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Social Movements

The Rebellion Against Police Repression Must Guard Against All Enemies

June 21, 2020 Danny Haiphong, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
The masses are in motion and public opinion about U.S. policing has rapidly shifted in three short weeks. George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s assassination at the hands of U.S. police departments unleased a flood of anger toward the special bodies of armed forces that occupy the streets of Black American communities across the country. New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Washington D.C. have seen tens of thousands of people march several miles per day demanding that police departments be defunded or abolished altogether. Protestors of all hues have been brutalized and journalists have been targeted with flurries of rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas cannisters.

The Struggle For Justice Continues In Post-Coup Bolivia

June 21, 2020 Ben Dangl, ROAR Magazine. , , ,
History is in the veins of La Paz, Bolivia, in the archives of the streets, the stains left by burning barricades, the bullet holes that scar government buildings. It marks the city itself. Indigenous rebel Túpac Katari launched his 1781 siege against the Spanish from what is now the hilltop K’illi K’illi park. President Villarroel was hung from a lamp post by an angry crowd in the Plaza Murillo in 1946. Machine gun fire rained down in the San Pedro neighborhood during a coup in 1979. Protesters pulled train cars from the tracks and onto a highway during an uprising in 2003, blocking the military from entering El Alto. Last November’s coup against President Evo Morales and his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) government added another layer to this history.

The Gilets Jaunes And The Invention Of The Future

June 19, 2020 Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, ROAR Magazine. , , ,
The revolt of the Gilets Jaunes has been interpreted and analyzed many times in many, sometimes completely opposing, ways. It has been largely viewed, by the right, especially, and most of the dominant media, as a quasi-fascist movement, a form of uncontrollable collective delinquency, in a word: a threat to democracy and existing institutions. But even among those who were generally sympathetic to social movements, including many activists on the left, reservations about completely new forms of political action and wariness about individuals who do not quite fit in politically have remained very strong, sometimes even leading them to refuse to support what they consider “impure,” “confused” or “unreliable” struggles.

Global Solidarity With US Anti-Racist Rebellion

June 13, 2020 People's Movements and Organizations, Anti-Imperialist Week. , , ,
We firmly denounce the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department and demand full and uncompromising justice for his family. We join the call and demand for justice of thousands of families across the United States who have lost someone to police violence. We express our resounding support to the people of the United States who, throughout their history, have resisted racism. We stand in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands who are currently protesting and repudiate the narratives being shaped by corporate media labeling protestors “terrorists” and “looters” to criminalize the movement. This is part of a tactic to delegitimize the protests and divide the people. These wide protests have led to an anti-racist rebellion which has further exposed the deep racist character of the American State to the world.

How Black Lives Matter Forced Us To Imagine A World Without Police

June 11, 2020 Eric Stoner, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
Prior to the historic groundswell of protest over the last two weeks, many in the media had written Black Lives Matter’s obituary — either lamenting or celebrating its supposed demise. But that narrative was clearly premature.  Not only was the movement not dead, it was simply progressing through the natural life-cycle of all successful social movements. There are stages where the masses are out on the streets, inevitably followed by quieter — but no less important — periods of strategizing for the next phase of the struggle. In the case of Black Lives Matter, it dramatically shifted the conversation and public opinion in its direction through waves of protest, and then began carefully laying the groundwork for the current mobilization. 

After The Lockdown, The Jailbreak

June 11, 2020 Robert Shetterly, The Smirking Chimp. , , ,
What’s going on? We had lockdown, we've got jailbreak. But the prisoners aren’t running away; they’re marching, chanting, getting rearrested for the cause of justice. They’re risking infection, in fact, they’re embracing a new infection — people power. Their risk is not in trying to reopen an economy, but to rebirth social justice, racial justice, just economy. Any regime, even a corrupt one, can create a burgeoning economy; only a democracy can build social justice. What’s going on? America has gagged on itself. Three more murders of innocent, unarmed Black people — Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. Too much to swallow. The right response?

Defund The Police, Then Abolish It

June 10, 2020 Dave Braneck, ROAR Magazine. , , ,
The United States’ powder keg of racial capitalism, searing inequality and violent policing, compounded by the state’s ruinously indifferent response to a global pandemic and a sputtering economy, has finally exploded. Mass protest has shaken the country, with more than 40 cities instituting curfews and 23 states calling in a total of 17,000 National Guard troops to stamp out the uprisings. The eruption of righteous fury pulsating around the US represents a historic moment not seen since America’s last mass urban rebellions, the “long hot summer” of 1967 and the 1968 uprisings following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

Fortress On A Hill: Interview With Kevin Zeese

June 7, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Fortress on a Hill. , ,
Kevin Zeese of Popular Resistance stops by the podcast to discuss his path to becoming an activist during protests in the 60’s and 70’s, what he’s learned from Ralph Nader, police brutality and militarization, Kevin’s long standing work on the Vietnam war and Venezuela, and the dynamics of “lesser evil voting.” Kevin Zeese is a public interest attorney who has worked for economic, racial and environmental justice since graduating from George Washington Law School in 1980. He co-directs PopularResistance.org which works to build the independent movement for transformational change. Kevin co-hosts,  “Clearing the FOG “ radio which airs on We Act Radio , Progressive Radio Network and other outlets.  He is recognized as a leading activist in the United States in the series Americans Who Tell the Truth.

