Category Archives: Future Hope

Nixon and Watergate, Trump and the Epstein Crisis

Future Hope, , , ,

On November 6 last year, the day after the big election, I wrote about the “so-serious situation we are now faced with in not just the USA but the world because of the MAGA victory. I remember a very similar feeling after the November, 1972 runaway Presidential victory of Trump-similar Richard Nixon over George McGovern. But 21 months later Nixon was gone from DC, resigning in disgrace before he was impeached.

“What was Nixon’s vote total compared to Trump’s?

“Nixon had a 23% margin of victory in the popular vote and won every state except Massachusetts and DC. As far as Trump, when all the votes are counted It looks like he’ll either be ahead by a couple percent or pretty much tied. And Harris will have won a lot more states than Massachusetts and DC.

“History sometimes develops in unexpected ways. Who would ever have thought after Nixon’s overwhelming landslide victory in 1972 that he would be disgraced and gone from the White House 21 months later?”

Nixon’s fall from power was completely a result of what became known as the “Watergate crisis,” the revelation of a secret plan to illegally disrupt the 1972 Presidential election. It began when four pro-Nixon burglars were arrested late at night inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters housed in the Watergate building in DC.

There are a lot of similarities, as well as differences, between this early 70s Republican Party crisis and the one they are dealing with today because of the all-of-a-sudden exploding into public view of Trump’s long-term friendship with corrupt child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The fact that it was MAGA people who brought the grassroots pressure leading to this state of affairs for Trump is definitely something different compared to what Nixon went through in 1973 and 1974.

Another difference is that the Epstein crisis is about much more than an illegal effort to steal an election, as big as that is. This one is about criminal depravity, the apparent years-long sexual abuse of teenage girls by Trump and other rich and powerful white men to satisfy their twisted sexual desires. It’s sick, sick, sick at the most fundamental human level.

Also of significance is the allegiance so far to Trump of the vast majority of Republican Senators and House members, as well as MAGA-related, conservative religious leaders, despite how clearly despicable Trump’s conduct was over the many years he and Epstein were close buddies in sexual criminality.

Finally, there is the important difference that in 1973-1974 the House and the Senate were controlled by Democrats. This meant that as the extensiveness of Nixon Administration efforts to illegally seize political power were revealed, public Congressional hearings educated the US population about them in a way which dramatically affected Nixon’s political support. Just before impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives were about to begin, and just before he resigned, Nixon’s approval ratings were at about 25%.

This has some similarities to what Newsweek reported just two days ago:

“According to the latest Wall Street Journal/Fabrizio, Lee & Associates poll, 76 percent of voters believe the Justice Department is hiding important information about its Epstein investigation, with nearly half saying they have ‘no confidence’ in the department’s handling of the case. Another 21 percent say they have little confidence, while fewer than one in four expressed any real trust in the probe.”

What does all of this mean for the independent progressive movement in the US which has been publicly demonstrating in every state in the country since early February, the millions of us who are “taking it to the streets,” as well as the many more US Americans who support us?

We should clearly be supportive of the efforts to get out the truth about Epstein’s connections to Trump and other political and corporate rich white men and which of them, because of those connections, engaged in personally corrupt and criminally abusive, illegal conduct toward teenage women.

We should also be more knowledgeable and active than many of us are, myself included, on the issue of child sex abuse. Two weeks ago I was astounded to read a story in The Guardian which reported that “Florida records more than 700,000 people as victims of human trafficking in 2024–Report from University of South Florida says total includes 100,000 children targeted for sex trafficking in state.”

This political crisis for Trump is bringing into the open a dirty, despicable underside of US society that is rarely visible to those not experiencing it. While keeping up the pressure on him and those who continue to support him, while demanding that Trump Must Go, we can never forget that, as big a victory as that would be, our problems in the US are profoundly systemic and will only be solved by a massive movement of tens of millions of us rising up in a sustained and organized way.

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

To Each According to Their Need

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“To whatever extent we reach our potential in this world, my grandmother would be furious if I didn’t say that it was due to a combination of our individual talents and the societal conditions – the real existing material conditions, as a good Marxist might say – that have shaped our lives. But while she would probably not admit it, the faith in her eyes – the challenge to imagine with others a better world and actively move with them towards it, to engage in collective struggle to achieve a more humanistic society – that faith will always remain with us.”

–Dorothy Ray Healey remembrance, Jewish Women’s Archive

“Without vision, the people perish.” This famous quote from Proverbs 29:18 in the Old Testament is absolutely on target, based on my experiences over many years. A variation of this quote—if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there—underlines the danger of not having a vision. A road to nowhere is a dangerous road.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had a vision, summed up in the phrase, “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” Was this an original idea back then, 177 years ago? I don’t think so.

