Everybody Knows

Trying to decide which of the late Leonard Cohen song titles I should use to title this week’s blog. I used “Democracy is Coming the USA” when Bernie was surging, and it wouldn’t be accurate now, except maybe long term. “You Want it Darker” would certainly apply. I’ll go with “Everybody Knows.”

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Even though we knew, it was a shock. I’d been predicting it all summer and into the fall, but I bought the MSM line that it was a slam dunk for her. I supported her because in my relatively informed judgement, her presidency would be less restrictive of the essential mass organizing that we need to do to turn the country around and preserve the planet. The struggle is so much bigger than one presidential election.

There’s plenty of blame to go around for why this tragic travesty happened. Like voting, who we blame is a strategic question. I blame the Democratic Leadership Council, formed to elect Bill Clinton, for moving the Democratic Party to the right, clearly a losing strategy. We should let no one near them (Dean) take over the DNC. I blame Bernie for not deciding four years ago to join the Democratic Party, install his own folks on the DNC, and for not going after the Southern Black vote soon enough. I blame the Greens for wasting energy for their pitiful 1%. I blame the entire left – those who support Bernie’s vision – for not uniting in a common strategy. Loyalty to leadership is important, even if we disagree. Why did so many abandon Bernie after he got us so far? I blame the media for slavishly covering Trump while ignoring Bernie. I blame the Clinton campaign for pivoting toward the right, ignoring the left in order to reach out to the Bush Republicans, of which they should have known, there were none outside the Bush family. I blame myself for not working hard enough for Bernie (though I did work hard). And I blame all of us white people for insufficiently challenging white supremacy over the years.

Bottom line, it was white supremacy that elected Trump. Even to the point that the Electoral College is a remnant of the states’ rights movement in support of slavery and Jim Crow. And a vote for Trump was a vote for racism and sexism, no matter how you slice it. People who voted for him for other reasons, like the trade deals or because they’re mad, ignoring the blatant racism and sexism -- sorry, but that is a racist and sexist position.

But all white people carry around a malignant tumor of racism. We need to own this fact, that if we were as against racism as we like to think we are, white supremacy would have ended a long time ago. By not focusing our efforts toward defeating it, we allow it to flourish.

A good start would be to fully support the Indigenous struggle against the North Dakota Pipeline. Another good move would be to study the demands of the Movement for Black lives and organize people of all races to support them:

Yet another unifying campaign would be to support National Popular Vote bills in all the states that haven’t passed one, bills that require Electors to vote for the person who wins the national popular vote. 11 states have already passed such bills, worth 165 electoral votes, 61% of the requisite 270.

Whatever we do, let’s end the blame game and focus on building a unified progressive movement. A nationwide summit next summer would be good.

Everybody Knows

Trying to decide which of the late Leonard Cohen song titles I should use to title this week’s blog. I used “Democracy is Coming the USA” when Bernie was surging, and it wouldn’t be accurate now, except maybe long term. “You Want it Darker” would certainly apply. I’ll go with “Everybody Knows.”

Even though we knew, it was a shock. I’d been predicting it all summer and into the fall, but I bought the MSM line that it was a slam dunk for her. I supported her because in my relatively informed judgement, her presidency would be less restrictive of the essential mass organizing that we need to do to turn the country around and preserve the planet. The struggle is so much bigger than one presidential election.

There’s plenty of blame to go around for why this tragic travesty happened. Like voting, who we blame is a strategic question. I blame the Democratic Leadership Council, formed to elect Bill Clinton, for moving the Democratic Party to the right, clearly a losing strategy. We should let no one near them (Dean) take over the DNC. I blame Bernie for not deciding four years ago to join the Democratic Party, install his own folks on the DNC, and for not going after the Southern Black vote soon enough. I blame the Greens for wasting energy for their pitiful 1%. I blame the entire left – those who support Bernie’s vision – for not uniting in a common strategy. Loyalty to leadership is important, even if we disagree. Why did so many abandon Bernie after he got us so far? I blame the media for slavishly covering Trump while ignoring Bernie. I blame the Clinton campaign for pivoting toward the right, ignoring the left in order to reach out to the Bush Republicans, of which they should have known, there were none outside the Bush family. I blame myself for not working hard enough for Bernie (though I did work hard). And I blame all of us white people for insufficiently challenging white supremacy over the years.

Bottom line, it was white supremacy that elected Trump. Even to the point that the Electoral College is a remnant of the states’ rights movement in support of slavery and Jim Crow. And a vote for Trump was a vote for racism and sexism, no matter how you slice it. People who voted for him for other reasons, like the trade deals or because they’re mad, ignoring the blatant racism and sexism -- sorry, but that is a racist and sexist position.

But all white people carry around a malignant tumor of racism. We need to own this fact, that if we were as against racism as we like to think we are, white supremacy would have ended a long time ago. By not focusing our efforts toward defeating it, we allow it to flourish.

