Tag Archives: politics

Bernie’s Call to Reflect/Speak Out/Build

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“I have long believed that we need an alternative to the Democrat and Republican parties, and since 1974 I have acted on that belief via involvement in various organizations with that objective. All during that time I have believed, on a tactical level, that to get to the kind of alternative we need, one that had the mass support necessary to be able to actually contest for power, it was necessary that it include both people who saw themselves as independent of the Dems/Reps as well as a significant number of progressive Democrats and maybe some Republicans. I’ve also learned from experience about the very practical problem of a winner-take-all system when it comes to explicit third party building. The weakness of the US Green Party is exhibit number one for why this is such a huge problem.”
-21st Century Revolution: Through Higher Love, Racial Justice and Democratic Cooperation, p. 104

It was 50 years ago that I first joined an organization trying to build a progressive alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties. The group’s name for a while was the very unwieldly “National Interim Committee for a Mass Party of the People,” eventually and mercifully changed to “Mass Party Organizing Committee.” The organization grew out of a long paper, “Toward a Party of the People,” written by civil rights/labor/progressive attorney Arthur Kinoy.

I was reminded of my long years in the wilderness trying, unsuccessfully, with many others to build such a political force when Bernie Sanders last week put out an intriguing “Tough Times” email. In it Independent Sanders made it clear that though he supported Kamala Harris and though he works with Democrats in the Senate to try to advance positive legislation, he continues to believe that an alternative to both parties is necessary, that what happened in 2024 only reinforced that belief and his commitment to play a leadership role toward that alternative.

As he put it, we need to “learn the lessons of the [Democratic Party] defeat and create a party that stands with the working class and is prepared to take on the enormously powerful special interests that dominate our economy, our media and our political life.”

I was struck by Bernie’s call for the Left to ask a series of “political questions that, together, we need to address.” He listed nine of them in his Tough Times piece, including: how we build a multi-racial, multi-generational working class movement; building a 50 state movement; Citizens United and billionaires buying elections; more working class candidates for office; supporting Independent candidates; better support to union organizing; strengthen our use of social media; and building sustainable, issue-based organizing structures.

Intriguingly, he asked, “How do we put together listening sessions around the country that intentionally seek input from people who did not vote for Democrats in the last election?” Listening is almost always a very good thing to be doing, especially if it’s clear that there’s a need for some major personal or political change.

Where would the independent progressive movement be without Bernie Sanders? His 2016 Presidential campaign was absolutely huge—15 million votes for a forthright socialist who targeted what he called the “ruling class,” the 1%, the power elite, the billionaire class. Those of us who voted for him and the country as a whole were witnesses to the breadth of support for this kind of politics.

Reading what Sanders wrote it would be very easy to think that he was calling for the creation right now of a new political party other than the Dems and the Reps, but he has clarified since in an interview in The Nation with John Nichols that he is not doing so. He believes that strong, class-conscious progressives can run either in Democratic primaries or as Independents.

This is an absolutely key point for those individuals and organizations who right now, after Kamala Harris’ unfortunate defeat, believe that what the Left should do is to abandon the Democrats and create right now a(nother) third party.

The Green Party experience over 28 years of running candidates for office is instructive here. This year, after all those years of existence, their candidate for President got ½ of a percent of the national popular vote. This is not an aberration; it’s a feature of every GP Presidential campaign since 2000 when the Ralph Nader/Winona Laduke slate received 2.7% of the popular vote.

What we need to be consciously constructing right now is a “third force,” a progressive alliance that is clearly different than both the Democrats and the Republicans as far as what it stands for both domestically and as far as foreign policy: “for racial and gender justice and equality; for the right to organize and unionize on the job; against militarism and for justice-based peace; for detoxification and protection of our natural environment and a rapid shift from dirty and dangerous fossil fuels and nukes to clean, renewable energy sources; for immigrant rights, reproductive rights and an end to mass incarceration; for a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, a $15 minimum wage, tuition-free public higher education and student debt cancellation; and more.” (21st Century Revolution, p. 96)

Who is going to give leadership to the building of such an alliance? One person, one absolutely key person, is Bernie Sanders, but it cannot be him alone. As he said in his Tough Times piece, “these are some of the political questions that, together, we need to address. And it is absolutely critical that you [all of us] make your voice heard during this process.”

