I completely agree on all counts, but would go further by pointing out how darkly cyclical these two things can become: As information gets skewed to the right, when the Trump Regime continues to break all the rules then we stop hearing about it or we get assured that the rulebreaking is either not happening, or is actually a good thing. I think that we are far from that sort of world, but watching the heads of the Regime try to bend reality over the shooting of Good in Minneapolis in spite of the video evidence, and then seeing the right wing propaganda machine actually get some traction with that narrative, makes me very uneasy.
If we are no longer a government of laws not men, because a group of rich men corrupted our processes to rise above the law…we will have to create something better that will form
Obviously, the call by various unions for a general strike is tremendously important. Finally, hopefully, labor is getting off the mat.
My one note of caution is that this call was news to my two Minneapolis relatives - sort of political aware, but not activists. At least, they didn't know about it yet.
Is this just going to be "stay home" or will there be political actions that day? That seems a good way of determining whether to go to Minneapolis or not.
Same! I reached out to my Minneapolis friend to ask if he was going to partake and he said that was the first he'd heard of it. He was also a bit wary and I understood because they just had a kid, which is pretty messed up when you think about it
I agree, but would like to point out that the regime is every bit as dependent on the self restraint of the people as the people and institutions were previously on the self restraint of the government. It is wisdom that people restrain themselves from a violent response to the regime because the forces that would be unleashed if they did not are impossible to control. But it’s also true that ICE wouldn’t last a week if the people unleashed the emotional fury that they actually feel. The essence of the battle ahead is control of the narrative. I find hope in the significant decline in viewership for both CBS and WaPo since they dropped any pretense of objectivity. There is sort a quantum characteristic to the pervading narrative. Ceaușescu was fully in control of his fate until he wasn’t.
Excellent expression of the critical areas that Trump (ie Project 2025) is breaking. Even the Founders believed that their system of governance could work because "reasonable people" would follow the same rules. So now it's broken.
I've been reading "Blueprint for Revolution" about the methods that took down Milosevic in Serbia, but was struck by two difficulties in applying those techniques in the US. One is the sheer size of this country compared to most others, and second is that the population is not fully against the Fascist threat. How do The People exert pressure on a rogue government that controls the military, in a country where some large percentage of The People still think that Trump is right (partially due to control of the media as Hamilton pointed out).
One tool is definitely economic, and I already wonder when Trump will get pushback from companies that are facing trouble due to his idiocy. Tourism, for example, is being hurt. Boycotts, walkouts, resist with our wallets, all good.
But the opposition needs to get control of the narrative (which the feckless Democratic politicians have utterly lost) and start breaking the rules to take back control. This might mean an underground, and guerilla tactics. Are people willing to risk their jobs, families or lives? When the Nazis were bearing down on them some were willing, but we are comfortable Americans...
fascsim will rear its ugly vicious head when capitalism is threatened. Only socialism and real people power can defeat fascism! Americans are a highly propagandized population so we are easily scared by anti-communist rhetoric, but unless we build a genuine socialist international we face a dark future for humanity and the earth!
I think I get what you mean, but I wasn't suggesting that capitalism (at least as practiced in the US) is the best system. Far from it. Just pointing out that at this moment "economic interests" is a force that Trump does not control. Most of his policies (or whatever they are) are actually "bad for business" in the conventional sense. Strange times may make strange bedfellows.
"For example: It is illegal for federal workers to strike. When Trump tore up their union contracts, they should have gone on strike anyhow, because it is a form of direct power independent of mutual agreement on the rules, which did not exist."
For an excellent lesson in what this looks like in practice, look at the Air Canada flight attendants strike in Canada last summer. The flight attendants went on strike after eight months of negotiations failed to produce an acceptable agreement that included ground pay.
Just *hours* after the strike began, the federal Minister of Labour invoked Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, directing the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to force the parties into binding arbitration and end the strike with a back-to-work order. It was an open secret that the airline had whistled in the Labour Minister.
CUPE, the flight attendants' union, announced that they would defy the back-to-work order: CUPE national president Mark Hancock said "If it means folks like me going to jail, then so be it. If it means our union being fined, then so be it."
Air Canada did not return to service.
48 hours later they had a *negotiated* agreement. After *eight months* of the airline fucking around. (It is amazing how quickly employers get religion when a strike threat is credible.)
If unions and their members are unwilling to use the one power they still have in an increasingly lopsided system -- withdrawal of labour -- then they might as well give up right now.
