Above: the page for the PSL’s planned Inauguration Day rally
The greatest threat to the pro-Palestine movement comes not from state repression, which it can survive, but from the forces that seek to dilute the movement. Even if the crackdown reaches extreme levels, there will still be an active struggle to end the genocide and free Palestine; the mass will to combat this injustice is simply too strong to crush. But should the movement remain monopolized by actors which seek to de-center Palestine, and divert the struggle towards opportunistic endeavors, then the struggle will be left without sufficient organizational support. This is what could truly make the movement fail: the liberal efforts to co-opt it, and turn it into something different.
This effort is being facilitated by the NGO-industrial complex, which over the decades has perfected a method for funneling activists into counterproductive activities. Part of this operation involves promoting reformist faux-solutions, wherein the Democratic Party’s “radical” wing promises that Palestine will gain liberation if we vote blue. This aspect of the manipulation connects to the “harm reduction voting” ideology, with its idealistic notions about “pulling the Democrats left.” But the results of this last election have proven, even more so than the 2016 election did, that these narratives have limited potency. Gaza was what made the younger generation not just alienated from the Democratic Party; but hate it with the rageful passion of somebody who’s just witnessed deliberate violence against children.
There’s a large group of people who are both anxious about the things Trump could do, and actively angry at the Democrats. And these people can be brought into an anti-imperialist mass movement; but the NGOs are working to divert them towards fighting the culture wars, which would truly doom the pro-Palestine struggle in this country.
The PSL, the “communist” wing of this NGO network, has already done major damage to the antiwar movement. In 2022, when Americans across the ideological spectrum turned against NATO’s war on Russia, there was an opportunity to bring the MAGA base into the anti-imperialist struggle. And that’s what the PSL would have done if it cared about strategy. Instead, it invested itself within the abortion fight, which is a culture war trap. When a communist organization fails to truly differentiate itself from the Democratic Party, and directs its followers to essentially copy the protests liberals put on, then it’s not functionally communist. It doesn’t matter if it also puts on antiwar protests, because these protests will only appeal to those within the liberal element PSL devotes all of its outreach to. This is a reliable way to make a movement fizzle out, and it’s what the PSL will do during the second Trump term; this is shown by how on January 20th, the org plans to hold an event not about Palestine or any other particular issue, but rather about opposing MAGA.
The only way to stop these activities from killing the U.S. Palestinian struggle is by building an alternative organizational force; that’s what the anti-NATO movement did by creating the Rage Against the War Machine coalition, hence why radical liberals smeared this coalition. It’s because of the efforts of those who acted independently from the NGOs that 2023 turned into the best year for the antiwar movement in decades. And we’ll gain this kind of victory again, on a much bigger scale, if we build a movement that can navigate our new political era. If we can keep our operations going amid the coming repression, and bring in the growing revolutionary elements.
To achieve this, we need to internalize an extremely important lesson, one that I learned through my disillusionment with PSL: every time the circumstances change, our practice must change along with it. The essence of why PSL failed to take advantage of its initial momentum, wherein it attained a leadership role within the anti-Bush protests, is because it’s kept pretending like our conditions are the way they were back then.
The org acts as if liberals still have the same war-skeptical role that they once did. But today, liberals are the element which primarily pushes for war; especially after this last year, when they’ve rushed to defend not just wars but actual genocides. The same goes for how liberals have reacted to monopoly capital’s coercive medical policies, or to online censorship; it’s the left-wing within bourgeois politics that’s embraced these anti-human measures. In this era, it’s conservatives who’ve taken on the populist role; and because their leader Trump isn’t truly willing to fulfill their antiwar, anti-monopoly mandates, much of the MAGA base could soon become disillusioned. Which will give our movement much more room to grow.
This is a point I’ve made many times: communists and anti-imperialists must welcome these Americans who could lose enthusiasm for MAGA during Trump’s second term. What I’ve come to understand, though, is that if we look for shortcuts, we’ll end up repeating the errors of those who’ve followed the opportunistic PSL leadership. Leftists aren’t the only ones who can think mechanistically, and overlook important realities about their conditions; even people with ideological stances that are far superior to PSL’s can do the same.
As we work to win the MAGA crowd, we must account for how the Trump camp’s pro-imperialist elements are capable of assailing our movement, and advancing the empire’s war escalations. Despite what the PSL crowd tends to believe, the 76 million Americans who voted Trump are not all fascists; most of them aren’t. And Donald Trump himself isn’t truly a fascist; when you look at the things he’s actually done, he’s nothing more than a standard Reaganite conservative. The permanent security state has potential to use Trump’s White House for facilitating a massive purge against dissent, though; and the narrative tool for this effort will be the anti-woke psyop, which can be used to manipulate large parts of the population. The plan is to use ultra-left groups, such as PSL, to stage a provocation that can be used for demonizing Palestine supporters. The worst elements of Trumpism will say that China is behind these activities, precipitating a major crackdown, a proxy war over Taiwan, or most likely both.
These events will occur regardless of how much pressure we try to put on the Trump White House, or who Trump puts in his cabinet. Attacking mass movements through anti-wokeness is the best option the deep state has at this point, so it will ensure that the Trump government carries out such an operation. And this effort will be assisted by many of the same actors on the right who’ve stood against NATO, because though they don’t think the Ukraine proxy war is worthwhile, they’re violently anti-Palestinian and often anti-China. They’re still against the Ukraine proxy war, which we can use to our advantage; but in this new stage, they’re going to be the ones who our security state assigns to purge dissent. Our movement can survive this purge, and we have a great opportunity to connect with the masses; but we can’t act complacent.
As we work to gain tactical victories from the divisions within our ruling class, we must keep in mind that there’s a bipartisan plan to criminalize our efforts. For the struggle to live on amid the crackdown, we must prepare for the crackdown’s next stages. The era we’ve entered into has much promise, but just as much peril, and we have to recognize both.
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