Road Raging - Poem for Wrecking Roadbuilding

Afterword

This book is an idealised version of how campaigns could work. It is not necessarily a step-by-step recipe for success. New ideas are constantly evolving, so this book could never pretend to be comprehensive.

We hope you enjoyed reading this book, and that it wasn't too bossy or daunting. Our main aim was to cram the maximum number of ideas for action between the covers. Use it, copy it, pass it on, add to it, and don't let it gather dust.

THE LOW ROAD

What can they do to you?
Whatever they want.

They can set you up, bust you,
they can break your fingers,
burn your brain with electricity,
blur you with drugs `till you
can't walk, can't remember.
They can take away your children,
wall up your lover; they can do
anything you can't stop them doing.

How can you stop them?
Alone you can fight, you can refuse.
You can take what revenge you can
but they roll right over you.

But two people fighting
back to back can cut through a mob
a snake-dancing fire can break a cordon,
termites can bring down a mansion

Two people can keep each other sane,
can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.

Three people are a delegation
a cell, a wedge.
With four you can play games
and start a collective.
With six you can rent a whole house
have pie for dinner with no seconds
and make your own music.
Thirteen makes a circle,
a hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your
own newsletter; ten thousand
community and your own papers;
a hundred thousand, a network
of communities;
a million our own world.

It goes one at a time.
It starts when you care to act.
It starts when you do it again
after they say no.
It starts when you say we
and know who you mean;
and each day you mean
one more.

-Marge Piercy.



This book is now out of print. You might be able to get a copy from a UK library by ordering on the inter-library loans scheme.

Road Alert!
EMAIL: info@roadalert.org.uk