All posts by tedglick

Revolutionary Social Change That Lasts — or, 21st Century Common Sense #10 and Conclusion

Future Hope, , , ,

“It is not enough to be against Donald Trump and MAGA, or against the control of both major parties in the USA by destructive corporate power, or even to be committed to hard work for the next eight and a half [now 6] months here in the USA to defeat the billionaire-supporting, would-be dictator Donald Trump. Our problems are too deep to accept this essential next step as the ultimate goal. Short-term, essential goal yes, but looking at things historically, it can only be the first major step in a fundamental, revolutionary process that over time not just saves the planet and its people but, at long last, matches our desires as a species with the way that we organize ourselves, economically, politically, culturally and socially.” 

21st Century Common Sense, Part 1, February 2026

I believe, I really do believe, that it is (still) possible that this world can be turned upside down, in the way Jesus of Nazareth meant in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, among other things, in Luke 20-21: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. . . Woe to you who are rich. . . for you will mourn and weep.”

Why do I believe this?

My reading of history, in all its positive and negative aspects, inclines me toward feeling hopeful, just as I am fully aware that we have many rivers to cross and mountains to climb and descend until human society becomes, worldwide, finally, what it can become.

Orban in Hungary being defeated is hopeful. The changes brought about in US society because of the Black Freedom movement of the 50s, 60s and beyond make me hopeful. The changes brought about by the women’s movement in so many ways in so many places in the world make me hopeful. The MAGA Republicans being overwhelmingly defeated in various local and state and special elections all over the country since Trump was elected in 2024: this is very important for us to remember and internalize.

I am encouraged when I read in the April, 2026 issue of Scientific American an article based on research entitled, “The Kids Are All Right,” that “youth are more empathetic and less narcissistic than in the past, as well as more open-minded and inclusive. Drug use is down, youth violence has dropped and teen pregnancies have declined. IQs have gone up, and kids exhibit more self-restraint and patience than they did 50 years ago.” And then there are youth organizations like the Sunrise Movement which have shown real staying power and organizing ability over the last 10 years.

There are the tens of millions of people of all colors and cultures in thousands of localities who took to the streets in 2020 after George Floyd was murdered by local police in Minneapolis. There are the successive wave of nationally coordinated actions of resistance to Trumpfascism beginning the day before he took office and continuing ever since up to the latest No Kings action on March 28, with over 8 million people coming out in 3300 localities.

But the ultimate reason why I believe that we have a fighting chance to truly bring into being a very different, much more just and democratic world is the fact that, for the first time ever, our earth, this wonderful third planet from this solar system’s sun, is facing a common enemy that can only be defeated by our peoples joining together: the worldwide climate crisis, caused primarily by the coal, oil and gas industries and their blind supporters in government, like Trump.

Most people get it on the existential seriousness of this crisis. According to a public opinion survey conducted in 2024: “Four out of five people around the world (80 percent) want more climate action from their country. They also seek global unity in responding to the crisis, with 86 percent agreeing that their countries should set aside geopolitical differences, such as those regarding trade and security, and work together on climate change. There is a clear expectation that governments need to lead and strengthen their commitments to address climate change, with a resounding 89 percent of people wanting to see more climate action from their governments.”

These opinions, combined with the many positive reasons to get off fossil fuels and onto renewables—like saving money, reducing air, water and land pollution, job creation—have been translating into worldwide action for many years. Here’s what the International Energy Agency reports:

“Global energy investment in 2025 is set to reach a record $3.3 trillion, with over $2.2 trillion directed toward clean energy—including renewables, grids, storage, and efficiency—which is double the $1.1 trillion invested in fossil fuels. Solar photovoltaics (PV) lead all energy sources in investment, while total energy transition investment reached a record $2.3 trillion.”

And check this out, from an AI Overview: “The 2026 war in the Middle East, leading to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has severely disrupted global energy markets and catalyzed an urgent shift to renewable energy, transforming energy security into a, if not the, top policy priority. With nearly 20 million barrels of oil stalled daily, countries are moving beyond short-term energy rationing to accelerate long-term investments in solar, wind, and battery storage to gain independence from volatile chokepoints.”

Would a successful “urgent shift to renewable energy” mean that the USA and the world have become the much more just and democratic societies that we can become? No, it would not, but such a successful energy revolution, taking place in major part because of the demand of masses of people from below, will empower all of us, literally allow us to breathe better. It should stimulate a continuation of other world-changing actions to eliminate hunger, reverse the destruction of animal and plant species, provide adequate homes and worthwhile jobs, free and good healthcare for all and so many other positive things. A huge weight will be lifted from us, the weight of so many of us afraid to have children or afraid for the world our children and grandchildren and the seven generations after us will inherit.

I really do believe all of this is possible. I believe that we can win.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

As May Day Approaches, What About the Working Class?

Future Hope, , , ,

For many socialists and revolutionaries for a long time, the “working class” has been seen as THE revolutionary group. Karl Marx in the 1840s was among the first to identify the working class as a key sector, particularly the industrial working class which was growing in numbers in the mid-1800s as the industrial revolution advanced in Europe and elsewhere. Marx saw this sector of the population as the key revolutionary sector for several reasons.

