Tag Archives: books

Thomas Paine, Working-Class Hero

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“In ‘Common Sense,’ Thomas Paine defines common sense as the fundamental ability of all people to reason and discern truth, regardless of social standing or education. He argues that this innate capacity, when applied to political matters, reveals the absurdity of hereditary monarchy and the necessity of self-governance based on the consent of the governed. Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ is a call to action, urging colonists to reject British rule and embrace republicanism, a system of government where power resides in the people.”      AI Overview 

Labor Day is almost here, and demonstrations against Trumpfascism and in support of the right to organize and join unions and collective bargaining are taking place all over the country. Given the reactionary attacks on workers and unions by the Trump regime, it would be fitting to remember at this time one of the heroes of the USA anti-colonial revolution that began 250 years ago: Thomas Paine.

Tom Paine, more than any other leader of that revolution, was a working-class hero. Unlike many of the other leading figures of that time, he wasn’t a landowner or a slaveholder or a man of wealth. Indeed, he was openly against slavery, and for much of  his life he struggled to make a decent income.

Paine’s primary occupation was as a writer. He is most well known for the writing of the short but popularly written, powerful book, “Common Sense,” in 1776, a book which inspired broadly-based support for the revolutionary cause at a time when it was badly needed.

But he was a very special kind of writer. He deliberately joined the Continental Army in Valley Forge, Pa. in the brutal winter of 1777-78 at a time when the odds against that army winning were very long. He did so to help keep up the army’s morale and, from that vantage point, wrote a series of essays published and widely distributed as The American Crisis. In the very first issue he wrote this stirring passage, still appropriate today:

 “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

What was Paine’s specific vision for human society? Long after the successful defeat of British colonialism in “the colonies,” he wrote this passage in “Rights of Man, Part the Second”: “When it shall be said in any country in the world that my poor are happy, neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars, the aged are not in want; the taxes are not oppressive; the rational world is my friend, because I am the friend of its happiness—when these things can be said, then may that country boast its constitution and its government.”

One of the most comprehensive and well written books about Paine is a book, ‘Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution and the Birth of Modern Nations,’ by Craig Nelson, published in 2006. It explains Paine’s life within the times in which he lived, “enlightenment” times which had and continue to have very real impacts. He concludes the book with words that are almost painfully relevant to our situation in the USA in the year 2025:

“Anyone needing to be reminded of core Enlightenment beliefs—that government can only be empowered by its citizens; that such citizens are born with certain natural rights; that none are born superior to any other; that all will be treated equally before the law; and that the state has a duty to help the neediest of its people—reading Paine offers a political and spiritual inspiration, one that has driven men and women to achieve greatness across history. Of Paine’s many reasons for daring to publish work for which he could have been hanged or guillotined in the United Colonies, the United Kingdom, or France, this legacy is his glory.”

The US resistance movement fighting the Trump regime’s effort to destroy everything Thomas Paine stood for and fought for, and more, will be stronger if we raise him up more and more over the coming months as we approach the 250th anniversary on July 4th next year of the issuing of the Declaration of Independence. There’s no question which side he would be on if he was alive today.

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.

Dr. ML King: Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community?

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In the organizing meetings over the last two months leading up to and at yesterday’s positive March of Resistance in Newark, NJ, endorsed by 308 organizations, African American leaders of this multi-racial, multi-issue effort have spoken often about the importance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last book: Where Do We Go From Here, Chaos or Community?

The demonstration in Newark yesterday was one of over 300 local actions around the country interconnected by the Women’s March/People’s March. Many tens of thousands of people altogether, possibly 100,000 or more, made it very clear that there is a grassroots based, multi-issue, popular movement of resistance coming out of the blocks ready to fight in an organized way against the Trump/MAGA efforts to take this country back decades. We Won’t Go Back!

60 years after Dr. King wrote this book, we are truly faced with the same question: chaos or community?

This is a piece of work that has a great deal to say to those of us who want a world where justice, peaceful settling of conflicts, and protection of and connection with the natural environment are foundational principles.

I have gone through this book, for the third time over the last couple of years, and pulled out what I consider to be some, by no means all, of Dr. King’s words that seem most appropriate to our reality today. In the order that they come up in the book, here they are:

“The hard cold facts today indicate that the hope of the people of color in the world may well rest on the American Negro and his ability to reform the structure of racist imperialism from within and thereby turn the technology and wealth of the West to the task of liberating the world from want.”  page 59

“We will be greatly misled if we feel that the problem will work itself out. Structures of evil do not crumble by passive waiting. If history teaches anything, it is that evil is recalcitrant and determined, and never voluntarily relinquishes its hold short of an almost fanatical resistance. Evil must be attacked by a counteracting persistence, by the day-to-day assault of the battering rams of justice.”  page 136

“The only answer to the delay, double-dealing, tokenism and racism that we still confront is through mass nonviolent action and the ballot. Our course of action must lie neither in passively relying on persuasion nor in actively succumbing to violent rebellion, but in a higher synthesis that reconciles the truths of these two opposites.”  page 137

