Message to "Never Biden" voters

oaklandsocialist

April 30

***The pro-Palestine occupation at UC Berkeley.***
***Many of these youth are understandably so angry at Biden that they won't vote for him no matter what.***

I've had some extended discussions with people who no matter what aren't going to vote to keep Trump out, which means voting for. These are people I basically agree with on most (but not all) issuess. There's no point in butting our heads against a wall here. We're not going to convince each other. So here's what I'd like to say to those, especially those who are enfuriated at Biden for his support for Israeli genocide:

Okay, we disagree on voting for Biden. So, let's figure out where we go together from here. We need to draw up a plan of action for when Trump:

Openly aligns with and encourages the outright fascists in the Israeli politics, meaning Knesset members Itamar Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and the settlers;
Enables the fascist-connected Putin to take over all of Ukraine, leading to mass slaughter in that country and further advances of his supporters around the world, including America First and other fascists here in the US;
Pushes for a national abortion ban;
further enables attacks on lgbtq+ people;
Gives the green light to oil exploration right next to or even inside our national parks;
Rounds up tens of thousands of undocumented immigrant workers for deportation;
Does what the Republican governors of Texas and Georgia have done on college campuses (University of Texas-Austin and Emory University);
Establishes a national free speech ban on college campuses like what DeSantis has done in Florida;
Takes direct personal control over the federal bureaucracy through "Schedule F"
Frees from prison roughly a hundred violent fascist organizers;
The Oath Keepers on January 6. Trump is on record saying he'll pardon these and similar fascists.
Moves to put US troops on the streets and declares martial law.

As recently as 10 years ago, if anybody had raised this, I'd have said they were hysterical. Not now. Trump is not like previous Republican presidents. He's already called for all of this. Knowing him, that makes it likely, if he can get away with it.

In fact, we'd better be ready for the possibility that several Republican state legislatures try to steal the election, meaning they're eliminating our right to vote. And if you think that right doesn't matter, why do you think it is that black people in the South fought so long and hard and sacrificed so much for that right? And why do you think it was that denial of that right went hand-in-hand with lynching and official segregation?

Plan of action
So, if you're so pissed off at Biden for understandable reasons, and if enough people feel that way, and that puts Trump back in office, then we need to plan for that. Here's what I think:

First of all, let's review how we got to this state of affairs, and that gets back to the sorry state of the US labor movement. For nearly 100 years, the union leaders have been telling us that we have no alternative but the Democratic Party. For all that time they also have been telling us that we are on the same team as the employers, so let's be nice to them, let's not demand too much, let's be a docile labor force. We need to organize among the rank and file to oppose that.

Four years ago, the Vermont AFL-CIO issued a call for a general strike in case Trump got elected. That call was nothing but words because they didn't do a thing to prepare that. We need to organize within our unions to make a break from the past. But it won't be so easy, because many of our very own members support Trump!

We need to organize committees of resistance in the communities that will come under the most attack, including the Muslim community, people of color, the immigrant community, and on the college campuses and even in working class high schools. These committees of resistance have to be run democratically, with all voices on our side being heard.

We need to use this organizing to start down the road towards building a mass, working class oriented party that can coordinate the fightback and run its own candidates against both the Republicans and Democrats.

And one last thing: Even if Biden does win and gets back in office, the fascist-connected and nationalist far right will not go away quietly. They'll prepare more violence, and I doubt anybody really thinks that the police and the Democrats will be adequate protection from them.

So, one way or another, we need to organize independently of the Democrats and of their representatives. That includes the union leadership and the nonprofiteers.