"For every thousand hacking at the branches of evil there is one who is striking at the root."
The words of Henry David Thoreau bare a short but powerful manifesto on the walls of San Francisco State University, welcoming attendees of the Rootstrikers 2013 conference. On April 20th, over 500 activists and organizers got together on a Saturday afternoon to discuss ways to stop corruption in politics. This first Rootstrikers conference was undertaken to convene their biggest activists, enthusiasts, and citizens to start a conversation about campaign finance reform for the year ahead.
Rootstrikers, founded by Lawrence Lessig in 2011, is an activist organization with a small staff and a mass amount of dedicated volunteers. They use NationBuilder to manage their website, email newsletters, and volunteer outreach. Online engagement is key to organizing the activists involved in the movement.
Activists involved with Rootstrikers are working to do as the Thoreau quote implies: destroy the root of money and corruption found in politics. During the conference, the audience participated in panels with leading intellectuals, pundits, and activists in the political space on issues ranging from corporate personhood to voting rights.
During the final keynote of the conference, Lessig gave a two-part speech. One was an inspirational message based on his most recent TED Talk while the latter encompassed a direct call to action. He ignited the call to action by emphasizing love as a driving force for change: "If you love your country enough, you will not ignore our broken political system." Lessig fired up the crowd and empowered them as key stakeholders in the fight against the influence of money in politics.
Importantly, this inspirational moment lead to a final call to action, encouraging the audience to get involved by signing the FEC petition, talk to everyone you know, and to become a social media Amplifier with Rootstrikers.
Rootstrikers plans to have more conferences in the future. Find out more about the work they do and how to get involved by visiting roostrikers.org