[We need to come away from the current upheavals with
organization, with vision and goals, with program and campaigns that
all persist and mature and strengthen rather than folding back into
business as usual. ] [[link removed]]

MAKE IT LAST; MAKE IT GROW!  
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Michael Albert
June 9, 2020
ZNet [[link removed]]

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_ We need to come away from the current upheavals with organization,
with vision and goals, with program and campaigns that all persist and
mature and strengthen rather than folding back into business as usual.
_

Black Lives Matter rally – demonstration peaceful protest –
people protestors crowded in Washington Square Park New York City NYC,
stockelements/Shutterstock.com

 

The turmoil in the streets is bigger than we have known. And it is
more focused on wealth and power and police, better organized in many
respects, more diverse, and far more sustained than we have known.
Okay, that seems incredible, but not inexplicable. The confluence of
vapid corrupt officials, hatred for Trump, massive corona revelations
about health care and market driven economics, social distancing and
isolation tensions, persistent massive economic dislocation now grown
to catastrophic proportions, and yet another incredibly disgusting
racist police atrocity on top of festering systemic racism in so many
forms all acted together, and a dream deferred exploded.

But what about the impact of the resistance? I find this harder to
explain. On the one hand, it is incredible people are sustaining
street actions so long, and in a pandemic, no less. But still, two
weeks is not two months or two years. And yet newsrooms are in turmoil
as reporters are rising above the censorious ceiling that normally
confines media thought. Yes, I know we don’t suddenly have flocks of
reporters donning Chomsky/Herman t-shirts and storming their bosses’
offices, but flocks of reporters are suddenly tuning into issues of
race, the economy, and health care too – and writing about systemic
oppression, no less – and their reports and materials are actually
appearing. And not they, but a lot of higher ups are worried about
their jobs. Some are already resigning under pressure due to editorial
priorities and not reduced revenues. And, again, the resistance is
just two weeks in the streets.

And the Minneapolis City Council voted to disband their police force.
Really? Yes, really. Prosecuting cops who did a public lynching with a
boot rather than a rope is a good win. A major city disbanding its
police force? Seriously? Yes. And numerous states are proposing or
already moving to get police out of schools. Not bad police, not
rotten apples, all police out of all schools. New York has not only
outlawed choke holds, a limited but nice step, but also pledged to
move funds from police budgets to social services. A far more profound
step. “Defund Police” had moved from an invisible thought dream of
a few committed anti police violence activists to a demand not only
widespread on the streets, but even in some suites.

At the same time, overall media coverage of confrontations is not
optimal, but it is vastly better than anyone I know who pays attention
to media would have remotely anticipated. Attention to police violence
and racism is not yet what it ought to be, but it is quickly getting
there. I mean really – Roger Goodell, autocratic commissioner of the
systemically racist, sexist, militarist, National Football League says
he, and the league, were wrong not to listen to player protests –
not to listen to Colin Kaepernick who the league blackballed. From now
on, dissent welcomed. Radio and TV sports shows are spending hour
after hour talking about racism, and not just personal racism by
neanderthal specimens letting all else off the hook, but systemic
racism. You may think that this is all just some sports nonsense
temporarily aimed at protecting brands, but if you consider the role
of football in society, the role of sports and sports talk, and the
attention it all gets from diverse mainstream audiences, it is a very
big deal and another sign that two weeks of protests are rocking the
whole damn boat. And even if it is entirely cynical, and I don’t
think it is, brands feeling they have to be anti-racists is a victory
itself.

So will this persist? Will these trends persist? And for that matter,
if activists become comparably militant and creative over additional
intersecting economic, political, and social demands, will media
coverage remain somewhat sensible? Will some officials take up those
cries, too? Will reforms that bring more desires follow?

Why is the repression so far – while hideous – undeniably somewhat
muted? Why is the media coverage – while far from optimal – vastly
better than might have been expected? Why has the outrage over racism
and police policy that even emphasizes the underlying racial system
already found support in many areas normally not only totally deaf to
dissent but in fact aggressively hostile to popular protest and
demands, including not only many prominent journalists, many officials
in office, many athletes, sports officials, and pundits, but even some
sectors among police?

That is the stuff I find hard to understand. Two weeks. I suspect at
least three interconnected factors are primarily accelerating
successes.

* The sight of so much initial dissent, so much initial activism, is
now fueling itself. Why? Because it emotively subverts the widespread
belief that nothing good can happen. It arouses hope, and the absence
of hope was a giant weight crushing propensities to resist, to rebel,
and to even contemplate change. The presence of hope, however –
spurred by visible action that persists – spurs more visible action.
* The sight of so much dissent likewise gives those in positions of
some influence – read, in particular, city councilors and especially
media employees – a feeling that they can act more in accord with
their own best albeit often repressed inclinations (and in accord with
what their kids want them to do) and not immediately find themselves
on their asses and even out of work. So they start to express
themselves.
* And finally, those with more influence, and even or perhaps
especially the very powerful, are scared. They see hordes at the gate.
They feel there is a runaway train threatening their status, power,
and wealth. They see us as bigger even than we see ourselves. They
understand slippery slopes and they see snowballing resistances as a
danger beyond all other dangers. It is the same dynamic as the
reaction to Sanders. And while some look out their windows and say
shoot the looters, and probably want to do so not just with rubber
bullets but with the real thing, others fear resistance has progressed
to a point that shooting will just fire more of us up, so they start
contemplating the unthinkable, concessions. They start to give in on
various demands, even prophylactically, precisely because they are
starting to fear that not giving in will cost them more than giving
in. That is, indeed, the logic of dissent. And in two weeks, it is
visibly working.