In his younger years Marx was connected to religion; he was baptized as a Lutheran at the age of six. He studied religion, ultimately leading him to develop his well-known critique of it as an “opiate of the people.”

The book of Acts is a religiously-oriented history of the first years and decades of the Christian church after Jesus of Nazareth was killed. In chapters two and four, it is made clear that in these early days of the Christian religion, the concept of “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need” was a central vision.

Here’s how it is described in Acts 2: 44-45: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all as any had need.” And similarly in Acts 4: 32 and 34: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. . . There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.”

I’m pretty sure that Dorothy Healey got this. She was the first socialist I ever heard quote Bible verses as she made her case from the podium speaking to hundreds of mostly young people at a national conference of the now-defunct New American Movement in 1974. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but I remember thinking that I wished I could do that. Why did I feel that way?

One reason is that I had generally positive experiences growing up in the church my parents took me to every Sunday, as well as with others in my extended family, especially my grandparents, who were devout Christians. But it was also because, as I became a peace and justice and impeach Nixon activist in my late teens and early 20’s, and as I was exposed to individuals who looked to Marx and Engels and “scientific socialism” as their “bible,” it seemed to me that one thing both had in common was a vision for a very different kind of society than the one dominating much of the world.

And let’s be real: what both also have in common is the corruption of the original vision of their founders as they grew politically stronger and more institutionalized. That is a reality that can never be forgotten, something those of us today need to study and learn from going forward.  

Healey tried to put the two positive visions together. She believed in Christian/Marxist unity. She may or may not have been an atheist, I don’t know, but her life was grounded in the best of both those worlds.

All of us have a responsibility to “imagine with others a better world and actively move with them towards it, to engage in collective struggle to achieve a more humanistic society” with the long term goal, one many of us will not see, of human societies where the abilities of all are used to meet the economic, social and cultural needs of all. We must hold fast to this vision whatever the odds against us right now.

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

Progressive Comradeship During the Trump Times

Future Hope, , , ,

I’ve noticed over the last couple of years younger progressive/revolutionary organizers using the word, “comrade,” to refer to other organizers. Is this a good idea?

During the days of McCarthyism in the 1950’s, and probably before then, self-righteous conservatives used this word as a smear against people on the political Left. “Comrade” was a word used before and after the Russian Revolution in 1917 by members of the Bolshevik Party which led that revolution and dominated the USSR government for decades afterwards. I suspect, without knowing for sure, that members of the Communist Party in the USA from the 1920’s on, at least until McCarthyite repression in the 50’s, used that term also, given the CPUSA’s very close connection to the Soviet CP during that time.

George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” published in 1945, had a lot to do with the comrade word becoming much more widely discredited. Animal Farm is the story of a revolution gone bad, corruption of once-revolutionary and brave leadership upon gaining power, and even as those bad things happen and demoralization sets in among many of the animals, use of the word comrade is continued by those in power.

As a young person growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s, I absorbed much of the dominant conservative ideology of those days and as a result never used, and still don’t use, the comrade word in any way. To me, it has been seen as a problematic word.

But there are other-than-leftist groups in the USA that use the word. Doing some google searching I learned that it is in use in both the US military and among veterans groups, which is surprising. Why would that be the case?

In a Random House dictionary published in 1966, they give three definitions for the word: “1) a person who shares closely in one’s activities, occupation, interests, etc: intimate companion, associate, or friend. 2) a fellow member of a fraternal group, political party, etc. 3) a member of the Communist Party or someone with strongly leftist views.”

I think it’s telling that the US military and veterans groups apparently use the word. Clearly, their doing so would fall under definitions 1 and 2, not 3. There is something about the word, something about the idea of comradeship, that connects people who are working “closely” together in a shared task, shared “interests.”

Many of us today, literally millions, are standing up and taking action against the Trumpfascists. 5 million or more took part in 2,200 local actions in all 50 states on June 14, No Kings! Day. Probably millions are going to take part in local “Good Trouble Lives On” actions on July 17, the 5th anniversary of the death of longtime freedom fighter John Lewis; there are already over 1,000 planned. And I feel a sense of comradeship, progressive comradeship, with this so-very-important mass political force, this popular resistance movement.

