Politicians claiming to be “Left” should be ditching the political theater, uniting to meet poor and working-class people where they’re at, and developing bottom-up, municipalist strategies with communities (in communities) in the lead-up to an international, #DualPower movement.
Entryism is not working. The inherent structure of the Democratic Party does not allow for anyone elected to be held accountable. New political vehicles and forums must be created, but they must be grounded in community and direct (or “liquid”) democracy.
Instead of just coloring inside the lines of the terms “representative democracy” has set for the present, “Left” politicians should instead be looking around and working in coalitions to plant grassroots seeds for the direct democracy of the future.
Gestures like these illustrate clearly that, despite whatever Bernie & similar forces may have done to “shift the Overton window,” “progressive” politicians lack the radical imagination & boldness necessary to help poor & working-class people confront fascism & build a new world.
Instead of leveraging the *millions* of dollars & access that he’s cultivated for economic counter-institution-building that can sustain new political power while *also* sustaining communities in meeting material needs (#DualPower), he & others accept Neoliberal limits & placate!
Bernie Sanders & other “progressive” politicians accept Neoliberal limits on strategy & placate instead of trying to think outside of the traditional “electoral politics” box & embracing a municipalist strategy, even with fascism right on our doorstep! Truly bizarre beyond words.
“All who strive to oppress & exploit the working class, & gain power for themselves, whether [on] the right or the left, will always be threatened by Anarchism.... because Anarchists hold that all authority & coercion must be struggled against.”
“Anarchists & Anarchism have historically been misrepresented... The popular impression of an Anarchist as an uncontrollably emotional, violent person [...] only interested in destruction for its own sake, & [...] opposed to all forms of organization, still persists to this day.“
“Further, the mistaken belief that Anarchy is chaos & confusion, a reign of rape, murder & [mindless/total] disorder & insanity is widely believed by the general public.”
Anarchists are (and have historically been) sticklers when it comes to contesting coercive power and/or imposed authority, and so there has almost always been consensus amongst Liberals, Conservatives, authoritarian “Leftists,” and fascists in trying to stifle Anarchist activity.
What authoritarian forces want is for power vacuums to emerge and to be exploited in a contest for centralized domination.
And no matter how few in numbers these forces may be compared to the general population, they are extremely determined to use discontent to their advantage.
This is why it’s on those of us who do take the extra time to build focus on building alternative economic institutions and meeting people where they’re at, both materially and in dialogue.
Military and counterinsurgency experts worldwide are so concerned that we could be in the early stages of an armed insurgency that they are now openly expressing these concerns to the public, and yet we still have a largely dilettante “Left” banking on *politicians* for “change.”
Right-wing militias outnumber left-wing ones by the hundreds.
Two months ago, @AP reported that the FBI did 3.9 million background checks on gun sales in June alone.
They also said:
“Each week in June is now in the top 10 weeks for background checks.”