by Luther Blisset, Green Mountain Anarchist Collective (NEFAC-Vermont)

Even if you’re not the type to pick up a copy of the daily newspaper, it’s not that easy to escape the bad news. Check it. Three million factory jobs have been destroyed since 2001. We have the highest unemployment rate in 15 years and state and local governments are locked into the largest budget crisis since the Great Depression. Nearly 45 million people live without health insurance coverage and increasing attacks on reproductive freedom have left many women in rural and urban searching out increasingly scarce resources when faced with an unwanted pregnancy.

The occupations of both Iraq and Afghanistan have created human misery on a massive scale for both the common people of those nations as well as the working people who are sent by the Bush administration and their respective government to fight and die ,with the total casualties of all involved (dead and wounded) easily numbering in the tens of thousands. Huge tax cuts for the rich are dolled out while what is left of social services have been severely scaled back once gain. Immigrant workers, whether they be from the Middle east, Latin America or elsewhere, are increasingly facing government repression and deportation under the pretext of “protecting our borders” or “fighting terrorism”. The dirty laundry list goes on and on....

The vicious policies of both Washington and Wall Street face working people at every corner we turn. We don’t need to watch the nightly news to know that times are rough, because these policies play out in real ways in our everyday lives.

We’ve got tax cuts and economic policy that benefit the rich which directly translates to us, the working class, being poorer: A single mom hopes that her kids don’t notice that she’s not eating so that they can get enough food , a family whose jobs have been outsourced say goodbye to their neighbors and friends and move halfway across the country in hopes of another job, A family files for bankruptcy because they can’t pay their medical bills, a tired worker wonders anxiously on the picketline how long they can hold on strike against a boss whose fat on his tax cut, a dad gets busted stealing Christmas presents he can’t afford.

We’ve got homeland security which directly translates into 1984 in 2004: an anti-war protester is visited by FBI agents at their home and questioned about going to protest the Republican National Convention, INS agents grab an Arab father away from the arms of his children, in the dead of night , and disappears him for a couple months of questioning and detainment, the government puts you on a list just becuase of the library books you check out.

We’ve got the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan which directly translates a bloody mess: dead and maimed sons and daughters, your friend patroling the streets of Baghdad and wondering if they’re going to get sniped for fighting in a war that they don’t even believe in, husbands coming home and developing a nasty dope habit to to forget what they’ve been through, An Iraqi kid whose father has been killed joins up with an Islamic fundamentalist group, although he isn’t down with their beliefs, he wants revenge and they’ll deliver.

These are just a few snapshots of the fucked up scenarios that confront members of our class. Is our predicament completely hopeless? No. For instance one recent moment in pop-culture indicated that we as working people are at least looking for some answers in in this mess, when Michael Moore’s documentary Farenheight 9/11 became a hit and the highest grossing documentary of all time. The documentary, which takes the Bush Administration to task for its mishandling of 9/11 and the war in Iraq, had record attendance outside of the usual suspect liberal urban centers with rural black church groups making a night of going out to see it, Dale Earnhardt Jr of Nascar fame taking his whole crew toheck it out, and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service which shows films on US military bases abroad even booking it because of overwhelming demand. Beyond merely attending a movie, people have protested the war in Iraq, the attack on reproductive rights and the policies of the Bush administration in record numbers. What can be said is this: lots of people are pissed off at the way things are going. We want some change and were eager to oust an unpopularly elected regime in exchange for one that won’t run roughshod over our lives at quite the same deafening pace. However, we’ve gotta remember that our problems didn’t start with Bush and they won’t end with Kerry. They go deeper than the regressive policies of the current administration

Many of our weekly lives reflect at least 40 hours on the job, 40 – 50 hours of sleep a week if we’re lucky, and after errands, laundry, childcare, and chores, we for the most part have little life left in us. We spend most or our waking lives in workplaces where we have no say in how things go down and were bound to the plans of our managers and bosses. Many of us don’t do work that we find meaningful or fulfilling in the first place. Ways of living like family farming are being torn apart by the advancement corporate controlled agriculture. Old neighborhoods are taken over by yuppies who buy up houses therby driving up rents and taxes. Once thriving small towns where people lived together for generations have become ghost towns as plants close their gates and move off to somewhere where they can can take advantage of workers more easily. Many of us are living check to check, week to week, slaving away as our lives pass us by. This is life in a society which is set up for the benefit of the rich. This is life under global capitalism and theres gotta be a better way.