“Progressive comradeship:” that’s a phrase I’m comfortable with. It fits with definitions 1 and 2 above. It clarifies that this movement is broadly-based, representing tens of millions of people, going from “strong leftists,” including communists, on one pole to decent, concerned people on the other who believe in “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

During Hakeem Jeffries’ record-breaking, 8 hour and 44 minutes, impressive speech right before the Big Ugly Bill was narrowly passed in the House of Representatives on July 3rd, he quoted more than once a passage from the Bible that clearly resonated with the many Democratic Congresspeople sitting, and sometimes standing in loud applause, behind him. That passage? Matthew 25: 35-40. It’s one that should undergird all that we do as we keep building and strengthening the Resistance.

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

We must do all we can as long as we are alive to try to bring into existence a world motivated by these words in Matthew. It’s a certainty that the warped and twisted, pro-oligarch, obscene policies of the current federal government, combined with the day-to-day organizing of the millions of us, is going to lead to many more millions joining with us in this profoundly important task history has placed before us.

Our mass democracy movement is now and must continue to be characterized by progressive comradeship in the way we interact and a deep, abiding love for others and the natural world. Nothing can defeat that kind of movement, nothing. We really can change the world.

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

Fighting Climate Meltdown and the Death Cult

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“This is a fight for life. And like all fights, you need a tremendous amount of bravery to take it on. Before I started working on climate change, I didn’t think of myself as a fighter, but I became one because I felt I have a responsibility to preserve the world for my son and children everywhere. That kind of fierce protectiveness is part of the way that I love. We can draw on that to have more strength than our enemies because I don’t think they’re motivated by love. I believe love is an infinite resource and the power of it is greater than that of greed or hate. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be here.”

-Dr. Genevieve Guenther, The Guardian, June 24

On June 14th I spoke at one of the 2,200 or so “No Kings!’ actions around the country, this one in Newark, NJ. In part I said, “This would-be fascist government wants to roll back hundreds of billions of dollars approved in 2022 for wind and solar energy, electric cars, buses and trains and other clean and jobs-producing energy. This is the kind of energy we must shift to as rapidly as possible if we are to avoid the breakdown of ecosystems and human societies worldwide. It’s as if Trump and the MAGA’s were a death cult, truly, and not just when it comes to energy policy.”

I’ve thought about this characterization that I made since I did so publicly. I’ve wondered if it was too over the top, too rhetorical. I’ve thought about all of the many other people down through history, Hitler and the Nazis as exhibit number one, who clearly fit this description.

There’s no question Trump would like to rule the world and that he cares little about the lives of Black, Brown and Indigenous people, low-income people, women and lgbtq people. He’s a racist and sexist through and through. He’s OK with genocide in Gaza, doesn’t even feign to be concerned, instead dreaming about turning Gaza into another luxury resort on the Mediterranean Sea. He wants to drastically increase the already obscene US military budget, etc., etc., etc.

But what I think makes the “death cult” phrase unquestionably accurate is his and his billionaire buddies’ very explicit efforts to stop and reverse the growing worldwide, and US, shift from fossil fuels to renewables and a truly clean and green economy.

We are already far down the road as far as climate disruption and danger. Climate scientists are telling us that there is a very real possibility of soon passing environmental tipping points that could destabilize the climate for generations, centuries. Those who are doing all they can to set back renewable energy and achieve “energy dominance” via coal, nukes, oil and methane gas; these people, Trump and his government appointees, the fossil fuel industry and the banks and billionaires who support them, are absolutely a death cult.

Fortunately, a big majority of the US population supports the shift to wind, solar, electric vehicles and heat pumps and other truly renewable energy sources. This is crucial, and a reason not to lose hope.

What is the evidence for this assertion? Here is one source: a poll released in late January this year by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication:

Registered voters across the political spectrum support many policies designed to reduce carbon pollution and fossil fuel dependence and promote clean energy, including: 

  • 88% support providing federal funding to help farmers improve practices to protect and restore the soil, so it absorbs and stores more carbon.
  • 77% support funding more research into renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power.
  • 74% support setting strict limits on methane emissions from oil and gas production.
  • 73% support regulating carbon dioxide (the primary greenhouse gas) as a pollutant.
  • 69% support providing tax credits or rebates to encourage people to buy electric appliances, such as heat pumps and induction stoves, that run on electricity instead of oil or gas.
  • 69% support funding more research on global warming and climate change by Federal agencies such as NASA, NOAA, and the EPA.
  • 67% support requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a carbon tax and use the money to reduce other taxes (such as income tax) by an equal amount.
  • 63% support transitioning the U.S. economy (including electric utilities, transportation, buildings, and industry) from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy by 2050.
  • 58% support providing tax rebates for people who purchase electric vehicles.

