As many of us pause to enjoy the company of friends and family on Thanksgiving, let’s also pause for a dose of reality.
Thanksgiving is not a celebration of peace and equality. It is an homage to capitalist domination, colonialism, and imperialism. This country was founded on land theft and genocide of indigenous peoples. It was built on slavery and exploitation of the working class for the accumulation of wealth and private property for capitalists. The same arrangement still exists.
Long before Donald Trump’s election campaign, the slogan “Make America Great Again,” has been a cry of capitalists, liberals, and most people under the ideological and historical domination of capitalism. “Let’s go back to the golden days of the U.S. and capitalism. The problem is crony capitalism, neo-liberal capitalism, etc. We just need to reform capitalism to get it back in check again.”
Exploitation and the expanding growth/profits are inherent in the capitalist arrangement of society. It always has been, and always will be.
As we head into 2017, we see that reality compounded. Capitalism’s constant need to grow and expand has led to unseen levels of inequality; extreme exploitation of people and planet; and the push towards privatization of all elements of life, including air and water.
There are different capitalist alternatives to these problems, but all will fight to keep capitalism going… which can only deepen these crises.
Fascism is a form capitalism takes to deal with crisis. It’s an autocratic approach to keep the economic engine chugging along for capitalists, and to prevent the people from fighting back, based on their own interests. Fear, nationalism, xenophobia, racism, transphobia and Islamophobia are used to divide us and pacify us.
Trump is taking us down the road of fascism. We have to fight back. Before Inauguration Day, we’ve already heard talk of repealing abortion rights, mass deportations, threats to free speech and the press, and even internment camps. People are openly giving the Nazi salute.
Now, more than ever, it’s time to recognize our common enemy – the capitalist class – and the economic arrangement that serves their interests, not ours.
Our forces are small and disorganized, but we need to figure out ways to slow down capitalism in the process of fascism. We need to slowly become a political alternative to their economic crises.
WE MUST RESIST.
In Standing Rock, indigenous peoples and supporters have said, “Enough!” In north Florida, folks are preventing the construction of yet another pipeline that threatens our precious aquifer system. Students throughout the country are walking out of class in protest. Workers are fed up with being exploited by capitalists and ignored by the left.
It’s time to get organized! Let’s harness our fear, our frustrations, our skills into organization. Let’s build political unity, and figure out where we can work together.
This Thanksgiving, take a pause to recognize class struggle. Make a commitment to fight for the interests of the people. Take a moment to think of those who have and continue to make sacrifices in the interest of our greater collective good. Then join them.
We owe it to humanity, to non-human life, to the planet. We cannot sit passively in this moment.
Here are our Points of Unity. If you have some level of agreement, get in touch, and let’s get to work.
There are unlimited ways to get involved.
STAND UP. FIGHT BACK. ORGANIZE.
onestruggle.southflorida@gmail.com
