Actions on their own can't change much, no matter how cool or amazing they might be. But movements almost always succeed — so as part of a movement, actions succeed as well. It's that simple.

The Zapatistas, feeling their way into poetic rebellion against NAFTA, wholeheartedly gave their communities over to a different world, ultimately inspiring the Seattle activists in shutting down the World Trade Organization, which was NAFTA writ large.

Seattle in turn inspired many thousands more activists, who encircled meeting after meeting of the world's most powerful for several years — rising up again as Occupy Wall Street, freshly inspired by rebels in Tunisia and Egypt.

OWS, in turn, gave its heart to the Bernie Sanders campaign, which came not so far from taking the Presidency, twice, and is the reason there was ever anything even slightly progressive about Biden's plans (and there was, for a while, until there wasn't).

So many actions — and in a way, one single movement.