5%

I am reading A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. I am really liking it. I’ve got a whole list of other books that I want to read that are listed in the book.

I’ve had a running theory in my head for a while that really only about 5% of people in a population will actively participate in politics and activism. Much of what I am reading backs this up (I’d love to find a study on this, though). But right now I am reading about the labor movement in the late 19th century, and it paints a different picture. Hundreds of thousands of workers nationwide regularly went on strike. So maybe a more complete picture will say that a much greater percentage of people will fight for things that clearly and directly affect them. Labor conditions one of these things, foreign wars are not. If true, this greatly affects strategy. For foreign wars, you’ll have to rely on great amounts of action by a small amount of people. So for the Iraq war a good strategy might be things like blocking war shipments or civil disobedience in the streets.

For issues that affect a great amount of people, you may be able to rely on much larger participation. A current issue that comes to mind that might benefit from this great participation is global warming. Maybe 10-20 years from now we will see general strikes and huge rallies.