Be #UnGovernable 2017

WHY WE RESIST

We resist because we refuse to allow Trump and his views on climate change and his deep investment in the oil industry lead us to the brink of human destruction with his “drill baby drill” and “burn baby burn” orientation. We will not allow the 6th great extinction to advance on our watch.

We resist because the United States has always been a problematic project and we refuse to go backwards on the limited political, economic, and social gains that have been won by Indigenous and oppressed peoples, women, religious minorities, LGBTQI communities and individuals, workers, children, and in the protection of our life-giving environment. We refuse to accept the wanton reintroduction of white supremacy, right wing populism and fascism, state sanctioned patriarchy, and the expansion and consolidation of a neo-Confederacy.

We resist because we will not allow US imperialism to go unchallenged. We refuse to allow the Trump regime to allow for the ethnocide of the Palestinian people, to start a war of aggression with Iran, to legitimize a puppet regime in Haiti, to escalate tensions with China, to support a coup d’état in Venezuela, to intensify AFRICOM’s acts of aggression on the African continent, to threaten and sanction the progressive governments of Bolivia and Ecuador, and the list goes on. We cannot and will not sit idly by and allow US imperialist expansion and aggression to advance either within the territories it currently controls or on the peoples, nations, and states outside of its jurisdiction.
We resist because we must. We resist knowing that one day of action will not stop any of the destructive plans of the Trump regime and the neo-Confederates that now control ¾ of the state governments. This day of action is a beginning. A way for us to come together, resist together, and to start the hard work of building a new political force and program that will help us co-construct a liberated future.

Join us! 

“BUILD AND FIGHT; FIGHT AND BUILD” A PROGRAM FOR THE FUTURE

We cannot afford to “wait and see” what the Trump regime is going to do, or “give them a chance”. His cabinet appointments clearly indicate that we have to take him for his word, and that he clearly meant all of the racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, China bashing, queer hating and misogynist rhetoric that he espoused and he fully intends on implementing all of the promises and policies he proposed to target these subjects on the mission to make the United States a white republic once again.

Therefore, we should expect the Trump regime and the Tea Party dominated neo-Confederate state governments to further demonize any and all opposition, to ramp up surveillance to even greater levels, to unleash massive amounts of repression and terror (from both government and reactionary white supremacist forces) on progressive social movements and non-compliant populations, and use various types of economic threats to subject people to their will. Hoping and praying for things to work themselves out for the better won’t work. Efforts at trying to isolate yourself, your family, and your community and shield it from the repression that is coming won’t work. Trump and the reactionary forces that he embodies and represents must be defeated, politically, socially, and economically. Solidarity and joint struggle are our greatest forms of both offensive and defensive resistance. But, the solidarity must be practical, programmatic, and visionary.

To defeat Trump and the neo-Confederates we have to develop a strategic “Build and Fight; Fight and Build” program. This program must address the imperative need to build economic and political power from the ground up – amongst workers, the underemployed, unemployed and structurally unemployable on the community, county, state and national levels.

Both dimensions of our Build and Fight program we believe must have offensive and defensive dimensions to them. What follows are some preliminary thoughts on what we believe must be built and/or strengthened going forward, to not only survive the Trumpocalype, but to build the world we and our children and great grandchildren need.
The Build

1. Build Community Farms and Food Distribution Centers to address basic subsistence needs of the people in our communities.
2. Build Production or Supply Chain Networks and Alliances to ensure food security and sovereignty on municipal and larger scales.
3. Build Community Energy Networks and Centers to address basic energy needs in our communities and municipalities.
4. Build and Reclaim Common Spaces to ensure that communities have space for various types of production, community engagement, and the practice participatory democracy and community governance.
5. Build Cooperatives (Worker, Consumer, and Community) to address the basic material and service needs of the people in our community.
6. Build People’s Assemblies and/or other types Vehicles for the Practice of Participatory Democracy to continue the struggle for equality and equity.

The Fight Back

1. Build Self-Defense Committee’s and Educational Campaigns to protect our communities from state and reactionary militia repression and terror.
2. Build Sanctuary Networks to Defend Immigrants, Muslims, Organizers and the Persecuted.
3. Build Autonomous Communication and Information Sharing Institutions and Networks to ensure safe and direct connection amongst the people in our communities and networks.
4. Build Broad Civil Action Units to engage in Massive Civil Disobedience, Occupation and General Strike Actions to stop the advance of political and economic reaction.

None of these initiatives can be built overnight and they cannot be done individually. They require organization on various different scales and scopes.

