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Practice and Theory in the New Trump Era

Some of us might still be shocked that Democrats failed an open book test. People are worried, and understandably so about what the future holds and truth be told none of us really know what comes next. We don’t have a crystal ball, but we have some idea, and if we are grounded in the historical and political traditions that have come before us we can see a way out--by getting organized. But what does that mean? What does that look like? Well we don’t mean just get everyone under one big tent. We are Marxist-Leninists, Socialists, Communists. We make no secret of that. When we say this we’re not just attaching labels to ourselves for the sake of standing out. We are clearly stating our ideology and the political direction upon which we organize and understand the world with. 


Demonstrators protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)


Our understanding of the state is that it is always an oppressive apparatus. And what is the state? It's the police departments, the courts, the prisons, the military, the FBI and the CIA. It is the tools used by one class to oppress another. No matter if it's a Democrat or a Republican in the White House, the police will continue to harass and kill. They will continue to gleefully take batons and tear gas to popular uprisings. The U.S. military will continue to be a strong arm for capital by occupying half the world, bombing nations and putting boots on the ground to defend a apartheid state commiting genocide. 


Nikki Haley raises her hand to vote against a proposed UN resolution to reverse its recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo

We know that even if Harris had won, working class people would still have no political or economic power over their lives. How many of us paid our rent (that’s too damn high) mere days before the election? Was that on the ballot? Did any candidate promise rent control? Did you get to vote on your landlord? On your boss? How much you get paid? No. And why not? Because we live under a dictatorship of capital. Simply put, our society is organized around profit for a few instead of the well being of all. As a matter of fact this profit for a few comes at the expense of the well being of all. Yet, it is not simply these “bread and butter issues” we rally against. We are fighting a system. There is a fundamental question that every society must ask itself, that cannot be ignored. Do you think the resources and wealth of society should be used for the benefit of all or for the profits of a few? Well, if you picked all, congratulations you’re a socialist. You may not know theory yet, but you can learn it, which is why the Lowcountry Action Committee (LAC) offers political education. If you asked working class people living paycheck to paycheck or out of their car this, they would answer the same as any socialist. The people want to live a life free of exploitation and it’s possible. But people have to get educated first. We’re not educated. We don’t know we’re in a class war, and in a war you have enemies. Make no mistake--we have enemies. But we also have the tools to fight our enemies and you get those tools by joining socialist organizations like LAC. 



Ho Chi Minh typing, undated (File Photo: VNA)


But I want to draw back from that and talk about something equally important to have in these times--revolutionary optimism. This is a term coined by Ho Chi Minh, and this is not blind faith or naive optimism. It is scientific and rooted in the reality that revolution is possible. We have to realize that our fight was never going to be won in a voting booth and that if we have to play “whose rights are up for grabs” every four years that we don’t really have rights, rather we have privileges, which as Vladimir Lenin said, are granted with one hand and taken with the other


The Democrats had plenty of chances to codify Roe v. Wade. Obama campaigned on it and then dismissed it when he won, and it was under the democrats that Roe was gutted. Mind you, news of the plan to gut Roe leaked nine months in advance and the Biden administration did NOTHING to halt it or minimize the impact. They just spent the last year telling you Trump was a fascist (he is) and that democracy was at stake, only to brag about giving him a peaceful transition of power and doing NOTHING to limit his. So, what do we do when the institutions we believe in fail us? Well, first we have to understand these institutions did not fail us. They were never meant to serve us. They’re only meant to lessen the blows capitalism dishes out daily, making it more palpable and less noticeable. Many of us already know this and have been in the streets over a year now and will remain in the streets. 


Mustafa Hassona, State of Palestine, 2019 Sony World Photography Awards


The genocide in Palestine has been a defining inflection point. For over a year, people have filled the streets, engaging in mass disruptions, civil disobedience, and direct action with unwavering consistency. In the heart of our community, at Mother Emanuel AME in downtown Charleston, local activists confronted Biden as he campaigned for re-election, standing on the graves of thousands of Palestinians slaughtered with U.S. support. Every month since October 7th, 2023 the atrocities have only escalated, enabled by unconditional, bipartisan U.S. backing. And we know exactly where Trump stands on this issue.


But Palestine is just one chapter in the broader crimes of Western imperialism. In the Congo, trillions in natural resources lie beneath the soil, yet Congolese miners survive on mere dollars a week. Over five million people have been displaced, enduring daily violence. In Sudan, ten million are displaced as the Rapid Support Forces films its war crimes, funded and armed by the UAE—whose president Biden warmly embraced just last month, as he did with Netanyahu.



Despite these grim realities, we must reject despair. Revolutionary optimism is essential in moments like these. We have no right to give in to hopelessness. The people of Palestine, Sudan, and the Congo face daily destruction, yet they resist fiercely. The harder the repression, the stronger their resistance. We are not being starved, sieged, or bombed. If they can endure and fight under such dire conditions, we can endure and fight here.


Fascists can promise to deport millions, criminalize reproductive healthcare, overturn birthright citizenship, give reparations to white people, crush unions and organizations. But the real question is: will we let them? Over the past year, millions have taken to the streets in a mass movement that the power structure has been unable to co-opt or neutralize. No amount of repression has stopped it. Calls for a ceasefire have evolved into demands for an arms embargo. The U.S. and Israel have only succeeded in committing mass murder and isolating themselves, while the voices of these movements grow louder every day.


I promise the work we do day to day matters. If you ever doubt that I want to end on this note, Ho Chi Minh started off on the streets of Paris passing out pamphlets and issuing petitions against colonial crimes in French occupied Vietnam. He would go on to be one of the main leaders of the Vietnamese liberation and reunification struggle. The slow crawl of organizing work matters. It accumulates and advances our struggle the only way we can--day by day. We have to keep organizing, we have to keep fighting, we must organize, educate, agitate. It is the only way forward. We know this by being grounded in the political and historical traditions we stand in.


Get involved with local organizing. Be of service to the people at our monthly Freedom Bag Food Drive. Learn skills you can use to stand in solidarity with your comrades, because solidarity is something you do not just say. Organize your workplace. Get educated and help others get educated. Join and form organizations that are rooted in the wants and needs of the people. Join the local Palestinian solidarity movement in the as we fight to kick out Elbit, an Israeli weapons manufacturer with a base of operations right here in the Lowcountry. There are tenants unions and climate coalitions putting in work because everywhere you look you see exploitation and oppression. We’re either organizing against it or siding with it. There is no in between.


No tears, no despair, it's time to get organized. Anyone serious about making changes in their communities and around the world must belong to an organization. No exceptions. Organize, educate, agitate! We struggle until we win. 

 


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