Another thing to note is that one of the reasons we were able to have so many people gather in protest in 2020 was that people were working from home, and so therefore had the freedom to go where they wanted when they wanted.
When the protest started to get too much potential, a surprising amount of return-to-the-office mandates suddenly popped up, with no medical data offered to back the change.
I think they want us in their commercial buildings 40hrs a week so they can make rent, and so we can’t just leave and go fight for power.
So often even when we muster power in workplaces, commmunities, and broader movements we fall back inside the same limiting systems.
A coupe micro examples to go along with your union experience Hamilton- when I was a local UAW President bargaining contracts we would generate a certain amount of leverage to force employers to make some concessions. I remember when the light bulb lit up for me that some issues add material gain- always important- but other issues helped us build our power for the long term- ultimately leading to better material gains.
Small things like the right to do significant union orientation in work time. When I was with 1199, at one nursing home we bargained for a monthly work time union “information session.”
The UAW allowed an impressive system of negotiated union staff helping w EAP, benefits etc to slide into a certain level of political nepotism and demobilizing BUT using leverage to OWN our workplaces and our movements,
to build organization is a much appreciated critical distinction.
One last example from the community side. We had effectively elected a fully progressive local government only to realize how circumscribed we were by State and National laws and by our tax system. Passing lefty resolutions or making small incremental progressive change was ok, but using resources to seed and support
grassroots neighborhood and tenant organizing helped drive bigger change and imbed political progress.
Love the heat coming off of NH post today. I actually believe anger is good, it’s energizing, and helps us focus, as apposed to rage which does just the opposite. But the other ingredient that always seems to be missing in those moments when power pauses and takes notice, is sacrifice. It's easy to be angry and outraged. No problem demonstrating, “…and carrying signs and mostly singing hooray for our side…”, but that’s where it always seems to end. IMO, the powerful haven’t seen any evidence in recent history that would indicate to them we are willing to sacrifice anything of importance. They giving us lip service seems to always suffice. So the question I'm asking myself is, what am I willing to sacrifice to take back that “cake baking oven”?
Off topic: Really enjoying your book! Your parents sound amazing. I had several great uncles that did in fact read books on the line when it was possible to do so. My grandmother worked at a potato chip factory and never liked potato chips much for the rest of her life. None of my relatives would have been brave enough to try to sell a Communist newspaper to their fellow workers, but as they were all staunch atheists, I hope they'd have purchased one.
Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but if I were a company I'd get rid of "DEI" in outward-facing communications likely to be seen by the Powers, but continue on course internally. Maybe these companies are getting out of the "equity" business only to stealthily revert to the equality business that's already woven into the company culture.
My work career traversed the deep cultural transformations that occurred through feminism and civil rights (two decades? Pfft! How about five decades?). DEI was just a poorly-conceived addendum to decades of taking the EEO poster in the lunchroom for granted: which meant in many cases learning to get along with all sorts of colleagues and reporting to people Not Like You.
Of course all this depends on the internal culture of any company. The "homosexual reproduction" (managers hire people like them; therefore more white guys) discussed by Rosabeth Moss Kant is certainly a major force in the sociology of corpoorations. My own career was in public transit in a liberal city: another source of unbridled optimism (these days they hire anyone and everyone willing to eliminate cannabinoids from their lives, so the driver population continues being incredibly diverse.)
Nevertheless I appreciate the idea of boycotting major retail firms as a pushback to the racism that fuels the Trump's administration's blackmail program. We're all operating on many levels of society and so must act from hope while at the same time resisting.
This has all become more and more apparent to me over time, as American corporations deemed 'successful' work first and foremost as ruthless amoebas, and other aspiring businesses try to mimic the behavior.
I've had the misfortune to stump for equity in a startup and a hollow victory of receiving a contract that seemed above-board. It stipulated that I complete one year of service for equity and ownership in the company to vest. To follow was a successful year of service and growth borne on the back of hard work and long hours of unpaid overtime. Then a small board of investors—fearing the loss of any potential dollar from their own pockets—voted to fire me under the guise of business reconstruction, 3 days before that year completed.