Note that these percentages could not be what they are unless more than a few Trump voters had these views. There is widespread, tri-partisan support on this huge issue.

So is there hope? Yes, there is. There’s hope not just because of the results of this, and other, polls but because of the massive local demonstration turnouts in every state since Trump took office, over 5 million people the most recent time on June 14. There is hope when climate and social justice state assemblyman Zohran Mandani decisively wins the New York City primary on June 10. And there are so many more examples, so many of us rising up on issue after issue and continuing to resist.

There is absolutely no question that the national progressive movement in the United States is in the ring, landing punches and fighting hard in this existential and urgent battle for the future.

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

Turning Political Repression Into Movement Building

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My first years of progressive activism and organizing took place during the presidency of Richard Nixon, who, without a doubt, led one of the most repressive presidential administrations we have experienced in the United States in the modern era, prior to this Trump regime. It was under Nixon that the Republican Party, with its “southern strategy,” began to move toward becoming the kind of regressive entity that allowed pathological liar, racist, and convicted sexual abuser Donald Trump to be elected president in November 2016 and again in 2024.

During Nixon’s first term, from 1969 to 1973, he oversaw the use of government agencies to attempt to destroy groups like the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement and the Young Lords, including armed attacks by police that resulted in deaths. Newly enacted conspiracy laws were used to indict leaders of the peace movement and other movements. An entirely illegal and clandestine apparatus was created to sabotage the campaigns of his political opponents in the Democratic Party, leading to the midnight break-in at the Watergate Hotel that eventually led to the exposure of this apparatus and Nixon’s forced resignation from office in 1974.

I learned several things during those Nixon years about how to deal with government repression. Unfortunately, given Trump/MAGA’s attempts to replace US democracy with a fascist regime, those are very relevant lessons for today.

One critical lesson is that there is a disparity in the government treatment of people of color—Black, Latino/a, Indigenous and Asian—compared with the treatment of people of European descent—white people. The historical realities of settler military aggression, broken treaties, slavery, Jim Crow segregation, assumed white dominance, and institutionalized racism continue to have their negative, discriminatory impacts.

We are seeing this play out right now with the Trumpist arrests of Brown and Black immigrants, over 90% of whom, according to AI, have no criminal record. There can be little doubt that the intention is to use this racist campaign to establish a wholly new “justice” system which will increasingly come after not just immigrants but anyone who is consistently resisting their efforts to overturn democracy and install an authoritarian, repressive regime.

Those of us of European descent must be conscious of these realities and act accordingly, prioritizing right now the defense of immigrant rights. Very big numbers of us are stepping up, demonstrating and engaging in nonviolent action, risking and getting arrested, in opposition to what is happening with ICE in particular.

Government repression can’t be allowed to paralyze or divide organizations or movements. This is one of the objectives of an unjust government trying to repress those who challenge its policies and practices. That is one of the reasons why we need to be about the development of a movement culture that is respectful and healthy. Such a supportive cultural environment can help us weather this storm we are in and emerge from it stronger and better both as individual activists and organizers and as a mass progressive movement.

This is one of the necessary elements for successful resistance to government repression.

When I say “successful” I don’t mean that there won’t be casualties on our side, people behind bars, some for months or years, or people physically attacked and injured or worse, or deportation, job losses or greater economic hardship. It is clear that under a Trump/MAGA regime this is already happening and will continue and likely get worse, particularly for immigrants, people of color and low-income people generally.

Other things which can defend our rights and our movements are these:

-effective legal representation in court. It is good to see the way that many lawyers and progressive legal organizations are stepping up to defend immigrants and challenge the Trump executive orders issued so far;

-broad community support when repression happens. There are instances when ICE has attempted to arrest people and, on the spot, neighbors and others have prevented those arrests or, by their actions, have brought media attention to what is being attempted and, over time, have gotten people released from jail. It is a fact that there is a strong and extensive network of organizations nationally which is having an impact.

All of this can immediately or over time serve to undercut support for the Trumpists, strengthen our justice movement and hasten the time when the power of the organized people overcomes them on the way to the worldwide social, economic, environmental and cultural changes needed for humanity and all life forms to avoid ecosystem and societal breakdown.

Ultimately, what I have learned is that government repression can have a disruptive impact on our work, but we can turn a negative into a positive. The extent to which we can creatively, intelligently, and fearlessly demonstrate the truth of what we are about when responding to what they are doing to us is the extent to which we can have confidence that yes, we will win. Si, se puede!

