An illuminating interview with Sam Smith, a tremendous alternative journalist whose work, in his Progressive Review and elsewhere, has been a frequent source of inspiration and appeared several times on this site: You learn to build your coalitions one issue at time and they may not all look the same. I got started in activist politics in part by being involved in a local anti-freeway movement. We kept Washington DC from looking like LA. The day I knew we were going to win was when I went to a rally and the two main speakers were Grovesnor Chapman from the all white Georgetown Citizens association and Reginald Booker, head of a group called Niggers Incorporated. Part of the secret of politics is to put people together whom the establishment wants to have fighting with each other... Martin Luther King used to tell his aides to keep in mind that if they were successful, the people they were opposing would become their friends. I think progressives need to keep this in mind when dealing with people whose values seem alien. My rule of thumb is go after the people at the top rather than to blame their followers. Because with any luck, some day the latter could be on your side. If you don't think this is possible, then it's probably best to give up on politics. Once, on a talk show in Michigan Militia country, a caller began, "You know, this fella is right. We've got to stop worrying about all those homosexuals and feminists and start worrying about what the corporations are doing to us." I thought, well there's 20 minutes well spent.