Expanding the Possible, From Below The Green New Deal has been largely blocked at the national level, but it is thriving in communities, cities, and states. Jeremy Brecher’s new book is both an urgent call to action and proof of concept.

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Expanding the Possible, From Below

Starting where we’re at Less than one week after a self-proclaimed dictator, climate change denier, and big oil-funded billionaire (among other e...

ZNetwork

Post-Election Mass Call: Making Meaning of the Moment

Donald Trump will be returning to the White House. It's up to us to build the movement that will fight for each other. Join with members of 200+

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Last night there was a 'mass call’/livestream to "Make Meaning in the Moment" that was co-sponsored by 200 organizations and had 140,000 people registered to attend, it was carried on at least four platforms and on just one of those it already has 138,000 views. It was an expanded version of the mass call series anchored by Working Families Party partnering with Seed the Vote, Movement for Black Lives and Showing Up for Racial Justice. Speakers on the call ranged from the presidents of NEA and SEIU - two of the largest unions in he country - through the top leaders of Moveon and Indivisible to WFP head Maurice Mitchell and leaders from The Womens March, Uncommitted, United We Dream, Sunrise, Moms Rising and a score of other groups, plus Reps Pramilla Jayapal and Jamie Raskin. A website is already up and calls to action are already issued. The dominant politics were for all-out resistance to a Trump administration and re-centering progressives in the multiracial, gender-inclusive working class. Here are the links to the recording of the call and the new website: https://weareworthfightingfor.org/

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“All the takes are correct and yet they also miss the point. Yes, it was insane for the Democrats to think they could win by running a soulless candidate, without a shred of progressive policy vision, pursuing endorsements from neocon war-hawks everybody hates, while arming and funding a genocide, and belittling and crushing those who have enough morality to protest it. It is enraging that the Democrats are so smug and blind to this. But these are all just symptoms. The deeper reality is that liberalism has failed, liberalism is dead, and people urgently need to wake up to this fact and respond accordingly. It is a defunct ideology that cannot offer any meaningful solutions to our social and ecological crises and it must be abandoned. Democrats have proven over and over again that they cannot accept even *basic* steps like public healthcare, affordable housing, and a public job guarantee - things that would dramatically improve the material, social and political conditions of the working classes. And they cannot accept a public finance strategy that would steer production away from fossil fuels and toward green transition to give us a shot at a liveable future. Why? Because these things run against the objectives of capital accumulation. And for liberals capital is sacrosanct. They will do whatever it takes to ensure elite accumulation, it is their only consistent commitment. At home, they suppress and demonize progressive and socialist tendencies. Abroad, they engage in endless wars and violence to suppress input prices in the global South and prevent any possibility of sovereign economic development. The Democrats have done all this purposefully and knowingly, for my whole life, not as some kind of "mistake" but in full consciousness that it is in the interests of capital. And because liberalism cannot address our crises, and because it crushes socialist alternatives, it inevitably paves the way for right-wing populism. They know this pattern, and yet they risk it every time - this election being only the most recent example. They did it in 2016, when they actively crushed the Sanders campaign and sent Trump to the White House. They do it because ultimately they (and I mean the liberal ruling class here) don't really mind if fascists take power, so long as the latter too ensure the conditions for capital accumulation. They 100% prefer this to the possibility of a socialist alternative. So, progressives have to face reality. The dream of "converting" the Democratic party is dead. This is now a fact and it must be accepted. The only option is to build a mass-based movement that can reclaim the working classes and mobilize a political vehicle that can integrate disparate progressive struggles into a unified and formidable political force and achieve substantive transformation. This will take real work, actual organizing, but it must be done and that process must begin now.” - Jason Hickel, Nov 6, 2024

Today, you might imagine this quote to come from a peace activist, socialist, or other “radical”. Care to guess who penned these lines in 1953? (Hint: 13 US Presidents ago) Our culture of what is acceptable can change so quickly… it is reason to act, to connect, rather than to despair.

Forward looking food for thought for organizers to consider various scenarios and how that will effect their work and strategies

Ryan Grim's election predictions

What will realistically happen if Harris or Trump wins