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

Nonviolent Tactics and the Fascist Threat

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“Anger against injustice and oppression is not just legitimate; it is necessary to successfully build a movement for real change. But anger needs to be used in a disciplined way. Those who are quick to call cops “pigs” or throw bricks or otherwise display anger negatively are either government agents attempting to discredit the movement or people who need an intervention. They need to be taken aside and spoken with in a direct, to the point, and loving way about the counter-productiveness of what they are doing. Some will keep doing it, but others will change, maybe not right away but over time.”         Future Hope column, June 11, 2021

When violence, against cops or property, takes place during an action organized by progressive groups, who, in general, is such violence likely to come from? From my experience I’d say there are three sources:

-Government or corporate agents who are consciously using violence to try to discredit the cause people are demonstrating about.

-People at the demonstration who are very upset and pissed off, for good reason, about something the government, oppressive corporations and/or the police are doing and who lash out in response.

-Dedicated activists and organizers whose theory of change supports firebombings or other destruction of property, like police cars or, in LA recently, Tesla cars—in other words, targeted destruction to express outrage and do damage. Also in this category would be those who are quick to engage in street fighting with police.

I come to this discussion as someone who is not across-the-board against any destruction of property. During the Vietnam War I was part of the Catholic Left, initiated and led by Catholic priests Phil and Dan Berrigan, which went into Selective Service draft boards and destroyed files of potential draftees as a way to obstruct that war and build resistance to it. I spent 11 months in prison for one such action in Rochester, NY.

These actions were controversial within the peace movement back then. More moderate groups and individuals, including even some individuals who had burned their draft cards publicly, felt this was too provocative, could hurt the cause.

I didn’t think so at the time. For me as a 20 year old deeply outraged about the war in Vietnam, it met my need for action at the scale of the urgency of that situation. And since all of our actions were always done in a way that no one could ever be hurt or killed by what we did, with the possible exception of us if caught and arrested, I was good with this type of property destruction, especially as we became more effective at destroying files, for some actions in the thousands of them.

There were others of my generation who felt the same urgency I did who came together into the Weather Underground, which then carried out bombings of war-related targets. Three WU members were killed while making bombs; no one else was, but these actions were used by the Nixon Administration to prolong the war, just as Trump is now using the relativity small-scale property destruction and some fighting with police to try to ramp up military occupations not just in LA but possibly elsewhere.

Times are too serious for us to avoid movement-wide discussion about this issue.

It’s probably the case that some of those into street fighting or performative property violence are well aware that their actions will be used to increase repression on the part of the Trump regime and similarly-inclined state and local governments. They think that such repression is going to hasten “the revolution.”

It’s possible, probably likely, that some German Communists in the 20’s and 30’s who were more critical of the Social Democrats than the Nazis had this view. Here’s how AI describes this:

“During the 1930s in Germany, the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) adopted a strategy of attacking the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as ‘social fascists,’ viewing them as allies of the capitalist system and thus an enemy of the revolution. This ‘social fascism’ theory, promoted by the Comintern (Communist International), led the KPD to actively oppose the SPD and even align with the Nazis in some instances. The KPD’s rejection of cooperation with the SPD is seen by some historians as a significant factor in the rise of the Nazi Party.”

Very fortunately, those on the Left espousing similar views as the KPD in Germany back then are in a very small minority. The vast majority of Leftists, as well as those who would have been called Social Democrats back then and the many who are more issue-oriented than ideological in their day-to-day work for progressive social change, systemic change, get it that what is absolutely the task of the moment right now is to build a very broad, massive, united movement against the attacks on US democracy, the efforts to create 21st century fascism in the United States.

This Saturday, on June 14th, we all must come out wherever we are to make the almost 2,000 No Kings! nonviolent actions taking place in every state on that day as massive as possible. Trump Must Go!

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

Fighting Fascism, Then and Now

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“Veterans and military family members are being fired by the thousands from federal jobs. Our health care is being gutted. Our benefits are under siege.

“This isn’t the first time veterans have had to fight for what was promised. From the Bonus Army of 1932 to the battles for the GI Bill and Agent Orange care, veterans have always led the charge for justice.

“Now, it’s our turn.

“We rally to:

-Defend veteran and military family member employment in the federal workforce.

-Stop the privatization and weakening of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

-Hold political leaders accountable for policies that harm veterans and their families.”

These words from the www.unite4veterans.org website explain why, in response to the Trumpfascists’ attempts to decimate the Veterans Administration and the fact that 30% of the US federal workforce were veterans prior to Trump/Musk/DOGE, thousands of people will be on the National Mall in DC demonstrating this Friday, June 6, the 81st anniversary of D-Day. Dozens of local actions in solidarity will also be taking place around the country.

