Tag Archives: politics

Trump-Must-Go Outreach Is Essential

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How should this work be done? Freire wrote: “The correct method lies in dialogue. The conviction of the oppressed that they must fight for their liberation is not a gift bestowed by the revolutionary leadership, but the result of their own conscientization. . . Dialogue cannot exist, however, in the absence of a profound love for the world and for people. Love is at the same time the foundation of dialogue and dialogue itself. Because love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is commitment to others. . . Only by abolishing the situation of oppression is it possible to restore the love which that situation made impossible. If I do not love the world—if I do not love life—if I do not love people—I cannot enter into dialogue.”  (pps. 53, 77)

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

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

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

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

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

Trump’s First Four Months

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

End Times Fascism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis, Presente!

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Growing up, I had virtually no contact with people who identified themselves as Catholics. Perhaps some of my friends and acquaintances in high school and college were but if so, I didn’t know it.

The first open Catholics I came to know in late 1969 at the age of 20 were people like then-Sister Joann Malone, Fathers Joe Wenderoth and Neil McLaughlin, John Grady and, eventually, Father Phil Berrigan. These were all leaders of the militantly nonviolent Vietnam War resistance movement, the Catholic Left.

These and other Catholics I came to know back then had been influenced by the South and Central American liberation theology movement which emerged in the 1960’s following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, led by Fidel Castro.

Castro had been raised in a Catholic family. In an interview in 1985 with Chilean priest Frei Betto, he spoke about the influence of his deeply religious mother and grandmother: “I always listened to them with great interest and respect. Even though I didn’t share their concept of the world, I never argued with them about these things, because I could see the strength, courage and comfort they got from their religious feelings and beliefs. Of course, their feelings were neither rigid nor orthodox but something very much their own and very strongly felt. It was a part of the family tradition.” (1)

Pope Francis prior to his being named Pope was connected with and supportive of the liberation theology movement, although he was explicitly not a supporter of armed struggle for the overturning of repressive and unjust governments. He was, however, a strong advocate for social and economic justice as made very clear in his famous 2015 encyclical, “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home.”

I re-read Laudato Si’ yesterday. There is much in it of value to all people, not just Catholics and including agnostics and atheists. In the introduction Francis summarizes the main questions the book deals with: “I will point to the intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet, the conviction that everything in the world is connected, the critique of new paradigms and forms of power derived from technology, the call to see other ways of understanding the economy and progress, the value proper to each creature, the human meaning of ecology, the need for forthright and honest debate, the serious responsibility of international and local policy, the throwaway culture and the proposal of a new lifestyle.”

Over the book’s 157 pages Francis does, indeed, deal with all of this and more.

Francis makes very clear over and over again that a central reason why the world’s economies and ecosystems are in such a critical state is the domination of government by “transnational corporations” and “powerful financial interests.” This is a good thing. Being truthful about the main source of our problems is always what those who want a world based on love, justice, peace and connection to nature should be about.

However, it is a problem that he never explicitly says that in order to create just societies and avoid economic, social and ecological collapse, the power and wealth of this billionaire class must be ended and drastically redistributed. Indeed, in such new societies billionaires would not exist. In my opinion, those who are now billionaires or multi/multi millionaires might come to appreciate how wrong they were to put the pursuit of obscene wealth and power before anything else. Some of them might actually come to realize that love and service to others is, indeed, a much better way to live.

Related to this problem with Laudato Si’ is the fact that nowhere in the book that I could find does Francis use the phrase, “fossil fuel industry,” much less call for it to be immediately and drastically downsized, moved aside so that wind, solar and other clean, renewable energy sources can take their place as rapidly as possible.

The fossil fuel industry and those banks and insurance companies who are financing their ecosystem-destroying pursuit of private profit must be named, called out, targeted for consistent, militant, nonviolent demonstrations and risk-taking direct action. They are truly public enemy number one and need to be treated as such.

As the Trump Must Go movement continues to grow and build its strength, with the next big showing of our power coming up on May 1, we can draw inspiration from the life and teachings of Pope Francis. He was a man of the people, humble, willing to take on conservative Catholic theology and speak truth to power. Let us hope that the new person elected to replace him continues and builds upon his forward-looking teachings.

