were wrong. This airtight book undercuts probably the last remaining pillar of neoliberalism. Brief summaries: http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2008/1208engler.html http://www.paecon.net/PAEtexts/Chang1.htm

http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/03/why-did-the-shootings-happen Every town/city should have a local community oversight board to which police are accountable. It is such a common sense notion that there really should be no debate about it, yet they've been calling for it since the 60's with little progress. Try to get it in your area. http://www.berkeleycopwatch.org/Handbook_06.pdf

http://www.iww.org/en/organize Start a chapter! See also the book, Wobblies and Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History by Staughton Lynd & Andrej Grubacic

Probably the best political documentary I have ever seen, it really accomplishes a lot for a movie.

Also good: The Forging of the American Empire by Sidney Lens, Against the Beast: An Anti-Imperialis​t Reader, books by Chalmers Johnson.

http://www.nnomy.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_sobi2&catid=3&Itemid=178

Good book full of interviews with "deserters" (they've been through more than most people who slap them with that label will EVER face), a good list of organizations in the back.

Arm yourself against racism and white nationalism with a historical knowledge about the origin of their kooky beliefs. You'd better know your history, because they think that they know it.

Even White Nationalists hail this book for its accuracy and comprehensiveness (see the Amazon reviews of it).

See also: Inhuman Bondage by David Brion Davis, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney, Capitalism and Slavery by Eric Williams, The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James.