First, industry was concentrating large numbers of people, by the hundreds and thousands, into factories where the workers shared the common experience of debilitating exploitation of their labor by the owners of the factories. Because of this shared common exploitation, over time the industrial working class, and other workers influenced by them even if not in as stark or clear-cut a situation as workers in large factories, would come to see the power in their hands due to their crucial role in the functioning of capitalist society. In Marx’s, and Friedrich Engels’, line of reasoning, and that of many revolutionaries who came after them, this situation was distinct from the realities of life for peasants/farmers, artisans and craftspeople who may have been poor and were definitely workers, but whose conditions of life did not teach them the lesson of collective organization as the means toward improving those conditions.

Marx saw this industrial working class growing to the point where there would be a vast gulf between the great majority of exploited workers and the tiny minority of private property-owning capitalists. In other words, over time the working class would become and would learn that it was the dominant class in terms of numbers. This, combined with the experience of working together in the factories and learning how to struggle together against the capitalists for improvements in their lives, were the major reasons for the Marxist determination that the unification and enlightenment, through experience and training, of the working class, particularly the industrial working class, was the way in which capitalism would be replaced by socialism.

On the face of it, there are transparent difficulties with a couple of the key components of this theoretical/strategic perspective when it comes to United States realities today. First, the number of workers in factories has been going down as runaway shops and exporting of jobs, automation, robots and computerization increasingly take over industrial processes within many industries. Right now we are facing a major escalation of this process through Artificial Intelligence, AI, and massive and destructive Data Centers. Related, the “industrial proletariat” is hardly the dominant group even within the overall working class, much less the population as a whole. Government workers, retail salespeople, office employees, health sector workers, truck drivers, those in so-called “service” industries—these are much more the types of jobs that are growing in numbers, and are projected to do so for years to come.

The US working class, however, those who own no significant income-generating property and must work for others for a living, is a decided majority, taking all of the many occupations and sectors into account. Estimates by economists who have studied this question put its total range at around 60-65% of the adult working population but others see it as higher.

Many of these working-class people are people of color, women and/or lgbtq+ folks, which is one reason why in our work for fundamental, systemic change, it is essential that our movement deal not just with “class issues” but also the issues of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other “isms” that can keep us divided and weaker.

In my book 21st Century Revolution: Through Higher Love, Racial Justice and Democratic Cooperation, I do my best to analyze what I see as seven class groupings within US society, trying to help us get a handle on our particular realities in the USA as far as class differences. These are the seven:

-the barely-surviving working class
-the low-income working class
-the moderate- to middle-income working class
-the property-owning, small/medium business class
-the professional and managerial middle class
-the lower level, capitalist supporting elite
-the corporate/financial ruling class

What does all this mean as far as the question of how we bring about revolutionary, transformative change in the world?

First, we need to reaffirm the realities of class exploitation as central to how capitalism works. More specifically, we need to reject strategic perspectives which downplay the importance of class because the industrial working class, in the US and other economically advanced societies, is declining in numbers. We must also reject the argument which says that the correct approach to bring about major change is just to bring together all of the various sectors of the population who are putting forward their specific demands for change, without seeing class as a key element within that popular alliance.

The fact is that even though industrial workers are no longer a major portion of the workforce, virtually all workers in various categories of work continue to experience difficulties and injustice on the job. Many are forced to work at stressful, boring or dangerous jobs that are one small part of an overall set of fragmented tasks divided up among many workers. Most of the new jobs that have been and are continuing to be created are part-time, temporary or contract jobs with no or few benefits. Wages and benefits for full-time work are generally stagnant, but for the barely surviving and low-income sectors of the overall working class, they have been going down for decades.

Within the roughly 2/3rds of the population that makes up the working class, all three sectors of that class—the barely surviving, the low income and the moderate/middle income sectors—are important to the alliance that must be built, but it is the low-income sector that is both the largest numerically and, for various reasons, most consistently progressive, most open to a progressive consciousness, and capable of engaging in effective action.

Another major reason for the strategic importance of this sector is the reality that a significant percentage of the women workers and workers of color in the US workforce are to be found here. The dual or triple oppressions of class/race, gender/class, or class/race/gender, are powerful teaching tools about the true nature of the system.

The major divisions keeping the working class separated are racism, sexism and heterosexism. As a popular alliance emerges that unites the movements of people of color, the women’s movement, the lgbtq+ movement, the climate and environmental movement, young people, and the progressive elements of the labor movement and community-based working-class based movements, there is an arena for popular education on these and other divisive and backwards-looking ideologies. In the process of working together around commonly felt issues of concern, people grow and change. This can only benefit the working class.

A popular alliance will be of benefit to the progressive trade unions that continue to contend with middle-of-the-road to conservative elements within their ranks. By putting forward its program for resolution of the crises of US society, by organizing around that program and in support of its immediate demands on the government and on corporate power, by running candidates for office on that program, masses of working-class people both inside and outside of the trade union movement can be educated and galvanized into action. This can only help the process of trade union organization and working-class based community organization.

Of course, in order for these positive developments to take place out of the alliance building process, it is essential that there be significant involvement of working-class leaders in the leadership of the alliance. There will be other classes part of it, farmers, professionals, small businesspeople, ministers, others. The potential of the alliance will not be realized unless there is a broadly-based, multi-racial, multi-gender, multi-issue leadership representing not just the different movements and sectors of the population but especially the different sectors of the working class, 2/3rds or more of the population.