1—p. 47, Fidel Castro and Frei Betto, “Fidel and Religion: Conversations with Frei Betto on Marxism and Liberation Theology.”

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.

Tom Paine, Revolutionist

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The Future Hope column below was published on July 5, 2020. It is essentially a review of the book, “Citizen Tom Paine,” by Howard Fast. I am posting it again five years later on the day after the over 800 “No Kings!” actions around the country, the latest in a wave of 50-state protests against the Trumpfascists that began on February 5th.

Yesterday was the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the US American Revolution at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. The success of that revolution against King George III and British colonialism inspired successful progressive uprisings into the 1820’s in France, Haiti, South America and elsewhere. Indeed, when the Vietnamese national liberation movement declared their independence from France on September 2, 1945, they directly quoted the US Declaration of Independence: “All people are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

The American Revolution against tyranny and oppression lives!


“There is nothing more common than to confound the terms of  the American Revolution with those of the late American war. The American war is over, but this is far from being the case with the American revolution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the great drama is closed.”   1787, Benjamin Rush
-the beginning of the book, Citizen Tom Paine, by Howard Fast

On this 4th of July weekend the name of Tom Paine, as usual, is rarely heard in official government celebrations. Yet without Tom Paine, it is likely that the war of independence against British colonialism that forged what became the United States of America never would have succeeded. That is how important this poor, struggling, working-class Englishman was to the revolutionary cause. This was a person who made a difference.

It is also rare, from my experience, that the name Tom Paine is voiced among those in 21st century USA who see themselves as revolutionaries or on the political Left. I understand why this is the case, but I think there are very good reasons why we should be raising up his name as we continue to build our growing 21st century, revolutionary movement demanding that all Black Lives Matter, for a Green New Deal, for Medicare for All, for equity and equality for women, all people of color and lgbtq people, for “liberty and justice for all.”

Howard Fast’s book is not a biography of Paine; it’s a work of historical fiction. But it presents the truth about the man, from his very real personal weaknesses and worts to his brilliance as a writer, speaker and organizer, his commitment to the causes of overthrowing tyranny, ending slavery, “a way for children to smile, some freedom, some liberty, and hope for the future, men with rights, decent courts, decent laws, men not afraid of poverty and women not afraid of childbirth.” (p. 77)

Paine saw himself as a revolutionist. This was his life’s work. In a fictional exchange with fellow revolutionist and doctor Benjamin Rush, in a discussion about revolution, Rush articulates what was historically new about what was happening in the American colonies in the 1770’s: “The strength of many is revolution, but curiously enough mankind has gone through several thousand years of slavery without realizing that fact. But here we have a nation of armed men who know how to use their arms; we have a Protestant tradition of discussion as opposed to autocracy; we have some notion of the dignity of man [mainly white men]. . . but now we must learn technique, we must learn it well. . .Six months ago you were rolled in the dirt [assaulted] because people knew what you were writing; two weeks ago a man in New York was almost tarred and feathered because he planned to publish an answer to [Paine’s] Common Sense. That’s not morality; that’s strength, the same kind of strength the tyrants used, only a thousand times more powerful. Now we must learn how to use that strength, how to control it. We need leaders, a program, a purpose, but above all we need revolutionists.” (pps. 116-117)

Paine was a particular kind of writer, one who was immersed in the cause of independence, on the front lines of deadly battles, spending time in the bitter winter encampments of the nascent continental army, organizing, encouraging men to stick with it, inspiring them and pointing out how important what they were doing was. “This was all Paine had ever thought of or dreamed of, the common men of the world marching together, shoulder to shoulder, guns in their hands, love in their hearts.” (p. 124)

Fast paints a picture of Paine writing the first issue of The Crisis, a newspaper published during the war to present facts and strengthen morale: “The men gathered around him. They read as he wrote: ‘These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. . . If there be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. . . Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and repulse it.” (p. 145)

That’s a good last line, relevant for us right now in the summer of 2020. Let the city and the country come forth to meet and repulse our common danger, this decade’s King George III, and, after his defeat this November, the unjust, destructive system which spawned him. It’s just common sense.

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.

Albert Einstein, Anti-Fascist

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There are two important anniversaries at the end of this week. Saturday, April 19th is the day the American Revolution against King George III and British colonialism began 250 years ago at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.

