Beyond Government and Resistance III

Last week, we talked about the unique opportunity we have facing us while the country gets thieved right out from under us: the surprise spark of class consciousness. We talked about the apotheosis of that class consciousness (and a hopeful goal of mine): a general strike. And we talked about how we can take steps toward a strike by emphasizing our growing class solidarity through simple acts like having regular gatherings with members of our community.

This week, I want to get a little more particular. More than just keeping solidarity in our minds, we can actively improve–or at least work triage–on parts of our lives and the lives of others in our community. I also want to talk about some of the other things we could do while we gather our strength for a general strike–there's a lot, it turns out.

What Your Solidarity Group Looks Like

One of my best friends co-owns a local bookstore. That's plenty of of potential for solidarity right off the bat: curate the books so that authors are diverse, leftist, and anti-imperial; and hold readings by like authors or speakers–which is itself another potential nexus for solidarity on its own. This bookstore, in addition, is a coffee shop/restaurant, making it uniquely situated to be a third space for the neighborhood. Writers and artists hold meetings, workshops, and the store hosts regular community gatherings put on by a local left-leaning news organization. Any one of these things is a good start–more than one can create a powerful shift in your community.

You don't, of course, have to own an incredibly cool bookstore to do this kind of work, but it's a great example. Do you, or does a friend, have a space like this? A commercial venue of any kind can double up as a meeting space, or be run in such a way as to foster community and invite critical thinking. And it's not an issue if such a place doesn't exist for you–your home or apartment, or a friend's, is just fine. Ask if you can use a space that you frequent–the worst they can say is no. Gather for a group seed-starting workshop; build a tool shed for a tool library; bring a group of friends to a meet-up of an existing mutual aid group; make and distribute hygiene kits for houseless folks in your area; get together to write letters to incarcerated people; hold a workshop on simple self-defense items and techniques (if you are qualified); gather up folks to go out for a day at the shooting range–the options are pretty much endless. What matters is you gather toward a productive end with community members and talk about where we're at. The idea here is to work toward practical skills while building camaraderie and maintaining the ire we all feel toward the powers that be–the synthesis of these activities being that we have the power to fight back, and that folks should be aware of that power.

Eventually, of course, your group can and should move on to other work, or to incorporate a broader spectrum of your community in that work. A gardening club can distribute their food to people in need; a firearm safety group can begin to liaise with other mutual aid groups to act as community defense; a fiber arts group can hold a class on knitting to spread the utility. This is not meant to be a five-person island against the tide of fascism–it's meant to grow.

Individual Activities

While our focus should be on what we can do as a group, or in our community, there are things we should be doing on our own, as well. You've heard this a hundred times before, and it may not apply to a lot of you, but one of the biggest things we can do right away is simply non-compliance. Timothy Snyder seems a little bit too enamored of the country we had in the recent and distant past for my taste, but he's of course right that rolling over to authoritarians before they make any kind of push is how most power is ceded. So in whatever way is applicable to you, whether in your job or daily life, don't comply with the changes you see happening. If you're a teacher at a school that is contemplating letting ICE in–be a voice against it. If your CEO is dropping DEI practices, implement them under the table wherever and whenever you can. Trump and his cronies can peel back the piece of paper that enforced some equality in this nation, but that doesn't mean that we actually have to stop.

And not that I'm recommending anything so malicious, but isn't it curious that a guide to simple sabotage has gone viral lately? It isn't anything so wild as what I might have linked to you via the Anarchist Library (insert shifty eye emoji), but it is something that anyone in the belly of the beast or adjacent animals might be able to do to slow the grind of fascism. These acts are directly contrary to fascism, as opposed to fostering an ideal environment for pushing back, and so use caution when considering these techniques as such opposition could be met with force.

There is also the opportunity here, if you are without attachment or particularly brave, to throw yourself into this cause without much regard for your safety or well-being. I don't want to encourage this, but I also don't want to omit the bravery of the people who are and have been on the front lines of this conflict, and will be on these same front lines and new ones as they emerge. I'm talking about the forest defenders in Atlanta, the water protectors in the Dakotas, the people across the United States and across the world who have drawn a hard line against ecological destruction and against the police state tightening its grip on our throats. We need to keep up this fight, and to push hard on these fronts.

In Closing

We have to be willing to fight this fight–there really is no alternative. Capitalism is wrecking our world in about every way you can imagine. It's bad enough that wealth inequality alone is now posited to put us at risk of societal collapse. And, while we've been focused on Trump, the oligarchy, and the growth of fascism in the United States, we're rapidly approaching resource and ecosystem collapse due to climate change and our over-exploitation of the natural world.

We're running out of time. Every clock you can imagine is down to the wire. If we don't take a stand now, the country turns fascist. If we let that happen, there is no chance at all that we can have the kind of steady de-acceleration that we need to weather the climate-and-resource-collapse clock. We'll simply fall over the edge.

I feel like I haven't said enough on this subject–perhaps because just writing a few letters pales against the actual objective. So while I have more to say in this vein, it won't be quite what we've heard up to this point. I think it's best to close out a series on an uplifting note–or as much of one as is possible–but in this instance we'll be doing the reverse. Don't let that dissuade you from taking action–from any action. Start somewhere. Start today.

I did not realize that today marks the anniversary of Aaron Bushnell's self-immolation in protest of the US-endorsed genocide of Gazans. As we think on the growing necrosis at the heart of this country and how we can combat it, let us remind ourselves of his sacrifice and of the suffering of people in Gaza and around the world who do so because of our empire.