With such an alliance, and with sound strategy, tactics, methods of organizing and ways that we relate to one another, we can truly create another world.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

The Rising of the Women is the Rising of Us All–or, 21st Century Common Sense, Part 8 (of 10)

Future Hope, , , ,

“Women and men all over the world are, for the first time in such large numbers, frontally challenging the male-dominator/female-dominated human relations model that is the foundation of a dominator worldview. At the same time the idea. . . of seeing the ‘the other’ as ‘the enemy’ is also being challenged. There is, most significantly, a growing awareness that the emerging higher consciousness of our global ‘partnership’ is integrally related to a fundamental reexamination and transformation of the roles of both women and men.”

-The Chalice and the Blade, by Riane Eisler, HarperSan Francisco, 1989

It is of vital importance that more and more of us internalize the fact that for 95% or more of the time that the ancestors of today’s homo sapiens, today’s human beings, walked the earth, from about 300,000 years ago until now, archaeological and other research shows that women and men cooperated in the decision-making about how to survive and develop. There are places in the world, particularly among indigenous people who have resisted corporate domination, where this is still the case. In these historical and present day societies, women had power and were/are affirmatively appreciated by men.

We need to understand that the last 6-7,000 years of human history are an aberration. Prior to that time, when women and men generally lived in cooperative ways, human societies were not about oppression, domination, exploitation and murderous wars. And even during this later period, there have been repeated and constant movements and organized efforts for a very different way of human interaction and economic development, for much more just and liberating societies.

My first personal experience with the rising women’s movement of that time was in the late 1960’s, at college. Having dinner with my then-girlfriend, someone who I liked an awful lot, she glared at and walked out on me, never to go out on a date with me again at college, because I made fun of her having joined a women’s consciousness-raising and support group. At the time these forms of organizing were developing around the country, growing in large part out of the experiences and insights of women who had been part of the civil rights/Black Freedom movement of the 1960’s.

My next memorable experience was in 1971 when I was serving out an 18-month prison sentence for anti-Vietnam-war draft resistance actions as part of the Catholic Left. After I was moved from a federal youth prison in Ashland, Kentucky to a medium-security prison in Danbury, Ct., I became part of a twice-weekly book discussion group organized by Fathers Dan and Phil Berrigan. The primary book we read and discussed when I was there was Sisterhood Is Powerful, an anthology of articles edited by Robin Morgan. I have no memory of anything specific that we read and discussed, but there’s no question it had an impact on me.

Ever since I have tried to be an anti-sexist and a woman-supporting man. I have done what I could to point out sexist (and racist and heterosexist) comments and attitudes on the part of men I am talking or working with. I make no claims to have always been the kind of person I would like to be in this respect but I do know that I have grown as a human being and become a more just and loving person because of what I have learned.

Of course, sexism and heterosexism aren’t just something to be changed by individual transformation. These negative ideologies and practices are reflected in government and business laws and customs in societies all over the world, still. This is despite progress that has been made over the last 50 years thanks to the words, actions and organizing of millions upon millions of women, and some men.

The Trumpfascists are very misogynist. They are clearly trying to turn the clock back many decades. “Male-dominated,” as well as white- and very rich-dominated, is synonymous with a big majority of Trump cabinet and top government posts. Forbes Magazine in its August 21, 2025 issue reported that “Federal job cuts [under Trump] are disproportionately impacting women of all ages and career stages. The Trump administration projects a reduction of 300,000 federal jobs this year. . . Women represent roughly half of federal employees and have higher representation in the agencies targeted for cuts. These administrative actions threaten not only women’s jobs but also their career growth, retirement security and financial stability.”

Given the fact that women make up about ½ of the US and world population, on practical grounds alone, it is without a doubt that as more and more women rise up, speak out and get organized in defense of their rights and freedoms and all peoples’ rights and freedoms, organized women willl be an essential component of a successful popular movement for systemic, progressive change.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Anti-Racism Among the People–or, 21st Century Common Sense, Part 7

Future Hope, , , ,

“It is not enough to be anti-racist on a personal level or even, if you are a white person, to be in active solidarity with the struggles of people of color. Also essential, particularly in this critical election year, is conscious work among other white people who have been so infected with the ideas of white supremacy that they’ll support a white, corrupt, billionaire-loving fascist before they’ll support a Black, Brown or Indigenous, working-class fighter for justice for all. Breaking more white people away from, or beginning to question, MAGA ideology and practice is very strategic in 2026.”

This is from one of these Future Hope columns I wrote in late February, as part of my 21st Century Common Sense series. These tasks for white activists, expanded upon below, are essential if we are to bring about the political, social, economic and cultural change in this world that is not just a good idea but absolutely necessary if human beings as a species are going to survive.

We need to take seriously the ways in which this European and European-American dominated world has impacted each of us on an individual level. We need to work with others to root out of our lives not just the overt but the less obvious, more subtle forms of racism and assumed white supremacy. We need to take time to study about our contaminated history. We need to develop personal relationships with people of color to come to appreciate racism’s destructive effects and to gain the courage needed to stand up to it. We need to become good listeners and deepening thinkers. We need to be trustworthy allies not just when it comes to the tactics of our fight for systemic change but in the way we live our lives.

We need to manifest these understandings in concrete support given to people of color-led organizations and campaigns with which we have general alignment on issues and worldview, not necessarily all people of color-led efforts, because there are differences. But for those groups generally “in the same ball park,” we as white people have a responsibility to do our best to strengthen them through participation in their events and actions, through financial support and in other ways. Our commitment to helping to create a world where all people are treated equally and fairly demands that we do this.