Frantz Fanon reminded us "the point of political education is teaching people that everything depends on them". If we hope to save each other from a future fascist hellscape, first we must accept that our "leaders" are not going to save us, our labor unions allied with fascists to fight communism during the cold war, and our colleges and universities capitulated to political pressure under Dem leadership to silence protests for Palestine. The media constantly lied to us about Oct 7 and continues to manufacture consent for invasions and regime change. We need to dismantle and rebuild these corrupt and capitalist institutions to build real people power in the US. Only socialism can defeat fascism. Liberalism always capitulates
An eloquent and prescient passage by Hamilton Nolan from May 2024, the last sentence of which can be the clarion call going forward: "the AFL-CIO, along with all the other major unions like the Teamsters and SEIU, calls a general strike in defense of our democracy. We all stop working. The trains stop. The delivery trucks stop. The stores close. And, crucially, public employees strike as well. Schools close. Government agencies close. Other than essential services like fire and police and health care, everything stops. The option for the public to close their eyes and ignore what is happening is taken away. We do not allow the collective societal shrug, the almost imperceptible descent into dreary fascism that allows most people to continue on in mostly normal ways. We all make clear that the country does not run for a dictator."
We're almost 80, but have been gathering with a group of activists on Saturdays to rally for justice and fairness for everyone. After one makes calls, writes emails, boycotts business, donates money, the logical next step is protest. Also, a general strike!
Right on HN! Can't say it loud enough or often enough, "Its up to us to make change happen",
for all the reasons made clear in the post above. If one side tears up a governing contract, and does so by breaking the law, then there is no contract to abide by. There is no legal agreement. If Trump consistently makes clear he couldn't care less about legal binding agreements between unions and employers, including the Federal Govt, then to continue to abide by laws the government itself ignores is an exercise in futility. Yes we do have a judicial system and we can and should continue to keep that in our toolbox, but come on, how is that working for the people in Minnesota? The judicial system is purposely a deliberate process and it should be. The Trump Admin. knows this and its why they continue to make the law up as they go---Don't like what we do, take us to court.
We don't have to become thugs or vigilantes to to fight back, but we don't have to behave ourselves either. Waiting until November 2026 or 2028 is plenty of time for these guys to jail, deport, sue, and of course physically assault any one of us.
To quote Mr. HN: " ...Either we will save ourselves or we won't..."
I completely agree on all counts, but would go further by pointing out how darkly cyclical these two things can become: As information gets skewed to the right, when the Trump Regime continues to break all the rules then we stop hearing about it or we get assured that the rulebreaking is either not happening, or is actually a good thing. I think that we are far from that sort of world, but watching the heads of the Regime try to bend reality over the shooting of Good in Minneapolis in spite of the video evidence, and then seeing the right wing propaganda machine actually get some traction with that narrative, makes me very uneasy.
If we are no longer a government of laws not men, because a group of rich men corrupted our processes to rise above the law…we will have to create something better that will form
A more perfect union
Thanks for this excellent piece of writing, Hamilton. It's up to all of us to turn things around.
Obviously, the call by various unions for a general strike is tremendously important. Finally, hopefully, labor is getting off the mat.
My one note of caution is that this call was news to my two Minneapolis relatives - sort of political aware, but not activists. At least, they didn't know about it yet.
Is this just going to be "stay home" or will there be political actions that day? That seems a good way of determining whether to go to Minneapolis or not.
https://www.iceoutnowmn.com/
Same! I reached out to my Minneapolis friend to ask if he was going to partake and he said that was the first he'd heard of it. He was also a bit wary and I understood because they just had a kid, which is pretty messed up when you think about it
I agree, but would like to point out that the regime is every bit as dependent on the self restraint of the people as the people and institutions were previously on the self restraint of the government. It is wisdom that people restrain themselves from a violent response to the regime because the forces that would be unleashed if they did not are impossible to control. But it’s also true that ICE wouldn’t last a week if the people unleashed the emotional fury that they actually feel. The essence of the battle ahead is control of the narrative. I find hope in the significant decline in viewership for both CBS and WaPo since they dropped any pretense of objectivity. There is sort a quantum characteristic to the pervading narrative. Ceaușescu was fully in control of his fate until he wasn’t.
"Ceaușescu was fully in control of his fate until he wasn’t."
I like the way you think
I'm damn glad you're out there, HamNo, voice in th wilderness, such as it is.
Excellent expression of the critical areas that Trump (ie Project 2025) is breaking. Even the Founders believed that their system of governance could work because "reasonable people" would follow the same rules. So now it's broken.
I've been reading "Blueprint for Revolution" about the methods that took down Milosevic in Serbia, but was struck by two difficulties in applying those techniques in the US. One is the sheer size of this country compared to most others, and second is that the population is not fully against the Fascist threat. How do The People exert pressure on a rogue government that controls the military, in a country where some large percentage of The People still think that Trump is right (partially due to control of the media as Hamilton pointed out).