I’m not a war veteran. I’m actually an anti-war veteran, going back to my resistance to the Vietnam war and continuing up to my activism today against the genocidal war on Gaza supported by both Biden and Trump governments. But I do have a personal connection to D-Day.

One of my favorite uncles was Uncle Vic. He was in the army during World War II. I came to know him as a gruff and quiet but kind-hearted farmer, working hard on his land, formerly the land of my paternal grandparents, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Since my father had been raised on this particular farm and my mom had similar roots in the valley, our family visited this area often, and I saw Uncle Vic a lot.

Vic and his wife Mary were the only aunts and uncles of the many which I had who were actually making a living in part by working the land. And for me, their dairy farm was very special, a place I always enjoyed going to.

As a teenager I once asked my father about Uncle Vic’s time in the war, about which I had heard of but knew nothing about. My dad explained that he never talked about it. Vic had not been part of D-Day, but he had taken part in an Allied landing on Anzio Beach in Italy in January of 1944 and, my father told me, this was a deeply wrenching experience for him. According to my dad this was one of the beach landings that year where a very high percentage of the Allied soldiers who took part had been killed. It had clearly impacted him in a huge way and affected him for the rest of his life.

World War II was a war fought by the United States and other countries because of the seriousness of Hitlerian fascism, and as terrible as that war was, particularly for Europe and the USSR on whose land almost all of the fighting and dying took place, it was clearly necessary. Today, we in the United States are fighting Trump’s attempted fascism in different ways, not militarily. Indeed, our ability to skillfully and bravely use all of the various nonviolent tactics available to us will determine whether we successfully defend democracy and the Bill of Rights and Constitution, making it possible in the post-Trump years to dramatically shift into a completely different direction.

The “No Kings” actions happening all over the country on June 14th, 1400 or more of them so far and counting, will be huge in advancing that pro-democracy movement, but June 6th will be also. Let’s do what we can to make this D-Day memorable and effective in defense of the best within the USA, including the sacrifices made by our ancestors on the beaches of Normandy 81 years ago.

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

Trump-Must-Go Outreach Is Essential

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“Contact engenders more trust, more solidarity and more mutual kindness. It helps you see the world through other people’s eyes. (p. 358) . . . The thing we all need to remember is that those other folks are a lot like us. The angry voter venting on TV, the refugee in the statistics, the criminal in the mugshot: every one of them is a human being of flesh and blood, someone who in a different life might have been our friend, our family, our beloved. (p. 378) . . .Choose the path of compassion and you realize how little separates you from that stranger. Compassion takes you beyond yourself.” (p. 391)
-Humankind, A Hopeful History, by Rutger Bregman

How will we defeat the Trumpfascists and, ultimately, the military-corporate-fossil fuel-and more complex? Outreach to and the winning over of some Trump voters is an absolute essential.

Many of those voters are low income and working class, but many in that category are also infected with racist, sexist and heterosexist ideas, which Trump/MAGA, like hateful bigots before them going way back, has skillfully played upon to win their support.

How can a significant number of these people come to realize that their real interests lie not with the billionaire class which Trump represents but with the multi-racial, multi-gender working class, which is 2/3 or more of the total US population, and progressives generally?

One way is through our organizations taking up in a serious way issues that are important to them, like the defense of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security; for universal health care for all regardless of income; the building of millions of homes and units of decent, affordable housing; and support of the right to form unions to protect worker rights on the job. We must actively oppose Trump’s economy-hurting, insane tariff war and pro-ultra-rich economic policies. There is no question that talking up and taking up these issues is absolutely essential.

But HOW thiswork is done is critical; it must absolutely include face-to-face interactions with Trump voters and others affected by MAGA/hateful/divisive ideology.

One resource to help us in doing this work is a book written over half a century ago, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by the late Brazilian educator, organizer and author Paulo Freire.

How should this work be done? Freire wrote: “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 conscientization. . . 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. . . Only by abolishing the situation of oppression is it possible to restore the love which that situation made impossible. If I do not love the world—if I do not love life—if I do not love people—I cannot enter into dialogue.”  (pps. 53, 77)

And this is where the compassion which Roger Bregman wrote about in his useful book, Humankind, comes in.

Last fall I spent a lot of time in Allentown, Pa. and its suburbs door-knocking to get Kamala Harris elected in areas that included a decent percentage of Trump voters. I had dozens of interactions with such people. I doubt that I was able to get very many, if any, to change their votes; most of the time I spent doing this work was when there were relatively few voters who hadn’t already made up their minds. But the experience of doing it was personally rewarding.

