Tag Archives: history

Not Left vs. Right but Top vs. Bottom?

Future Hope, , , ,

“There’s something broken in America. Our economy is broken. Our politics are broken. Even our relationships with each other feel broken. That’s because the most powerful people in the world want it that way. The biggest divide in this country is not left vs. right. It’s top vs. bottom. Billionaires want us looking left and right at each other instead of looking up at them. The people at the top work so hard to keep us angry and divided because our unity is a threat to their wealth and power. So their cable news networks and their social media algorithms tear us apart. They divide us by party, by race, by gender, by religion so we don’t notice they’re defunding our schools, gutting our healthcare, and cutting taxes for themselves and their rich friends. It’s the oldest strategy in the world: divide and conquer.” 

Texas US Senate candidate James Talarico, https://jamestalarico.com/why-im-running/

I recently finished writing 10 of these columns about “21st Century Common Sense,” a relatively short overview of how I see our human realities in 2026 and what we can do about them. In so many ways, what Talarico says above is just “common sense.”

But there’s more that needs to be said about this.

As I thought about writing this column over the last few days I kept remembering an experience in Washington, DC in the early 1980s that I had as a young, progressive activist and organizer. I was there as part of a couple of days of rallying and lobbying around issues of racial justice organized by the National Anti-Klan Network, led by long time African American leader Rev. CT Vivian. Vivian began his anti-segregation, anti-racist activism in 1947 at the age of 23. He worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the 50s and 60s. He passed on at the age of 95 in 2020.

I remember sitting at a table with him and others at one point, and I said something essentially consistent with what Talarico said, that we need to bring together black and white working people in order to bring about needed change.

Vivian responded, saying that the problem with looking at it that way is the reality of virulent racist ideas and actions of too many white working-class people. We need to work with other white people, he implied, who may be more middle- or higher-class but who get it on the need to speak out and take action on racism.

Today, 45 or so years later, it is very clear that the problems of racism, sexism and heterosexism have not been solved. The fact that Donald Trump is President, alone, underlines that fact.

But it’s also true there is a much more extensive network, a larger number of people, tens of millions of us, who get it on these issues and are willing to take action on them. The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in June of 2020 led to upwards of 25 million people taking action in the streets all over the country. And the fact that an African-American man was elected President twice in 2008 and 2012 is another big example.

Obama’s election victories, while welcome given the Republican alternatives, helped somewhat to strengthen this anti-racist trend in US life, but it is questionable how much it helped to do what Talarico, and many others, myself included, believe in and are working for. The fact that he was no Bernie Sanders when it came to his administration’s economic policies and programs led to significant loss of support from white workers over the course of his eight years in office. A Gallup poll report in 2014, for example, put it this way:

“President Barack Obama’s job approval rating among white non-college graduates is at 27% so far in 2014, 14 percentage points lower than among white college graduates. This is the largest yearly gap between these two groups since Obama took office. These data underscore the magnitude of the Democratic Party’s problem with working-class whites, among whom Obama lost in the 2012 presidential election, and among whom Democratic House candidates lost in the 2014 U.S. House voting by 30 points.”

Talarico and all of us who see ourselves as progressives need to be about a different “top vs. bottom” in this third decade of the 21st century. On the one hand, we do need to emphasize this point as we go about our work, actively emphasizing that working people or all colors, cultures and nationalities must consciously join forces against the billionaire class and do so with urgency. At the same time, we need to unite in a way which takes into account the very real issues which have kept us divided and fighting each other.

As I put it in one of my 21st Century Common Sense columns:

 “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.”

What we need is an alliance where we all do our best to be good listeners, to respect and learn from one another so we can consciously unite “the bottom.”

 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.

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.

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

Uncategorized, , , ,

“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.

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.

21st Century Common Sense, Part One

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A quarter of the way through this century, there is no doubt that the USA and the world are in deep trouble. This is true for everyone, even the families of those most responsible for this state of affairs, the “Epstein class” and those supporting them. Given the fact that the burning of fossils fuels and nukes, the continued reliance on destructive war as a way of determining who runs individual countries, and the growing disparity between the billionaire/multi-multi-millionaire (MMM) class and those who must work for a living, often barely making it—these and related injustices are what must be transcended, must be overcome, asap. The future of the world literally depends upon whether we can transcend them over the coming years.

For us in the United States of America, the immediate issue is the Trumpfascist efforts to impose dictatorial rule to the benefit of the billionaire class and those MMM’s hoping to become billionaires. As of the time of this writing a key next step in the resistance to these efforts is the November, 2026 federal elections, which should result in the Democrats, aligned with progressive Independents like Bernie Sanders, winning control of at least the House of Representatives, as things now appear is very likely.

But even if they take the House and Senate, and even if the percentage of House and Senate members who are strong and consistent progressives grows significantly, this alone will not yield the kind of changes the world desperately needs. For one thing, would-be dictator Trump will still be President, able to use his White House power in destructive ways, like unnecessary and brutal wars, rising economic, racial, gender and other inequality and hateful discrimination, and major attacks on wind, solar and electric vehicles.