The American Revolution was a mixed bag, to be sure. The new United States of America which emerged from the successful defeat of England was an inspiration to other revolutions—in France, Haiti, South America and elsewhere—which advanced human society for the better. But US American independence, even as it birthed a Constitution which included the all-important Bill of Rights, allowed for the continuation and enslavement  of Africans, and it led to brutal, devastating wars visited upon the Indigenous peoples of the North American continent.

In 2025, building upon successful movements in the 19th and 20th centuries to end slavery, support Indigenous rights and sovereignty, the rights of women and more, there will be actions around the country in opposition to today’s would-be King George, fascist Donald Trump. Under the slogan, “No Kings!,” April 19, 2025 will see the latest in a series of massive and visible, coordinated national protests against the Trumpfascists

The day before the 19th is also an important day historically. On that day 70 years ago, April 18, the 20th century’s most prominent scientist, Albert Einstein, died. But Einstein was more than a scientist, the proponent of the theory of relativity. He was also a public opponent of Hitler and the rise of Nazi fascism.

A film which came out last year, Einstein and the Bomb, provides important historical information about this not so well known fact of Einstein’s life. Here is how it was explained in a review of this important movie last year in The Guardian publication:

“Einstein was public enemy No 1 in Germany. In May 1933, a brochure entitled Jews Are Watching You accused Einstein of ‘lying atrocity propaganda against Adolf Hitler’. Under his picture, it stated: ‘Not yet hanged.’

“In September, after German secret agents assassinated the Jewish philosopher Theodor Lessing in Czechoslovakia, the Nazis – who had already stolen Einstein’s savings, raided his summerhouse, ransacked his Berlin apartment and taken his violin – offered a reward of at least £1,000 for his murder.

“The next day, Einstein yielded to his wife Elsa’s pleas to leave her in the holiday home they had been renting near Ostend in Belgium and flee to England by sea. He would never set foot on continental Europe again.

“Prior to that point, Einstein had been an avowed, passionate advocate for non-violence and pacifism. But at the end of that three weeks, he gave a speech to 10,000 people at the Royal Albert Hall in London where he effectively said there is an existential threat to European civilization, and we will have to fight it.”

For the next 12 years, until the military defeat of Naziism in 1945, Einstein spoke and wrote and took action as part of that worldwide resistance movement.

There can be no doubt that, were he alive today, Einstein would be outspoken and active against Trump and MAGA. This is a source of strength as we take actions and do the deep organizing which is the absolute bedrock of what can be a successful movement not just to defeat Trump and MAGA but to bring about the systemic changes needed in our wounded, struggling, but also beautiful world.

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

Trump Must Go!

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“Millions” and “2.3 million”—these are the numbers I am seeing from national organizers of the historic April 5 Hands Off demonstrations yesterday in 1300 or more localities around the country, with some in other countries. What a stirring, hopeful, powerful day!!!

It’s time to raise our sights. It’s time for an explicit movement calling for Trump to go.

Soon after the November elections I wrote about how difficult the next two years were going to be, with Republican control of the White House, the Senate, the House and the Supreme Court. My vision was that by the time of the off-year Congressional elections Trump his co-conspirators would have exposed themselves as the frauds and liars that they are and they would lose at least the House. But the incredibly historic political uprising that we have seen in our country since January 20th, in just 75 days, HAS TO move us to set our sights higher.

We need a multi-faceted, multi-tactical, pro-democracy movement which leads with a demand that Donald Trump must be removed. He must resign or be impeached, for the third time.

How realistic is this? It’s certainly a long shot that either of those two things will happen, but the odds are a lot better today than two months, or even two weeks, ago.

The last two weeks have been brutal for the Trumpfascists: Signalgate, the double-digit loss in the Wisconsin judges race, the Wall Street and world reaction to Trump’s asinine tariffs-uber-alles actions, and then yesterday. A Reuters/Ipsos poll has his disapproval over approval numbers at 53-43%. Politically, this guy is on the ropes.

So what should come next? What’s the next big thing for this movement?

How about a general strike on May 1st?

All throughout these last 75 days and before there have been calls for and organizing for such a thing. Over 318,000 people have signed up in support of the idea at the website https://generalstrikeus.com.