It’s also critical that whites organizing whites take up the economic, health care, housing, child care, education or other issues impacting working-class and middle-class white communities, to show that we are concerned about all forms of inequality and want a just society for everyone. This is key. A good organizer knows that you need to start with people where they are, make connections on the basis of issues, experiences or other things held in common. As those connections are made, as people get to know and respect the organizer, they are more willing to listen and think about constructive criticism from her/they/him or ideas other than those they are usually exposed to.

Finally, and the hardest, we need to be willing to consciously call out and confront racist words and actions by white people when they happen. We need to have the courage to do this but also the smarts to do so in a way that is not about shaming or attacking others but, instead, trying to help them grow in their understanding of how pernicious and ultimately destructive racism is to them and others they know.

Here’s one small, recent example from my life about how I did this:

I was at a meeting of our local town council last October, right around the time of Indigenous Peoples Day, known to some as Columbus Day. During an open comment period a leader of an Italian-American organization in our town, a town with a significant percentage of people of Italian heritage, spoke about what a great person Columbus was. At one point he referred to Columbus doing good things for the “uncivilized people,” his words, Columbus encountered while in the Caribbean.

I was not planning to speak during this session but these words changed me. I did speak and I publicly criticized his use of words and the racism that was behind them. But I tried not to attack him for it. I even said I would like to meet and talk with him about all of this (which hasn’t yet happened).

I know for a fact that if I had not done the studying, done the work with people of color-majority organizations in my area, gotten to know and develop friendships with some of those people, I would not have had the courage to do so.

Little by little, or for some more than a little, we each need to try to chip away at this most destructive of ideologies and practices, always open to constructive criticism from others to learn how to do better in this absolutely essential work.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Nonviolent Lives. Nonviolent Tactics?–or, 21st Century Common Sense, Part 6

Future Hope, , ,

I’m pretty certain, based on experiences and study, that a very big majority of US Americans who understand the need for progressive, substantive, systemic change—tens of millions of us—believe that we should try to live “nonviolent lives” as much as possible. We should do so when it comes to actions that we organize and the way that we organize and interact with other people. We should do our best, day by day, hour by hour, to treat those in our family, our neighbors, our friends, those we work with, in a loving and nonviolent way.

We should be “nonviolent” in the way we talk with each other, doing our best not to put other people down or hurt them emotionally or spiritually, not just physically.

This kind of nonviolence is really more accurately described as “love.” We should be loving individuals, of ourselves and those we come into contact with, even our enemies. Our interactions with them are likely to be sometimes intense and emotional, even physical, but our intention should be to try to get those we are communicating with to realize the error of their ways and do some serious thinking.

I think of something I learned about decades ago, that in the Cuban civil war in the late 1950’s to overthrow the Batista dictatorship by force of arms, the revolutionaries, after a battle, would take care of wounded enemy soldiers, help them to get on a healing road, and then release them. THIS is a very good example of nonviolence and love for enemies, refusing to allow them to defeat us, standing up and fighting, while appreciating that, ultimately, people can change.

Which brings me to the issue of “nonviolent tactics.”

During the 17 months since Trump and the MAGA’s were elected, I’ve occasionally heard people or seen people write as if what we should be doing to defeat them is to get guns. For some it’s not just that, it’s getting with other people who are doing the same, to be prepared for the worst when it comes to defending ourselves and our peoples.

Fortunately, from what I’ve observed, this is NOT an approach which is widespread within the ranks of the millions of us who are resisting the Trumpfascists. Our actions, from on-the-ground resistance to ICE, to organizing on the many issues we need to fight on, to the national days of coordinated action on the same day organized by 50501, May Day Strong, No Kings and others–all are consciously and openly nonviolent. This has made a difference as far as how they have been covered by mass media and how they have been responded to by our Trumpfascist enemies. The former have been predominantly positive or at least objective; the latter, so far, have been apparently confused and thrown off.

Does this mean that our tactics should always and everywhere be nonviolent, physically unarmed? The more I’ve thought about this in the context of who now runs the federal government, the more I’ve come to answer NO.

The USA is a big and diverse country. In this context, I mean “diverse” mainly as far as ideologically. There are states and/or parts of states where a definite majority of the people are conservative. Some of those people are overtly racist, sexist, heterosexist and militaristic, though some, I’d say a majority, are not. These people may view things pretty much that way but they’re not overt about it.

It’s those racist/sexist/heterosexist/militaristic ones that we have to be concerned about. It’s not that we should hide from them. For progressive white people in particular, we should be willing to take risks to take on these people ideologically. I know from experience, and others’ experiences, that some of these people are reachable, if we go about this work in the right way.

But others aren’t. Others are already organized into armed rightist groups. In areas of the country where these people are relatively strong politically, I am unwilling to take an absolutist position that it is wrong to have a gun or to be organized for community self-defense. It may be the right thing to do so, based upon realities on the ground.

What I will say, however, is that I don’t support “our side”, armed, openly and ostentatiously going public and essentially being provocative. That doesn’t make sense to me practically or politically.

