I heard from a former client of mine that he abruptly learned of the government shutdown from the checkout person at the grocery store. Poor people often have little investment in news reports and few follow political media. When you have nothing, your sense of agency erodes, and so my client had no advanced warning that his SNAP card would vaporize on November 1rst. How many people shopping in early November shared in this particularly cruel experience? Certainly millions of people emptied their shopping carts on the checkout conveyor belt and had their precarious lives suddenly revealed as an unrehearsed public spectacle. Some got angry, some cried into their hands and some froze in stunned shock.
It is not just a matter of refraining from political media, poor people suffer disproportionately from isolation – a fact that has inspired a plethora of confirming studies, but few such works explain why poor folks have fewer friends and report feelings of loneliness much more frequently than those with better incomes. One of my teenage clients told me that he played video games all day long because, “people sucked.” This kid lived in a public housing project where police sirens blared almost every night. His mother died of an overdose shortly after he miraculously graduated high school despite setting records for truancy. School avoidance is the first sign of chronic isolation, but the implications are beyond the scope of this piece. I could go on and on about childhood trauma and poverty, but will not. We simply learned in early November that millions of people, cut off from the strands of community, learned about their impending starvation. We don’t know how many suffered the initial shock while lined up at the checkout stand at Stop and Shop or Big Y.
But my client’s experience surprised me, nonetheless – he told me that the woman behind him waved her charge card at the store cashier and proclaimed, “I got this.” Another man in line shoved a rolled up wad of bills into his hand. Granted, this event took place in rather progressive Amherst, Massachusetts, but it confirmed for my rather cynical ex client that human nature has a puzzling and often hidden potential for compassion. The vicious fascist regime and the soul of the nation now jostle toward an inevitable showdown.
It is not only isolated poor people who are poorly informed and confused – fascism itself feeds on uncertainty. If we had any sort of collective vision Donald Trump would not have ever won a single term. Confusion has become the national pastime – we all rather mirror the poorest people who struggle to come to grips with imploding supports. Medical insurance, nutrition support, housing subsidies, affordable rents, home-owners insurance, wages and the nominal certainty that effort and survival have a dependable connection all come crashing down together. How does the goodwill that my ex client discovered manifest as organized resistance? People who will sacrifice and come through in a crises, are wandering about in confusion.
I have previously written that the answer to fascism depends on cross class alliances against the ruling class – poor people, working people and educated progressives have to be aligned and willing to engage in civil disobedience. The above vignette is a tiny example of people from different class backgrounds forming a spontaneous bond. Unfortunately, we have little awareness of this potential.
A few days ago I got an email from “The General Strike” – a grass roots organization that hopes to assemble at least 11 million working people to engage in a nationwide work stoppage. The 11 million number references the 3.5% rule – theorists have evidence that when sustained resistance attains the threshold of 3.5% percent of the population, the targeted regime will fold.
The media will not mention a thing about “The General Strike” – it is up to alternative media and grass roots activists to organize on behalf of this effort. Yesterday I asked my fellow protestors at our weekly demonstration aimed at munitions megalith, L3Harris (in Northampton, Ma), how many knew about “The General Strike”? None had heard of it out of my five fellow diehards braving 20 degree weather at 6:30AM to oppose war profiteers.
The response that my former client described convinced me that far more than 11 million people have the commitment to bring down the monstrosity that threatens to destroy people via war and police state means. But like my ex client living in isolation, we have little idea about the nature of this dystopian moment.
The “General Strike” ought to be on our radar, just as my ex client should have been aware of the suspension of SNAP. Ignorance is the biggest ally of the fascist Trump regime. If we don’t know what is going on and have no capacity to organize and pool the good will that clearly manifests in spontaneous fashion, the rapidly consolidating fascist regime will soon be too powerful to oppose.
Here is what I received from “The General Strike”:
“We’ve reached 400,000 Americans ready for a General Strike, with 7 million taking to the streets during the No Kings rallies and the Chicago Mayor even calling for one — the idea is starting to break through. This is our ultimate weapon, and we can make it a reality.
On Saturday, November 22nd at 12pm PST / 3pm EST we’re gathering online to test our preparedness for a General Strike. Join this crucial webinar cohosted by the Party for Socialism and Liberation to learn from labor leaders about how general strikes have happened historically and how we can apply these lessons now.
Click the link below to register. All organizations, groups, and individuals on board for a General Strike are encouraged to step up and lead this collective effort —
reply to this email if you or your organization would to join as an on-camera co-host!
I will be part of that webinar on Saturday. Hopefully, so will millions of others.
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