I don’t believe there has never been an organized, national general strike in the USA. It is not part of our history, as it is for many other countries around the world. That’s a reason why a call for such a thing must be seriously considered by the wide range of organizations making up our massive people’s movement for democracy and by others, particularly labor unions.

On the other hand, given that history, maybe this tactic should be seen differently, as something short of a one day shutdown of most economic life in the USA but with significant, visible participation in many localities, interconnected together. Such an action would be important in and of itself while being a stepping stone, a test run, toward something much bigger a little further along.

Why May 1st?

One reason is that this will be the 100th day of the Trump Presidency. That’s a significant milestone for any President, one that the mass media will increasingly be focused on as the April days go by.

Another is that for millions of US Americans, including immigrants to the US, May 1st is appreciated as a day, historically, when working class people have stood up and taken action for their rights.

And it’s also pretty far away.

In the absence of the democracy mass movement which showed itself yesterday, I would NOT say that 25 days from now is “pretty far away,” but when the political ground is shifting the way that it now is, when the national mass media is amplifying what we do and say because we are newsworthy, we are historic, we are the ones fighting for our democracy and our country—then, things can happen much faster than usual.

History is calling for us to continue to be bold and strong. We are literally fighting not just for our children’s and grandchildren’s future but for our own, and this year. It’s time to keep thinking big and act accordingly.

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.

“A Small Price to Pay” — Coretta Scott King

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“I join you in your affirmation of life, and I hope that you have sustained the inward peace that follows a refusal to do that which one considers morally wrong, despite the consequences. Imprisonment of the body is certainly a small price to pay for freedom of the spirit.”         
     -Coretta Scott King, September 1969 letter to me in support of my draft resistance activism

Today, April 4th, is the 57th anniversary of the day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee. King was there to support the labor strike of the sanitation workers of that town, a cause which had gathered national attention at the time. He came to Memphis to stand up publicly for their righteous cause despite warnings from many sources that there was serious personal risk if he did so.

King put doing what was morally right ahead of his personal safety. He put the greater good of humankind ahead of everything else. He was a living example who continues to inspire many decades later.

That example meant the world to me at the time as an 18 year old trying to figure out what I should be doing with my life. I had heard Dr. King speak in person twice, once in Lancaster, Pa. at the age of 14 when my father took me to hear him speak at Franklin and Marshall College, and the second time in October of 1967 at Grinnell College in Iowa a couple of months into my freshman year. After that speech I went up front and was able to shake his hand.

I was still trying to figure it out six months later when King was assassinated. I was struggling with whether I should become an activist, do something about the Vietnam War in particular. Just a month before King was killed I had been asked by a friend in my dorm if I wanted to go to Chicago to take part in an anti-war demonstration. I remember very clearly how I struggled with what I should do. In the end I decided not to go.

What happened in Memphis literally changed my life. I mark April 4, 1968 as the beginning of my life of progressive activism and organizing because, in response to King’s death, I stayed up late that night putting together a petition to Congress and posted it prominently on the wall in one of the most frequently visited buildings on campus.

The petition was very weak. It called upon Mike McCormack, the then-Speaker of the House and Mike Mansfield, the Senate Majority Leader, to take action to address the social and economic conditions King had devoted his life to changing. After a couple of days, with signatures of over half of the student body, I sent the petition off to DC.

Ever since, I have done the best I could to follow King’s example, speaking out and organizing and taking action. At the age of 75 I have no intention of ever stopping doing that.

A year and a half after King’s killing I received a personally typed letter from Coretta Scott King, King’s widow and fellow activist for peace and justice. Someone who knew me and who spent some time with her told her about my decision to resist the draft, including a public refusal of induction into the army in early September, 1969. Just like many today trying to end the Natanyahu regime’s genocidal war against Gaza and Palestine, I was willing to risk going to jail, and later did, because of how strongly I felt about the US war being waged on the peoples of Indochina.

Substantive change, change that is desperately needed, doesn’t happen without hard work, without sacrifice, suffering and struggle.

