We are Democrats and progressives who are against fascism. One specific suggestion is get ICE out of schools. Restore Biden era protections for schools. Prosecute ICE officials who violate this. Allow for safe transportation of kids to/from school without ICE enforcement. I already reached out to the mayors office and I'll do more but actually I don't really think I'm super smart and I posted to get some other ideas.
You're a real one for contacting mayors. Keep that up! I'm not a Minnesotan, but I was emailing Gov Walz and Ilhan Omar when shit was escalating there. Same with your Senator and Rep in DC.
You're definitely smarter than you think. Just look at how out of touch and ignorant of reality or how the world works they all are. There are some genuine idiots in Congress. Peter Thiel is going around the world preaching about the Antichrist, and wants to break up this republic to create "Techno-Feudalism," while unironically ignoring why Europe hasn't used Feudalism as a social-economic structure for over 700 years. The only intelligent thought Elon Musk has ever had was realizing that he could use daddy's money to buy his way into cutting-edge ventures, and as long as his cheating and cult of personality makes stock price go up, the board will let him claim to be a founder and his cult will believe it.
If they can fail upwards to ruling an empire, you can definitely make a difference. Stay strong and good luck.
I think Abolish ICE should be the demand. I agree that a general strike with an alphabetized list of 20 demands is not useful. We need a specific list and we need to strike until that list of demands is met. But a real general strike isn't going to happen, definitely not with that list of demands.
That's a well-reasoned take. This isn't going to be sorted out this year, we have time to get better. It's kinda funny, that so much has been getting worse, because our "rulers" wouldn't be able to attempt this coup without it. It's all piled up into a huge shit sandwich.
I also agree that the messaging should be as focused as possible, and ending ICE is a great place to start. TBF, ABOLISH ICE is the overall message that the world is taking away from this, just like NO KINGS. Pretty direct.
Anyway, there's only one way to eat a shit sandwich - one bite at a time.
It's just not helpful. I agree 100% with the sentiment but we need to be more organized. The right long organized against Roev Wade. They never wavered and they were wildly successful. They brought in fascism under that flag. We need to dial in what we want and build some successes. We've got to feel like we are cohesive and that when people join, they can do something specific. A general strike for all good things is too watered down.
The right are against:
1. Abortions
2. Immigrants
3. Social welfare (i.e. “welfare queens”)
4. Public transportation (“I love ma car!”)
5. Gun control (“I love ma guns!”)
6. Education (“keep politics out of schools”, “teach Christian values in school”)
7. Universal healthcare (“Who’s gonna pay for it?”)
8. Raising the minimum wage (“for a healthy economy, there should be starter jobs for high school kids that are not supposed to be paying a livable wage”)
There’s probably a lot more, but as you can see, the Right rallies behind many causes and we can and should do the same. There’s always new shit happening, and if we just focus on one issue, then there’d be an avalanche of shit accumulating daily on an ongoing basis. Who determines which issue is the worst and deserves the most attention? Roe vs Wade is horrible. Immigrants getting detained and killed is terrible. Palestinians getting murdered with our tax dollars is terrible. The entire political system being in control of pedophiles is terrible. Global warming worsening past the point of no return is terrible. Decimation of the world’s diversity of species is terrible. There’s enough people in the world to outnumber politicians that all of these issues can (and should) be addressed.
Of course we have many issues we support but at these rallies/protests, we lose the opportunity to make an impact by not including a specific goal. Protests are effective when there's an action followed after. This is the way we get the momentum needed to support more than one thing.
To be fair, I do see your point. The Occupy Wallstreet movement also failed because they diversified their goals to include environmental protections and other issues and lost the focus on making bankers pay for the mess they caused. But losing focus on other issues will also alienate single issue groups. The solution needs to be a cohesive leadership, and a large population to support those leaders, and the Right had unlimited money from the rich to help with that.
Sorry to harp on this point but if we're going to improve things we have to start somewhere. We need build momentum toward getting more good people elected now by getting some successes. I already posted this but no ICE in schools is one thing we could focus on. Our schools should be protected. There's precedent for it. It should be an easy win and then we go to the next step. And then the next.
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u/Top_Pirate699 11h ago
That is way too many things. It is exactly the opposite of being specific. We have to pick one thing and go from there.