Tag Archives: politics

Perspective on yesterday’s Women’s March from 49 years ago

Posted on January 22, 2017 by elisefrancesmiller

When Jay and I, with our friends Mary and Stu, joined 100,000 Bay Area protestors yesterday at Civic Center, I was struck by how similar the rally and Women’s March were to events I witnessed in Paris nearly 49 years … Continue reading →

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Music Stirs Public Movements and Special Private Moments

Posted on September 23, 2016 by elisefrancesmiller

Does music play the same role as the visual arts or literature in inspiring social or political action? Listen to “Do You Hear The People Sing” from Les Miserables [press “Skip Ad”!]. We can barely hear the lyrics, but as … Continue reading →

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Art can change minds, inspire action

Posted on August 5, 2016 by elisefrancesmiller

During a discussion at the World Fellowship Center, the family camp devoted to social justice, environment, and peace which I attended last month, I heard one decades-long camper complain that she felt the program had become “lightweight.” “We used to … Continue reading →

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How Summer Camp and Social Justice Have Changed!

Posted on July 22, 2016 by elisefrancesmiller

When my daughter Amy suggested a “socialist summer camp” in the White Mountains of New Hampshire for our getaway together, my heart began to race. Would they pontificate around the campfire? Would they be advocating world revolution over the Mac … Continue reading →

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Transitions

Posted on July 13, 2016 by elisefrancesmiller

Welcome to my new combined website and blog! For years these two have lived at two separate addresses, and the two dwellings felt disconcertingly like the workplace and “home.” Now the two are one, the url/address is one, and I … Continue reading →

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Why I keep returning to stories about the 60s – blog hop

Posted on July 21, 2014 by elisefrancesmiller

Carole Bumpus caught me when we met at the Belmont post office to sort out CWC SF-Peninsula branch membership renewals, due beginning this month. We have enjoyed working together these past two years as membership chair (me) and treasurer (lucky … Continue reading →

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Lyrics jammed in my throat…

Posted on September 30, 2013 by elisefrancesmiller

How I loved the 1964 Bob Dylan song The Times They Are A’Changin’ when I was at Cal Berkeley. I knew every line by heart, sang them triumphantly with my friends, intoned them under my breath, marching in time to … Continue reading →

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Organization Predicts Outcome – Paris, 1968 compared to OWS, 2011-2012

Posted on July 6, 2012 by elisefrancesmiller

Does it make any difference if a populist movement is planned or rises spontaneously? What do the origins and structure of the Occupy Movement tell us about its potential for success – when compared to the 1968 May Revolution in … Continue reading →

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Is Occupy’s Horizontal Leadership Like Laying Down on the Job?

Posted on June 29, 2012 by elisefrancesmiller

The concept of horizontal, non-hierarchical leadership, cherished by the Occupy Movement, was an ideal much less fulfilled during the 1968 May Revolution* in France.  We’ve traveled from the plugged in speakers of the 1960s to the human mic, OWS 2011, … Continue reading →

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Spreading Pain or Catharsis? Perils of Turning My Own Era into Fiction

Posted on June 22, 2012 by elisefrancesmiller

Given the exhilaration of the past week, it is easy to forget certain painful realities. Readers of my historical novel, A Time to Cast Away Stones, set in Berkeley and Paris in 1968, might be forced to relive sorrows and … Continue reading →

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