“These must be supplemented by a continuing job of organization. To produce change, people must be organized to work together in units of power. . . [We must] engage in the task of organizing people into permanent groups to protect their own interests and produce change in their behalf.”  page 139

“The future of the deep structural changes we seek will not be found in the decaying political machines. It lies in new alliances of Negroes, Puerto Ricans, labor, liberals, certain church and middle-class elements. . . A true alliance is based upon some self-interest of each component group and a common interest into which they merge. Each of them must have a goal from which it benefits and none must have an outlook in basic conflict with the others.”  page 159

“We need organizations that are permeated with mutual trust, incorruptibility and militancy. Without this spirit we may have the numbers but they will add up to zero. We need organizations that are responsible, efficient and alert.”   page 169

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing’-oriented society to a ‘person’-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered. . . Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal opposition to poverty, racism and militarism.”  pages 196, 197, 200 and 201

On his 96th birthday, long live the spirit and wisdom of this truly great human being and revolutionary, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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.

World on Fire, says Dolly Parton

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Liar, liar the world’s on fire
Whatcha gonna do when it all burns down?
Fire, fire burning higher
Still got time to turn it all around

Don’t get me started on politics
Now how are we to live in a world like this
Greedy politicians, present and past
They wouldn’t know the truth if it bit ’em in the ass

Now tell me what is truth?
Have we all lost sight
Of common decency?
Of the wrong and right?

How do we heal this great divide?
Do we care enough to try?

Oh, can we rise above?
Can’t we show some love?
Do we just give up
Or make a change?
We know all too well
We’ve all been through hell
Time to break the spell
In Heaven’s name

Show some love
Let’s rise above
Let’s make a stand
Let’s lend a hand
Let’s heal the hurt
Let kindness work
Let’s be a friend
Let hatred end

-selected verses from Dolly Parton’s song, World on Fire

I was at a recent action against the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia. Another person taking part had brought a mobile sound system and was playing a good mix of songs, a number of them country and bluegrass. One was by Dolly Parton. Hearing it, I was reminded of the song she wrote and released last spring, World on Fire, which was soon played.

I noticed that some of the police watching us as we continued to demonstrate seemed to enjoy at least some of the songs, the latest example, for me, of the potential power of music.

I’ve looked into why Parton wrote this song. Here’s what she said in interviews last year:

“All of (the politicians). Any of ‘em,” she said in an interview with TODAY’s Jacob Soboroffthat aired May 15. “I don’t think any of ‘em are trying hard enough. None of them are working from the heart.”

“‘World on Fire’ makes a statement because people often say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you’re political’, she said. “And I’ll respond, ‘Look, I’m not being political here. I’m a person in a position to have a voice and this world is going up in flames. Nobody seems to care enough to get out and do something about it.”    NME.com, December 4, 2023

On one level, it’s true that this isn’t a very political song. She doesn’t name names, of people or parties. And her solutions for addressing the world-on-fire are not specific. She doesn’t say we need to stop burning fossil fuels, for example. Or shift from a wartime economy to a peace-advocacy economy. Or tax the rich, etc., etc., etc. Instead, she calls for something like a revolution in values: show some love, lend a hand, heal the hurt, let kindness work, be a friend, let hatred end.

Truly, a society which functioned on the basis of those values would be an absolutely revolutionary, and wonderful, development.

In that sense, Parton is being political.

So why should people on the political Left care about this?

Dolly Parton is loved by tens of millions of people, not just rural and country people but across many demographics. She has 15 million followers on Spotify, for example. For her to come out publicly expressing her disgust with the political system while articulating a set of values that absolutely should undergird any organized efforts for positive social change is a welcome contribution.

Indeed, things like this happening, famous people speaking or singing or acting out in ways that undercut the oppressive system and motivate people to take positive action, can be one part, a helpful, unexpected part, of the process of movement-building. We should welcome them and build upon them.

More immediately, given that I am sure there are millions of people who have voted for Trump who are Dolly Parton fans, her willingness to be so vocal about clearly non-Trump values should have a positive political impact, strengthen our efforts to accomplish the number one electoral objective for 2024: Trump’s solid defeat on November 5th.

Thank you Dolly Parton!

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

Practical Radical: Seven Strategies to Change the World, a book review

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Future Hope column, February 29, 2024

Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World, a book review

By Ted Glick

“Legendary organizer Bayard Rustin, a consummate practical radical, criticized two other dominant ways of approaching social change: ‘My quarrel with the ‘no-win’ tendency in the civil rights movement (and the reason I have so designated it) parallels my quarrel with the moderates outside the movement. As the latter lack the vision or will for fundamental change, the former lack a realistic strategy for achieving it. For such a strategy they substitute militancy. But militancy is a matter of posture and volume and not of effect.”    page ix

“A defining challenge for Left organizations today is building healthy cultures that encourage real strategic debate and building caring communities that people want to join. In our experience, many organizations lean toward one pole or another—either having honest but harsh debates that lead to splits and drive people away or developing a culture of ‘nice’ that prevents engaging differences in ways that are necessary for breakthrough strategy. Reducing harmful and unnecessary conflict can create the conditions for generative conflict, which can be healthy for organizations and movements.”  p. 263

Deepak Bhargava and Stephanie Luce have written an important and timely book, Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World. For those of us who are committed to live our lives, day after day, in as effective a way as possible to bring about fundamental, transformative, social and economic change, there is a great deal of food for thought in this substantive book

What are the seven strategies which they identify as essential?