One tool is definitely economic, and I already wonder when Trump will get pushback from companies that are facing trouble due to his idiocy. Tourism, for example, is being hurt. Boycotts, walkouts, resist with our wallets, all good.
But the opposition needs to get control of the narrative (which the feckless Democratic politicians have utterly lost) and start breaking the rules to take back control. This might mean an underground, and guerilla tactics. Are people willing to risk their jobs, families or lives? When the Nazis were bearing down on them some were willing, but we are comfortable Americans...
fascsim will rear its ugly vicious head when capitalism is threatened. Only socialism and real people power can defeat fascism! Americans are a highly propagandized population so we are easily scared by anti-communist rhetoric, but unless we build a genuine socialist international we face a dark future for humanity and the earth!
I think I get what you mean, but I wasn't suggesting that capitalism (at least as practiced in the US) is the best system. Far from it. Just pointing out that at this moment "economic interests" is a force that Trump does not control. Most of his policies (or whatever they are) are actually "bad for business" in the conventional sense. Strange times may make strange bedfellows.
"For example: It is illegal for federal workers to strike. When Trump tore up their union contracts, they should have gone on strike anyhow, because it is a form of direct power independent of mutual agreement on the rules, which did not exist."
For an excellent lesson in what this looks like in practice, look at the Air Canada flight attendants strike in Canada last summer. The flight attendants went on strike after eight months of negotiations failed to produce an acceptable agreement that included ground pay.
Just *hours* after the strike began, the federal Minister of Labour invoked Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, directing the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to force the parties into binding arbitration and end the strike with a back-to-work order. It was an open secret that the airline had whistled in the Labour Minister.
CUPE, the flight attendants' union, announced that they would defy the back-to-work order: CUPE national president Mark Hancock said "If it means folks like me going to jail, then so be it. If it means our union being fined, then so be it."
Air Canada did not return to service.
48 hours later they had a *negotiated* agreement. After *eight months* of the airline fucking around. (It is amazing how quickly employers get religion when a strike threat is credible.)
If unions and their members are unwilling to use the one power they still have in an increasingly lopsided system -- withdrawal of labour -- then they might as well give up right now.
Spot on. You are either part of the resistance or compliant- complicit in the fascism.
Frantz Fanon reminded us "the point of political education is teaching people that everything depends on them". If we hope to save each other from a future fascist hellscape, first we must accept that our "leaders" are not going to save us, our labor unions allied with fascists to fight communism during the cold war, and our colleges and universities capitulated to political pressure under Dem leadership to silence protests for Palestine. The media constantly lied to us about Oct 7 and continues to manufacture consent for invasions and regime change. We need to dismantle and rebuild these corrupt and capitalist institutions to build real people power in the US. Only socialism can defeat fascism. Liberalism always capitulates
An eloquent and prescient passage by Hamilton Nolan from May 2024, the last sentence of which can be the clarion call going forward: "the AFL-CIO, along with all the other major unions like the Teamsters and SEIU, calls a general strike in defense of our democracy. We all stop working. The trains stop. The delivery trucks stop. The stores close. And, crucially, public employees strike as well. Schools close. Government agencies close. Other than essential services like fire and police and health care, everything stops. The option for the public to close their eyes and ignore what is happening is taken away. We do not allow the collective societal shrug, the almost imperceptible descent into dreary fascism that allows most people to continue on in mostly normal ways. We all make clear that the country does not run for a dictator."
Excellent article! Excellent advice!
We're almost 80, but have been gathering with a group of activists on Saturdays to rally for justice and fairness for everyone. After one makes calls, writes emails, boycotts business, donates money, the logical next step is protest. Also, a general strike!
Thank you, Hamilton 👊👊👊📢📢📢⚖️⚖️⚖️
Thank you
Thank you
Right on HN! Can't say it loud enough or often enough, "Its up to us to make change happen",
for all the reasons made clear in the post above. If one side tears up a governing contract, and does so by breaking the law, then there is no contract to abide by. There is no legal agreement. If Trump consistently makes clear he couldn't care less about legal binding agreements between unions and employers, including the Federal Govt, then to continue to abide by laws the government itself ignores is an exercise in futility. Yes we do have a judicial system and we can and should continue to keep that in our toolbox, but come on, how is that working for the people in Minnesota? The judicial system is purposely a deliberate process and it should be. The Trump Admin. knows this and its why they continue to make the law up as they go---Don't like what we do, take us to court.
We don't have to become thugs or vigilantes to to fight back, but we don't have to behave ourselves either. Waiting until November 2026 or 2028 is plenty of time for these guys to jail, deport, sue, and of course physically assault any one of us.
To quote Mr. HN: " ...Either we will save ourselves or we won't..."
This is a few months old, but such a good reminder: https://youtu.be/d4kizE2LgUU?si=vpDBczvO0kyGrYxt