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.
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.
Source: Democracy Chronicles (https://www.flickr.com/photos/democracychronicles/42715589844)
Jacobin and Current Affairs are in war mode. Their enemy? The centrist wing of the Democratic Party. Their lone, brave soldier? Bernie Sanders. It’s all hands on deck for Bernie 2.0.
At times, they insist that Bernie run in 2020. At other times, it’ s more nuanced. Nathan J. Robinson, in particular, presents Bernie less as the shining knight of Jacobin and more as the best progressive option who also, by the way, happens to have the best chance of defeating Trump.
With Elizabeth Warren officially in the presidential race, it’s all the more pressing an issue.
As leftists, what should we make of all this? Is Sanders the only choice? If so, does that mean we all have to jump on board?
Have any plans for the new year? Any goals or resolutions? Here’s an idea: join a tenants union! Don’t have a tenants union in your city? Start one!
What was your first protest like? I’ve been thinking lately about mine. It goes something like this.
I woke up yet again to the sound of my dorm neighbor’s TV blaring. Usually it was gospel music or some TV preacher’s program. The neighbor was studying to be a minister or gospel singer. At least, I think that’s what he was doing.
But this time it was CNN. Not that I cared. I think I pounded on the wall and asked him to turn that shit down, or something else suitably appropriate for an 18 year old college freshman who didn’t appreciate being woken up at the most ungodly hour of 9:30am.
I’m 35, and I believe most of you can do the math here. This was September 11, 2001, and I was a college freshman at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
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