Frederick Douglass is famous for something much deeper that he said on August 4, 1857:

“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are those who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

King and Douglass were not saying that our lives need to be constant work, constant struggle against the racist, rich and regressive, predominantly white men with whom we must do battle. Both of them were part of an African-grounded culture in which singing and community-building were central. The civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s was a movement where singing was essential to the ability of that movement to ultimately win major victories, after years of struggle and sacrifice. And it wasn’t just singing in churches at rallies. People sang in jail. People sang when demonstrating right next to white racists. Singing gave them power.

2025 is a big year for us, and fortunately many of us are stepping up to the plate accordingly. Our grandchildren and great grandchildren and the seven generations to come need us to keep working hard and together to defeat Trump, Musk and MAGA, doing so in a way which lays the basis for the transformative, systemic change so desperately needed in this time of deepening inequality and climate emergency.

Long live the spirit of Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King!

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.

Revolution?

Future Hope, , , ,

I wonder how many people reading these words know the significance of April 19th to US Americans, and others, to all of us worldwide who value democracy and justice for all.

What is April 19th? It’s the 250th anniversary of the beginnings of the US American Revolution. On that day in 1775, in Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts, farmers and other working people stood their ground against redcoat British troops doing the bidding of King George III. It was the day of “the shot heard round the world” which eventually led to a victory in 1781 over the mighty British Empire after six years of war.

It also led to the expansion of European American settlement across the continent in the decades afterwards, a process which nearly wiped out the Indigenous peoples who have lived here for thousands of years. Estimates are that 90% or more were killed either by disease or violent military action to force the survivors onto reservations so that the Europeans could take the land and the resources underneath it.

Like so much else about this country, this 250th anniversary of the beginnings of what became the United States is a decidedly mixed bag.

On balance, though, I see value to connecting the political uprising against the Trumpfascists with the uprising by revolutionary European Americans 250 years ago. Not by coincidence the success of this revolution was followed by the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, the Bolivar-led South American Revolution and eventually, in the USA, the Civil War that led to the end of the legal enslavement of African people. It led to the success of the women’s suffrage movement over 100 years ago, the rise of trade unionism, the Black Freedom movement in the 60’s which forced an end to Jim Crow segregation, the rise of Indigenous resistance and societal leadership, the LGBTQ movement, an environmental protection movement and more.

Trump and his co-conspirators want to take us backwards at least 90 years, to the time before the rise of industrial unionism and the CIO in the 30s and the existence of programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Their agenda is truly and profoundly un-American, and the mushrooming popular resistance movement should begin saying that loudly and clearly. We, our broadly based movement of movements in all its political, racial, gender, age and other diversity, are the “next one up” in the never-ending struggle toward a more just, peaceful and ecologically-connected world.

Revolution or Reform?

As is the case with any authentic mass movement that has a chance of winning, there are differing views on a range of topics, even as we are united on many, many issues and a generally progressive worldview.

One very big one is whether what we are striving for should be viewed as defense of, as well as needed reforms to, the existing institutions of society or whether what we must be about should be viewed as revolutionary in its ambitions.

For myself it’s the latter.

A few days ago longtime progressive author and activist Michael Albert wrote about this issue of “reform or revolution.” He explored what his experiences have taught him about the difference between them. He called for a resistance movement today which had the maturity to appreciate that we need to develop a way of working so that all of us can join together in this existential battle for the future. Here’s how he summed up his main thoughts: “So, a reform and/or revolution bottom line: No to reformism. Yes to sustained reform struggles. No to mindless revolutionary posturing. Yes to wise, visionary long term commitment. As resistance grows and as views proliferate, stay together. We need each other.”

Several years ago I wrote a book with the title, 21st Century Revolution: Through Higher Love, Racial Justice and Democratic Cooperation. In it I laid out what I saw as necessary to bring about the changes needed. As I concluded the book I quoted these words of a longtime friend and fighter for justice, the late Fr. Paul Mayer: “What history is calling for is nothing less than the creation of new human being. We must literally reinvent ourselves through the alchemy of the Spirit or perish. We are being divinely summoned to climb another rung on the evolutionary ladder, to another level of human consciousness.”

In the end, it all comes down to the personal, how each one of us does the best we can, as lovingly as we can, as resolutely as we can, as clearly as we can, day after day, to help create a world for our children and grandchildren and the seven generations coming after us very different than the one we are living through right now. We cannot let them down.

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.