What, then, does the above tell us? Nothing fancy. No special studies
required. Don’t need degrees and five syllable words, thanks.

Activism can breed hope. Hope can breed more activism. Follow that
cycle for a while and incredible options open. Follow longer, and real
change is gonna come.

Doing can induce thinking. Thinking can inform doing. Follow that
cycle for a while and focus, intensity, and strategic wisdom enlarge.
Change is gonna be smart.

Growing numbers and enlarging and intensifying focus can make room for
folks otherwise hampered to do what they ought to do. Welcome it.
Another brick in the wall of change.

Growing numbers and enlarging and intensifying focus can convince
those who rule that their own situations are at risk, and that
providing concessions is wiser than going to the mattresses…that is,
that concessions are wiser than all out repression. Celebrate
concessions while gearing up to win more. And yes, they will try to
take credit. They will try to deny they were coerced by activism. It
was their fine inclination despite the activism. Fine, reject that.
Clarify the truth that they didn’t give, we won, but don’t snatch
defeat from the jaws of victory by making believe gains aren’t
gains.

Two weeks of sustained resistance. Look at what’s happening. What
could two months or two years achieve?

But, a word of caution. I have heard a lot of analogies for what is
now happening. Analogies can clarify, and two scare me. One, May ‘68
in France, and two, just an eyeblink ago, truly massive resistance in
Greece.

In both those cases society was rolling along, ready to explode, like
ours last month, and acts of state repression were the match, like
here, now, as well. In Paris, believe it or not, a now laughable
repressive rule change bearing on who could and who could not stay out
late and visit dorm rooms at Paris’s most famous college led to
conflict, which led to dissent and demonstrations, which were
repressed, and in response,,,,,, then exploded into every nook and
cranny of France. In Greece, the police killed a young anarchist in
the part of town conceded to be Anarchist home base. Angry youth went
into the streets there, in the district. Repression was unleashed.
People all over Greece went into the streets from Athens to the
smallest outlying towns. An estimated 40% of the population rallied,
marched, and fought.

In both France and Greece, that is, the eruptions were enormous. It
didn’t just feel like everything was up for grabs. It was true that
everything was up for grabs. Question everything was a description of
what was occurring and not a request for what ought to occur. The
number of people in motion, truly aroused, was enormous – far more
even than so far in the U.S. But there was finally a sad conclusion.
In both France and Greece the turmoil and creativity impacted tens of
millions, but society was not fundamentally to its roots changed for
the better. In fact, in Greece, arguably when the dust finally cleared
things had even gotten worse. There were lots of factors, in both
places, as with any social process.

So here is an image. In each case you had abiding suffering but
relative quiescence. You then had an event nominally like others, but
for whatever reasons it kicked off a massive reaction. Repression
arrived, but the reaction grew and grew. But then, in mere months,
things settled down. Revolutionary stirrings went back to sleep rather
than coming of age to persist.

Boring, alienated, corporate dominated, oppressive existence almost
overnight became hope and incredible upheaval, but it then reverted
back to boring, alienated, corporate dominated, oppressive existence.
The moment of hope and upheaval was incredible. The inability to
parlay it into lasting movement organization and campaigns continually
challenging every sphere of social life and persisting to win gain
after gain on the road to a literally new society, was a fact we must
assess because we need our moment to last.

We need to come away from the current upheavals with organization,
with vision and goals, with program and campaigns that all persist and
mature and strengthen rather than folding back into business as usual.
If we can traverse from outrage and upheaval to sustained resistance
and construction plus on-going outrage and upheaval, we can win a new
world. It will not take a week, a month, or a year, but will instead
require a process that persistently unfolds from now into a winning
future. But if we can’t make what has magnificently emerged
magnificently last – this moment will become lots of people’s
glory days, but will not persist unto victory.

“Change Today – More Change Tomorrow”

“Make It Last, Make It Grow”

And a golden oldie –

“Power to the People”

_Michael Albert is a founder and current member of the staff of Z
Magazine as well as staff of Z Magazine`s web system: ZCom
(www.zmag.org [[link removed]]).  He is the author of 21 books.
Most recently these include: Fanfare for the Future (ZBooks),
Remembering Tomorrow (Seven Stories Press), Realizing Hope (Zed
Press) and Parecon: Life After Capitalism (Verso). _

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