Once again: the United States of America is a big country. Though our overall approach everywhere right now has to be one based on a commitment to nonviolence, to love, in the best sense, tactically and personally, I do not think, tactically, self-defense via guns is necessarily out of the question everywhere and always.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Millions in the Streets Nationally Make History

Future Hope, , , ,

I’ve been surprised the past week to hear some people, not many but some, telling me that they or people they know aren’t planning to attend a No Kings action this Saturday. These are people who have progressive or liberal or radical ideas, who oppose what is happening under the Trump regime and who are activists of some sort.

For some people it’s because they don’t think the message of No Kings is as radical as they would like it to be. For others it’s because the coalition of groups organizing these actions isn’t as multi-racial, led by people of color, as they would like it to be. And for some it’s because the tactics being used are seen as too tame, not at the level that the urgency of our situation calls for, as in direct action that risks arrest.

There’s truth to all of these concerns, but to stay away from the Saturday actions because of them is a mistake. Right now, as has been true since Trump and the Republicans were elected into White House and Congressional power 17 months ago, the power of the people, people mobilized and visible in very big numbers all over the country—this is a crucial component of the resistance against these Trumpfascists.

What if all of these types of mobilizations had not taken place last year, 2025? History will absolutely record that the multiple days of local actions all over the country, beginning in early February, 2025 with 50 actions in 50 state capitols organized by 50501, organized primarily by young people, and continuing through to 7 million coming out on October 18 organized by No Kings, played a, if not the, major role in turning US politics around in a progressive direction on a mass scale.

The Trump regime is underwater in the polls, down by 15% or more, partly because of their policies and incompetence, but also because of our movement’s visible resistance all last year. This resistance took many forms, a lot of it in on-the-ground opposition to ICE, and it included these nationally coordinated days of action.

Our job in 2026 is to keep building upon those political victories to keep up the pressure on the Democrats to get them to put up stronger fights for the many things that matter as far as major issues. In the process we can and are building our own independent political organizations and candidacies for electoral office that put the needs of working people and our disrupted climate and environment absolutely first, before anything else.

No Kings Day this Saturday will help that process continue and grow. Not to take part in it, to consciously decide not to do so, is a mistake.

All out for resistance Saturday! And let’s just keep going afterwards.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Not a Third Party, a Third Force, or, 21st Century Common Sense Part 5

Future Hope, , , ,

In Part One of this planned series of articles, I wrote about the historical timeliness of a ‘third force’ strategy. I said, “This isn’t something pulled out of the air, or someone’s lofty dreams. It is grounded in historical experience in the United States over the last 60 or so years.”

A progressive “third force,” one that is both activist and electoral, that does day-do-day community, workplace and school organizing, that brings together those who see themselves as independents, who are critical of both the dominant sector of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, those who have a critique of “the system,” combined with those who may have a similar critique but who have decided for practical reasons to carry on that fight in part within the Democratic Party—this is what is needed right now to defeat fascism and lay the basis for more positive change going forward over coming years and decades.

What “historical experience in the United States over the last 60 years” am I referring to?

In the early 1970’s, as the Vietnam War was coming to an end, a civil rights lawyer, Arthur Kinoy, wrote a 60-or-so page document, “Toward a Mass Party of the People,” which articulated his reasoning about why this was not just a good idea but a timely idea.

This was NOT the kind of direction seen as the right one by many of the Black Freedom, anti-war, women’s and other activists who had taken part in the movements of the 50s and 60s. Older Left groups criticized this idea and continued to work primarily within the Democratic Party. Younger people rejected the idea and, for a decent percentage of them, instead wrongly acted as if the USA was like Russia or China prior to their revolutions. These US revolutionaries created organizations which attempted to use similar approaches toward systemic change, ideologically and organizationally, as did revolutionaries from those two very different kinds of countries. By the early 80’s those approaches were revealing themselves to be political dead ends in the USA.

What WAS having an impact, however, were the Mayoral candidacies in 1983 of Mel King in Boston and Harold Washington in Chicago. Both were progressive, movement-oriented Black men with long histories in community organizing. King came in first in a multi-candidate primary but because he did not get a majority of the overall vote, lost in a runoff against the second place finisher, but Washington won in Chicago and became Mayor.

King called his campaign the Boston Rainbow Coalition, emphasizing its multi-racial character. In 1983 Jesse Jackson began to openly explore running for President to build a national “rainbow coalition.” His campaign consciously and openly brought together both progressive Democrats and those in the Mass Party group, Independent Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Progressive Coalition, and others who were NOT Democrats.

History has shown the relative success of this approach to politics. Jackson polled about 3.3 million votes in total in 1984 and about seven million votes in 1988. Unfortunately, he did not support the continued building of a nationwide Rainbow Coalition in 1989 despite it starting to take root and developing in many parts of the country.

Next up were groups like Campaign for a New Tomorrow, the Labor Party, the New Party (which became the Working Families Party), and the Green
Party. CNT and the Labor Party died out but Working Families and Greens continued and still exist, with the Greens following a strategy of running for President every four years. Their high point with that strategy came in 2000 when Ralph Nader ran for President as a Green, but he polled only 2.7% of the vote. The Green Party nationally has been floundering ever since, with no Presidential candidate getting more than 1.1% of the vote.

So has anything worked over these many years of various efforts? Yes!

The two Bernie Sanders campaigns for President in 2016 and 2020 and the successful campaigns in Democratic primaries of many other more local candidates, people like AOC and Ilhan Omar as two major examples, have worked. They have without question strengthened the overall progressive movement, not just when it comes to elections but as far as other forms of organizing and activism that are non-electoral.