As I expected, the vast majority of those who told me they were voting for or leaning towards voting for Trump were not hostile towards me, even when we got into some pretty substantive back and forth. Why? One reason was because I tried hard to really listen to what they were saying. I genuinely wanted to understand better what were their reasons. Another was because I was always able to appreciate that “those other folk are a lot like us,” like me. After 75 years of living I had learned that “there but for fortune go I,” that if my upbringing had been different, if the views of my parents, in particular, had been on the opposite end of the political spectrum, I might have been a Trump voter myself.

Micah in the Biblical chapter 6, verse 8 put it concisely: “And what does the Lord ask of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” [the best within you].

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

Trump’s First Four Months

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Today marks four months since would-be dictator Trump took office. How is the progressive resistance doing in its urgent battle to prevent what Trump and the MAGA’s want to impose?

In early February, a few weeks into this time of testing, I identified our objectives over the next two years as “making as many advances as we can on local and state levels while preventing as much damage as possible to the primary MAGA targets: US democracy, human and civil rights, including internationally, organized labor and programs that benefit low- and moderate-income working people, and the natural environment on which all life depends.” I put forward five areas of focus, five tactics, that I thought were critical for successful resistance: street heat, local/state/federal government, courts, media and publicity, and outreach.

I think the most important development over these months has been the emergence of massive, repeated and geographically widespread street heat, millions of us demonstrating in state capitols, in DC, at Tesla dealerships, in thousands of towns in every single state. The high point so far was three and a half million of us in the streets for the April 5th “Hands Off” actions, but the many other national days of action, beginning with 50501’s February 5th mobilization, have all been critical to building a widespread spirit of resistance.

June 14th, No Kings Day, is the next major nationwide action, and with 880  actions already on the calendar, there is reason to believe this will be bigger than April 5th. We should all do whatever we can to make it so!

These actions have undoubtedly strengthened not just those of us taking part in them but others: law firms, Harvard and other major universities, judges, media figures, faith leaders and more. Indeed, courage is contagious, and on that front we should feel good about what we have accomplished so far.

As far as the courts, according to the Associated Press, as of today 158 Trump executive orders, or 76% of them, have either been blocked or are pending, with 49, or 24%, taking effect. These are not good numbers for the Trumpfascists and a sign that they are going to have a hard time doing all that they want to do.

It’s also significant that the Supreme Court in a number of cases has refused to do Trump’s bidding. There are clear signs that for not just the three liberal judges but also some conservatives, especially Roberts and Barrett, there are substantial concerns about Trump’s efforts to dominate both Congress and the courts.

What about Congress? As I write the Republicans who run the House of Representatives with a tiny majority are struggling to pass the reconciliation bill, ridiculously named the “Big Beautiful Bill,” that they have been working on for months. If eventually passed, and that’s a definite “if,” the Republican-run Senate is by no means ready to approve what the House comes up with. There are many internal differences, some strongly felt, both within the overall House and on the part of more than a few Senators in relation to how and what the House is doing.

That is why many groups, right now, are organizing to mobilize massive pressure on members of the House. All of us should be flooding House members demanding, if Democrats, that they speak out and do whatever they can to frustrate MAGA plans. Even more important, pressure is needed on Republicans, especially those who are in Congressional districts that are expected to be competitive in 2026.

As far as media and publicity, our actions in the streets and the growing willingness of people and organized groups from a broad mix of backgrounds to speak up and resist have had an impact on more than the usual progressive media sources. The Wall Street Journal (!), as one big example, has been very critical of Trump, mainly for his poor leadership when it comes to the economy, especially the tariff debacle. Every once in a while Fox News people have had specific criticisms of what the Trump Administration is doing. Overall, in no way has the mass media, and certainly not progressive media, including social media, been cowed into silence and submission.

There are other indicators that the progressive resistance should take heart and keep on with our absolutely essential work:

-Where have the MAGA’s been when we have demonstrated repeatedly in the streets, including the streets in deep red states? I’ve heard of very, very few instances of any substantive, MAGA, in-person street opposition. This has to be in part because, as polls have shown, there is a lot of discontent among a significant percentage of Trump voters about his handling of the economy, particularly the tariff debacle.

-Bernie Sanders and AOC deserve a loud shout-out for the leadership they gave with their Fight Oligarchy tour of mainly red states, drawing thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of people to their rallies. That’s a huge example of the kind of outreach much needed over the coming months and years.

There is something special about this demonstration in action of the power of age and youth joining together, which has also been reflected in many of the street actions. Bernie and AOC are showing in action how to take on the MAGA’s in a way which also builds a strong independent people’s movement not controlled by the corporate-friendly wing of the Democratic Party.