As we fight the many necessary battles against Trump and MAGA’s regressive, destructive plans, we also need to consciously build upon the many connections that already exist toward a much better organized, independent and progressive, political third force. NOW IS THE TIME.

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 Big Defeat

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“I took down your golden boy in a week.”   
     -Mitch McConnell, on Matt Gaetz failed nomination

After learning yesterday about Matt Gaetz withdrawing from consideration to be US Attorney General, I spoke with a close friend and sister activist about the replacement nominee, Pam Bondi. She said, accurately, that the problem with Bondi is that she doesn’t seem to have Gaetz’s personal baggage but could be more dangerous because she has the legal experience and skills that he doesn’t.

I responded that, yes, that is true, but it’s also true that this big political defeat for Trump, happening because of a rebellion by less hardline Republican Senators, is a very positive development anyway. Why?

Would-be dictators actually become dictators in part because they are able to project strength and virility, making it much easier to impose their will on anybody they determine is standing in their way. But as Republican Senator Mitch McConnell surprisingly revealed, Trump’s victory clearly has its limits. When it is Republican Senators, not Democrats, not progressives, not leftists, who are the ones standing up to him, that has positive political impacts.

Many progressives and liberals and more centrist Republicans have been rocked by Trump’s victory. All of us in one way or the other have been emotionally thrown by it. But the thing is this: successful resistance, even just the fact of resistance, encourages others to do so. When victories are won because of that resistance a stronger and wider movement will be one of the results.

I have to say that I’ve wondered myself if Trump and the MAGA’s were going to be able to lie and intimidate enough to significantly alter US political dynamics and undercut the important democratic aspects of this problematic, unjust system. Were a significant percentage of the millions of progressives in the USA going to decide to keep their heads down, not show up for public demonstrations, reduce their activism out of fear, I’ve wondered. And I still have that concern. But this big defeat of Trump’s “golden boy in a week;” McConnell revealing that Trump is not going to be able to get all the Senate, and House, Republicans to just go along to get along, look the other way on anything Trump/MAGA wants, should help to lessen that problem.

As I wrote in my column the day after the election, “I remember a very similar [anxious and depressed] feeling after the November, 1972 runaway Presidential victory of Trump-similar Richard Nixon over George McGovern. 21 months later Nixon was gone from DC, resigning in disgrace before he was impeached. What was Nixon’s vote total compared to Trump’s? Nixon had a 23% margin of victory in the popular vote and won every state except Massachusetts and DC. As far as Trump, when all the votes are counted It looks like he’ll either be ahead by a couple percent or pretty much tied [as of now it’s about a 1 ½ point lead]. And Harris won a lot more states than Massachusetts and DC.”

Resistance breeds resistance. It is that resistance movement that is our hope for the future; let’s step it up across the board on issue after issue.

 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.

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Dealing With Government Repression

Future Hope, , , ,

“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 book, Burglar for Peace: Lessons Learned in the Catholic Left’s Resistance to the Vietnam War.

(Much of what follows is an edited version of a section in the concluding chapter of the Burglar for Peace book.)

My first years of progressive activism and organizing took place during the presidency of Richard Nixon, without doubt one of, if not the, most repressive Presidential administrations we have experienced in the US in the modern era. It was under Nixon that the Republican Party with its “southern strategy” began its move toward becoming the kind of ultra-rightist entity that allowed pathological liar, racist and sexual predator Donald Trump to be elected President in November of 2016, and again two weeks ago.

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

I personally experienced this repressive apparatus primarily via my inclusion as a defendant in the Harrisburg 8 case. We were charged with a supposed anti-Vietnam War conspiracy to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up heating tunnels under Washington, DC. When the case finally came to trial, the jury in conservative Harrisburg, Pa. was hung 10-2 for acquittal, after which the Nixon government dropped the case.

I learned during those Nixon years about how to deal with government repression. Unfortunately, given the reality of a second Trump administration about to take power, these are lessons very relevant for today.

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.

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

-good legal representation in court. I was glad to see the ACLU’s strong public statement about planning to do their job, and there are many other movement groups, like the National Lawyers Guild, and lawyers that I expect will do the same.

-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.