Starting with your endorsement, we propose initiating a process of ongoing engagement and organizing to build a national network that can and will grow into a radical force of political resistance, power, and vision to move us out of the forest of gloom that is presently surrounding us.
We propose the following organizing process after January 20th:

1. That there be a national evaluation call immediately after the day of resistance on January 20th.
2. That we host municipal forums and/or assemblies to discuss the program presented above and how it can be applied and/or expanded in our municipalities.
3. That we host regional organizing and resistance networking gatherings in April or May.
4. That we host a national networking and resistance coordination meeting in the summer of 2017.

On the Farm Radio - Interview on Local Electoral Politics

This interview was conducted by Ras Kofi Kwayana in August 2016 and is hosted on https://soundcloud.com/user-18318112/kali-akuno-a-radio-focus-on-local-ballots. 

Ideas for Action: Stiff Resistance From Now Until Inauguration and Beyond

Friends and comrades, the protests that have been mounted against the election of Donald Trump on November 8th have been a beautiful thing. However, we need to do everything in our capacity to make sure that they are not limited in their focus. To the extent that we can stimulate and intervene in the mass motion that these protests represent, we must focus our resistance against the system – the entire settler-colonial, capitalist, imperialist, patriarchal system – and not just against Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and the genocidal far right and their ghastly politics. The liberal consensus that systemically enables unsustainable resource extraction and various forms of human exploitation and oppression, and is now calling for “national unity” and “reconciliation” with these forces is what allows these politics to live and thrive, and must be resisted at all costs.

It is critical that progressive and left forces mount as much non-compliant resistance as possible between now and inauguration day to claim as much space as possible, to set the terms of democratic struggle, to create a measure of defense against pending repression (which is where the system was/is headed regardless), and to make the system ungovernable. This is a path on the road to social transformation that must be waged. It should not be confused with the longer term work of organizing, base building, building alternative institutions and systems, developing left political alignment, and strategy development. That work is yet to be done. But, adaptation and accommodation to the worsening terms and conditions is not a path to survival, not when the stakes are so high – and the stakes are high.

Tactically, given the nature of the pending holiday shopping season and building on the motion and tactics of non-violent civil disobedience that have been employed since 2011, we should consider initiatives that disrupt the flow of capital, interrupt its reproduction, and upend the relations that it depends upon from now till the inauguration. We should build on the tactics that have disrupted transportation routes and which target the logistic clusters that are so vital to capitalism in this day and age (particularly before they are further automated). Let’s be imaginative, creative, and bold.

And remember, there is literally next to nothing about this system that is worth saving.

In Unity and Struggle!

Interview on KPFK Thursday, November 10, 2016 - Organizing for the Future

Discussion with Thandisizwe Chimurenga on Uprising: The Root Work Edition on KPFK Los Angeles Radio.

http://archive.kpfk.org/mp3/kpfk_161110_080030uprising.MP3

Hard Knock Radio Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 - Pre Election Analysis

Discussion with Davey D on Hard Knock Radio about the impact of the 2016 Federal Elections. "Regardless who wins, the empire will endure. The contest is about who and how the empire will be managed".

https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=246133

Without/Borders Conference 2016 - Next Systems Plenary

View the "Next Systems" panel discussion from the With/Out Borders Conference using the link below.

https://vimeo.com/kalamazoocollege/review/188846105/f2df52395d

When the Left Takes the City

Michal Rozworski Podcast
Political Eh-conomy Blog

August 17, 2016

https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AOPERRPQmaq4iqs&cid=FF0EEC86662E4A4C&id=FF0EEC86662E4A4C%21199244&parId=FF0EEC86662E4A4C%21279&action=locate

http://rozworski.org/political-eh-conomy/2016/08/17/podcast-when-the-left-takes-the-city/

This week, the focus is on experience of left parties and organizations at the municipal level. Although the left has still exercised only limited political power in many places since the financial crisis, some cities have seen left projects come to power or build new institutions in interesting ways. My two guests shed light on two examples of municipal socialism in Europe and North America.

First, Yusef Quadura describes the experience of Barcelona en Comu. In 2015, this new left coalition took control of the municipal government in Barcelona. Led by the housing activist Ada Colau, the party did what Podemos couldn’t do nationally and garnered enough support to govern with the intention of implementing a left program, at least at the municipal level. To get a sense of the plans, accomplishments and challenges faced by Barcelona en Comu just over a year into its mandate, I spoke with Yusef, a member Barcelona en Comu’s international group. Yusuf is also part of the party’s co-ordinating committee in the Gracia district, where we met and talked over coffee (excuse the ambient noise), and a substitute counsellor for the Gracia district council.

My second guest is Kali Akuno, a leader within Cooperation Jackson, a municipal organization far beyond just a political party in Jackson, Mississippi. Although the group elected the radical Chokwe Lumumba as mayor of Jackson in 2014 (before he died tragically only a year into his term), electoral politics is only a small, supporting part of Cooperation Jackson’s mission. Kali describes what this network of worker-run cooperatives, party and movement congealed into one is up to and some of challenges it faces.