SETTING TABLE FOR A TEA PARTY

Posted by Adam de Angeli
on 04/12/09 7:38 PM
Last updated 04/13/09 02:08 AM
'CampaignForLiberty';

Throughout the month and especially April 15th, demonstrations against taxes will take place across the country. The stated purpose of these efforts is to lobby the government to reduce or eliminate taxes. The true purpose for many of these events will be to benefit the organizations putting on the events and the politicians attending them.

There are many possible scenarios. Perhaps your local Campaign For Liberty group is leading the charge and you are organizing the event yourselves. In Michigan, a group called Americans For Prosperity, an economic freedom lobby, is organizing the event and bringing (sigh) Joe the Plumber. In your state, another organization may be putting on the event, or a campus organization, or maybe a politician is planning an appearance. I'll try to cover a wide range of situations here.

A true story
It was at the very end of August 2007 that a local "peace" organization planned a rally at the University of Michigan. The students were still returning from summer vacation and getting back into school mode. Moveon.org was co-sponsoring the demonstration. By all indications it was to be a tame event where people express sadness, join an email list, and go home and do nothing.
Yet something else happened: 2 dozen people donned 2x3 Ron Paul sandwich boards with messages targeting anti-war college students. They displayed "Ron Paul 2008" in big letters, and beneath that were four bullet points: -Bring the troops Home -Restore civil liberties -Balance the Budget -Stop the World Bank and IMF Several of them carried clipboards and the rest handed out literature.
The peace group had brought speakers, but their sound system wasn't the greatest and they had a table instead of having people mingle with the crowd. Because of the sandwich boards, the Ron Paul supporters were far more visible to the audience (and importantly, to passersby) that it almost appeared as if they hosted the event.
The outcome: The Ron Paul supporters got sheets of contact information. The event set the tone for the upcoming school year. The University of Michigan ran one of the most active campus chapters in the country; airplanes flew Ron Paul 2008 banners over football games and students displayed Ron Paul signs that made it onto ESPN. They got a great deal of campus press, and when Dr. Paul came to U-M the next month, three thousand attended. (Side note: PLEEEEEASE message me if you have a hi-res photo of that event).

The lesson here is that you can get a lot accomplished at an event, even one your group isn't organizing. But you need to plan and prepare, and your whole group must understand the plan going into the event.

Step 1: State the goal and the target
Many people gauge the success of an event strictly by turnout. This is wrong--a small event may be an enormous success (an exciting legislative victory that never makes it onto the news) and a huge event may be almost meaningless (most anti-war demonstrations are).
Set a tangible goal. "This Wednesday in Lansing we're going to recruit 20 Local Coordinators and find someone to be the 5th Regional Coordinator." Great. A fascinating thing happens: from this defined goal, the obvious goal (turnout) becomes obviously not the goal. Given this goal, it is clear that our most important target is not the public, it is the attendees of the event. After all, these are people who care just like we do. They're liable to volunteer, to contribute, and to grow our organization more than the people who stay home. If you have no idea how many people to expect at your event, you may revise your goal when you get to the event, but it's easier to change a number than decide the goal at the event itself.
What about the goal of stopping the next tax increase? That might happen in the future, but it's not going to happen as a direct result of the event. If two thousand people come to the Lansing protest, that still probably won't convince the legislator who sponsored the bill to withdraw it. Changing the law is therefore not the immediate goal of the demonstration. The goal is to expand our network for long-term change.
What about the goal of turnout? Even if the event is led by your local Campaign For Liberty, turnout is secondary to expanding our network. The value of turnout is by how much it expands our network.
It is also important to define your political target. Don't just blame "the government." Decide in advance whether you want to make the target the US Congress or your state legislature. The more focus, the better. You don't necessarily need to have the same target as every other group organizing the event, but within your group, have one target.
Step 2: Choose the message
It's always a pleasure to read the various hand-made signs at a protest. But the pleasure is misleading; it's actually better to have only a few designs with the fewest "unique" signs. There are several reasons:
The newspaper, seeking an attention-getting photograph that will sell a paper, will print the goofiest sign they shoot
The slogan most repeated is the slogan most remembered and most likely to appear in TV and Youtube coverage
An appearance of consistency looks better (both to participants and media spectators) than an appearance of chaos
As in the story above, big signs bearing the Campaign For Liberty name are great, both for conveying the popularity of our organization and for getting people signed up.
Use only one or two slogans for "message" signs. Those slogans should be as short as possible, they should not be mean-spirited (though they can be negative), and should contain no obscure acronyms. "Audit the Federal Reserve." "Inflation IS a tax." Avoid naming politicians, which inflames opposition. Pick a relevant topic, that is, the issue your organization is working on. In Michigan we're lobbying on civil liberties and a sovereignty resolution, neither of which relate (directly) with taxes. So we're pushing for HR 1207, currently co-sponsored by only one of Michigan's fifteen Congressmen.
Step 3: Prepare the literature
Depending on the theme of your event, you may wish to print out materials on our website, or have your group create something specific for the event (if you do so, please make clear that your flier was not created by the Campaign for Liberty). Slim jims are excellent.
You will also need clipboard with signup sheets. Get them printed in advance and bring plenty of them--when you find yourself drawing sloppy gridlines across a white page, you're likely to lose a sheet in the shuffle. Remind them to print clearly. If you are organizing the event or have a booth, and someone in your group has an "air card" (a USB device with an antenna that gives your laptop an Internet connection via cellular networks), have them bring their laptop for registering members on the spot. Have clipboards to get their phone numbers and email addresses so you can contact them later; and have a username field for registered members to sign in. (It's good to have a list on hand of people who have volunteered). Your group should designate one trustworthy person to keep the sign-in sheets after the event and organize a follow-up phone bank. Have plenty of clipboards with signup sheets on hand.
A great way to make a batch of signs is to use discarded cardboard or old campaign signs, paper, and wheatpaste. You can make enough wheatpaste for a dozen sandwich boards with a dollar's worth of flour and water--google a recipe--and they hold up in the rain if they're dry before you go out. Wheatpaste both sides of the cardboard to prevent warping. If you're writing your sign with a marker, take a lot of time to line everything up and trace an outline. If you run out of room on the board your sign will look terrible. Personally, I prefer to get a poster printed at a local print shop--you might get a good deal if the printer supports your cause, and it saves a lot of time if you're making more than a few signs.
Step 4: Train the Team
Now that you've made your plans and assembled the supplies, you need to make sure your team executes the plan with no problem.
Everyone should have a standard line if asked something by the media, so that there's a possibility of our message appearing in the media. It could be something as simple and honest as "We are here to express that we are going to hold Congress and the Federal Reserve accountable for undermining our economy."