A good start would be to fully support the Indigenous struggle against the North Dakota Pipeline. Another good move would be to study the demands of the Movement for Black lives and organize people of all races to support them:

Yet another unifying campaign would be to support National Popular Vote bills in all the states that haven’t passed one, bills that require Electors to vote for the person who wins the national popular vote. 11 states have already passed such bills, worth 165 electoral votes, 61% of the requisite 270.

Whatever we do, let’s end the blame game and focus on building a unified progressive movement. A nationwide summit next summer would be good.

Day of the Dead

I am currently in Mexico, where I now live about a third of the time. It is Day of the Dead weekend, and I will be dressing up as Catrina, the well-dressed skeleton, a tradition that dates back to a revolutionary cartoonist, Jose Guadalupe Posada. His depictions were largely satirical of the bourgeoisie, dressed in finery but dead inside.

People gather at the cemeteries on the actual Day of the Dead, which is November 1. In the town where I live, San Miguel de Allende, the main cemetery is divided into a Mexican section and an American section – the town for some years has attracted a sizable ex-pat community.

The Mexican section is elaborate, chaotic, full of angelic monuments, flowers left by loved ones, often in coffee cans or plastic soda bottles, full of life and beautiful. The American section is clean, pristine, identical headstones arrayed in rows like a third grade classroom. Sterile. Full of death. These two cemeteries arn not just a metaphor for the cultural differences between the two societies – this is the cultural difference itself. Order vs. chaos, efficiency vs. art, death vs. life.

This is one reason why I wish that Trump’s accusation of Hillary that she favored open borders were actually true. The elimination of all borders between countries would go a long way toward equalizing our societies, revitalizing all our cultures, and fostering global solidarity. If you haven’t already done so, please sign the petition for Global Solidarity Day.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN

Global Solidarity Day

It can’t be that hard to have the world the way 99% of the people want it, peaceful, healthy, and fair. Maybe we’re overthinking this. Maybe we’re trying too hard using all these convoluted obsolete structures to make change. Sometimes you just got to throw sh*t against the wall and see what sticks.

So here’s this weeks: A petition. Simple enough:

Capital is global. Capitalism is global. It’s time for the people, the 99.9% to unite and go global. We the people of the world make the following demands to the rulers of all countries and corporations in the world:

• End all wars immediately and disarm all nations
• Move aggressively toward complete equality – economic, social, and racial –  of all people in the world
• End exploitation of labor and the earth’s resources. Take aggressive steps to reverse global warming.

On September 21, 2020, World Peace Day, we the people of the world resolve to take the day off work and gather in our local commons to determine the next steps in achieving these demands.

This is the power of the 99.9%: our labor. Without our labor, the game is over.

Sign the petition here.

Okay, a few IFAQs (Infrequently Asked Questions):

1. Why these demands?

They seemed like the most important ones. Feel free to comment and offer tweaks. But let’s stick to three.

2. Why 4 years?

Arbitrary time. Could be less. Comment with your thoughts.

3. Who would organize this?

It would be self-organized. Groups can endorse the concept, but anytime one group is seen as leading something it sets off an ugly turf war. This is person to person. We want these things – peace, equality, health – we take off work on a given day and go to our local common, centro, zocolo, City Hall etc. We decide what to do next. Leadership evolves organically.

Incremental change will not do it. We need to shut the f-ing planet down until people start treating each other and the planet itself right.

4. If we are talking about world-wide economic equality, won’t some people in the U. S. and Europe have to give up their privileged life style?

Yes. People with wealth  will have to give  up their wealth. But it’s only fair. The process will take time. And the global solidarity engendered will be far more valuable than material wealth.

The Black Panther Party and Democratic Centralism

In 1965, I was on an early anti Vietnam War march that started in Berkeley and attempted to march through Oakland to the Army Induction Center. Allen Ginsberg was there, Paul Krassner. We were met at the Oakland border by a phalanx of Oakland Police in riot gear. In Oakland at that time, the first amendment didn’t apply.

Along comes the Black Panther Party, now celebrating its 50thAnniversary. There’s a conference I would love to attend, but I’m in Mexico again where I live now about a third of the time. But I hope they resurrect the party in some way. The BPP changed the face — and the soul — of Oakland.  Such organizations are precisely what’s needed right now.

In a previous blog I talked about how the Communist Party USA created the middle class. One of the major factors in fostering the effectiveness of the CP and the Panthers was their use of the principle of democratic centrism, a concept developed by Lenin. Most parties have distorted democratic centralism to drop the democracy part and focus on the centralism. Genuine democratic centralism simply consists of a thorough discussion of the issues among all members of the party, then there’s a vote, and however it turns out, everyone agrees to support the majority position or carry out that strategy.

The revolution, any revolution, requires disciplined cadre, and while that brings up the image of bandoleros, it doesn’t have to. Perhaps the most compelling example is the when the Black Muslim community, mostly men in suits, two hundred in number, the Fruit of Islam, organized by Malcolm X standing in front of the NYPD precinct, quietly demanding the release of one of their members who had been unjustly arrested – this scene in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X is a major plot point in the movie.