Another critical aspect is the need for us, white progressives in particular, to internalize the reality that there is a disparity between how repressive government deals with people of color, Black, Latino/a, First Nation and Asian, compared with people of European descent, white people. The historical realities of broken treaties, slavery, Jim Crow segregation, assumed white dominance and institutionalized racism continue to have their negative, discriminatory impacts. In 2024 it was manifested primarily by Trump’s repeated attacks on and threats to people of color immigrants.

Also, clearly, transgender people are right up there at the top of MAGA’s enemies list.

Those of us of European descent as well as all progressives must be conscious of these realities and act accordingly, ready to speak up and challenge unequal, discriminatory or explicitly racist, sexist and transphobic words and actions whenever they happen.

Another lesson as far as dealing with government repression is to not let it paralyze or divide organizations or movements.

This is one of the objectives of unjust governments trying to repress those who challenge its policies and practices. It is a known fact that government infiltrators are trained to look for differences within a group or movement and make efforts to deepen and harden them. That is why we need to be about the continued development of a movement culture which is respectful and healthy. Within such a cultural environment, it is much harder for people trying to create divisions to succeed.

It’s similar in regards to agent provocateurs, people who try to get others to engage in violent speech or action toward police or others representing government.

Anger against injustice and oppression is not just legitimate; it is a necessary component of successfully building a movement for real change. But anger needs to be used in a disciplined way. Those who are quick to call cops “pigs” to their face, engage in physical violence, or in other ways display anger negatively, ways which will be used to discredit and isolate us, are either government/corporate agents or are people who need an intervention. They need to be taken aside and spoken to in a direct, to-the-point and loving way about the counter-productiveness of what they are doing.

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 imho. 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.

 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.

Time to Hit the Streets

Future Hope, , ,

The day before the big election I said to my wife that, if Trump ended up winning, it was important that a very broad, massive coalition to oppose him had been created by Kamala Harris and her supporters. As terrible as it is that, as I write, the MAGA’s will control the Senate and the White House, hopefully not the House, a potentially strong counterforce exists to continue the fight to move forward, not backwards.

Then, last night, lying in bed thinking about this so-serious situation we are now faced with in not just the USA but the world because of the MAGA victory, I remembered a very similar feeling after the November, 1972 runaway Presidential victory of Trump-similar Richard Nixon over George McGovern. 21 months later Nixon was gone from DC, resigning in disgrace before he was impeached.

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

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

Trump’s victory is really bad for the Palestinians; 2 ½ months from now Netanyahu and his allies will have an active enabler in the White House of their planned takeover of all of Palestine, from the river to the sea. It is terrible for our disrupted climate; a climate denier will be President one of whose main promises during his campaign was that if he won, the US would “drill, baby, drill.” Undocumented immigrants, including the dreamers, people brought to the US as children by family members looking for a better life, are facing a planned mass deportation of millions. Women’s right to abortion will continue to be in jeopardy as the movement against that right will be strengthened by Trump’s victory. The labor movement can expect to see anti-union replacements at the National Labor Relations Board. The list of MAGA’s neo-fascist plans, enumerated in the Project 2025 document, is a very long one.

It’s pretty overwhelming to appreciate what we are now facing. But it would be wrong to give up hope, for many reasons, among them:

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

-There are literally millions of us who have been active as part of the effort to defeat Trump. To the extent to which that movement refuses to give in and demonstrates visibly, in the streets and in other ways, that if will fight the MAGA’s, this can have an impact.

-Seven of the 10 ballot initiatives upholding the abortion rights of women, the right to control their reproductive health care, were successful, including several in states Trump won.

-Trump doesn’t control the courts. And even though the Supreme Court is what it is, there is no question that state courts, US District Courts and Courts of Appeal will play a major role slowing, at least, as well as more than that in some cases, the attempted MAGA coup.

Ultimately, what is most important right now is for progressives to resolve individually, on a personal level, that we refuse to give up. The Harris supporters who are demoralized by the election results need to see us continuing to take visible action. That is why “taking it to the streets,” in creative and massive and determined ways, is what now has to rise to the top of our tactical agenda.

