In the movements occurring across the world we are seeing many different characters of struggle from nationalist struggles, to national liberation, to struggles for electoralism, to struggles for socialism. Amidst all of this, and especially here within the United States, we are seeing a trajectory of so-called "Socialists" or "Communists" and "Leftists" who are taking on the driver's seats in some movements, aiming for a general idea at change. The issue with the notion of change commonly assumed among many new or inexperienced organizations and groups is that change can be something as simple as a new candidate, a new bill passed, a new law put in place - but that ALL of this can be taken away, ignored, or reacted upon by those in power with violence and aggression.
We need not look far into our own nation's history to see the brutal repression, violence, and suffering that has continued, and in viewing this, we must understand that this vague notion of "change" has gotten the masses of Turtle Island nowhere in almost 300 years. Where this failure to understand the concrete reality in front of us stems from is twofold: firstly, an indoctrination by the Ruling Class into a certain type of knowledge, study, and ideas that limits our capacity to apply them to the real world, or, see their interconnectivity, and instead view things as Racism, Sexism, Class, Police Violence, etc. as separate issues, which are in fact, subsequent symptoms of the same issue. Secondly, one our own, we take on a passive acceptance or encouragement of this sort of thinking, practice, and action. We do not study history, revolutions, or even politics. We ignore political education, we ignore the struggles of the most oppressed for some random ideologue or small one-off event which we have more interest in, rather than studying the history of revolutions and applying their lessons here today. This has been going on for generations, leading to a divided, disorganized, and ultimately insanely unsuccessful set of movements in the United States. Why do you think almost every other country in the world has had SOME sort of revolution, and all the US has had (minus the revolutions and rebellions of the Indigenous and African peoples) is a counterrevolution of slave-owning white bourgeois who segregated all democratic and even human rights to themselves, and to the Europeans, for over 200 years? We still have a constitution from 1776! We have no revolutionary history here EXCEPT FOR THAT OF THE OPPRESSED BLACK, BROWN, INDIGENOUS AND OTHER COMMUNITIES!
Another reason why we hesitate and fail time and time again might be added here, it is fear.
Many among the "Left", generally speaking, have been fearful to take the actions necessary to truly fight for liberation due to the consequences that have faced those like Paul Robeson, Nat Turner, Fred Hampton, Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier, AIM, the Young Lords and Brown Berets, or many others whose names we may never know or hear spoken aloud for fear of joining them among the nameless and unheard from.
But this cannot be how we organize for a revolution, this cannot be how we organize for freedom!
We must understand the consequences of this hesitancy, this collaboration, this opportunism, and this waiting by looking at the crushing blows this has dealt to the movements in the Black, Brown and Indigenous communities that we have left behind. It must be visible by seeing the number of increasing homelessness, poverty, and migration. And it certainly must be visible in the indifference that most people feel, or worse, the spite and disdain they feel towards others, especially organizers, Socialists or Communists, who might want to lend a helping hand, because of what they or others have experienced, or, because of the myths spread about these ideologies and people.
We ignore the homeless, we ignore the addicts, we ignore the uneducated and illiterate, we ignore the migrants, we ignore the communities we do not come from! Often on a vague notion that we can't organize in spaces and places we don't come from - but this stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of organizing: One does not organize others, one organizes with others!
We do not all need to be perfect, in fact, none of us will be. But we need to put down our childish disagreements, our failed tactics and strategies, and our fear to be arrested, or harassed, or lose our jobs. This is the fate of the organizer. Che Guevara was killed. Fred Hampton was killed. Huey P. Newton was killed. Little Bobby Hutton was killed. Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu Jamal, Ruchel Macgee, and many others have spent 30, 40, 50 or 60 years behind bars. And what have they been doing this whole time? Fighting. Struggling. And organizing - with no fear.
If we are fearful to die fighting for the liberation of the people, or to be imprisoned for doing so, I can understand that since many of us don't come from backgrounds where that is as common as it is among the Black, Brown or Indigenous communities- but at the same time, how do you expect to gain respect, be able to successfully organize with people, or even have a conscious understanding of what is happening in front of you? If you stop, halfway, at the things that make you uncomfortable or which don't fit into your idea of what "organizing" is, how do you expect to learn, grow, or "change" even yourselves - or don't you really want to? And especially, how do you stop at the things that are "dangerous"? Where would you draw the line? Is it not all dangerous? Folks get locked up for participating in rallies, like Joshua Williams in Ferguson, 2014; folks get locked up for doing journalism, like Chelsea Manning or Julian Assange, or get killed for it like Shireen Abu Akleh; folks get locked up for seeking abortions, for seeking medical treatment, pain killers, under-the-table employment, and, in some cases like the recent protests of Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign, or folks from the NNoC trying to speak to their elected representative, who were carted off in handcuffs by the Police for simply acting on their civil rights and duties to protest what they find to be undemocratic. But if that is the case, why do we stop there? If we're going to get locked up anyways, why do we have such a fear of it? Repression is not something to fear, it's something to expect, and to prepare for.
But the leadership of the movements from the CPUSA, to the PSL, to the DSA, to the unions like the UPSEU, SEIU, CSEA, and other bought out elected officials, party heads, religious leaders, or so-called "community leaders" who continuously tell people to STOP in their tracks when they are on the path to freedom. We are becoming roadblocks to the movement we said we wanted to be a part of. We are becoming the "bureaucratic leadership" all these Leftists complain about; we are the ones holding the struggle in place, not the police, not the State. These groups repress us everyday, it is no different. What IS different is that the organizations supposedly advocating for a "change" seemingly always stop short of, ignore, or leave out struggles and real change that is necessary, and instead seek what is comfortable, easy, or convenient for them.
We need to struggle by any means necessary, as the leaders of the STOP Cop City Movement, Community Movement Builders, the African People's Socialist Party, and other orgs, groups, and movements are doing, that is, by getting ourselves dirty and going to the people, struggling, fighting, and finding creative ways to do so that don't get us all locked up or killed, but also, don't stop us from doing something because we are unprepared for what is a consistent eventuality in struggle, everywhere. We must fight for all, with all who will fight, not for a vague notion of change, but for the seizure of power by the oppressed massed, for the control and socialist governance by the masses, by overthrowing the settler-colonial regime and given power to those sovereign nations who've been denied so, and giving encouragement and support to those who dare to struggle even against the opportunists within the oppressed communities. We must struggle, so as not to see another day as we've seen today! By any means necessary, we must win!
(Listen I'm not saying pick up a gun, all I'm saying is let's think about this critically, yeah?)
All power to the People!