I know I’m repeating myself here (like Bernie does) but I don’t understand why so many people are totally missing the point of the revolutionary Sanders campaign. Bernie made a decision a couple years ago to join the Democratic Party and transform it into a progressive organization. He probably expected to get 25% of the vote. As we know, he exceeded his wildest expectations. His campaign could claim the support of 45% of the party – the largest organization of any kind in the US – almost half. To implement his strategy of course he has to support the nominee of the party, that’s like democratic centralism. You go along for the sake of party unity, because without that, the congress and senate will remain in viciously reactionary hands. To quit the party and continuously attack the leader seems foolish to me. We were this close people. We can gain another 6% in the next four years and nominate a progressive challenge to HRC.

Green Party? What’s the STRATEGY? I keep asking and people send me the beautiful platform, but a platform is not a strategy. Getting federally funded is not a strategy. Splitting the Democratic Party now that we’re practically a majority is not a strategy. It’s a sectarian movement that puts the interests of its own organization above the interests of the people. If I’m wrong, tell me what Jill is going to do in Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida. If she campaigns in those swing states, she deserves no votes.

After the election

I think it’s safe now to start planning for what happens beyond the election. It seems likely that Hillary will win. She might even have a supportive congress, which would open her up to considerable pressure to abide by the platform that she and Bernie worked out. We should think about where to focus our efforts. Criminal justice reform would be my number one. Reduce the prison population by half in the next 3 years. Pardon all the nonviolent drug convicts. Force her to deliver to the Black community what she so generously promised. To move in this direction, all we need to do is get behind Black Lives Matter and the Movement for Black Lives and follow their exceptional leadership. The second thing would be the wars in the middle east. We’ve come to understand that the elected government doesn’t have much influence over this, that foreign policy is in the hands of the national security state (the armed forces, the intelligence agencies, the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about). But that secretive community is not monolithic. There seems to be a consensus strategy of fomenting chaos in the middle east, but there are differences as how far to go against Russia. It’s hard to know whether the new Russian scare is designed to bolster Clinton’s chances in the election (don’t change horses in midstream), or whether there is real danger of war. One place to draw the line in the sand is no U. S. soldiers should be fighting in Syria, nor Special Forces, nor CIA. How about advocating for a People’s Summit on Peace in the Middle East? Invite people from all countries, hold it in Dubai or some neutralish country, maybe Al Jazerra could help organize it, but do it over social media. Kind of like those World Social Forum held a few years back in Seattle and Brazil. NGO’s, grassroots folks, anyone who wants peace in the middle east. We do need to be prepared to resurrect the peace movement worldwide. I think we need to start talking about complete world disarmament. Pie in the sky, you say? Yes, but the little halfway measures around the edges aren’t working. Let’s start with the damn nuclear arsenals.

Voting strategically

“Voting your conscience” is a bourgeois individualist concept, to use old words. True though: the bourgeoisie is the ruling class. Capitalism is their thing and supremacy of the individual is their ideology. I don’t mean to make you feel bad, but voting is a tactical decision within an electoral strategy. And strategy is a plan to achieve…what? That’s the big question. What do we want?

I know what I want. I want a society that values the well-being of people and of the planet above its individualism, it’s profit. I support these three demands:

• End all wars immediately and disarm all nations and peoples
• Move aggressively toward complete equality – economic, social, and racial –  of all people in the world
• End exploitation of labor and the earth’s resources. Take aggressive steps to reverse global warming.

Is that asking too much?

Building an international movement to advance these demands would be a good strategy. With the internet, this shouldn’t be so hard to do. Of course one might want to support the candidate for president in the U. S. who is least likely to disrupt the internet. Mind you they both might fuck with it. But Clinton would be more easily influenced. That’s a tactical approach. It has nothing to do with conscience or individual revulsion for corruption.

Another strategic objective is the defeat of white supremacy to unite the working class.  So we have to choose between two candidates. The third and fourth one, great though they may be, are not viable. IMHO efforts would be better spent demanding a one-person-one vote system that would allow for meaningful third parties. That’s not a value judgement. That’s a tactical question. Which candidate do you think will give the most encouragement to the white supremacist movement?

So I don’t care who you vote for. Voting is pretty much of a sham anyway, as has recently been revealed even as we’ve really known it all along. What I care about is if you’re are making your decisions based on an understanding of where you think we should be going – collectively –  and the most effective strategy and tactics for getting there.

I have no great love for Hillary. I am  not making the decision to vote for her out of fear of Trump. I base my decision on my judgement of the best strategy for us to get toward a human-centered society. Under the regime of which candidate will it be easier to organize the working class toward that goal?

The advance guard of our movement is Black Lives Matter and its associated groupings. We best listen to them. One of the founders of Black Lives Matter, Malkia Cyril (who figures prominently in the new Ava DuVernay movie “13^th”)  puts it this way:

“I'm not with her. I'm not with him. They're not with me. I think it's important to be clear about that. I am with us, and act from that place.

“Ideology shapes analysis. Analysis guides strategy. Strategy drives action. Ideology alone should never drive action. Voting, for me, under a rigged system, is strategic and tactical, not ideological. That's it and that's all.”