z-brooke:

fullpraxisnow:

leftist-daily-reminders:

The Left needs to organize outside of the Democrats and outside of establishment liberalism.

“In reality, as a mechanism of political engagement, the vote is one of the most powerful methods to discipline citizens along a patriarchal, heteronormative, and capitalist status quo. It encourages people to give themselves over to a corrupt social order in return for promises of reform which the state and its power elite have no obligation to fulfill. Put simply, rather than a mechanism for positive change, the vote is often a powerful means of managing  —  and obstructing  —  progress.”

– Organize or Die: Never in the History of the World has an Election Destroyed a System of Oppression

[image description: a chart headed as “The Democratic party’s Response to Movements” depicting  Decade, Political Unrest/Upheaval, Response by Democrats, and Result for movement.

Decade: 1910-1920
Political Unrest/Upheaval: Suffragettes organizing and demonstrating, often organizing with labor and racial movements
Response by Democrats: Pull white women into the party while continuing the disenfranchisement of women of color
Result for the movement: The movement split along racial and class lines, et. Anna Julia Cooper vs. Margaret Sanger

Decade: 1930-1940
Political Unrest/Upheaval: Strikes, unemployment marches, Bonus Army, etc with increasing regularity, the workers were revolting
Response by Democrats: New Deal legislation created a layer of wealthy white male workers known today as the middle class.
Result for Movement: Labor activism drastically dropped, wages stagnated, labor conditions and wages were worst in parts with the most racism and sexism

Decade: 1950-1960 
Political Unrest/Upheaval: Marches, Riots, demonstrations, and other agitation forced the brutality of white supremacy into national consciousness
Response by Democrats: Refocused the movement away from social and economic and onto voter enfranchisement with no support
Result for Movement: A schism in the movement for racial inequality emerged along with class and gender lines, with the wealthier and more conservative

Decade: 1970s
Political Unrest/Upheaval: Anti-imperialism activity was at an all-time high in the US with marches, strikes, and general agitation to stop military interventionism
Response by Democrats: Focus on coopting the anti-troop portion of the movement by allowing primary challengers and anti-war rhetoric, followed by an escalation of military interventions
Result for Movement: Direct troop based interventions dropped sharply and the movement began to dissipate, while hegemonic imperialism (Chile, Guatemala, et) went largely unchallenged

Decade:1980-1990
Political Unrest/Upheaval: Racial oppression around the US lead to widespread uprisings (Tompkins square, LA & DC riots)
Response by Democrats: Offer primary challengers (Jesse Jackson’s rainbow coalition) to draw in voters, then take no action or exacerbate it
Result for Movement: Reliance on community leadership that was rooted in the Democratic party structure ham stringed the movement

Decade: 2000s
Political Unrest/Upheaval: Opposition to war and intervention in the Middle East began to gain traction among citizens
Response by Democrats: Supported the wars enthusiastically at first, then tepidly later. Rhetorically opposed Republican wars and intervention
Result for Movement: The movement bled support as Obama took office, despite the increase in military activity around the globe with the same goals  

Decade: 2010s 
Political Unrest/Upheaval: Occupy, tents, BLM, and other expressions of social unrest begin to occur with greater regularity across the US
Response by Democrats: Coopted what they could and suppressed what they couldn’t co opt. still stayed strongly neoliberal
Result for Movement: Increases in activism have gone to political voting campaigns, like Obama in 2008 and Bernie Sanders this year

/]

There is some simplification here and some movements that don’t get mentioned, but basically… yeah. And you could make lists like this for the ‘moderate left’, ‘social democrats’ in other countries. The moment a movement for change becomes a movement for votes it is OVER.