Cyril Ramaphosa Quotes

Obama better understood community organisation and peer-to-peer communication than any recent candidate, and we are applying that lesson.

So few people vote these days, and I think it's partly because they don't feel like the institution really means anything to them. If you want them to vote, give them opportunities to do something else other than vote, to help.

We've got to figure out a way to cause communities to also want them, the political, organized bodies.

In the Indian community there was always a problem. People could not approach the politicians the right way. They’re not confident.

If our society is to address social issues, it will be done at the local level or not at all.

Democracy, in any active sense, begins and ends in communities small enough for their members to meet face to face.

To enable consensus politics to develop we need to empower people where they live. This means devolving financial resources and political power down to the community level. One of the greatest blocks to movement is fear. This fear can only be removed when people feel their voices are being heard by government and when they have a say in their own lives and communities.

The biggest hurdle that our communities have is cynicism - saying it's a done deal, who cares; there's no point to voting. If we can get somebody to care, it's a huge victory for the movement and the causes we're trying to advance.

The people who care the most about the folks in your community are living in the community. They don't live in Washington, D.C.

The reason that I started the Black Futures Lab is because I have some clarity about what I think needs to happen in relationship to electoral organizing. It's not a destination. It is a set of tools that we use to engage people that we care about, en masse, around issues that are important to us.

It is an incredibly hopeful experience watching communities come together and actually reassemble democracy. The democracy's been taken away from us. But they're reinventing democracy out there in rural Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, in Pittsburgh.

People are even more wary of politicians and they are realizing that democracy isn't just about putting a cross on a ballot every four years, it's about deciding what you want and fighting for it.

I think what's fascinating is how many people are playing in politics who maybe haven't played before.

The only way you do anything is to become really active. And the most effective way to get your message to your elected representatives is to make campaign contributions and develop relationships with them.

Growing up, politics never trickled down to the areas we come from. But people from Obama's camp, and Obama himself, reached out to me and asked for my help on the campaign. We've sat and had dinner, and we've spoken on the phone. He's a very sharp guy. Very charming. Very cool.

There are many ways of encouraging people to make life better other than joining a political party. Politics with a small 'p' isn't just about darkened committee rooms, endless meetings - it is about giving people the right to make decisions about our lives.

Can I actually make a difference? Can I get people to believe in politics once again? Can I get people to accept more complex answers to complex questions? I know I can. I know that's what I do very well.

I hope that young people will also look to politics as a vehicle to not only have their voices heard, but actually to be the change makers that they want to see. They are disaffected, understandably, but I hope that young people will not only turn out to vote but also run for office.

In order to justify the sympathy and trust extended to me by people of all classes, even to the furthest corners of the world of Islam, I intend to form a People’s Party…after the establishment of peace, in order to devote my life to the good of my country as a humble individual.

Programs have to be developed by the people in the community.

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

One of the more important things the Bernie Sanders campaign did is reach people who are political but not electorally political. They're political in either non-profits or community groups, but didn't see how important it was to get involved in electoral politics.

The leaders come up from the volunteers that do the work, and it's amazing because then they do these incredible things in their community that they never thought they had the power to make that happen.

I met a person on my rural tour in northwest Wisconsin who said to me, 'I feel politically homeless.' And we need to re-engage that person.

You can't assume anything in politics. That's why every Saturday I walk around my district. I talk to the longshoremen in Charlestown. I listen to the people in East Boston and their concern on the airport noise. I walk down to the Star Market in Porter Square, and people tell me about meat prices.