‘Major Co-Option’: Without Action, Hospitals’ BLM Statements Are Performative

June 6, 2020 Sputnik News. , , ,
As the fight against racial inequality in the US has become a national, pervasive movement following the killing of Minneapolis, Minnesota, resident George Floyd, many corporations have argued that they too are helping in the struggle for justice. One anonymous doctor reminds Sputnik that these statements, without acts, are simply performative. An academic physician based in Washington, DC, who wished to remain anonymous joined Radio Sputnik’s Political Misfits on Friday to provide insight on performative allyship and how their own hospital is contributing to the problematic practice. “I just witnessed major co-option” they said to hosts Bob Schlehuber and Jamarl Thomas, likening his own experience at his workplace to Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s recent move to paint “Black Lives Matter” down 16th Street and rename a street leading to the White House “Black Lives Matter Plz NW.”

When Activist Burnout Was A Problem 50 Years Ago, This Group Found A Solution

May 24, 2020 George Lakey, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
“I’m throwin’ in the towel,” he said in a tone of resignation. I’d been away for a while and didn’t expect this. I started to interrupt, but he went right on speaking. “The shootings, man. Even the FBI admits that bombings of religious groups are increasing. We have a president who wants to be a dictator. Nobody knows what’s coming next. I just can’t handle it.” We weren’t close, but more than once we’d shared a beer after a political meeting, and when we were on the same picket line we were glad to see each other. Now he tells me he’s dropping out of the movement. It was the end of the summer in 1970, a few months after the Jackson State and Kent State killings, and he was right about President Nixon wanting to be a dictator. America’s war in Indochina was terrible, along with poverty here at home. Things looked bad.

Adventures In Digital Organizing

May 19, 2020 Kelly Hayes, Truthout. , , ,
Welcome to movement memos, a Truthout podcast about things you should know if you want to change the world. I’m your host, Kelly Hayes. Today’s guest is Mariame Kaba. Mariame is an abolitionist organizer, educator, and curator whose groundbreaking work has helped free countless people from jails, prisons and detention centers around the country. Her work focuses on ending violence, dismantling the prison industrial complex, transformative justice, and supporting youth leadership development. From erasing millions of dollars of medical debt in Chicago, New York, and Flint, Michigan to efforts to secure freedom for incarcerated survivors of gender violence, Mariame’s organizing both online and in person has had impacts that are nothing short of historic. In fact, the only bad thing I can say about her is that she doesn’t like cats. Mariame Kaba, welcome to the show.

How Do You Protest When You Can’t Take To The Streets?

May 16, 2020 Cristina Flesher Fominaya, Open Democracy. , , ,
Coronavirus and quarantine measures have posed significant challenges for social movements at a time when governments are taking important decisions on people’s lives as well as living conditions. Citizens experience high degrees of anxiety and uncertainty, brought on by risks to health and economic well-being. As governments scramble to respond to the pandemic, its unequal impact on citizens becomes ever more visible, as do the discrepancies between different nations’ government strategies, their effectiveness, and the degree of legitimacy they elicit from their publics. Whereas New Zealand’s Covid-19 response met with great public support and was extremely effective, the UK witnessed a seriously delayed and chaotic response, and extremely high infection and death rates, with 66% of the public feeling the government took too long to react.

The Established Order Has Never Been Weaker

May 13, 2020 By Cam Fenton, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
All around the globe, governments are starting to move forward with reopening plans that lift some degree of COVID-19 social distancing. With that comes talk of recovery and rebuilding. While some of the attention is on green stimulus and a range of progressive demands for just and equitable recoveries, the only way we can win any such advances is through movements that are prepared to take on the fight. Before the COVID-19 crisis began, the world was — by and large — governed by a neoliberal common sense with its roots in Reagan- and Thatcher-era politics. The same leaders who upheld that order are still in power and, with a few notable exceptions, most of them are seeing increases in their approval numbers through this crisis.  In Europe, Germany’s Angela Merkel has a soaring approval rating of 78 percent, Italy’s Giuseppe Conte is at 71 percent and France’s Emmanuel Macron is up 14 points.

Reclaiming Populism

May 6, 2020 Thea Riofrancos, Boston Review. , ,
In the years between Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 Republican primaries and the 2018 midterm elections, a rash of opinion pieces compared him to Latin American leaders, contemporary and historic. A headline in The Washington Post declared, “Trump is the U.S.’s first Latin American president.” “In Venezuela, we couldn’t stop Chávez. Don’t make the same mistakes we did,” read another. The New York Times published virtually the same article three times: “Is Donald Trump an American Hugo Chávez?”; “What Hugo Chávez Tells Us About Donald Trump”; “Will Democracy survive Trump’s populism? Latin America may tell us.” These very pages analyzed “Trump’s Latin American model.”

Global Call

March 27, 2020 Mazin Qumsiyeh, Popular-resistance.blogspot.com , ,
World War II transformed our planet in ways not foreseen before including creating instruments like the United Nations ostensibly to stop wars and conflict and encourage cooperation across borders. Yet, we had many wars & economic blockades and inequality that killed tens of millions of people since 1945. A large part of this had to do with the flawed system created...
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