-Base Building: “To win anything, you need to organize people, often one by one, door by door, co-worker by co-worker, and to develop strong bonds and leadership capacity.”

-Disruptive Movement: “Disruption is the ability to stop those in power from doing what they want to do and to break up the status quo.”

-Narrative Shift: “A Big Story, rooted in shared values and common themes, that influences how audiences process information and make decisions.”

-Electoral Change: “Organizations endorse candidates or run their own, develop platforms, pursue get-out-the-vote efforts, and attempt to win the power to govern.”

-Inside-Outside: “Win major policy reform by working ‘inside’ in alliance with sympathetic legislators, but also building ‘outside’ pressure through grassroots organizing.”

-Momentum Model: “Momentum-driven campaigns seek to change the political weather—to expand what’s possible to win by changing the ‘common sense’ on a particular issue.”

-Collective Care: “While care—meeting people’s basic needs for food, health, emotional support, or community—is part of everyone’s daily lives, caring for one another can be about more than survival; it can be strategic.”

To help people understand more fully about these seven approaches to world changing, the authors write about the work of nine organizations or movements: Make the Road New York, St. Paul Federation of Educators, the welfare rights movement, Occupy Wall Street, New Georgia Project, Fight for Fifteen, 350.org and Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

One of several key points that the authors make based upon their research and thinking is this one: “Transformational change will likely require multiple forms of power and all seven strategy models. Base-building is fundamental, but the other models work best under particular conditions. To this end, organizers should consider the ways different strategy models might fit together in a larger long-term struggle.”   p. 241

One aspect of the book that I appreciated was the integration of action on the climate emergency throughout it. One of the chapters was devoted exclusively to the work of the international climate group, 350.org, but at various other points the authors make clear that they believe this must be a key focus of the overall people’s movement for positive, systemic change.

One weakness, however, was the lack of a consistent identification of who it is that we must overcome if we really do want to prevent increased attacks on the rights and livelihoods of people of color, low-income and low-wealth people and workers; 21st century fascism; and worldwide ecosystem and societal breakdown. One of the few places where they do so is in reference to what Bernie Sanders consistently and repeatedly spoke about during his 2016 and 2020 Presidential campaigns. Here’s what they said at one point:

“Some parts of the progressive movement focus exclusively on single issues or policies, which makes it challenging to build support for transformational change. If they aspire to assemble a majority coalition, Left political insurgencies must work across issues and speak to different constituencies. One vivid example is the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, which achieved improbable momentum in 2016 in part because of great grassroots organizing, but also because Sanders offered more than a laundry list of policies. He offered a critique that named the villains: corporations and the billionaires and millionaires who were responsible for and profited from the struggles of working people,” the 1%, as first named by Occupy Wall Street.  p. 20

This is not a small issue. If we are not clear that this is the primary reason why humankind and all other life forms are in such great danger right now, we will never bring together the political and social force, the tens of millions of people, the multiracial working class and allies, that is absolutely, strategically necessary.

There is one other issue of note. Toward the end of the book, on page 300, the authors report on a “planning exercise” they were part of in 2022 which emphasized the importance of a “long view.” “We looked at a potential scenario of climate collapse and authoritarian takeover a decade in the future, and then at a world with a multiracial, feminist, global social democracy three decades from now.”

I support having a long view. Having a long view, both looking backwards and looking forward, is an important component of personal and movement staying power. But the way this particular exercise was reported was striking to me.

Why such a disparity as far as timetable between these two possible paths? Did people really think that we need 30 years to get our act together? Did they realize that there are climate tipping points after which it will be extremely difficult, at best, for the world to recover from this century: the drying out of the Amazon rainforest, Arctic and Antarctic meltdown, the release of massive amounts of methane currently locked-in-ice on ocean floors as the oceans warm, the slowing of the Gulf Stream potentially leading to weather instability and crop failures around the world?

Back to the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign: the Bernie movement garnered over 13 million votes that year, and polls for literally months showed that if Sanders had won the Democratic Party nomination he would have started his general election campaign ahead of Trump by about 10 percentage points. This is one big example—there are others, like the majority support right now in opposition to US support of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and Palestinians–that there really are tens of millions of people who support a strong progressive agenda. And that can’t be translated into winning power until 30 years from now?

Bhargava’s and Luce’s book can help us unite on a basis which can last, and sooner rather than later. That’s what we need. That, indeed, is what is absolutely needed strategically.

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