The Next Stage of the 9/11 Truth Movement
To win this struggle to reveal the truth we need to know where we are in terms of the 8 Stages of the evolution of our movement so we can plan and carry out more effective social action.

http://www.communitycurrency.org/nextstage.html

Published in Global Outlook
Written April 24th for Issue #11 Spring/Summer 2006
[Slightly updated July, 2006] by Carol Brouillet www.globaloutlook.ca

In January 2002, when we first marched to demand a Congressional Investigation of 9-11, we passed out worksheets, which mapped out the Eight Stages of Social Movements (chart is on page 130 of Global Outlook) , and the Effective and Ineffective Roles that activists play (page 132), pointing out that we were at Stage One- Alerting the public that a Critical Social Problem Exists.

Bill Moyer, author of Doing Democracy The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements, a strategist for Martin Luther King, Jr. who had been organizing and empowering activists for forty years, was with us. He taught that all social movements have been about the struggle between power-holders and the rest of us, that societal myths allow power-holders to maintain their position, and that exposing their secret violation of those myths, ideals, values is a catalyst for social change.

All social change, from the abolition of slavery, the right to vote for African Americans and women, the growing environmental movement has helped empower people and pulled other movements forward. When movements succeed, however, there is backlash, power-holders try to undermine social gains. This phenomena is at the core of 9/11, an act of fear perpetrated by a criminal elite who feared losing power. Terrorism and war are classic methods to expand state power. 9/11 was used to roll back civil liberties globally, justify the construction of a police state to protect the few against the majority who oppose government and corporate policies, and to frighten the world into silence and submission. As Aung Sung Suu Kyi wrote:

"It is not power that corrupts, but fear -- fear of losing power and fear of the scourge of those who wield it."

The biggest societal myth of all is that power-holders are all powerful, wise, and the rest of us- stupid, powerless, atomized, weak, vulnerable, unable to change our situation. In a climate of fear, power-holders prevail. When the supporting myths are shattered, and people find the courage to oppose and expose tyranny, tyrants fall, institutions fail, policies can change to allow genuine self-governance.

The last four and a half years the media and government have relentlessly threatened the American people and the world with pending terrorist attacks, and unending war.

The attempts of the Bush Administration to crush any genuine investigation, the dubious joint Senate House Intelligence Oversight Committee’s Official Inquiry into “the failure of the intelligence agencies to prevent the attacks, the eventual announcement of the creation of a 'Cover-up Commission' to be run by Henry Kissinger (which was like waving a red flag and saying “We did it!”) gave the critics of the official story credibility.

Stage Two – Prove Failure of Official Institutions
In 2004, books were written, films were made; citizens’ organized International Inquiries, hearings, mock Grand Jury trials. Citizens’ presented evidence, and provided analyses of the September 11th attacks that were more substantiated than the 'conspiracy theory’ the government and press used to sell the Patriot Act, war, the construction of 'Homeland Security' and the expansion and reorganization of the military and intelligence agencies.

An Emergency 'Truth' Convergence held in DC on the anniversary of the 9/11 report and the Downing Street Memo, brought together many movements, all struggling against press censorship of their issues. A pattern became discernible.

Stage Three- Ripening Conditions
Stage Three occurs when recognition of the problem and victims grow and 20 to 30% oppose policies. This has happened more than once in the 9/11 Truth Movement, when the victims’ families forced the creation of The 9/11 Commission, and again when the victims’ of the deadly toxic dust emanating from the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings drew attention to the deadly lies about the safety of air quality at Ground Zero which claimed more lives than the collapses. The government would like people to be content with the Report, the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission, but these large myths have been challenged on many fronts.

Stage Four- Trigger Event
[Judicial Watch persuaded the Pentagon to release a video in May, supposedly of Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon on 9/11/2001. For the first time NBC called me and came to my house to interview me for forty-five minutes, they aired a three and a half minute segment on the local NBC channel. Other 9-11 Truth Activists were also interviewed on television, and made the front pages of many newspapers.]

Passage of the Patriot Act, violations of fundamental constitutional rights, the surfacing of damning evidence of doctored intelligence, and official lies in the mainstream press has sparked a wave of new groups, websites, protests, actions across the country. Fahrenheit 9-11 surfaced the damning footage of Bush’s non-response to news of the terrorist attacks and the Bush-bin Ladin family ties to a wider audience, the tip of the 9/11 Truth iceberg. Resolutions appeared to demand a repeal of the Patriot Act. The desire to rid the country of the Bush Regime drew a tremendous amount of energy. Large numbers protested at the New York Republican Convention, and worked to get out the vote for the 2004 Presidential election. The 2nd stolen election created a greater movement for 'real' election reform, and greater awareness of the ability of the press to censor vital information surrounding the myth that America is a 'legitimate democracy.' Questioning 9/11 broke the mainstream press baricade.

Stage Five - Perception of Failure
Stage Five happens when people see their immediate goals and hopes shattered, see fewer people at demonstrations, feel despair, fear, hopelessness, and drop-out. Many despaired after the election when Kerry failed to defend voters’ rights. Many despaired because of the divisions caused by a sophisticated disinformation effort to create straw arguments within the movement for the opposition to tear apart. The power-holders want activists to give up and leave them alone. Attacks were leveled at activists rather than at power-holders.

End Part I