Tag Archives: politics

How Afro-Cubans Fought the Cuban “Jim Crow”

Politics, Uncategorized, , ,

“During the war years Spain sought, with considerable success, to divide Cubans along racial lines by portraying itself as the defender of white “civilization” and the rebels as black barbarians pursuing the goal of an Africanized, Haitianized Cuba. Once the rebels had been defeated, Spanish policy changed direction, making an open bid for Afro-Cuban support by gradually repealing the caste laws. Spanish officials did not act spontaneously but, rather, under pressure from a well-organized civil rights movement based in the social clubs, mutual aid societies, and civic organizations of the Afro-Cuban middle class. Under the leadership of journalist and political activist Juan Gaulberto Gomez, in 1887 these organizations formed an islandwide Directorio Central de las Sociedades de la Raza de Color to coordinate the civil rights struggle. Between 1878 and 1893 Afro-Cuban activists obtained government edicts outlawing restrictions on interracial marriage; segregation in public education and public services; and the keeping of official birth, death, and marriage records in volumes separated by race.”
—
Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000
By George Reid Andrews

#Cuba #AfroCubans

The Incredibly-Undead Democratic Party

Politics, Uncategorized, , ,

The declarations of the death of the Democratic Party seem pretty premature.

I know that many people demand the death of this party. Those who lost the election, those who backed the party’s candidate, and those who ran the party’s fundraising apparatus during this process have been roundly blamed and shamed for their loss.

But there is no viable alternative for the bulk of the Democratic Party’s membership at the present time. The Greens consider at least half of the Democratic Party to be too “neoliberal” for their liking. The same demographic is considered much too “socialist” for the Libertarians’ liking. The same goes even more so for the Constitution Party. So existing second-tier political parties are not viable.

The Green Party at the national level has marked much of their political culture with both an adherence to environmentalism and historically-marginalized identity politics (in the true sense of the word) as well as a strong, visceral hatred for the “corporatist” Democratic Party and its candidates. The Green Party also did not welcome those in their own party who supported Bernie Sanders over Jill Stein, even going so far as to publicly undermine Sanders supporters and promote Stein at Sanders’ expense. This hatred for Democrats makes resources and recruitment scarce for the Green Party, but it gives a veneer of “integrity” to their party.

But what would the Berniecrat Party – the party of the bluebird – adopt as their party culture? What would be the topic which would color the existence of Berniecrat activists?

The Greens have environmentalism and socialism. The Libertarians have “liberty” and the free market. The Constitutionists have dominionism. What hobby horse do the Berniecrats have?

It seems as if Berniecrats, isolating as they are to the Clinton supporters who voted for her in the primary, would struggle to form their own national party culture separate from existing center-left parties like the Democrats, Greens and the even-smaller Socialist Alternative.

Even the Democratic Socialists of America – a very pro-Bernie outfit – doesn’t run candidates as a party, but operates as a non-profit organization. The DSA likely don’t have the structure or the motivation to organize as a political party, and I notice that the organization’s chapters are largely based in bigger cities and college campuses.

Speaking of bigger cities, I think being in an urban or rural area also counts greatly on the viability of a left-wing third party. I can imagine that the Greens’ deep-green environmentalist image would help in some rural areas if promoted more effectively, even if deep-green environmentalism is divisive in regions where the extraction of natural resources for profit is of great economic importance.

But you’ll hardly find an open socialist in the sticks. You won’t find a fan of Marx and Castro in the sticks. And enough of the population lives outside of metropolitan areas to live in the rural spaces privileged by mechanisms like the Electoral College.

So Berniecrats who want the death of the Democratic Party need to offer a sustainable alternative which transcends divides like urban/rural, race/class, minority/majority, etc. and give a strong, enduring reason for why it is viable to vote for Bernicrats.

Shaming of the Poor

Politics, Uncategorized, ,

I am poor.
I am working class.
I receive government benefits.
I dropped out of my first attempt at college in Atlanta, and returned home shamefaced.
I used a Pell grant to go to community college and then a 4-year college.
I took a Stafford loan to pay off my final year of college.
I live with my mother.
I only look for jobs at which I am adept, in which I have a strong interest and for which I do my best.
I’m paying my college debts.
I live on military housing as a civilian visitor.
I have a lot of privilege that many other people do not.
I help Mom pay bills, and vice versa.

Do I feel bad? Yes. Often.
Do I feel like this will make me a political target? Yes. I fear that.

It was not long ago, just when I was coming out of college, that I was asked by some of my own family members why I was still living with Mom in my late 20s without a job. I felt targeted over this due to other family passions in which I was not involved.

Am I financially illiterate? I frequently feel like that, even as I try to save money. I still feel guilt over past spending from 3, 5 or 6 years ago. I still feel like an idiot over past spending habits, feeling regret over things I’ve bought.

I wrestle with the “temporarily embarrassed billionaire” feelings a lot. Knowing that I don’t make a living income is sometimes a frightful knowledge.

But I feel like I need to own this, and to not let this status get control of my emotions.

So I will never tell you to pull yourself up by your own economic bootstraps. Not only is that a dick move, but I refuse to propagate the “wealth as a blessing/mark of character” fraud which turns so many people against each other in Middle America.