 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. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Running Through the Tape

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Last week, from Saturday October 26th through Saturday November 2, I took part in the Harris/Walz ground game in the Allentown, Pa. area. Each of those eight days I left the place where I was staying first thing in the morning to go knock on doors, about 7-800 of them altogether over that time. I talked to those who opened the door or who I passed in the street, about 300-350 people I’d estimate, and leave campaign literature when no one answered. It was definitely hard work, but it was good work, and I am thankful that at the age of 75 my knees and the rest of my body held up so that I was able to make it through.

The doors that I was knocking on were a mix. Many of those I spoke to were Harris supporters, but there was a substantial minority that were either undecided or Trump supporters, which I was glad was the case. I wanted to do outreach “beyond the choir,” and I was fortunate to be connected in August to a local Democratic Party campaign for the Pennsylvania State House in a very definite “purple” area. This was reflected by the fact that there seemed to be as many yard signs for Trump as there were for Harris as I went around. As a result I ended up talking to scores of Trump supporters.

Did I change any of their minds? Not as far as who they’ll be voting for, almost certainly, but I do feel confident that I raised some doubts in the minds of some of them, particularly when I reminded them that both General Mark Milley and General John Kelly said publicly that after working closely with Trump when he was President that they believe he is a “fascist,” their word. Milley said he is “fascist to the core.”

I was encouraged that, even if just for a few minutes, I was able to have a civil conversation with these Trump supporters where we both listened to each other. It strengthened some hope that I already had that, going forward after tomorrow’s election, especially if Harris wins, it is possible to make inroads with some of them.

Hopefully we progressives, especially we white progressives, will get a chance to work at that in a more conscious and focused way after tomorrow, after a Harris/Walz/Democratic Party set of victories.

But there’s still one day to go!

Although I’m home, glad to be here regaining my strength, my anxiety about the election had me on the phone for four hours yesterday making calls into the area where I did my door to door work. And I will spend at least that many hours today doing the same.

VP candidate Walz, former coach, has used the analogy of “running through the tape,” meaning that if you are in a foot race you don’t let up until you’ve actually crossed the finish line. In the past, before the electronics revolution, there often was an actual tape, a ribbon, stretched across the finish line for the winner of the race to break through.

A breakthrough: that’s what a Harris/Walz victory can be, and I believe it is a definite possibility if, even today, we all make those calls, knock on doors, text people we know to be sure they’re voting and win the biggest set of victories we can tomorrow. History is calling upon us to defeat the fascist threat!

 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. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Fascist to the Core

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This is how Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump from October of 2019 on, described the essence of Trump. This was revealed in an interview by Bob Woodward in a new book, War, published three weeks ago. Way to go, Mark Milley.

Before I left New Jersey five days ago to come to Allentown, Pa. to do eight days of door-to-door canvassing for Kamala Harris and the Dems, I had the thought that I would use Milley’s quote when appropriate talking to people at their front doors. I’ve done it some over these last five days, but today was the day that my front door experiences, or maybe Trump’s Madison Square Garden racist/sexist debacle, led me to do so.

I spoke to probably 35 or 40 people today, people who answered when I knocked on their door/rang their bell. A decent percentage, probably close to a majority, said they were voting for Harris/Walz. A smaller number didn’t really interact and closed the door. Then there were those who told me that they were either going to vote for Trump or they weren’t certain what they were going to do.

For those in that third category, eight or nine people in total, I would say something like this:

“Just one more thing. Did you know that John Kelly, four-star Marine general and chief of staff under Trump, and Mark Miller, top military officer under Trump, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have both described Trump as a ‘fascist,’ their words. Milley said he was ‘fascist to the core.’”

I don’t remember any of them acknowledging that they had heard of this. None of them had anything to say back to me in response contesting its truthfulness. My sense was that for most of them I was giving them something new to think about. They may well have once heard it but then been overwhelmed with everything else in their lives or that they’ve heard from whichever media sources they listen to.

There are lots of things to say about Trump for those who say they are undecided about who they’re voting for, or that they might change their mind, about 10% of likely voters according to a very recent poll. But it seems to me that, in general, this “fascist to the core” fact is at the top of the list of most effective arguments to try to get people to vote against fascism/Trump and for Harris, especially in the battleground states.

I encourage others to consider doing so wherever it makes sense in these last five days until November 5.

