THE GRASSROOTS REVOLUTION: Act II – Change Rises from the Roots

For revolution to change what we cannot accept,

It’s best to agree on its form.

Non-violence is key to build mass appeal,

A force that can truly transform.

When we look back on movements that have worked in the past

To defeat tyrants and systems unjust,

We see collective, organized power that lasts -

Standing up, speaking out, forging trust.

The Civil Rights Movement took deepest effect

When arms linked and marches were staged.

Gandhi’s example was key to the fight,

And equality bloomed from outrage.

In East Europe the walls were torn down brick by brick

Through persistent mass mobilization.

They worked to spread truth and coordinate action

For freedom, rights and reformation.

South Africa’s racists jailed their dissenters,

But the people kept raising their cause.

Boycotts and strikes and global divestment

Forced apartheid to fall through new laws.

The water protectors, the Standing Rock Sioux,

Stood proudly defending their land.

They awakened resistance across Turtle Island,

Gaining ground through a united stand.

But the ground that is gained is often re-stolen

As battles rage on in a war.

The victors so seldom emerging besides

Corporations voracious for more.

Some battles go deeper than money,

To misogyny, racism, pride.

Fragile egos of weak men, consumed by their hubris,

Project terror from traumas inside.

Women through history, shoved from their thrones,

Stuffed in kitchens and kept in the dark.

Forced to bear children and keep home fires burning,

But it could not extinguish their spark.

They rose in the west and demanded a vote,

Marching and spreading sedition.

Pamphlets in pockets for those who could read,

And hushed conversations in kitchens.

Because strength was revealed when they realized that

Their voice and their work carried value.

Proving their power was more than domestic -

Giving daughters the right to break through.

But liberation was slower for people of colour -

Decades longer for equality.

And still to this day the right’s not universal,

Vote suppression is reality.

But what good is a vote when the system is rigged

And the choices are no more than token?

When both sets of puppets serve the same masters,

It’s clear that the system is broken.

A better design’s a proportional vote -

Representation varied and broad.

Build cooperation into the core -

And undo the system that’s flawed.

Accountability baked into systems,

Collaboration serves people well.

Strength is revealed in unification -

The labour movement has stories to tell.

Our ancestors fought to get shorter workweeks,

To pull children out of the mines.

Their unionization put the people in power -

Strength of the collective defined.

Now labour world-wide is threatened and scorned,

Crushing unions to keep us enslaved.

But the power to strike is the people’s great weapon -

The show stops if we won’t behave.

We must remember the strength that we have

When we link arms and start to arise.

The division they sow is a desperate distraction -

They lose power when we organize.

Freedom, peace, progress - all hard-won through pain,

Lives given to build something better.

We must not forget that our grandparents toiled

So that we could be free of those fetters.

Take courage and act on your soul’s highest call.

Stand strong for the children to come.

The revolution is won through small battles fought -

And this progress will not be undone.

By Bridget Lacey