John Prendergast Quotes

The center of gravity has shifted from the courts to community action.

You may not realize this, but people have the power to change the world.

Causes was founded with the mission of empowering anyone to change the world. Our model is based upon the belief that everyone has the power to have an outsized impact on the world by banding together with other like-minded individuals, taking direct action, and inspiring their friends and their friends' friends to join in.

The 'Arab Spring' is the most spectacular example of the dispersal of power.

Where there is a sufficient social movement of self-reliant communities, there can be political change. There must be political change.

Change happens from the bottom up - all of us as individuals deciding that we will and we do have an impact.

Major social movements eventually fade into the landscape not because they have diminished but because they have become a permanent part of our perceptions and experience.

Change never comes from the White House. It comes from your house and my house.

The way to change the world is through individual responsibility and taking local action in your own community.

We can't sit around waiting for big government, big business, big religion etc. to save us. We need to get informed and take inspired action.

The only continent where social movements have led to political parties that have pushed through serious social and political reforms is in South America.

I recall coming across a line by the late Charles Tilly when he said, "The conditions for the possibility of social movements have been called into question in the twenty-first century." And I said to myself, my god, a society in history without social movements, for me, is very difficult to live in.

Where progress has been made, wherever any kind of injustice has been overturned, it’s been because people acted as citizens, and not as politicians. They didn’t just moan. They worked, they acted, they organized, they rioted if necessary to bring their situation to the attention of people in power. And that’s what we have to do today.

The really critical thing isn't who's sitting in he White House, but who is sitting in the streets, in the cafeterias, in the halls of government, in the factories. Who is protesting, who is occupying offices and demonstrating ? - those are the things that determine what happens.

There is a power that can be created out of pent-up indignation, courage, and the inspiration of a common cause, and that if enough people put their minds and bodies into that cause, they can win. It is a phenomenon recorded again and against in the history of popular movements against injustice all over the world.

We must remember, elections are short-term efforts. Revolutions are long-term projects.

My presence is to instigate and incite the people for any change they want, and for not having a change that they don't wish to do.

No matter how many shows or how much work we do, we are not going to make a difference. It's only the masses that will make a difference.

My personal belief in doing Brand New Congress is that the movement needs something to focus on that's constructive.

I hope to make clear that involvement in small scale community work can make a difference in our city's politics.

It's the individual effort of everybody working together towards a collective goal that causes real, effective change in America and in the world.

It's not in the mainstream media, but across towns, it is amazing how there are small groups of people getting together and forming artistic collectives - they may not be being overtly political, but I'd say by channelling their energy into community projects, that's a valid political statement.

We won't stop protesting. It's the engine that moves society forward.

When I started working in human rights, Eastern Europe was communist, South Africa was under apartheid and South Korea had military rule. All the changes have come about not because of the militaries or government but because small groups of people spoke out against what was unfair and unjust.

It's important to think about the bigger picture, especially if we are given these platforms. We can make a difference.