Have a designated person, your best speaker, do all the rest of the talking, and others to film important interactions. Click here to view a video that illustrates the value of a team where everyone plays their position correctly. (Action starts at about 2:20)

Have a simple message and keep it relevant. Don't mention Barack Obama--the economic crisis pre-dated his Presidency and if it appears that we're blaming Obama for causing the recession, we'll look ignorant. Keep the blame squarely where it belongs-on Congress and the Fed.

Make it clear that you are not here to confront the group putting on the event. Don't go to a FairTax event with signs that have "FairTax" crossed out and "No Tax" written underneath; you'll be too busy handling enemies to make friends. Your members should be reminded that they are to treat all other demonstrators as fellow activists with only slightly different priorities. You're there to get to know them, not to confront them and not to patronize them.

The event may have counter-demonstrators. Typically a small fraction of demonstrators will take the bait and get in a shouting match. It's unusual at tax demonstrations, but common in large anti-globalism protests, for police and federal law enforcement to pay people to infiltrate demonstrator groups and provoke violence.
Be clear that nobody in the group is to provoke the police or instigate violence for any reason. The police are powerless to disperse a crowd if there's no disorder, and if a provocateur decides to create disorder, let the police arrest him. If the crowd gets enraged the police might riot, but if the crowd seems to be on the side of the law and not the violent protester, the police will protect you and not attack you. It is no coincidence that there was not a single instance of violence at any Ron Paul 2008 campaign event.

Pick a place to meet a few hours before the event for everyone to get hyped up, and pick a restaurant to celebrate at afterward. It's much easier to choose a place in advance.

At the event
The events themselves are really exciting. Expect to be on high alert throughout the event. Time will pass slowly. Talk to as many people as you can, but remember to listen. I cannot tell you how many times at a demonstration an activist has come up to me and, presuming himself an expert, start spouting off all kinds of facts and opinions, telling me what our priorities should be, who I need to listen to, what I need to know about tax policy... often I will interrupt with "yes I've read it" or "yes I know" and yet they just keep right on going. Listen to your listener, find out what they are upset about and relate to them.
Added 4/13, more things to keep in mind at the event
Arrive early. It is much easier to grasp the dynamics of a crowd when you see it develop from the start. If you show up and hundreds of people are already there, you're going to spend the first 15 minutes just getting a sense of it.
Keep yourself busy. Don't talk to the same person for more than 5 minutes unless there's a compelling reason to; check in with everybody you know as often as possible; the more you move around, the better. This way you'll easily keep on top of the situation and meet the most people.
Helping people is the easiest and best way to meet them. Everyone at a demonstration needs help with something--a banner, a camera, finding a person, knowing what's going on, whatever--be helpful and introduce yourself. Once you've helped a person they're obliged to introduce themselves and talk to you. HELP AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN.
At all times:
-Keep engaged
-Remember to listen
-Keep the peace