-And what about Pope Leo 14? The Catholic Church, as male-dominated and hierarchical as it still is, has decided to continue the more progressive direction that the late Pope Francis worked to advance. We now have a new Pope from Chicago, an American who has already made clear he will speak out for those who the Trumpists are demonizing and deporting, criminalizing and hurting. For those who believe in a higher power, it could be seen as a sign that, despite Trump, despite Gaza, despite so many reasons not to have hope, there is hope.

It really is true that there ain’t no power like the power of the people, organized, and the power of the people don’t stop.

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

End Times Fascism

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“Our opponents know full well that we are entering an age of emergency, but have responded by. . . choosing to let the Earth burn. Our task is to build a wide and deep movement, as spiritual as it is political, strong enough to stop these unhinged traitors. A movement rooted in a steadfast commitment to one another, across our many differences and divides, and to this miraculous, singular planet.”
-Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, The Rise of End Times Fascism

Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor have written a timely and important article published recently in The Guardian, The Rise of End Times Fascism. Clearly well researched, they have gone deep into what is the plan for the world of the Trumpfascists and their billionaire co-conspirators.

Two thoughts came to me as I reflected on the article. One is how much of what they say dovetails with the brilliant, satirical movie, Don’t Look Up, which ends with a rocket ship taking billionaire types and their front people in government to a supposedly safe planet light years away as a massive asteroid pulverizes the Earth because a billionaire prevented the action needed to neutralize it. Spoiler alert: it turns out that the safe planet wasn’t, which was a great ending.

The other thought was a remembrance of what I heard being said about 30 years ago by a decades-long, career military man who at the time had a high-level job at the Pentagon. In the quiet backyard of a northern Virginia house, he volunteered his belief, one clearly shared by others he worked with, that the earth’s population needed to be reduced to about ½ billion people. He was completely serious about this point of view, as if he saw himself working toward that objective.

End Times Fascism deepens our understanding of the abject depravity of those who right now have life and death power over what kind of a future humankind and many living things will experience. And they’ve chosen death or the risk of it for everything except for a very small elite which has an objective of “splintering governments and carving up the world into hyper-capitalist, democracy-free havens under the sole control of the supremely wealthy, protected by private mercenaries, serviced by AI robots and financed by cryptocurrencies.”

Klein and Taylor identify three “recent material developments” that have “accelerated” this end times, fascist effort: the climate crisis, Covid-19 and the real possibility of future pandemics, and “the rapid advancement and adoption of AI. . . All of these existential crises are layered on top of escalating tensions between nuclear-armed powers.”

Why is this happening? On a recent call a good friend of mine gave a concise, accurate answer: because their corporate-dominated and grossly unjust system is threatened by the refusal of tens of millions of us around the world to capitulate and give up. We who believe in freedom are not resting until we’ve turned this world around.

Klein and Taylor summarize the situation this way: “We must first understand this simple fact: we are up against an ideology that has given up not only on the premise and promise of liberal democracy but on the livability of our shared world—on its beauty, on its people, on our children, on other species. The forces we are up against have made peace with mass death. . . In this moment, when end times fascism is waging war on every front, new alliances are essential.”

One example of what we need is something happening in the state where I live, in New Jersey. For the last six months, since Trump’s election, an African American led, multi-racial and multi-issue coalition of almost 300 organizations has come together. Our first action was on January 18th, a Martin Luther King March for Justice and Resistance in Newark. Out of the success of that action, we initiated work which led to a hopeful, positive MLK People’s Convention attended by hundreds on April 26 which successfully adopted a comprehensive and substantive People’s Agenda putting forward solutions on a wide range of issues.

The successes of this newly-formed, statewide alliance has given us new energy to keep moving forward together, with plans developing for a series of actions into next year.

Alliance-building right now is the key, and it’s happening all over. Thousands of local, state and national groups have joined together in the HandsOff/50501/MayDayStrong network that over the last three months has mobilized millions of people in coordinated street actions in every single state in the US. These actions have strengthened the resolve of those participating and emboldened others—lawyers, judges, media figures, schools like Harvard, a wide and growing swath of US society—to resist and fight, nonviolently.

Next up for this national mass movement: June 14th, Flag Day, Trump’s birthday, the day of a Trumpfascist organized military parade of thousands of armed troops, tanks and more along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. In response, we need many millions of us to come out in actions all around the country, more than the three million who participated in Hands Off actions around the country on April 5.

Step by step, action by action, locally and nationally, we are building the progressive political force which can change this country and world. Si, se puede!

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