When Bernie was considering his first run for the Presidency in 2015, he openly asked for input into whether he should run as an Independent—the only way that he had run for office up to that point in time—or within the Democratic Party. I, along with Bill Fletcher, wrote an article with our ideas on this. We said, in part:

“The political reality of the United States of America today is that the vast majority of strong progressives who run for political office, people with similar politics as Bernie’s, do so within Democratic primaries. We may wish it was different, but it is not. This has to be taken into account in determining the tactics of a strong progressive Presidential campaign. . .

“The last ‘third party’ candidate to actually be elected was Abraham Lincoln, winning with 36% of the vote because there were four major Presidential candidates in 1860. . .

“The bottom line for us, and we believe for Bernie, should be that he runs for President in a way which brings together, holds together and builds that broad progressive coalition. He should be very clear and forthright that this is the path to ultimate victory and social and economic transformation in this country and make his decisions accordingly.”

Bernie’s national “third force,” not “third party,” strategic/tactical approach was right then, and it still is today. At some point in the future, particularly if there is significant growth in the number of progressive candidates running on non-two-party lines for local offices and winning, that could change, but until that happens history and experience are telling us: it’s time for a conscious Third Force!

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Trying to Dig Deeper, or 21st Century Common Sense, Part 4

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“A huge problem, up there at the top of the list, is that the history of efforts over the last many centuries to create truly just and democratic societies, run by organized people, not oligarchs, has at best yielded mixed results since the Russian Revolution of 1917.”

These words were part of the first column of this series of my Future Hope columns, planned to be at least 10 of them. I’m calling this series “21st Century Common Sense.”

So what is my “common sense” about why the world is in the state it’s in?

-One very big reason is the fact that revolutions trying to bring into being much more egalitarian and just societies, societies improving the lives and gaining power over decision-making for working-class and low-income people, took place in countries, Russia and China in particular, which had just a small amount of industry and not much of an urban working class. They were overwhelmingly peasant-based societies. This meant there were limitations, both economically and as far as the experience of organization on the part of regular people, that led to very real distortions and much worse, when it came to how society was reorganized after the overthrow of the ruling powers by revolutionary organizations.

-Another very real reason has been the problem of male dominance, leadership of organizations avowedly about positive social change to benefit working-class people dominated by backwards and oppressive cultural practices where men are assumed to be the “natural” leaders.

Because of the impact, staying power and growth of the late 1960’s women’s movement growing, in large part, out of the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s, there has been not just a growth in various sectors of US society in the percentage of women in leadership but also a growth in an understanding of more and more men that this is good and right.

-Another reason is a similar process when it comes to the issue of racism. The victories of the civil rights/Black Freedom movement back then had lasting impacts in so many ways. Not only did it change racist US laws in 1964, 1965 and beyond, it undoubtedly inspired many other movements—Indigenous, Mexicans/Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, other Latinos/as/e, Asian Americans, lgbtq+ people, progressive trade unionism, immigrant rights, disability rights, student rights, family farmers, environmental and climate protection, for peace with justice, liberation theology and more.

At first, the proliferation of these movements led to overall movement difficulties. Which issue–class, race, gender or something else–was the most important, or the most strategic when it came to changing human society? There was competition over material resources to support all the different organizations which grew out of this new political milieu, a continuing issue.

Over time, over the past decades, I see positive changes as far as these and other challenges. There is, overall, a definite understanding on the part of many millions of us, the many millions of activists and organizers who are at work in our own particular vineyards, whether it be by geography, by issue, by specific tactics, or something else—there is an understanding that we absolutely must and are finding ways to join our struggles, all of which ultimately have a common enemy: the billionaire/multi-multi-millionaire class which literally dominates not just US society but much of the world.

But these difficulties in uniting aren’t the only reasons why the Trumpfascists are now in the positions of power they are.

US society is in need of a lot of change, but it is a fact that, so far, those in positions of governmental power, whether it be in the White House, in Congress, in state legislatures or in cities/towns/townships/villages, are chosen through a process of elections. This dynamic is deeply rooted among the U.S. American people. Yes, big corporate money has much influence, particularly at higher levels, and yes, there are various ways the US electoral system can become much more democratic, like through ranked choice, proportional representation and public financing of elections, but the key point in the context of this column is that social change movements, sooner or later, must contend within the electoral system for power.

Individual progressives and progressive organizations in the past and still today have fallen prey to one of two very real mistakes in working to win the votes of the masses of people who, through their voting, do actually decide who wins. One mistake is for candidates for office to articulate our approach to issues, create a platform, which does not take into account where the people we are trying to influence are as far as their consciousness on issues or in the language they can relate to, and as a result we can come across as too narrow, too dogmatic, not flexible enough, too ultra-left, etc. The other mistake is the opposite: to be TOO flexible, not firm enough on basic principles, too willing to bend too far toward one or another of the corporate class’s positions on issues, understanding that they are not monolithic but in general are primarily looking out for their own power and wealth.

“Purist” politics and “opportunistic” politics: these are two huge mistakes made in the past which have narrowed progressive possibilities for electoral and other victories.

How can we make progress on these weaknesses? The first step is to identify them as very real problems and to then talk about them, interact about them, to at least minimize these errors happening, moving toward their becoming, over time, mistakes that we have pretty much transcended.

