This happened about 25 years ago. In a late-night conversation with some organizers from the Mid-West, I was asked to describe my "organizer's fantasy". I was still drinking back then and the combination of beer and wee hours can nurture adventures in speculation.

I answered that I'd want a huge mass movement made up of people with diverse skills and backgrounds and I'd want to be an integral part of it -- not just something I would join after it was developed or something I would "intervene" into or work to support. Not the usual organizer's scenario. This would be a movement in a community of which I was an integral part day to day and that suddenly spawned this amazing movement.

I remember calling it an organizer's dream. I think that describes the Internet. And in this last of a three blog series I want to explain what I mean.

In my Puerto Rican Socialist Party days I had a mentor who would say: "Revolutions aren't made; they're organized." That resonates even today. Activists don't often create struggles; we usually join them to contribute what we can and to help people organize them. And there is no more fulfilling experience except during those very rare moments when the struggle erupts within our communities and spawns a movement of which we are already an integral part -- respected, authoritative, numerous and potentially powerful.

That's a situation overflowing with potential. And, for social justice activists, that's the Internet.

Movements rotate around issues and the Internet, the largest social movement in human history, is a movement around one of humanity's most pressing issues: alienation, one of the primary obstacles to all social change.

Not only is alienation one of the central gears in the machine of our oppression -- it makes successful unity more difficult and lack of unity breeds continued oppression but it is, in and of itself, a painful, relentless and harrowing oppression. So the struggle against it is among our most important struggles.

Part of the problem is that, while we're busy struggling around so many issues, we don't realize we're struggling against alienation. It's so pervasive and discreet as an oppression that it's tough to notice it. That means we don't easily realize that we're constantly struggling against it.

But all attempts at effective communication, mutual support, shared constructive thinking, and decent, contributive relationships are effectively struggles against alienation and our movements practice these things every day in our work and in the interaction with other activists. In fact, much of the human race engages in that struggle all the time.

This daily, heroic struggle - the relentless pushing against the closet door - is now massified and empowered by the Internet.

Of course, it's no big thing to convince social justice activists that the Internet is important. It has become one of our most powerful tools in organizing and mobilizing. We make up a large portion of the Internet and we use the technology to work on many issues and many campaigns. We are among its leaders.

But that vision, while a great step forward, doesn't come close to capturing the Internet's reality and potential. Not only does the Internet enhance our political work but, it is, in and of itself, political work. The communication of progressive thinking on the Internet is no different than offering progressive ideas in a union meeting or a conference on the environment. Offering and developing technology is no different than building a demonstration or organizing an action.

In those cases, we are part of a larger movement around an issue that involves people of many political perspectives. We work in that movement, contributing to its struggles while logically injecting our own opinions and aspirations into its growing discourse.

And that's exactly what you're doing on the Internet the moment you log on. It's what you're doing now reading this blog and it's what I did while I was writing it. You log on and combat alienation through the mere act of communicating, you enhance the struggle against alienation by enhancing your use (and that of others) of the Internet's technology and you take leadership by advancing your ideas about it -- and the world.

Once we see the Internet as a mass movement, the Internet issues and developments we all know about start to look different and the challenges we face become a bit clearer. I think there are four major challenges facing social activists within the Internet.

1 - Protection. The protection of the Internet as a technology and as a movement is a priority. The key here is that the attacks on the Internet aren't primarily attacks on the technology; they're attacks on the Internet itself. Seen this way, anti-spam "protection" and the issues related to Net Neutrality aren't subjects for the often techno-babble laden, confusing and mis-directing debate among "technology experts", they are threats to the very essence of human interaction and the essence of the Internet: the ability to communicate.

Puts that issue in a somewhat different light and with somewhat greater urgency, I'd say.

2 - Inclusion. The Internet is led and controlled by white men. Most of its leadership, including its developers, are male and the additional fact that women are clearly and shamefully discouraged from participating (as the unbelievable treatment of women on tech forums, etc. demonstrates) is a major issue within this movement.

From personal experience, I can tell you volumes about the way people of color are treated by Internet's leadership and the racism, sometimes subtle and sometimes quite overt, that one faces every day when one works in the Internet.

No movement can succeed with this kind of leadership and social justice and progressive activists must take leadership in challenging it. This is especially true because our movements, particularly the social justice movement, reflect an impressive level of leadership by women, including women of color. It's the most diverse progressive movement leadership I've seen in my 40 years as an activist.

So, we've done it inside our movement, we can do it inside this larger movement.

3 - Technology expansion. Several of the most important technological enhancements, particularly tools used on the Internet, have come from progressive activists and movements. And we're involved in the development of many more. But we do this without the conscious support of the movements we belong to. It's almost a "side-job" for us and that makes this work more difficult to do and more limited in what we end up doing.

If progressive activists could actually enter the discussions about Internet expansion -- about what's being built and programmed and what is needed -- in a more organized and directed way, not only would we have better tools that better address our organizing and communications needs, but we'd help protect the Internet and make it more inclusive. It's a movement, after all, so the more you participate in discussions about its future, the more influence your ideas have about its present.

Of course, doing these first three things requires a fourth ingredient.

4 - Unity. A unified progressive presence within the Internet -- coordinating work, discussing ideas and supporting each other -- would redefine people's vision of the Internet and redirect this incredibly powerful movement.

The time for all this is now. People who don't want to change the world for the better or don't care are doing things that could damage, limit and possibly destroy this movement. Our intervention would save and expand it.

And not's so hard. In fact, it's merely a question of being natural, sitting in a circle and thinking about what we can do with that stick.