Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous poem, “Mask of Anarchy,” gave us the name for this site. The poem is a powerful call to action for the oppressed and exploited of the world to organize together against tyranny and injustice, which we feel well expresses our own motivation for collecting the resources in this site:
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number –
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you –
Ye are many – they are few.
There are so many voices and so many struggles scattered across the planet (and the internet). We are attempting to gather these voices “in unvanquishable number” into a site that can offer a platform and, we hope, inspiration for action. The obstacles activists face today, like those faced by workers and the oppressed in Shelley’s day, are great. But our numbers are greater, and with solidarity and unity we can hope to begin to make changes in the systems we oppose.
WeAreMany.org cannot be exhaustive, and that is not our intent. We are simply trying to offer a small sampling of the best radical audio and video sources we know of. We know that the internet provides vast opportunities to share information and ideas, but we do not believe that this can replace the real actions of real people. We encourage our visitors, friends, fellow-travelers, and comrades to take inspiration from the people included here into their own struggles for justice.
The idea for the website first came from the annual Socialism conferences, packed with so many speakers and discussions and debates and our desire to share these discussions with others on a single platform. We had collected hundreds of talks and meetings over the years, but had never shared them in a coherent way. We hope you find this effort useful.
The creation of WeAreMany.org would not have been possible without the support and vision of Randall and Janet Wallace from Wallace Global Fund. We are very grateful for their help in making this a reality.