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. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Why Hitler Fan Trump Will Lose, If. . .

Future Hope, ,

Today’s the day for fascist Trump’s big rally in Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately for him and the MAGA’s, former Trump allies John Kelly and Mark Milley inconveniently expressed this month that from working with him while he was President they consider him to be a fascist, Milley saying “fascist to the core.” Media comparisons are already being made of today’s rally to the pro-Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939.

This is one of the reasons Trump will lose, if. . .

Another reason is the recent, rampant, obnoxious and overt sexism expressed over and over again by Trump at his rallies—remember Arnold Palmer’s private parts public musing?—and by acolytes like Tucker Carlson, likening Trump to the Big Daddy who comes home to beat the teenage daughter, with no remorse, for her transgressions. This will motivate some men, mainly white and of all ages, to vote for the misogynist fascist, but without question it will motivate at least as many, certainly more, women and anti-sexist men to be sure to vote the right way.

But perhaps the biggest reason why Trump will lose, “if. . .,” is the apparently much stronger get-out-the-vote and convince-persuadables effort being mounted in all of the battleground states by the Harris/Walz campaign and more independent allies, like Seed the Vote. There have been a number of reports over the last week or so about how the Trump/MAGA ground game, outsourced to Elon Musk, is faltering. One report estimated that 25% of the reports by Trump canvassers to their MAGA bosses were untruthful, that instead of knocking on doors and making efforts to actually talk to people, these paid canvassers were just leaving literature at the doors without that effort.

The ground game is important because, according to recent polling reported by CNN, there are still about 10% of “likely voters” who have either not decided who they’re voting for or have said they could potentially change their Presidential vote.

There is also the fact of Palestinian, Muslim and Arab-American community leaders in battleground state Arizona coming out publicly in support of people voting for Harris—“holding their nose” in doing so because of the Biden Administration’s unwillingness to cut off military aid to the Netanyahu government. Here’s how they put it: “Some of us have lost many family members in Gaza and Lebanon. We respect those who feel they simply can’t vote for a member of the administration that sent the bombs that may have killed their loved ones. As we consider the full situation carefully, however, we conclude that voting for Kamala Harris is the best option for the Palestinian cause and all of our communities.”

Combined, these are all solid reasons why Harris/Walz have a good chance of winning. So what’s up with the “if. . .”?

There are probably hundreds of thousands of us, maybe millions, around the country who, for the last many weeks or months, have been sending post cards, making calls and knocking on doors. There are more people joining in on the phone calling and door knocking now, in the home stretch. That work must continue and be strengthened. Those of us already doing so must step up how much we do in the next 10 days. For myself, I’m writing from Allentown, Pa., where this 75 year old white guy will be door knocking for at least eight straight days

Others who haven’t been involved in this work can still do so. Everyone can get on the phone and call everyone you know to be sure they’ve voted, or plan to do so, or to do our best to convince friends and relatives who are thinking of or planning to vote for Trump not to do so. Frankly, the situation we are in is worth strained relationships or even a loss of friendships.

If all of this happens, I think we can win. We can defeat the MAGA’s. We can get Trump’s various legal prosecutions back on track. We can move on to the next stage over the coming four years of a strengthened and better connected progressive movement advancing and winning on a range of issues.

These are realistic goals if, if, if we don’t let up. 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. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Coalition Building in MAGA Times

Future Hope, ,

Over the years since I became a progressive activist and organizer in 1968 I’ve been part of an awful lot of coalitions on an awful lot of issues: the Vietnam war, impeaching Nixon, Puerto Rican independence, tenants’ rights, the Rainbow Coalition, independent politics, fighting new fossil fuel infrastructure, supporting solar energy, racial justice, Palestinian freedom and more. I’ve done this coalition work because it is a fundamental fact of successful organizing that in order to win victories, or stave off big defeats, people and groups who ordinarily don’t interact have to do so.

Victories aren’t won by small groups of people with a narrow social base. They’re won by lots of people joining together and using whatever tactics make sense to achieve a common objective.

Over the last three months a very surprising coalition has come together united behind the Presidential candidacy of Kamala Harris—“from Bernie and AOC to Liz and Dick Cheney.” Who would have thought such a coalition could ever happen?

