Ruth Webb used to supplement her grocery shopping with a monthly trip to a local food pantry, where she would get fresh produce like potatoes, onions and carrots.
hot take: the even more miserable conditions most americans are now facing will only atomize them further and ironically make organizing a left response more difficult. leftism in america is a lost cause
Took like three seconds of googling. There are other examples of this. Seattle's hashing things out right now. Plus plenty of schools have gotten rid of cops.
But it's not so much what gains have been made immediately from the riots but the fact that they existed demonstrates the revolutionary potential of people, particularly the colonized, within the US.
Oh, and the fact that this has been a radicalizing moment for a lot of people. Socialist orgs are dealing with large influxes of new members (like me!), and public sentiment has turned more against the cops. As shit gets even worse, we can reasonably expect more of this kind of thing.
of course there is revolutionary potential within the people of the US, that's true of all exploited people. what needs to be demonstrated is a willingness and ability to organize that potential into a useful force that the bourgeoisie can't ignore or easily placate with small concessions. this type of organization is anathema to americans and they actively seek to avoid doing it, no matter the cost
I'm talking specifically about the IWW (based on what people have said here) and PSL (from personal interactions with members). There's a few smaller, definitely radical orgs I try to follow on Twitter who seem to be growing, too.
the bourgeoisie are going to start fighting back, though. there haven't even been any mass killings of strikers or protesters yet. that kind of thing will inevitably happen if they deem it necessary and it will strongly dissuade a lot of people from meaningful leftist action in public. the bourgeoisie haven't even scratched the surface in terms of the tools they have to maintain their grip on power
it's going to accelerate things for sure, but the acceleration can't continue forever. it's eventually going to reach a breaking point where either enough people are angry enough and organized enough that we can actually threaten the power of the ruling class, or (more likely IMO) the bourgeoisie successfully crush the threat and we essentially go back to the pre-COVID status quo where everything sucks and is constantly getting worse but people are atomized and alienated enough that leftist organization disintegrates. then we're back to square 1
I think it will get to a point where the state can't meet people's need to the degree that the struggle becomes one for basic, immediate survival. I think those conditions can drive organizing out of necessity, like how anticolonial struggles in Cuba and Vietnam became socialist revolutions when the imperialist atrocities became too much for the people to bear.
I agree -- I've said for a long time that successful revolutions can only take place when people don't have enough food to eat.
but the bourgeoisie can use that against us, even if only as a last ditch effort. whether they would like to or not, they can just do a UBI that keeps people fed and sheltered, if only temporarily. obviously that would be a concession on their part, so they're not going to do it except in dire circumstances, but that is a tool they could use, and frankly I think it would successfully snuff out a lot of the revolutionary potential we're talking about.
because the US government have a vast surplus of resources to draw from, unlike cuba and vietnam, we're fighting a different type of enemy than those revolutionaries were fighting, so i don't think we can fall back on "hunger will inevitably lead to revolution." we're going to have to inspire people to imagine a better world than that, and that to me that feels uniquely impossible in america, or at least almost impossible
A lot of things can change and we cannot perfect everything with dialectical materialism lol. Any number of scenarios could happen in the near future, some might weaken our position, some might bolster it. We can't know so we should continue the work of organizing and propagandizing.
hot take: the even more miserable conditions most americans are now facing will only atomize them further and ironically make organizing a left response more difficult. leftism in america is a lost cause
So have you just been sleeping through all the riots?
have you? the riots have accomplished nothing at all outside minneapolis
https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Berkeley-council-bans-police-from-traffic-15410326.php
Took like three seconds of googling. There are other examples of this. Seattle's hashing things out right now. Plus plenty of schools have gotten rid of cops.
But it's not so much what gains have been made immediately from the riots but the fact that they existed demonstrates the revolutionary potential of people, particularly the colonized, within the US.
Oh, and the fact that this has been a radicalizing moment for a lot of people. Socialist orgs are dealing with large influxes of new members (like me!), and public sentiment has turned more against the cops. As shit gets even worse, we can reasonably expect more of this kind of thing.
of course there is revolutionary potential within the people of the US, that's true of all exploited people. what needs to be demonstrated is a willingness and ability to organize that potential into a useful force that the bourgeoisie can't ignore or easily placate with small concessions. this type of organization is anathema to americans and they actively seek to avoid doing it, no matter the cost
I just edited my post to mention that orgs have been swelling lately. It just takes time.
Orgs full of liberal idiots who think socialism is getting a few scraps from the corporate overlords.
I'm talking specifically about the IWW (based on what people have said here) and PSL (from personal interactions with members). There's a few smaller, definitely radical orgs I try to follow on Twitter who seem to be growing, too.
the bourgeoisie are going to start fighting back, though. there haven't even been any mass killings of strikers or protesters yet. that kind of thing will inevitably happen if they deem it necessary and it will strongly dissuade a lot of people from meaningful leftist action in public. the bourgeoisie haven't even scratched the surface in terms of the tools they have to maintain their grip on power
I think that is more likely to accelerate things, like how the abductions in Portland reignited the protests to some degree.
it's going to accelerate things for sure, but the acceleration can't continue forever. it's eventually going to reach a breaking point where either enough people are angry enough and organized enough that we can actually threaten the power of the ruling class, or (more likely IMO) the bourgeoisie successfully crush the threat and we essentially go back to the pre-COVID status quo where everything sucks and is constantly getting worse but people are atomized and alienated enough that leftist organization disintegrates. then we're back to square 1
I think it will get to a point where the state can't meet people's need to the degree that the struggle becomes one for basic, immediate survival. I think those conditions can drive organizing out of necessity, like how anticolonial struggles in Cuba and Vietnam became socialist revolutions when the imperialist atrocities became too much for the people to bear.
I agree -- I've said for a long time that successful revolutions can only take place when people don't have enough food to eat.
but the bourgeoisie can use that against us, even if only as a last ditch effort. whether they would like to or not, they can just do a UBI that keeps people fed and sheltered, if only temporarily. obviously that would be a concession on their part, so they're not going to do it except in dire circumstances, but that is a tool they could use, and frankly I think it would successfully snuff out a lot of the revolutionary potential we're talking about.
because the US government have a vast surplus of resources to draw from, unlike cuba and vietnam, we're fighting a different type of enemy than those revolutionaries were fighting, so i don't think we can fall back on "hunger will inevitably lead to revolution." we're going to have to inspire people to imagine a better world than that, and that to me that feels uniquely impossible in america, or at least almost impossible
A lot of things can change and we cannot perfect everything with dialectical materialism lol. Any number of scenarios could happen in the near future, some might weaken our position, some might bolster it. We can't know so we should continue the work of organizing and propagandizing.
So far the only thing a few workers have done is protest and some limited strikes.
Neither side has done much.
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