A revolution with the main goal of separatism is a good path to real political power. The United States is not like most countries it's an empire. The Soviet Union, Roman empire, Yugoslavia and the French, Spanish and British colonial empires were broken up by separatist movements. Some of those movements were peaceful. We live on conquered land. American leftists have spent over a hundred years trying to persuade moderates and conservatives to join them in a revolution, it hasn't worked and to keep doing it would be futile. Trying to reform or radically change the entire U.S. to leftist standards is probably impossible. There are too many people who want to be in a conservative capitalist society with the current government in power, to try to deny them of that wouldn't work. They can't be convinced that's why we need separatism which is a tried and true way of putting a halt to militaristic empires and bringing major political change. Just read your history books. When other people around the country see that this project is successful they may be tempted to do it also. After a while entire states may want to secede, such as California because of its present difficulties and other areas of mostly liberal persuasion. The progressive movements in this country need to stop focusing on specific issues one at a time and start taking on these issues together, that is what separatism can do. Things like prisons and the capitalist system can only be done away with by revolutionary change and that is where separatism comes into the picture. When separatism gains ground in one area it's easy for it to spread. In March 1990, Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union, over a period of about 21 months other Soviet republics followed and the U.S.S.R. was dissolved in December 1991. This is not a very hard thing to do, many times in history a smaller region has seceded from a larger country and been successful.

Strategy: At first an intentional community would have to be formed. The people already living in the area shouldn't be interfered with. One of the first steps would be to start buying plots of land that are close together. Everything should be done legally. An invitation to all people of left wing political persuasion should go out regardless of ideology, this includes anarchists, communists and socialists. When thousands of people, maybe 50,000 people, are part of the intentional community they should declare their independence from the U.S. This does not mean trying to force out some police presence it has to be peaceful process. There should be some basic rules inside the intentional community, such as no drugs, no stockpiling of weapons and residents should avoid confrontation with the police and the military. Residents should also pay taxes to the U.S. government to avoid problems. When a community is near total self sufficiency the few taxes they might have to pay would be property taxes. After the separatist movement really gets going nationwide the government might tell residents they don't have to pay taxes any longer. Declaring independence and claiming independence are free speech rights in and of themselves. Why the northern border? It's too dry to grow anything sufficient in the southwest. If international aid is needed it's a good idea to be close to the Canadian border. There are other locations the intentional community could be also.