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.

In a book I wrote and self-published in 2021, five years ago, here is what I put forward as the key aspect of a “winning strategy, the one that is the key link to the social transformation process so urgently needed: the building and deepening of a way of working together and developing organizations that is collaborative, respectful, democratic its core and which, as a result, is truly transformative, built to last.” 1) 21st Century Revolution: Through Higher Love, Racial Justice and Democratic Cooperation, p. 22

This has to be our starting point as we try to determine how we change the world. Also necessary is an understanding of the urgency of the climate crisis. More than any other issue, this is one which must always be seen as a top priority. The amount of damage already done and sure to be done in the future, particularly to low-income people, the vast majority of the world’s population, primarily people of color, cannot be underestimated. We are literally running out of time to transition away from fossil fuels and to be about much more community-building and collaborative approaches to solving problems as they escalate as ecosystems, food and water supplies become increasingly less dependable.

Indeed, this existential reality for the entire planet is a reason that change is not just necessary, not just possible, but very much on the agenda of humankind.

As stated by the late Father Paul Mayer, “What history is calling for is nothing less than the creation of a new human being. We must literally reinvent ourselves through the alchemy of the Spirit”—or however one describes that unseen, powerful force in the universe which, down through history, has inspired people to do things which seem impossible—“or perish. We are being divinely summoned to climb another rung on the evolutionary ladder, to another level of human consciousness.” (2)  Paul Mayer, “Wrestling with Angels”, back cover

To be frank, it is not enough to be against Donald Trump and MAGA, or against the control of both major parties in the USA, the Democrats and the Republicans, or even to be committed to hard work for the next eight and a half months here in the USA to defeat the billionaire-supporting, fascist President 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.

  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.

Are Republicans and Democrats the Same?

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Early in my progressive activist/organizer life, begun in 1968, I was a big believer in the need for a “third party.” A primary reason was the prosecution of the Vietnam War by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. As I studied in college in 1967 about the history of that war, I learned that the USA had taken over from France the role of imperialist colonizer in the mid-50’s after the French were defeated by the Vietnamese independence forces.

US imperialism in Vietnam was not benign. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese by 1968 had been killed as the US supported a series of brutally repressive South Vietnamese governments. By 1968 tens of thousands of US American soldiers had been killed. And the war was escalating.

Republican and Democratic politicians supported all of this. Begun under Eisenhower, this war was continued under Kennedy and then under Johnson. It is similar to the many, many months of bipartisan support for Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. There were progressive Democrats in Congress who were calling for a ceasefire very soon after Hamas’ October 7th attack in southern Israel, but their numbers were small at first. Over time and as the genocide continued, it was among Democrats only that larger numbers of them spoke out.

There are lots of other examples of usually bipartisan support for a US foreign policy all about world domination. That is why there are 750 or more US military bases in 80 countries and a trillion dollars a year military budget.

US foreign policy is not about “freedom.” It is about dominance to benefit the fossil fuel industry, the weapons of war industry and other US corporate investments throughout the world.

However, and it is a big “however,” some of the opposition to all of this has always come, in part, from within the Democratic Party, stimulated by independent, issue-oriented, peace and justice organizations. In March of 1968 Eugene McCarthy almost won the New Hampshire Democratic Presidential primary, after which Robert Kennedy, another critic of the war, entered the Presidential race. In response, on March 31, Lyndon Johnson announced he would not run for reelection.

Nothing like this has ever happened within the Republican Party, and we can all see how thoroughly Trump/MAGA has taken it over in its drive to destroy democracy, institute fascist rule and be even more world-dominant. There are a very small number of Republican House and Senate members who have refused to always kiss Trump’s ring, but they are, indeed, a very small number.

What’s the point?

The Democratic Party for at least the last 65 years, since the election of John F. Kennedy, has always contained both a progressive component and a pro-corporate, pro-imperialist component. Even with the reality that the corporatists are almost always dominant, this is a very distinct difference from the Republican Party.

Right now there is no question that the progressives are in the ascendency, not in control but ascendent. This is a trend that began with Bernie Sanders’ 2015-2016 Presidential campaign and has continued and deepened ever since. The recent House of Representatives, Democratic primary, election victory just this past week of working-class activist and organizer Analilia Mejia in northern New Jersey is the latest example of this so-important political trend.

For a small sector of the political Left, this important political development isn’t seen as of much significance. That’s true for some whose ideological perspective is grounded in anarchism, which has always, from what I know, been skeptical if not hostile to electoral activity. Others are not necessarily anarchists but are so pissed off by the systemic injustices of US corporate capitalism and the dominance of billionaire money over it that they see electoral politics as too tame of a tactic. I can definitely identify with these feelings even as I believe that, strategically and tactically, we have no choice but to be involved in electoral politics if we are serious about systematic change in the USA.