Very broad coalitions happen because there is a major threat to lots of people. The impacts of the threat may be different, with some more negatively impacted than others, but all can see that they will be impacted.

Trump, a “fascist to the core” according to Trump’s former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is such a major threat that this very strange, right-to-left, short-term coalition has come together behind the Democratic Party ticket of Harris and Walz.

Some leftists who are outraged, for good reason, by the Biden administration’s refusal to cut off military aid to Israel as it continues its genocidal war on Gaza have decided that, as a result, they can’t support Harris/Walz. They are willing to overlook Trump’s fascism and the certainty that a Trump Presidency will be even worse for the cause of Palestinian freedom.

As someone who has been demonstrating every week in northern New Jersey in support of a ceasefire, I fully understand why people have these feelings.

The anger and anguish I’ve felt since October 7th has been similar to the way I felt as a young person about the US government’s war in Vietnam in support of successive repressive regimes in what was then South Vietnam. Those feelings led me to turn in my draft card, burn an induction notice I received in response, and then take part in five Catholic Left actions nonviolently destroying Selective Service draft files and disabling bomb casings intended for use in Indochina. I ended up spending 11 months in prison in 1970-1971 for these actions.

While in prison I had time to read and reflect on what I had done and what was needed if the war was to be ended and US society fundamentally transformed away from war and racism to a truly peaceful and just society. Studying history, I came to realize that though the actions I had undertaken were good ones, appropriate because of the urgency, there was also a need for a broadly-based, massive movement demonstrating in the streets and taking action in other ways.

When I came out, this led to my eventual involvement in one of the major national coalitions working for an end to the war, the People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice. Ever since, whatever issue I have worked on, I was always willing to join together in coalition to increase the chances of winning.

My belief in the urgent importance of defeating fascist Trump has led me to do something I’ve never done before—work for Democratic Party candidates, from the Pennsylvania State House to the Presidency, within an official Democratic Party organizational structure. This Saturday and for a week or more after I’m going to be doing so in the Allentown, Pa. area, knocking on many hundreds of doors to help get out the Harris/Walz vote and hopefully persuade some undecideds to do the same.

It really is an all-hands-on-deck moment to preserve US democracy, a flawed democracy to be sure but one which up to now has made it possible for mass movements for progressive social change to win victories. Given the political strength of the MAGA forces and the existential danger they represent, I have no doubt that I and many of us around the country doing similar work are doing the right thing. The fascist threat, Trump, must be defeated on November 5th.

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. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

It’s Not Just the Fascism

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This column is particularly for those people who live in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada who are thinking of or planning to vote for a third party candidate like Jill Stein or Cornell West.

In general, I get it on why some people, even in battleground states, are thinking that come election day, or before it, they intend to vote for someone other than Harris or Trump. These are people who believe that both parties are the problem.

For almost 20 years of my life, from the mid-90s to the mid-2010s, I always voted for the Green Party candidate for President. It was the party whose positions on issues were closest to my views, and I felt that I should vote that way accordingly.

Today, in 2024, there’s another reason why some people with progressive ideas are planning to vote for Jill Stein or Cornell West: the Biden Administration’s continuing military support for Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. However, in my view, a good argument against this is the fact that Donald Trump will be even worse for the Palestinian people than Kamala Harris. Trump and the MAGA’s are united in their support for war criminal Netanyahu.

This is not true for Kamala Harris, and it’s not even true for Biden. Both have been increasingly open in their calls for an end to the war and, particularly for Harris, an addressing of the underlying issue of Israel’s illegal, brutal and long-standing occupation of land that is legally Palestine’s. Under a Harris Presidency there are reasons to believe that the mass movement in the United States in support of Palestinian freedom, aligned with the vast majority of the world, can force changes to US policy.

Another argument against voting in the battleground states for anyone other than Harris is the threat of fascism in the US. When Trump’s former US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley says of him that he is “fascist to the core,” those are words to take seriously.

But as I drove back yesterday from door to door canvassing for Harris/Walz in the Allentown, Pa. area I thought of another very good reason why a vote for them in battleground states is so strategic.

If Trump wins, the extremely broad—strange, actually—united front against him, from Bernie and AOC on one side to Liz and Dick Cheney on the other, will have no choice but to stay together to fight his administration on one issue after the other as the MAGA’s try to carry out their Project 2025 backwards-looking agenda.