Paulo Freire, in his must-read book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, has some very relevant input on the “how” question:

“The correct method for a revolutionary leadership to employ in the task of liberation is, therefore, not ‘libertarian propaganda.’ . . The correct method lies in dialogue. The conviction of the oppressed that they must fight for their liberation is not a gift bestowed by the revolutionary leadership, but the result of their own conscientizacao [consciousness raising]. . . Dialogue cannot exist, however, in the absence of a profound love for the world and for people. Love is at the same time the foundation of dialogue and dialogue itself. Because love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is commitment to others. . . In dialogical theory, at no stage can revolutionary action forgo communion with the people, really human, empathetic, loving, communicative and humble, in order to be liberating.”  (1)

Wise words grounded in experience and commitment. Thank you, Paulo Freire.

  •  Paulo Freire, 1970, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, pps. 53-54, 77-78 and 171

  Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Climate Crisis Threatens Everything–or, 21st Century Common Sense, Part 3

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It was the summer of 2003. I was employed at the time as the national coordinator of the Independent Progressive Politics Network, working towards, we hoped, a progressive, broad-based alternative to the Dems and Reps. But something happened that summer in Europe which changed my life, leading me to leave that IPPN job a year and a half later in the hope that I could find paying work focused on the climate crisis. What happened that summer to lead to that personal change?

Here is how AI Overview reports it:

“The 2003 European heatwave was an extreme, prolonged, and deadly weather event, with estimated fatalities exceeding 30,000 to 70,000, particularly in France, Italy, and Spain. Lasting from June through mid-August 2003, it featured temperatures 3 to 5°C above average, often exceeding 40°C in Western Europe, causing severe agricultural losses and sparking major wildfires. . .”

I had known at the time about “global warming,” knew it was one of many important issues. But the research I did that fall, the books I read, convinced me that this crisis was much more serious, more imminent, than I had thought that it was. If tens of thousands of people in economically developed Europe could die from an extreme weather event caused in large part by the heating up of the atmosphere, and with knowledgeable people predicting this was just one example of what humankind worldwide would be facing for years to come, even if we did stop burning oil, coal and gas, the fossil fuels whose ubiquitous use is the primary reason for these events, this was clearly a very real, here-and-now existential threat for all forms of life on all of the earth.

I remember talking with a good friend at the time who was questioning me about this decision to alter my main focus. I answered that I was doing so primarily because of the seriousness of the crisis but also because I doubted the immediate potential, back then, for a coming together of independent progressives significant enough to have an impact. The conscious Left was weak and divided, not in a position, I felt then, to have much impact nationally for years to come.

I’ve thought about and studied this question a number of times over the past 23 years. During that time I have taken part, on local, state and national levels, in campaigns and initiatives other than just the climate crisis, but that has continued all that time as my top priority. The biggest example is my throwing myself into the Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign when it happened in 2015 and 2016. The fact that he made the climate crisis one of the main issues he spoke about, one of a number of them, definitely resonated with me.

Also resonating since then has been the articulation and advancement of the idea of a Green New Deal by AOC and others after that Sanders campaign, an initiative which combines action on the climate crisis/ecological devastation with the kind of systemic, pro-justice, housing/healthcare/childcare/jobs/etc. governmental actions needed on many other pressing issues facing the USA and the world.

When Trump was elected in 2024, I and groups I’m a leader of consciously took part in anti-fascist actions in support of immigrant rights, against ICE, and for other no-to-fascism efforts like the No Kings demonstrations throughout 2025.

As 2026 gets underway, with Spring thankfully on the horizon, there are a number of ways that those of us who get it on the seriousness of the climate crisis can take action. One way is to support Democrats and serious progressive Independents running for elected office who speak about this issue while connecting it to others. A second way is raising this issue up at nationally distributed actions on March 28 No Kings, April 22 Earth Day and May 1 Mayday Strong. A third way is strengthening and broadening out the “Make Climate Polluters Pay” movement working in 1/3 or more of the states to pinpoint the fossil fuel industry and get them to pay for the damage they are causing.

The climate crisis, the worldwide emergency we are in, truly calls out for us in the belly of the beast to keep raising this up, to take on those who don’t give a damn about the ecocide their policies are advancing. This is an issue on the agenda of history and the world right now.

In this critical election year when the Trumpfascists are deeply unpopular, but wind and solar continue to have the support of three-fourths of the US population, let’s act accordingly as we go about our anti-fascist organizing.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Facing Up to Our Historical Tasks

Future Hope, , , ,

or, 21st Century Common Sense, Part 2

By Ted Glick

Rebellions against injustice and poverty go back centuries, millenia, throughout the world. People “on the bottom” of human societies, sooner or later, get themselves organized to put up a fight. Because of this historical reality, when it is combined with changes in consciousness and/or guilt among some middle- and even upper-class people, and despite our human weaknesses whatever our class, gender or color/culture, humanity has made some progress over these many decades and centuries. 

This column addresses some of what I see as happening since Karl Marx and Frederich Engels wrote and published the Communist Manifesto in the 1840’s, 180 years ago. This and other writings by them significantly impacted those in Europe, as well as elsewhere, who were trying to overthrow or change the oppressive and violent governments of that day.

