Instead we need a way of navigating this current moment in ways that replace strategies of extraction with strategies of collaboration. This does not mean having a purity politics where we do nothing unless it is without any possible negatives. It means that when we move we hold ourselves responsible for working with people impacted by our solutions to improve them rather than saying they must bear those impacts for the “greater good.” We do not ignore those who say, for instance, that Biden-Harris policies do not serve them. We do not shame people for refusing to accept strategies that leave them without their needs people met. Instead we work with those who are negatively affected to create the conditions in which we could all get our needs met with dignity. Liberation Logic asks us “what steps can we take now to make multiple, better worlds possible?”
Current Events
The 7 Ways November Can Go
This post is not for people who are organizing right now. This post is for people who are hoping that November will end this nightmare. I need folks to start being prepared now that November will almost certainly make this nightmare much worse at least in the immediate term. Long term, it is unlikely that things will get too much better any time soon no matter what happens. This doesn't mean there is not hope only that we need start building that better future now.
Making Sense of This Moment: What Actually Happened pt 2.1
"Why the Fuck Did You Just Take Me Through A History of Europe Aaron!" This is the question I imagine my sister asking when she finally has time to read this article. To which I will answer if Washington D.C was Paris in 1871 my sister would be Louise Michel. As M4BL is planning a massive protest in D.C on June 19th so too are group of leftist organizations planning something a bit more disruptive. We have a populist leader who thinks he is a Monarch, potentially being manipulated by foreign interests during a pandemic that was led to shortages. Inequality is higher than its been since the guilded age. This is the perfect moment for shit to pop off. And when it does, we will take whatever ideas are lying around and try to hobble them into some solution for the coming crisis.
Making Sense of This Moment: What Actually Happened pt1
So, in general I would say that protests have been massive with some cities having intense protests that shut them down and rocked whole regions but most have been normal protests happening in places where they don't usually happen. Though, with the rabid police response that typified many city's experience we could hardly describe them as "peaceful." As intense of the Uprising in Minneapolis is I do think, though I can't believe I'm saying this, it is dwarf by the massive overreaction of the cops before and after. Many journalist are pointing out that the past two weeks could be best described as a police riot.
Supporting Community Leaders in Louisville
To put it bluntly, we need trusted voices who always keep an eye towards revolution while being willing to meet young people where they are at.
Don’t Work To Save The Master’s House
Because the truth is, there is no going back to before and we should be thankful for that. Whether the path forward is full of destruction and devastation or the ashes of the old system become the fertilizer for a new and better world for Black people rests on whether we respond to what the youth are saying with healing and humble wisdom or condemnation and condescension.
So it begins…
I've really held in my heart the quote form Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs in her short story "Evidence" of "life isn't easy but its life all the time..." That for me, sums up this new path that I am on. It is part of rejecting the idea of work. The idea that there is some meaningful separation between the reproductive work of keeping myself alive and healthy, the subsistence work of cooking and cleaning, the "productive work" out in the world and my leisure time.
Supporting My Next Steps
We are now living in an era of multiple apocalypses. For those of us who are literally post-apocalyptic people, people whose ancestors lived through the apocalypse of colonization, genocide, we know that there will be an after. Yet our response to the now, to the current gut- wrenching reality of worlds ending, shapes that after. … Continue reading Supporting My Next Steps
The Only Way Out Is Through, Together
As scary as it is, the burning is the easy part. It burns on its own. It can only survive the fire if we save it. The real work is building something new. That is work that can only be done collectively and can only be done by those who survive. So surviving together and building something better is the purpose of all of us who choose to be alive in this moment.
From Then Till Now: An Update From The Final Season Of America
America is the self-conception of exceptionalism and importance that allows us equate our government with two entire continents. This America is not only the dreams of the hard right conservatives or the center-right liberals. It includes its opposite, the leftist who think of America as uniquely bad. Its still American exceptionalism if you think America is exceptionally evil or corrupt. Because in reality, there is no evil Empire. There is only Empire. The needs, thirsts, tools and ideology of its position vis a vis other countries and people’s. There’s no evil Empire because there is no good or bad Empire, like there is no good or bad serial killer. The act of serial murder is the crime itself. Sure, there are scales and scopes of murders but serial killers are generally not lacking motive only opportunity.
The Well Examined Life 