If Trump loses, on the other hand, and a Harris/Walz administration moves forward as best they can with their agenda, the progressive Left can come together in support of the much stronger policies needed to address the structural injustice and the existential threat all life forms face worldwide because of our fossil fuel industry/corporate-dominated political and economic system. We can get better organized to advance strong action on the climate crisis via a Green New Deal, for improved Medicare for All, for a world-changing shift in US foreign policy so that money now used for military dominance around the world can be used for something like a full-fledged campaign to end poverty, and so much more.

It will be almost impossible to advance these and other righteous causes if we’re constantly on the defensive dealing with mass deportation round-ups, the use of the courts to indict and prosecute who knows how many of us, the rise of poverty, racism and rampant hetero- and transphobia, and more.

To put it another way, if Trump is defeated and Harris/Walz take office January 20, the conditions are much, much better for the advancement of an independent, progressive, program-based mass movement of many millions.

Battleground state leftists: all the polls are showing, at best, an extremely close race in the state where you live. It is possible that just a few thousand votes one way or the other could be decisive in who wins the Presidency. Please consider seriously.

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. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Why is Trump So Desperate!

Future Hope, , , ,

A few days ago a Marist Poll came out which reported an important finding as far as the Presidential race. It said:

“80% of registered voters nationally, including 86% of likely voters, say they know the candidate they plan to support and will not change their mind. 15% of registered voters have a good idea of the candidate for whom they plan to vote but could change their mind. Five percent have not made up their mind. Harris’ supporters (85%) are slightly more likely than Trump’s supporters (79%) to say they have made up their mind and will not change it prior to voting.”

So one month before the election, between 14-20% of registered voters have not made a final decision about who they will vote for.

This is a critical statistic for those of us who have already been involved, or who will be doing so in this critical last month of the campaign, in outreach efforts to communicate with voters. To me it says: Keep it up, step it up, or get more involved. This election is in no way baked in, and it is possible that Harris could win pretty decisively.

One reason why this statistic jumped out at me is because it fits with what I’ve been experiencing as I’ve been doing phone calling and door knocking over the last month and a half. Every Saturday that I could since mid-August I’ve gone to the Allentown area in Pennsylvania and done door knocking for Harris and down ballot Democrats. I’ve consciously done so in an explicitly up-for-grabs, purple-ish area, which has meant that though many of those I’ve talked with are Harris/Walz supporters, a sizeable percentage have been either Republicans or independents.

What are the main things I’ve experienced and learned from this work?

-One would be what the Marist survey says about the number of voters still “gettable” by those of us who understand the existential threat a Trump Presidency represents. As an example, on one of the Saturdays that I knocked on doors I spoke to four people who told me they were Republicans. When I asked them who they were supporting for President, one said Trump, and three said they didn’t know, they were conflicted. This example, similar to what I’ve experienced other days, is why the 14-20% number reported by Marist as not firm in their Presidential choice seems just about right.

-I’ve also been encouraged by the way my interactions have gone with the 125 or so people who I’ve spoken to in person doing this work, those at home and willing to open their door to a stranger. I’ve certainly had people make it clear that they’ve made up their mind and don’t want to talk to me, and there was one person who spoke to me pretty aggressively about his pro-Trump feelings, but that’s about it so far. As I expected going into this work, based on past experience, the fact that I was a live human being there in person, volunteering for something I believed in, being polite and willing to listen, face to face, counted for something.

Trump, Vance and the MAGA Republican campaign leadership are getting desperate as the fateful election day nears, so desperate that on Saturday, in Butler, Pa., Trump, Vance, Eric Trump and Lara Trump all repeated the lie that the attempted killing of Trump three months ago was a Democratic plot. They hope that these desperate tactics will motivate their base and ramp them up for the next month. Maybe that will happen, but it will also have an impact upon that 14-20% who haven’t yet firmly made up their mind.

To the extent that they experience their contact with Harris/Walz supporters as a very different, much more positive and hopeful experience, to that extent will the odds increase that Harris’s narrow lead in national polls will go up and election day turn out to be a very good day for the majority of this country which supports democracy and human decency. 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. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.