First off, the political and economic elite know exactly what to do to fix the system. The problem is they don't want to do it, because it is not in their interest change the the system. They are focused on saving it, in a way preserves their interest---and they are stuck at the moment. They are caught in a contradiction.
Then a second point. You can't demonstrate against capitalism. In a sense there were no civil rights marches. There were boycotts, support demos for legislation, there were sit-ins at particular locations.
So, now demos have to be specific to some aspect of class war. A union strike at a particular job site, a march in support of a specific legislative plan (single payer), a neighborhood support for a family kicked out in the street.
These multiple attack sites form a collective in the public mind. As speakers at these specific events articulate their demands, they also articulate the changes in policy needed. Think about the history of the 30s. Veterans Marches, Hoovervilles ... each had a specific point to make and there were speakers who articulated the plan to fix the problem.
We have to be creative, to find the sites of protest and attack, so that the specific site addresses the problem. Hell shutdown Wall Street. Wall Street is part of the problem, so make it a site of attack. Set up a couple of lefty economists who can put their ideas for change in simple terms, and yell it at the assholes inside. Lead a chant, Jump Motherfuckers, Jump ..
Surround some big corp HQ with a known name and known relationship, like AIG, and hold a public teach-in demand whatever is the consensus plan to change the operations.
The point is to open the public discussion to include our side of the class war. and make our answers part of the public mind. At the moment that is not happening where it counts, in the news, the media. They as a collective voice have basically sided with the elites. So the media needs some bogart bitch slapping attention grabbers. That's part of what somewhat scary demos do... get the cameras going, get the microphones on, etc. but we have to be creative about it, so that the demands get through and the events don't get turned into a police story, where the message is oblated in the so-called <violence>.
There are other problems with the mostly silent public. So far the financial meltdown is still something of an abstraction. The system hasn't devolved into site specific places. Where it has, like a factory that shuts, then people come out, especially if there is some union backing.
So, I take this lack of events to use, means that so far the systemic breakdown hasn't started to effect enough people on the street. That may start this spring, as states like California start laying off employees in particular job sectors. The state is struggling to keep that from happening. The two key places to look for are schools and hospitals--- these go directly to\ the economic issues we want to address, education and healthcare. Protests, and speakers have to get out their demands and not be fooled by Obama and Democrats in Congress who claim to address the issue---because with closed schools and ERs obviously the issue has not been addressed, and the demands have not been answered.
Places like Oakland are very lucky because there is already a collective memory of what to do, what kind of public response works to press for a needed change, a needed answer, and the local press more often has the right mind set to report the story with the demand.
That kind of local memory has to develop in more places, and probably will as economic events unfold. See, I think we are headed into a depression era situation. So far the elite have managed to stall. But as I said above, I also think they are caught in a contradiction... doing the right thing, means doing things against their interest. Once the events unfold and the pieces of the economy start to collapse, like state budgets, then we will see the right kind of events to use to address the solutions we want and are in our interest.
And don't forget, we are in both a class war and a propaganda war. So far elite interests have managed to keep the delusion going that their interest is our interest. That has to be broken down. There has to be a systematic attack of that illusion. The arguments over executive pay was an opportunity lost. No Mister Rich does not have the Right to 500x times as much... Junctures like this pay issue, need to be used in the propaganda war as deconstruction tools, to open the public mind to what has been going on. I forget now who Doug had on the other day, but one of the interviews addressed the idea that there is some magic talent in being a giant CEO that deserves a giant salary. Anyway, that's the kind of deconstruction of the illusion, I am talking about. Those are the kinds of speeches we need to hear at rallies and demos, so that the issue of class war gets into the discourse about what to do ...
CG