What the hell do we do right now?
The United States just got a whole lot scarier for a lot of people this past week. Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance has left many wondering even more urgently if he can win against Trump in November. More and more people are calling for him to drop out of the race, while he appears to be doubling down on running. The Supreme Court also released some pretty devastating rulings, allowing the legal criminalization of homelessness as we face ever increasing threats to affordable housing; decreeing legal immunity for presidents; and overturning a 1980s era ruling that gave government agencies deference over judges in ambiguous legal matters, giving a huge amount of power to judges.
There are plenty of people talking about how terrible the consequences of these rulings are, and lots of projections about how bad everything is getting, no matter who is president in November. And they’re right. The thing is, there’s a lot for us to do now in a number of different parts of our lives that move us toward hope, action, and the possibility of real power for the masses. I’m sure a lot of other writers are putting out some good thoughts on this, but below we’ve compiled a few of ours. As we continue writing, especially about the housing crisis and interrelated issues, we’ll be bringing these themes forward again and again:
Join, support, and create unions of all kinds — Seriously, if you have a local tenants’ union, join it. If you own a home, or aren’t a precarious tenant, still join it! Many tenants’ unions still allow homeowners as secondary members, either as allies, or as partial members (a lot of ‘homeowners’ are actually indebted to the bank). While for many people it can be an uphill task to join a labor union right now, tenants’ unions are easy to join and are places of incredible potential and power.
Real power for the masses looks like groups of people organized together with the power to withhold the resources that make the economy and world turn. These resources can be our labor, our rent, our debt repayments. The main point is that we need organization in our communities that can exert undeniable influence and say on power holders.
Here’s an example of this power: In an article, writer Joshua P. Hill wrote about a recent military coup in Bolivia, an attempt to overthrow Bolivia’s democratically elected president. Long story short, a massive Bolivian confederation of trade unions announced a general strike, and made a call for Bolivians to protest the coup. It worked, and the president is already back in office with coup leaders arrested. This is the power of organized labor, and organized labor that is in coalition with social movements. Hill writes:
“We have so much to learn from Bolivia it’s difficult to know where to start. But the overarching theme we have to look to is people power, real power in the hands of the masses. As American labor legend Big Bill Haywood said, ‘If the workers are organized, all they have to do is to put their hands in their pockets and they have got the capitalist class whipped.’ And Bolivian workers are organized. This isn’t new, the people have been engaged in this work of building power for decades. Their ability to credibly threaten coup leaders with a general strike and their ability to flood the streets instantaneously is remarkable; we must seek to replicate both. In the U.S. labor organizers and a broad swath of the working class are already eying the UAW call for a general strike on May 1st, 2028, and other unions are attempting to align their contracts for that day.”
Meet your neighbors — Even if you’ve lived next to each other for a while and haven’t formally met. Bake, cook, or buy something nice and bring it over with a note. Make an effort to say hi, remember their names. A lot of us are missing basic connections with the people living alongside us in our communities, as we’re more often not interacting face-to-face with people. A lot of us are also temporary or precarious, and move often. But being friendly with your neighbors is ground zero for community organizing and community care. These kinds of connections are important now, and will be more than ever in the future.
Find out how to engage in direct community aid — Feeding people, housing people, etc. It’s important to note that direct aid isn’t a substitute for creating organizing and power-leveraging infrastructure in our communities. However, the networks of care, support, and mutual aid that direct aid creates are crucial for knowing each other and knowing what’s going on in our communities. Look for a local Food Not Bombs chapter, a mutual aid organization, or a neighborhood coalition (which could also double as tenant organizing!).
If you can, consider your needs for personal care and development — It’s pretty tough to weather rough times and build power with other people when we can’t manage our own stresses and triggers. I’ve seen a lot of good organizing completely derailed by a single interpersonal issue. On the flip side, for those of us who can, the urge to bury our heads in the sand and avoid thinking about what’s going on can be pretty strong. If we want a livable future, we’re going to have to learn how to emotionally process this stuff. Work on learning how to calm yourself down and be able to tolerate more uncertainty. Connect with the Earth. Plant a garden or some seeds in pots. Consider behaviors that keep you sick, anxious, or depressed, and how you might be able to move toward other avenues of processing. Personal care work also isn’t a substitute for community infrastructure that can exert undeniable influence and say on power holders, but it’s important to sustain ourselves.
Think about how all of the activism and organizing you partake in can work directly toward solidarity based power building for the masses — If you’re more involved in nonprofits or non-direct forms of social justice work, do what you can to push those resources and time toward movements that can exert direct control, such as those listed above. When we consider where to put our time and energy, we can ask ourselves if this work/organization/movement is contributing to building real power for working people.
Feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments. Wishing you all some peace and hope for the future as we all weather these storms together.
appreciated
this is so timely AND WISE.