#movementbuilding — Public Fediverse posts

(18/18) I don't quite know the way forward, but I think there is a way, despite all the exhaustion and apathy, to still pull ourselves back from this #coup that #ElonMusk and #Trump are carrying out. I think there's still a way forward for us that doesn't end in #fascism. But I think we're going to have to deliberately and radically commit ourselves to care in a way that we haven't before. I don't quite know what that looks like. I think it is going to have to be something very new, something that builds on previous #leftist movements and #activist work but that transcends it. Not knowing what that will be is both exciting, because it's an opportunity to succeed where we might have fallen short in the past, and scary, because it's unknown and the future is uncertain.

All I know is that we have to try.

#Solidarity!

#USPol #USPolitics #MovementBuilding #Leftism #AnotherWorldIsPossible

(17/?) I'm not quite sure what else I need at this point, but I would encourage anyone looking to plug into #activism against rising #fascism right now to think both about what you can contribute and about your needs. This is a fight against #Trump and #ElonMusk and their #coup attempt, but this is also a fight against #oppression that has been going on in the US for far longer than Trump and Musk and their ilk. We need to build a #left that is sustainable, that can care for people, and that offer alternatives to the #fascist dystopia we unfortunately seem to be entering. There are lessons we can learn from the fight against the previous Trump administration.

We also have to meet people where they are. If we're #BurntOut and exhausted, lecturing us to care won't change that. We have to accept that as part of our organizing and build that into our work.

#USPol #USPolitics #MovementBuilding

(13/?) So with all that in mind--with my history of #leftist #activism and the resulting #trauma from it, as well as the general state of #precarity of life in the US and the sense that protests aren't really effective--I'm asking myself what I need to effectively resist #Trump & #Musk's #coup and #fascist oppression. What do I need to be effective and do the work required sustainably? Just because I know what I might need doesn't mean I'll get it, but understanding my own needs feels like a start.

What I needed while doing #leftist #activism during the first Trump term was care. I needed someone to buy groceries and cook and clean and do what #Marxists call reproductive labor for me. I needed someone to take care of my basic needs.

If you know someone who is doing #activism right now, ask them what they need, and one thing you might offer is to cook a meal for them or do chores for them. It might help

#USPol #USPolitics #MovementBuilding

(7/?) So to recap so far: People in the US aren't rising up en masse because we are living against the backdrop of an on-going #covid19 #pandemic that is harming our health, committed activists have been #traumatized and #BurntOut by their so-called "comrades" and #leftist groups uncommitted to care, and in general, people in the US tend to exist in a state of precarity to begin with.

Those are, to me, the big reasons why people aren't flooding the streets to stop #Musk's #coup or #Trump's blatant #unconstitutional overreaches. And of course, this is what the #fascists want. They want us tired and burnt out and precarious so that we will let them have their way, and they know full well that once they consolidate power, they will keep us even more traumatized, burnt out, and precarious as they continue to oppress and exploit us for their own gain. What do we do about this?

#USPol #USPolitics #MovementBuilding

(4/?) After I departed the #toxic #leftist #activist group, I floated around to other groups and saw, perhaps less outright toxicity and infighting, but similar cycles of groups using people up, burning people out, and then replacing them with new people.

This is not only an unsustainable organizing model, but it's cruel. It is mirroring the #disposability mindset of #capitalism in which people have no inherent worth but are instead only valuable in what they can produce. It is not a model that values #care, #compassion, or #community. And yet I see it over and over and over again in so many groups that claim to be on the #left or #progressive.

If you want to know why people are tired, it's because we're past the point of #BurnOut. I wasn't burned out when I stopped doing #activism--I was #traumatized. I had burned out and kept going until I physically could not and I'm still recovering.

#USPol #USPolitics #MovementBuilding

(1/?) The common answer to "Why aren't more people in the US protesting?" is that everyone is tired. I can relate to this. After being radicalized by #OccupyWallStreet, fighting the first #Trump administration, and then attempting to survive the on-going #covid19 #pandemic, I am exhausted. I want to dig deeper into this exhaustion, though, because so often, the rejoiner I hear to "People in the US are tired" is very dismissive and unhelpful. The response usually berates these hoards of tired people for being tired and expects some combination of #shame and #guilt and #horror at the #coup taking place under Trump and #Musk to rouse them. It's an understandable but ineffective response, and if we want to be effective at building a better world and opposing #fascism, we're going to have to take a different approach.

#USPol #USPolitics #Fascist #MovementBuilding #AnotherWorldIsPossible

Seeing the protests against #Musk's takeover of various government agencies, from #USAID to #DeptOfTreasury, is encouraging. Seeing the #50501Movement protests is also encouraging. Hearing a few #DemocraticParty senators commit to slowing and even halting the legislature until this #DOGE #coup is stopped is a step in the right direction.

But I'm still seeing a lot of people asking why more people in the US aren't rising up en masse. Why aren't people flooding the streets and shutting down cities? Why did it take this long for even the trickle of a movement to coalesce?

I have thoughts on this, based on my previous experience with #activism that I'd like to share, with the goal of suggesting how people in the US can build movements that are more sustainable and that care for each other rather than repeating the disposability mindset of #capitalism.

A #thread:

#USPol #USPolitics #Activism #MovementBuilding #AnotherWorldIsPossible #Socialism