From August 30th through September 2 the Republicans meet in NYC to celebrate the success of their last four years and plan for another four. On the ground people will be reaching out and searching for that better way in NYC. Unions and anti-war groups, synagogues and churches, community groups and tennants’ organizations, anarchists and socialists, immigrant community centers and people from all walks of life have been gearing up for a showdown with the Republicans. Enraged by Bush’s exploitation of the anniversary of the September 11th tragedy and his atrocious foreign and domestic policies, people have been organizing for massive protests and direct actions for well over a year. These protests against the Republicans will undoubtedly dwarf the 2000 RNC protests in Philly which drew around 10,000 people. Across the country and even the globe, groups have organized themselves to take the streets of NYC in September. It’s gonna be big, maybe even the biggest protest that all of us have seen in our lifetimes. While the administration of NYC mayor Bloomberg has made attempts to block and dissuade protests , even going so far as to deny permits to groups organizng rallies and arrogantly offering them space to protest in Brooklyn no one is fooled, and neither Bloomberg or even Bush will be able to stop the outporing of dissent against the Republicans. Such is the power weilded by mass social movements. The elites may hide in their towers and convention centers guarded by lines of thugs in blue armed to the teeth , but they cannot completely break the spirit and will of the great masses people to speak out and act out against them and their monied interests.

Now as a union member and someone whose been in the struggle for a minute, I understand the danger of organizing people under the pretense that if we “Dump Bush” everything will be all right. Don’t get me wrong it’s not such a bad idea to vote Bush out of office and attempt to win some mid term bread and butter victories for our class. However, if what we seek is to ensure that all working people have, among other things, ample access to decent housing, healthy food, acceptable healthcare, quality childcare, meanigful jobs and direct democracy in our workplaces and communities, just rallying around the “Anybody But Bush” banner will lead ultimately to disillusionment and dead ends. Under the Kerry administration we will still have troops occupying Iraq, he will still craft economic policy to benefit his rich Yale buddies, he (as Clinton did with the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty act) will continue to erode civil liberties and forge a police state aimed at controling the populace, he will still be a motherfucker that we curse under our breath as we watch the nightly news. Kerry and Bush are players in and representatives of the system the keeps us, the working class, in the economic rat race and strips us of political power. This is capitalism. If we want to live in a society in which the people who do the work make the decisions and in which we don’t have to slave away to have access to the necesities, we must build directly democratic grass roots social movements in our workplaces and schools, our neighborhoods and towns, and among working class people internationally. These movements must not only capable of forcing Bush out of office, but also of reclaiming the democracy and freedom that has been snatched away from us by the elites that run our world, our countries, our states, and our hometowns. That is, we must build directly democratic organizations which can not only defend the working class, but will eventually be capable of self managing our workplaces, self governing our communities and self organizing an economy that will be for all working people not for private profit. This is anarchist communism.

As I chill at my friend’s place, drinking beer and writing this article I can’t help but think of the coming protests at the RNC in August and September and the most widespread and deeply felt anger I’ve seen directed at any administration in my entire life. I can’t help but grin. At the RNC we will take our voices to NYC, build links of solidarity between our movements and manage another step towards in building the movement that will ultimately be able to effect lasting change. I’ve got just one thing I gotta say before we all see each other in the streets: rich men will never ever solve our problems and it’s time we flip the script. Let’s roll!


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This article is from the second issue of "Strike!"

Strike! is a tabloid newspaper covering the ever important struggles of working people in the Northeast and across the world. From community and workplace resistance, to the fights against racism and sexism as well as international turmoil, the struggles that rock your world are brought to you here with a fresh anarchist-communist perspective.

Strike! is the English-language agitational publication of the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC). We are bilingual federation of revolutionaries who identify with communist tradition in anarchism. Our activity in the last few years has focused around radicalizing the broad struggles of our class, in the streets, in our workplaces and in our neighborhoods.

In this issue of Strike!, you will find articles on the US elections, a message from the late Palestinian political prisoner Farouk Abdel-Huhiti (who died recently after 2 years of imprisonment in the USA as an immigration detainee), national truckers’ strikes, fighting bosses with the Montpelier downtown union, city workers preparing to strike in Philly, Providence library workers’ fighting budget cuts, a public harvest and meeting house in Tyendinaga (Mohawk territory), the campaign for Mumia Abu-Jamal, Immigrant defense in Toronto, "Red Card" - our sports column - on Carlos Delgado’s opposition to the Iraq war, an interview with war resister Jeremy Hinzmen who deserted the US army and is seeking refugee status in Canada, "Carnal Correspondence" - a pro-queer/feminist advice column, and much more!

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