Now we fight for the future

It's time to become a radical

Photo by Carson Daniel on Unsplash

Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States. Republicans will control the Senate. The House of Representatives is still technically a toss-up, but it doesn’t look good for the Democrats. There’s no denying that dark days lie ahead. But despair is our collective enemy, and the only way out of this is through. I will not offer much in the way of hope today, exactly. Instead I want to talk to you for a moment about necessity. 

There will now be a prolonged cycle of blame, but I’m not particularly interested in that discussion. Most of that discourse will take place in an immensely narrow box, its scope limited to what the Harris campaign did wrong or why this group of voters or that group of voters shifted the election. And it’s not that these discussions will be “wrong,” but that if we don’t go beyond their limitations we’ll find ourselves back in this moment of despair again and again.

What’s clear is that a whole lot of people think the country is headed in the wrong direction, and that incumbents felt the brunt of that sentiment. That’s a trend we see repeated across time, a result of incumbents (and the Harris campaign specifically) failing to differentiate themselves from the status quo in their campaigns, and the inevitable result of the current American political system that is incapable of producing meaningful change. And that inability to produce change to meet the scale of the problem points directly to the fundamental flaws of politics in the United States.

Namely, as you know, both parties are largely controlled by their donors, who have a strong, vested interest in nothing fundamentally changing (other than some backwards regression). If we fail to grapple with that we’ll find ourselves incapable of seeing reality for what it is. The remaining Koch brother shattered records and spent over $150 million himself on this election. Elon Musk spent almost as much. Billionaires and their families collectively spent over $2 billion this election cycle. So while the blame will be heaped on campaign strategy and voting blocs, the mainstream discussion will rarely, if ever, reach the structural problems at play here.

It’s up to us to bring the systemic nature of the problem into focus, first in our own understanding, then in conversations, and ultimately in our organizing. We have to avoid getting caught up in blaming one group or another and see that the global rightward shift in recent years is connected to the vast inequality that has been facilitated by capitalism and neoliberalism. Since Reaganomics there has been a vast and unchecked redistribution of wealth, both from the 99% to the 1% and from the global south to the global north. Neo-colonialism has flourished and the super-rich have reaped the rewards. Now they’re using those rewards to roll back democratic norms in their own countries, scapegoat the vulnerable, and further consolidate power.

And their theoretical opposition has failed. Under neoliberalism liberal parties have moved right, as evidenced by their positions on immigration most starkly but also by their economic stances and their embrace of the center-right. In short, they have succumbed to money and have failed to provide a compelling alternative to the rise of the far-right because they’re unwilling to embrace policies that would meaningfully help people, and often unwilling to even speak about policies in a compelling way lest they start to sound like populists. Here in the U.S. the Democrats have offered, and sometimes implemented, better economic policy than the Republicans. But when it comes it’s been almost entirely baby steps, and devoid of the energy of populism in a time when people both want and need radical change and are being drawn in by the populist ethos of Trumpism.

We need a real alternative. We need to build a powerful and compelling alternative to fascism, and that alternative needs to be built by the people. In order to have a livable future we can’t just flip-flop between conservative centrism and all-out fascism as people continually vote for whoever the challenger is. One of the shifts required of us, right now, is seeing that elections are really but one piece of doing politics. The reality is that politics is happening to us every day, and we need to act like it. That means getting organized in sufficient numbers and with sufficient capacity so that we can push back and shape our country and our lives every day through our unions, radical organizations, tenant coalitions and more.

And our organizing must be radical. By that I mean we must get down to the root of the problem and have our understanding of capitalism and white supremacy inform our push towards comprehensive systemic change rather than just minor adjustments around the edges. Socialism is the way to defeat fascism in the long term because it offers a real alternative that can meet our economic needs rather than trying to placate people who hoard hundreds of billions of dollars while also offering a few concessions here and there to the working class.

Photo by Sophie Keen on Unsplash

We shouldn’t ignore elections, but we can de-center them. We can know that they're just one piece of the puzzle. Voting has taken a disproportionate place in the collective understanding of politics, largely because of the absence of other forms of engagement. It has filled a vacuum. Union density peaked in 1954 at almost 35%, and it is now about 10%. Community associations that used to proliferate have often disappeared. Block associations and tenant unions and community defense organizations must return and multiply. Communal spaces where you can spend time and connect with neighbors without spending money must be constructed. Networks of care and mutual aid groups must flourish. All of these forums are ways for us to connect with one another and do the radical politics we need, and not simply wait until the next election comes around. As Grace Lee Boggs said, “Movements are born of critical connections rather than critical mass.”

Grace and her husband Jimmy were radical and brilliant organizers and thinkers in Detroit. In 2011, not long before she passed, Grace wrote The Next American Revolution. It’s just as important now as it was then, and the whole book is well worth your time. Today, as you might be feeling despair or panic, here are a few of her words: “Every crisis, actual or impending, needs to be viewed as an opportunity to bring about profound changes in our society. Going beyond protest organizing, visionary organizing begins by creating images and stories of the future that help us imagine and create alternatives to the existing system.” And she’s right. Protest is not enough. We need visionary organizing, both in that we must tell a different story and in that we must deliberately build organizations that work to transform society.

The story we have to tell is both about solidarity and our enemies. As Assata Shakur said, “Any community seriously concerned with its own freedom has to be concerned about other peoples' freedom as well.” And that must be the first part of our story. Decades of neoliberalism and centuries of hyper-individualism have left us largely devoid of solidarity. People too often can’t see that sweatshops overseas empower the ruling class to oppress us here at home too. Our freedom is very literally and tangible tied up with people we will never meet in countries we will never visit. Knowing that, and changing the narrative about how we matter to each other, must inform our organizing.

And, at the same time, we must be clear about our enemies. As Democrats label Republicans the enemy, and Republicans label Democrats, migrants, queer people, journaists and so on the enemy; nobody is pointing at the ruling class. The super-rich, and the systems that create them, must be identified. People must know who we are struggling against and who is truly responsible for their condition, just as we must know who we are fighting alongside. We are many, and the ruling class are few. Their systems are powerful, but part of their power lies in their obscurity. So we must bring them into the light in order to fight against capitalism and imperialism and white supremacy and all systems of oppression.

Now is not the time for despair, it’s the time to jump into this fight. It’s the time to get radical and work and organize with a transformative vision guiding us. Anything less will not beat back fascism, the climate crisis, and the oligarchs of capitalism. We must inspire people with the picture we paint, and then bring them with us on the path towards that future. The failures of Trumpism will rear their heads quickly, and people will want answers. Only the left has real solutions, and those solutions are only accessible when we come together. They will come through unions and mass social movements and through organizing with our neighbors and co-workers and the broad, multi-racial working class. They will be through being bold and militant and creative and dedicated. Find your people, talk to your circle, find out where you can best build a different trajectory for this world. And then, get to work.