Land !
Housing!
Reclaiming our commons! Our rights to water!
Public spaces
Squatting
Reconnecting electricity
Yomango! Land reform! A desalambrar!
Reappropriating public services !

[I imagine this (I am zero at layouts) maybe as a spiral of words, examples, (maybe even of city names, later on) maybe combined with a collage of images from around the world, anyhow, a spiral in three dimensions that kind of jumps out at you and is coiled around the title ( To suggest the chain reaction effect)]

[Here would come a text developing the theme with examples, etc. ...]


Chain Refl-Action?
Why propose a new form of common action-reflection?

Global Days of Action was the form of action that created this movement. In 1998 or 2000, knowing that people around the world were mobilising the same day on the same subject impowered millions. But today we can take that form of action a little for granted. Now PGA isn’t the only source of calls and people will be in the streets anyhow, although this may still be an important form of action for many.

But what’s the next step forward?

What else can an international network do for you (and vice-versa), especially at a time when for many of us the priority seems to be to engage more with our local realities, break out of our “ghettos”, etc.? Is there much to share about local struggles?
Yes! And that might be exactly what we need to get this movement into second gear. Just sharing the fact that there were so many thousand people in so many cities is no longer enough, but we can learn and be inspired if we can share deeper and more concretely:

- Are people in other places facing the same problems?
- What tactics, what new ideas have they tried?
- How did these work out?

In fact, we know that groups everywhere are facing the same sort of problems: the need to make the link with local, concrete organising against the effects of globalisation (but without getting limited to a reformist horizon); how to relate to more mainstream organisations in a firm but non-sectarian way; how to organise ourselves in an alternative or "horizontal" way; how to deal with "anti-terrorist" repression, etc.

Of course the "circulation of struggles" has already spread many new ideas informally: street parties, affinity groups, hand signs, blockade tactics or no border villages, for example.

Our new idea for the movement is that we have to concentrate on sharing them! So we propose a :

Chain Refl-Action

The aim: to stimulate the exchange of ideas, experiences, analysis and reports of local actions and campaigns between local groups, thus improving everyone’s understanding of our situation. Doing the actions one after the other will allow us to all to really pay attention to the group that is “playing” at a particular moment, to learn from their experience (and if necessary show solidarity!)

Passing on "a torch of rebellion". Local groups will pass on their plans, reports, analysis and evaluations of their local actions. Other groups will perhaps relate to the analysis of a local group’s general situation. Or perhaps they may be preparing an action on the same particular theme. The important thing is that they can profit from experiences elsewhere. Some people could actually travel to bring their story or a video. Maybe a symbolic sort of gadget that could go from place to place would be fun.

A Global "Estafette" (or relay): this was our first name for this idea, because this is the opposite of the simultaneous Global Days of Action. Each place can pick up the ideas, change or add to them, try them and pass them on.

A "Chain Refl-Action" is obviously a chain of reflections and actions. But is also a kind of chain reaction, the molecular process of runaway mutual activation that produces explosions… Unlike, Global Days of Action (GDA) this doesn’t have to start big. It probably won’t get media attention . (Actually even GDAs haven’t generally got much as such. They’ve been more an inspiration to the movement itself.) But if half a dozen places play the game well people all over the world will be fascinated. We need this kind of exchange ! And it could lead to very big things...

On a wiki-website (managed by a network that came into existence in the PGA process meeting), each local group will announce its action. This doesn’t (in fact shouldn’t really) be an action invented specially for the Chain. It would be one of the actions of re-appropriation, of reclaiming that you are involved in anyway. The special effort would be to think more about how and why you are doing it. And telling the network about it before (unless of course it’s a secret!).

After the action each local group will post its reports, analysis and evaluations of the action on the website and send it to the next local group. This is to stimulate the exchange of ideas and to increase possibilities for closer cooperation and communication between local groups. People can maybe travel to meet, send a video, etc.
The aim is to have such an estafette-action in some local community, say every month.

Through the website, these actions will be coordinated globally.
To stimulate some common analysis, a list of possibly pertinent (or impertinent) questions has been made. Propose others!

Possibly Pertinent Questions (PPQ)

- What’s the general political scene in your area? How does your group relate to it?
- What limits your effectiveness? Does this action test some new way forward?
- What is, in your opinion, the 'global' aspect of your local action?
- Which striking things you've learned from this action you think are important for other activists to know?
Did your action attract some media-attention and if so, what were they focussing on?
- Did this action help you reach out beyond the usual circle of activists and or not ? If so why? Was it the theme? the form of action or communication? the kind of
preparation, contacts, etc., made before? Or what?
- After this action do you feel that you will have more or less political space, freedom of action, with respect to repression? Why?

(These aren't necessarily the best questions, but...).