Tag Archives: politics

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

Future Hope, , ,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Millions in the Streets Nationally Make History

Future Hope, , , ,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Future Hope, , , ,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is how AI Overview reports it:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Facing Up to Our Historical Tasks

Future Hope, , , ,

or, 21st Century Common Sense, Part 2

By Ted Glick

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

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

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

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

However, things are changing for the better.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

21st Century Common Sense, Part One

Future Hope, , , ,

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.

Hungering for Solar, and More

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”  
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963, Letter from a Birmingham Jail

From January 5-7 I must have seen these words of Dr. King flash many hundreds of times. That happened because over those three days, from 7 am to 5 pm, I engaged in a 72-hour, water-only hunger strike across Broad Street from the Bloomfield, NJ high school. In front of the school was an electronic bulletin board that kept flashing four different messages, over and over. One was this quote with a picture of Dr. King

On the side of Broad St. where I was, behind me as I faced out, was the Board of Education offices for the townwide school district. That was the focus of my hunger strike. I took this action as the latest tactic of a 10-year effort by the Bloomfield Citizens Solar Campaign to get the schools and the town government to put solar panels on their roofs and parking lots.

I took this action because there is a July 4th deadline nationally for new renewable energy projects to have begun work to be eligible for 30% tax credits. There is immediacy for our town and for others around the country if we are to use this tax credit to advance the urgently-needed shift from fossil fuels to renewables and environmental justice.

Here is fuller description of this action as published in the local Patch publication:


Why did I consume only water and a little salt over a 72-hour period January 5-7? Why did I camp out on the sidewalk in front of the Board of Education building and across from the high school for 10 hours each of those days? What did it feel like to do it, and why did I undertake this particular form of action to press the Bloomfield Board of Education to finally take the necessary steps to have solar panels installed on school roofs and parking lots?

In a lot of ways this was a desperate act. The Bloomfield Citizens Solar Committee has been working to get the schools and the town to take solar seriously for 10 years, and so far there is nothing to show for it. After hiring Talva Energy three years ago to assess possibilities for solar, and after they told the town that solar canopies on the parking lot behind the Municipal Building and the parking lot across from the train station were both financially viable, as well as money savers for the town’s taxpayers, the township government has done nothing about this for close to a year.

But the focus of this hunger strike was the Board of Education. When a new BOE leadership with Kasey Dudley as President came in two years ago, things began to change. It took a  while, but by early November of 2025, two months ago, two proposals had been submitted by Talva Energy and Gabel Associates to organize a Request for Proposals process to find a reputable and responsible solar company to install solar on five roofs that Gabel Associates this past June said were viable for it.

In the meantime, there are federal tax credits for solar projects like this one that expire on July 4th of this year. In order to be eligible for those 30% tax credits, work has to have been begun by companies by then. So there is a time urgency here.

That is the major reason why I decided to not eat for 72 hours. The Board of Education is not doing the right thing. They are dragging their feet. It was either do something like this or just give up, and after 10 years that’s not going to happen for me and the other members of our group.

I’ve done hunger strikes before, some for weeks, but I’ve never done one at the age of 76 on a sidewalk three days in a row, sun-up to sundown, in the middle of the winter, temperatures from 26 degrees when it began to the mid-40’s when it ended.

When you don’t eat, the hardest time is at the very beginning. Your body is used to eating and when it’s not being fed, the stomach shrinks. If there are a lot of toxins and chemicals in your diet, you’ll get a headache and feel pretty bad as the body feeds on them first. After those are gone, then the body feeds on fat, and after that is gone, it feeds on muscle. I ended up losing about nine pounds over these three days.

Spiritually, when you are not eating for a cause you believe in, it can be positive, even if you are physically weaker. In this case being on the corner of Belleville and Broad for about 10 hours each day turned out to be both challenging and rewarding. Over the three days lots of people walking and in vehicles going by showed me their support by what they said to me or by horn honks or waves out the window. It was very noticeable to me how my spirits would be uplifted when these things happened, as they did many times.

But without question the best thing about this action was the interaction that I and others had with high school students. Each morning beginning at 7 am and each afternoon we passed out half-page leaflets on yellow paper (the sun!) to students, as well as teachers, and we estimate about 1,000 were taken by them. Another 300 were distributed to passersby.

Wednesday afternoon, as we were leafletting for the last time, three different people told us that the hunger strike and the issue of solar panels on the schools was being talked about. This was such a wonderful thing to hear.

We have been saying to the school board and town for all these years that one of the reasons to install solar is to give young people some hope that adults are finally taking action to address the climate crisis, the environmental destruction because of the burning of fossil fuels, that is so serious. For us older people, mainly elders, to be showing this in action via the hunger strike and the leafletting, knowing that for some of them this gives some hope for a decent future, gave me hope.

Mohandus Gandhi, Indian independence leader, engaged in many hunger strikes, and one of the things he said about them, which he called fasting, is that “fasting is the sincerest form of prayer.” I appreciate and agree with that. I continue to pray that, finally, the Bloomfield Board of Education, and the town government, will do the right thing.

 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.