Alienation, autonomy, and ideology
These are posts on activism from the blog Base and Superstructure. This takes many forms. The focus here is on political activism, above all on activist organizing and base-building. One concern is how to build effective movements. There’s also a need to create solidarity with fellow members and build coalitions with other groups. The main aim of good movements is to work together to advance material interests. This section also includes critiques of electoral work, and discussion of how and when to use elections to advance activist goals. Navigating the balance between grassroots work and electoral work is difficult for everyone.
Source: Jacobin (https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/11/introducing-the-abcs-of-capitalism)
So, one day, I set out to buy Jacobin’s little book, The ABCs of Socialism. Somewhere along the way, I screwed up and ordered The ABCs of Capitalism instead. That’s OK. No harm done. I read The ABCs of Capitalism, and here are my thoughts on it.
Last weekend, I hit the road for a trip to Chicago. I was attending the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Chicago preconvention meeting. Here are some thoughts on that.
Source: Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book.jpg)
Green Book was an OK movie, not a great movie or even a good one. It’s in good company on the list of Oscar Best Picture nominees. You could make an awards case for Roma, but any of the others would’ve been a weak choice. Bohemian Rhapsody and Vice were the worst of the bunch. Neither of the two best movies I saw in 2018 (Sorry to Bother You and A Quiet Place, respectively) made the list.
Grumble, grumble.
I’ve got an upcoming post on the concept of the ‘liberal bubble,’ and what I’ll say here will preview that a bit. A lot of the criticism of Green Book from a particular set, namely highly educated, wealthier, white, ‘woke’ liberals, runs into a sort of bubble issue.
Plenty of people are raising the idea that TSA workers can stop the US government shutdown with a strike. A TSA Strike, so the thought goes, is something that would bring travel to a halt. Travelers would hate it. Companies would hate it. And since most Americans blame Trump for the shutdown, he’d have to fold and reopen the government without getting funding for a wall.
Sounds good. The trouble is that a traditional TSA Strike is illegal. So how would it work?
Let’s look at some options.
W. E. B. Du Bois wrote an article on women’s suffrage in The Crisis in 1914. I’m assuming all of you know who Du Bois was. But if any of you don’t, click the link in the previous sentence. The Crisis is a magazine Du Bois founded and edited for the NAACP.
Du Bois was no stranger to the issue of women’s suffrage, which was a hot political topic in his day. In this particular article, he focused on the relationship between suffrage and race. Especially whether black people should advocate for women’s suffrage even if the vote is extended to only white women.
Du Bois argued they should.
It’s more than 100 years old, and suffrage isn’t exactly a hot topic now. But it’s worth noting that voter suppression and felon disenfranchisement certainly are. Consequently, I think we can learn from his argument and apply it to contemporary issues.
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