Tag: socialist

Oct 17 2010

Nonviolence does not equal complacency

Originally posted at PoliZeros.

I went to a protest in Philadelphia this past Saturday, and it was more disheartening than anything else.  It was against the wars and various other injustices, with a special focus on he recent FBI raids of peace activists and Pennsylvania Homeland Security spying on innocent civilians and activists.

By the end of it, I kind of just felt like going up to the megaphone and asking, “How much moral outrage can one person muster?  There are more people handing out fliers here than not, and with this country committing so many disgusting, outrageous acts, I don’t blame you.”  I won’t lie, I handed a few out myself.  Yet the contrast between the righteous causes featured in the speeches and on the signs and on the fliers and the, as a fellow protester said to me, “complete lack of solidarity” was striking.

Sep 19 2010

So you want to move Democrats to the left? Stop voting for them.

There comes a time when it is necessary to re-evaluate failed strategies.  Insulting the left by calling us “Naderites” if we fail to show up to vote for a right-wing candidate to replace the late Ted Kennedy didn’t cause swarms of invigorated Democrats to vote Martha Coakley into office.  Insulting us as “poorly informed” about things we already knew doesn’t work, nor does self-congratulatory back-patting.  And frankly, up and joining with the very gatekeepers we’re supposed to be fighting isn’t going to cut it either.

It’s long past time for the left to publicly acknowledge that tying its meager fortunes to the Democrats is a lost cause.  You cannot fight a beast from within its belly.  You can only be digested and shat out.

You may not like the suggestion I’m about to make.

But I’ll make it anyway: Vote third party, a LEFT-wing third party.  MAKE the Democrats’ self-inflicted losses in November be because they were too right-wing and the public, having been lied to for too long, chose to leave for a party that represents its interests over those of Big Business.

You must do this not only to send the right message, but because it is the ONLY way any Democrat will be made to realize just why he or she lost and what the party needs to do to win and keep power.  That’s not going to happen by sitting out elections, which is what the powerful want us to do anyway and only allows the far right to keep shaping the narrative that Democrats lose because they’re perceived as being too liberal.

Mar 31 2010

Have you read A People’s History of the United States?

I’ve been reading A People’s History of the United States over the past year or so, in between everything else I’ve been reading.  Since it’s spring break for me, I’ve been getting through a lot of it, and there’s definitely a reason it’s so popular.  It’s one of those books that can seriously change the way you think.  Just read this excerpt (yeah, it’s long – go check out the book from a library if you don’t want to read it online!) to see what I mean.  This passage affected me a lot.

http://www.historyisaweapon.co…

I’d also suggest reading more about the Wobblies (IWW) if you’re interested.  Very interesting organization, and Zinn writes a lot about them in this book.