One of their most famous sayings as far as what they were working for was human society governed by the principle, “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” This was very similar to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth 1800 years before in Palestine, as written by and about the early Christians after he had been killed. This is what was said in the Bible Book of Acts, Chapter 2, verses 44 and 45: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”

We in the US and the world have the great misfortune of being currently ruled by someone who would like to be the world’s Pharaoh. A big part of the reason for this is the control over US political life by the billionaires and multi-multi-millionaires (MMM’s). This has been true for both the dominant sector of the Democratic Party, as well as the Republican Party, though different in the societal results. This, plus other aspects of the US electoral system, like winner-take-all (not proportional) elections and corporate control of mass media, have extremely stacked the deck against those of us who want society to be motivated not by greed and power-seeking but by justice and higher love.

However, things are changing for the better.

Rev. Jesse Jackson’s US President campaigns in 1984 and 1988 were an essential part of that change, followed 30 years later by Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 campaigns. Sanders’ campaigns showed visibly that broad masses of the US American people were ready for something very different. This independent socialist received over 13 million votes nationally in the 2016 Democratic primaries.

Also responsible for our improving prospects are the myriad number of popular-based, visible, action campaigns and day-to-day organizing on a wide range of issues going back to historic impact of the South-based civil rights movement of the 1950’s: racial and economic justice, women’s rights, lgbtq+ rights, workplace and labor organizing, environmental protection and climate defense, actions for peace, new forms of progressive mass media, and more.

As a result of all of this, we are not without weapons as we fight the 21st century fascists. Inspiring, refuse-to-give-up, organized mass resistance against militaristic ICE over the last many months in Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, Minneapolis and elsewhere has won important victories. It has shown us that when masses of people are organically connected with those of us with shared values and organizing skills, we can win.

What do we need to keep in mind as we continue onward?

From my activist and organizing experiences over the years I see these as continuing issues we must keep addressing:

A Third Force: In Part One of this planned series of articles, I wrote about the historical timeliness of a “third force” strategy. This isn’t something pulled out of the air, or someone’s lofty dreams. It is grounded in historical experience in the United States over the last 50 or so years. A “third force” that brings together those who see themselves as independents, who are critical of both the dominant sector of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, those who have a critique of “the system,” combined with those who may have a similar critique but who have decided for practical reasons to carry on that fight in part within the Democratic Party—this is what is needed right now to defeat fascism and lay the basis for more positive change going forward over coming years and decades.

Anti-racism among the masses: It is not enough to be anti-racist on a personal level or even, if you are a white person, to be in active solidarity with the struggles of people of color. Also essential, particularly in this critical election year, is conscious work among other white people who have been so infected with the ideas of white supremacy that they’ll support a white, corrupt, billionaire-loving fascist before they’ll support a Black, Brown or Indigenous, working-class fighter for justice for all. Breaking more white people away from, or beginning to question, MAGA ideology and practice is very strategic in 2026.

-Anti-sexism among the masses: The dominance of white, upper-class, backwards-thinking men over government or business is central to  Trumpfascist thinking and practice. They have set themselves against the so-needed, historical trend toward the liberation of women and societal change in so many ways. Progress in this area has been made on the part of human society over the last half-century that clearly threaten the rich, white, male ruling class. Upholding those changes and resisting Trumpist efforts to return society to 1950’s-style lifestyles is a potent issue in 2026.

-Class-consciousness: Throughout all of this on-going work must be an understanding that US society and human society worldwide has not made significant advances beyond the basic unfairness of an economic system that maintains differences in class for most people over many generations. It is true that, to some extent, life for more working-class people today is better than it was before FDR’s New Deal, the Chinese anti-colonial revolution, and other anti-colonial victories, but we still have a long way to go. Working-class people are a majority in US and most societies. A movement for positive change in which they are not significantly in leadership is a movement which will likely fail.

-Nonviolence as a tactic and a way of life, not necessarily our overall strategy: This could be the most controversial of all of these views of mine. I have never seen myself as a pacifist, have always believed that there have been and may be in the future situations which leave no choice but to use force, including armed force, to bring about much-needed change. However, the specific tactics I have used as part of the progressive movement in the USA since the 1960’s have always been nonviolent, and I have come to believe very strongly that a “nonviolent,” humane, loving way of living with other people, day after day, hour after hour, is the way we should all try to live. This isn’t just for personal reasons, my trying to be the best human being I can be. It is also because, very clearly, the use of overt violence can be used by those we are fighting against to try to discredit us with masses of people who do not know us on a personal level. I believe that this understanding must—and generally already does—pervade all of our collective work for social change.

Finally, a positive internal culture: This is not a new idea; far from it. For example, in 1996 a predominantly people of color, multi-racial group of people met in Jemez, NM and came up with a set of “Principles for Democratic Organizing.” Their staying power and adoption by many groups ever since reflect a growing understanding of the need for a more group-centered, loving and respectful way of organizing. There are six principles: Be Inclusive. Emphasis on Bottom-Up Organizing. Let People Speak for Themselves. Work Together in Solidarity and Mutuality. Build Just Relationships Among Ourselves. Commitment to Self-Transformation. The final three sentences are: “As we change societies, we must change from operating in the mode of individualism to community-centeredness. We must ‘walk our talk.’ We must be the values that we say we are struggling for and we must be justice, be peace, be community.”

There are many reasons to despair in today’s world, but there are more to maintain hope and resilience. Learning from the past, committed to helping to develop a new world for our children, grandchildren and the seven generations to come, let us make 2026 a turning point year in the USA toward that objective.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.