Others are what I’d call “true believers” in the idea that another party, a “third party” running candidates right now at all levels, including for President, is the way to go. I used to be in this category. From 2000 to 2017 I was a member of the Green Party. I was actively involved on a national level in the Presidential campaigns of Ralph Nader in 2000 and David Cobb in 2004. After that, however, I pulled back and mainly worked on a local level in northern New Jersey on environmental, peace and racial justice issues within an activist Green Party group. I got back involved in national electoral politics only when Bernie announced his historic campaign in 2015.

I left the Green Party when I saw a tweet from Jill Stein, their 2016 Presidential candidate, saying that the Sanders campaign was all about being “sheepdogs” for the duopoly, bringing progressives into the Democratic Party. That was the last straw for me.

For 40 years I was part of efforts to form a “mass party of the people,” as described by the first “third party” group I was part of, beginning in 1975. It was called the “Mass Party Organizing Committee,” led by progressive and civil rights attorney Arthur Kinoy. One thing I liked about it was that it understood the need to forge an alliance between independents outside the Democratic Party and progressives within it. Because we did, we were among the first predominantly white progressive group to come out publicly in 1983 in support of Rev. Jesse Jackson running for President in the 1984 Democratic primaries.

Jackson talked publicly about the need to build a “third force,” different than a “third party,” and his campaign reflected that. It included both Democrats, particularly African Americans, and independents.

The Bernie Sanders campaigns in 2016 and 2020, though not grounded in the African American community to the extent of the Jackson campaign, something that ultimately undercut his 2020 efforts, are another example of the strategic and political power of this “third force” approach. He received over 13 million votes in 2016 and 9 ½ million in 2020. In 2025 he and AOC and their Fighting Oligarchy rallies all over the country were a critical component of the fightback against Trumpfascism.

As this absolutely crucial 2026 election season unfolds, off to a good start so far, let’s learn from the lessons of progressive electoral campaigns over the last 50 years, both inside and outside the Democratic Party. Up with the growing and deepening progressive third force!

  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.

Casualties in the Fight for Democracy

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“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 will strengthen and build our movement.”

-from my 2020 book, Burglar for Peace: Lessons Learned in the Catholic Left’s Resistance to the Vietnam War

The murders of Rene Good and Alex Pretti by, in Joe Rogan’s words, “Gestapo”-like agents of ICE and Customs Border Protection is having huge political impacts. It’s so bad politically for the Trumpfascists that even Steven Miller has just put out a statement trying to put distance between him and the Pretti killing.

The Democratic Party in Congress is overwhelmingly unified as of right now in its efforts to force some changes in the way these agencies operate. That would not be happening to the degree and with the breadth that it is if not for these two murders.

But it’s not just the murders that are generating this response. It is the massive actions in the streets of Minneapolis/St. Paul, as well as elsewhere in solidarity. It is the organized, nonviolent, community-based efforts to make it hard for ICE/CBP to carry out their reign of terror without exposure and visible opposition via videos, whistles, horns and standing up for justice in the streets where they are trying to operate.

From all that I have seen, it is mainly white people who are in the streets. This makes sense given ICE/CBP’s use of racial profiling, stopping mainly Black and Brown people, in their search for undocumented immigrants. It is reasonable that many would want to limit their exposure to Trump’s agents of repression.

“Standing up for racial justice”—this is the name of an important national organization which, for years, has been working with white people to strengthen their anti-racist consciousness and willingness to take action against racism. This group and other predominantly white groups on local, state and national levels have been doing the same thing for a long time. The massive, multi-racial movement in response to the murder of George Floyd six years ago is another manifestation of what has been developing for many years throughout the country among progressive and decent white people at the grassroots.

This is a very good, very hopeful development.

Can we expect more people taking nonviolent solidarity actions in the streets to be physically attacked, arrested or killed? Yes. It is unrealistic to think otherwise given the depth of racism, patriarchal and militaristic ideas and practices among Trump supporters. But well-organized and disciplined activism and organizing can reduce those casualties.

A week after Trump was elected I wrote a column, Dealing With Government Repression, offering my ideas about how we could best deal with what we knew would be coming. I wrote this toward the beginning of it:

“There are a number of things which are essential to 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 job losses or greater economic hardship. We need to accept that under a Trump/MAGA regime this is all likely.”

I went on to conclude with these words:

“It’s a drag that we’re on the defensive on a national level and will be for at least a couple years to come, but that’s where we are. There are so many issues that we won’t be able to move forward on nationally, the deepening climate emergency being a huge one. But in this time of testing we owe it to the best within us and to those coming after us to stand as strong and gentle and loving as we can as we go about our essential work and activism. Generations past have pointed the way for us, and generations to come are counting on us.”

So far, throughout the country, in inspiring and hopeful ways, we are rising up to our historic tasks. Our ancestors would be proud.

  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.