nationwide general strike friday january 30
I would like to now take a moment to acknowledge, validate and appreciate the American anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, anti-war, anti-fascist left!
No large political group in recent U.S. history has been so mercilessly beaten down. It struggles along with no major party to represent it, and with two exceedingly well-resourced pro-imperialist, pro-capitalist, pro-war parties attacking it continuously. It’s underrepresented, derided and ignored nonstop by the corporate media. This remains true year after year, even though it is this very same left that consistently turns out to be correct in all its predictions, and voices the opinions and calls for the tactics that eventually become mainstream.
I also want to validate the various roles that make up the anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, anti-war, anti-fascist left. This group is comprised of politicians, artists, reporters, caretakers, and diplomats. This may surprise some people but I actually believe there is a crucial place for all types of roles within the left, including people who are skilled at negotiating and compromising with power in a non-threatening way.
But I also think there is a critical role for us artists. Our role is not to be non-threatening. Our role is to tell it like it is, sometimes stridently. To access feelings and raise questions that are uncomfortable, even painful. To be willing to ruffle feathers and take risks. That's the life we chose and the artists I know are cut out for it.
Artists are part of the vanguard. The vanguard role isn't better than other roles. They simply have a different, equally valid role, as do the diplomats, reporters, caretakers, and at this point in our history, even the politicians. A winning strategy requires that the various roles work together. It may even be possible to switch roles sometimes. But each of these roles can become meaningless without relying on the others.
There is a NATIONWIDE GENERAL STRIKE on Friday. No school, no shopping, no work. It is being called an ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA strike and a JUSTICE FOR GOOD AND PRETTI strike, and rightly so. But more importantly, it’s an ABOLISH ICE strike. Workers are the only reason this country has an economy, and we are shutting this economy down until the billionaires and politicians that support and deploy this unaccountable militarized violence against the working class are forced to back down.
The more people who take this opportunity to say that the strike won't have any effect, the less effect it will have. The diplomats and negotiators and compromisers and politicians will not even be forced to the table unless the vanguard takes this crucial step first, in enormous numbers, to make the threat credible.
As Minnesota’s one day general strike has led to Friday’s nationwide general strike, Friday’s will almost definitely lead to a more extended general strike. ICE must be abolished. Right now it is literally almost half of the country that agrees, and that number is growing, not shrinking.
There are parts of our immigration bureaucracy that we need to not abolish. For example, the processing of asylum. At the moment this process is ridiculously slow and completely racist. The largest number of Visa overstay violations in the U.S. is by Canadians, but the "strengthen our border" crowd never seems to care about that. ICE needs to be replaced with an agency that is not only humane, but faces basic reality: mass human migration, necessitated by sections of our planet becoming uninhabitable due to climate, war, or political repression.
The aspects of our bureaucracy that need to be abolished immediately are the militarized agents spreading terror and targeting low-wage, left, Black and Brown people disproportionately. With agents allowed to commit murder without any consequences. All of which are astronomically remunerative to a few profiteers. All of which is done to suppress wages and worker organizing, and prevent revolution. This aspect includes ICE but also includes the police, Border Patrol, Homeland Security, the FBI, and the National Guard.
In the next few days we will all be better informed if we don’t listen to a word that Trump, or ICE officials giving press conferences, have to say. And here are few common tricks to watch out for from our Democrat politicians and their operatives as well:
Expressing sorrow about the two murders without supporting the General Strike.
Saying that the ABOLISH ICE position is “political kryptonite” when 8 in 10 registered Democratic voters support abolition.
Suggesting that increasing ICE funding by buying them body cams or more training will lower the rate of atrocities.
Using terms like "Trump's ICE" to imply that under Biden or Obama, ICE did not murder, deport, or detain immigrants, and did not separate families and terrorize communities.
Calling for National Guard or police without clarifying if they are being called to oppose ICE (highly unlikely) or quell protests (very likely).
Falsely claiming that Democratic Senators are powerless to oppose or stall a DHS funding increase.
Expressing pity for murder victims without acknowledging their own role in enabling the murders.
Giving too much airtime or credulity to statements made by Trump or ICE officials.
The Democratic party has hit a historic crossroads, and are clearly conflicted about which way to go. Either they start representing their voters on the biggest controversies of the past several years (ICE, Gaza, and police brutality) and become the anti-fascist opposition they claim to be in their marketing materials, or they cave in to the mega-donors threatening to terminate their political careers, and line up behind Trump, driving the final nail into the coffin of the party's viability.