I own up to being poor. I own up to depending on others. And I’m committed to paying it back by working to make life easier for others.

Progressives Arming Themselves More Like Conservatives

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Communists are not liberals.
Socialists are not liberals.
Anarchists are not liberals.
Antifa are not liberals.

All four groups heavily espouse arming themselves with self-defense and weapons, even firearms if need be. They are also feared by fascists, conservatives and libertarians alike, and may be circumstantial allies to liberals when it comes to resistance against classist, authoritarian violence (even though liberals are not trusted by socialists).

Liberals have a conflicted history with armed self-defense, and are more respecting of nonviolent protest and the democratic process. They’re also laughed at by fascists, conservatives and libertarians alike for this (as many of us are being laughed at by Trumpists right now), but are useful for conservatives when it comes to preserving the political status quo.

At this moment, I don’t know if I want to identify as a progressive liberal or a socialist. I would rather that we had UK-style gun control in which both police and the public are not armed, and that might make me a bad socialist, but I also see that socialists and the far-left speak in the respective language of violence and self-defense which conservatives and the far-right also speak, which might make me a bad liberal.

Meanwhile, since Election Day, racial and gender minorities have been buying up guns and ammo, and taking gun classes, and getting gun licenses, to protect themselves over the next four years.

It’s depressing, but understandable, to see this happen. We’re now huddling into bunkers to prepare for an armed winter in America.

Just some thoughts coming to mind while perusing the Socialist Rifle Association‘s page.

Local Politics of Scale

Politics, Uncategorized, ,

We want to talk about how there are not enough young people participating in politics.

But the problem is that the pathway to participation is incredibly narrow for a growing population, even at the local level. Our political system is not keeping up with the growth or complexity of our public, even at the local level.

Think of Columbus-Muscogee. 10 people sitting on a city council representing a population of 200,000+ people. That is 1 person per 20,000 people.

8 of the members represent districts, and 2 are elected at-large. That’s too few for too many. That’s a disparity of representation.

Where are the elected neighborhood councils for the districts? Where are the opportunities for the less-monied but just-as-able-minded residents of our city to advise and decide policy at a smaller level than the entire city itself?

The White Working Class of the Rust Belt

Politics, Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

I should clarify an earlier post:

Why should I help try to bring back to the progressive movement the same “White Working Class” demographic who voted to fuck over their own “lazy” unions?

  • Wisconsin and Michigan voted for Trump, right after many of the same bothered to vote for Bernie in the primary.
  • Wisconsin voted for Scott Walker, Michigan voted for Rick “toxic water” Snyder, right after they both voted for Obama twice.
  • Wisconsin and Michigan voted for GOP rabidly anti-union majorities in both houses of their legislatures.
  • Wisconsin and Michigan both voted to gut collective bargaining rights, union security agreements, the right to strike, and many other union-secured benefits.

Wisconsin and Michigan are both majority White Working Class. Black people are leaving Detroit because of the many ills which have befallen that metropolis, so Michigan is becoming even more White Working Class than it has been since before the Great Migration of the early 20th century.

Both states’ GOP leaderships have made it a goal to get more on a parity with Texas and other Southern “miracles” which have ditched state income tax and are further ahead at being “at-will” in their employment security.

And yet you want to bring this demographic back in from the conservative cold.

Do they even want to be saved?

This is irrational voting behavior. This is an ungrateful, suicidal demographic which is inflicting pain upon itself. The White Working Class of today would make the likes of Wellstone and La Follette spin in their graves.

This is also a fool’s errand to try to win back with class consciousness.

I just hope that you’re only asking White people to do this work. Don’t ask Black and Brown people to do this. We are already toxic to the White Working Class in the Midwest. Milwaukee’s own Black sheriff is a bloviating, trigger-happy Uncle Tom with an armed force at his disposal, so he’ll be the last to leave.

Maybe the White Working Class will come back to the Progressive Movement and the labor unions after all the Black people leave Milwaukee and Detroit. Maybe they’ll come back when Wisconsin and Michigan are both 99.9% Euro-American and the “swart gevaar” is ancient history.

Don’t ask me to do this. I am Black, and I will not be listened to.

#WhiteWorkingClass #WhiteFolkWork #ClassConsciousness #racism #ClassWarfare #1u #p2 #FeelTheBern

We can either:

  1. (under current liberal thought aka “race consciousness”) wait until ethnic demographics change across the depopulated bastions of Middle America which provide the bulk of the Electoral College’s power, or
  2. (under Sanders-Warren’s progressive thought aka “class consciousness”) we can try to woo back the White Working Class who voted for both Trump and the gutting of their own unions in the name of prosperity.

Either way, for logistics or optics, it seems like Democrats will have to throw someone under the bus for the midterms.

Bernie folks, while you’re out here trying to make allyships with Trump voters in the Midwest, remember that these same people voted to gut their own unions’ collective bargaining rights.

You know, just to screw over their “lazy” “wealthy” teachers and government workers and welfare recipients, most of whom happen to be White.

Is this the sort of voter you want to bring back into the progressive fold, that Bernie wants to bring back? The type who feels they are too good for unions or that unions are evil?