Dealing with Government Repression, 2025

Future Hope, , ,

The attempted deportation of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, met with dramatic and widespread resistance, is one of the first, high profile, specifically targeted repressive acts by the Trump regime, but it won’t be the last. There is no question about their intention to create a permanently repressive and dictatorial government, a government of, by and for the overwhelmingly white and male billionaire elite and those sucking up to them for their own personal gain.

Fortunately, this is not a popular government. Polls taken a few days ago by CNN, Reuters and Quinnipiac put Trump’s favorable ratings at an average of 44% and unfavorable ratings at 53%. On the economy CNN has him at 44-56%.

Trump’s declining popular support and the rise over the last 40 days of a powerful, visible, resistance movement that shows every sign that it will continue to grow and expand (April 5th!) is part of why Trump spoke at the Justice Department two days ago.

His speech made clear the Trumpfascist intention to use the FBI, other federal agencies and the courts to try to silence those who oppose him. In the words of a Reuters story, “Trump has moved swiftly to exert control over the Justice Department (DOJ) since returning to office, challenging a decades-old tradition that the top U.S. law enforcement agency operates with a degree of independence from the White House.”

The Brennan Center for Justice released an analysis in late January of what Project 2025 put forward as far as how the DOJ should function under a Trump regime. Here is some of what they said;

“Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general, spent much of her Senate confirmation hearing attempting to allay concerns about the weaponization of the Justice Department, but she avoided direct questions about Trump’s pledge to prosecute specific adversaries. Trump has already signed two executive orders tasking the attorney general to conduct investigations into the previous administration.

The politicization of the DOJ could occur in multiple ways.

“While not explicitly outlined in Project 2025, removing barriers between the DOJ and the White House could allow the president to exert more control over individual prosecutors and investigators as they evaluate cases and choose whom to prosecute. The president campaigned on the promise of investigating and prosecuting those he perceived to be his rivals. Political appointees like the attorney general could be removed if they refuse to pursue politically motivated investigations. . . 

“The White House could assert more direct political influence on DOJ operations by removing expert civil servants, including people with decades of experience as prosecutors and investigators who have served under administrations of both parties. They could be replaced with ideological loyalists who lack key institutional knowledge that is essential for the daily operation of many law enforcement agencies. Indeed, dismissals and transfers of top justice department officials has already begun. . .  

“The relationship between the White House and the Justice Department envisioned by the authors of Project 2025 would breed a culture of impunity. Although the document does not touch on pardons, by bringing the DOJ under its close control, the White House could order officials to turn a blind eye to criminal behavior committed by friends of the administration. The combination of the promise of pardons and the presidential immunity granted by the Supreme Court increases this risk.”

Successful Resistance

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. It is clear that under a Trump/MAGA regime this is all likely to some degree.

Several things which can lessen all of those negatives are these:

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

-a loving community of support. This can be within an organization, within the local area where we live, via social media or other forms of communication, and/or just within a family. We all need to do our best to help foster and strengthen these necessary support networks;

-broad community support when repression happens. If people and groups that are attacked, in whatever way, are not seen as, or do not come to be known as, honest and genuine human beings trying to be a positive force, it is going to be hard to rally and manifest the breadth of support probably necessary. Indeed, if we are such people already, attacks on us can immediately or over time serve to undercut support for the repressors, strengthen our movement of movements.

I was a defendant in two major political trials during the Vietnam War, one in Harrisburg, Pa. and one in Rochester, NY. Because of the successful integration in both cases of good legal representation with effective community organizing leading to widespread and visible popular support, the Nixon Administration lost in the Harrisburg case and did poorly in the Rochester one. Though eight of us charged with six felonies were convicted there, a jury’s “recommendation of leniency” in sentencing and broad support within the Rochester community led to sentences of from one year to a year and a half. Prior to trial we fully expected to spend 5-10 years in prison because of what we had been caught doing overnight inside a federal building: destroying Selective Service files for young men about to be sent to Vietnam, finding incriminating documents within the {J. Edgar Hoover) FBI office and disrupting the offices of the US Attorney.

It is truly a lesson of history: politically smart and legally strong responses to attempted efforts to harass or jail us can immediately or over time serve to undercut support for the repressive government and strengthen our movement of movements. Si, se puede!

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