I learned the hard way that in modern American business is not the people who do the hard work in earnestness who are rewarded with power. Not when the already-capital-holders in charge do nothing (beyond already owning capital) but convene four times a year to make self-serving decisions in the interest of protecting every hundredth of a percent of their own exponential profits. After that experience, none of what has happened to DEI initiatives has been remotely surprising. This is how these companies have always been at their core.
My only solace is that the iteration of this particular start-up (against my advice and without my continued stewardship), folded less than a year after my removal as those owners missed the boat to cash out as their industry surged onward. I suspect they are still doing just fine, somewhere else, now riding the trend of trading exponential profits for the exponential suffering of their workforce.
I always come late to these posts. Probably because I work a full time state government job, a part time service industry job, and a whenever-I'm-Not Sleeping, Eating or Trying to Distract Myself with Frivolity-gig job. So I'm always late with my comment, always hoping Mr. Nolan sees it anyway and knows there is one more schmuck out here reading and absorbing and standing in solidarity. I'm ordering the fuck out of that shirt, sharing the zine with everyone I know, and as committed as ever to running my yap against the casino culture and social grift we are enduring. As always, thank you, Mr. Nolan, and thanks to this community that refuses to let the fire die out.
Hamilton, while I appreciate your scathing and accurate critique of DEI, your larger point about "the next uprising" would be bolstered by additional examples of major social uprisings that actually gain and, especially, sustain power without becoming oligarchies. All of the major civil rights movements of the past half century have succeeded in gaining real power in the form of legal rights and protections - only to see them obliterated by an alternative uprising calling itself MAGA.
I think most of America's successful social movements-- civil rights, labor, women's rights, gay rights, etc-- have made significant gains that persisted for decades. All these gains ultimately have to be defended politically, I don't think there's any way to escape that.
No argument on your point. However, not to be "too academic:" an uprising is not a social movement and social movements that manage to take real power, sadly, have a disturbing tendency to transmute into oligarchy rather than democracy. Still, I know you and I agree on the goal of achieving power - defending and advancing economic and social justice.
All of this. We must stop believing that equality can be Corporate Memphis-ed into existence. All those bendy, smiley, primary-colored, multi-ethnic people, used by designers to help sell the idea that corporations were enlightened, inclusive, and empathetic… It was gaslighting - we need a new aesthetic with which to represent a just world.
The last two sentences of your piece are absolutely correct!
Time to REALLY fight the fascists!
CARTOON: MAGA, Go 'F' Yourself -- Trump Sings Praise For Terrorist Killer Of American Troops
It’s done, MAGA. Your whole Red-White-N-Blue ‘America First’ act is done. Toast. All your red MAGA hat childish playground bullying crap is over. A dried up dog turd in the gutter. ...
The anti-police brutality protests were a real outburst of popular disgust; BLM was always an establishment sheepdogging fraud because it never addressed economic class. Any movement not based on that will ALWAYS be corrupted by the capitalist establishment.
Great article and a great point.
Another thing to note is that one of the reasons we were able to have so many people gather in protest in 2020 was that people were working from home, and so therefore had the freedom to go where they wanted when they wanted.
When the protest started to get too much potential, a surprising amount of return-to-the-office mandates suddenly popped up, with no medical data offered to back the change.
I think they want us in their commercial buildings 40hrs a week so they can make rent, and so we can’t just leave and go fight for power.
Yes!
So often even when we muster power in workplaces, commmunities, and broader movements we fall back inside the same limiting systems.
A coupe micro examples to go along with your union experience Hamilton- when I was a local UAW President bargaining contracts we would generate a certain amount of leverage to force employers to make some concessions. I remember when the light bulb lit up for me that some issues add material gain- always important- but other issues helped us build our power for the long term- ultimately leading to better material gains.
Small things like the right to do significant union orientation in work time. When I was with 1199, at one nursing home we bargained for a monthly work time union “information session.”
The UAW allowed an impressive system of negotiated union staff helping w EAP, benefits etc to slide into a certain level of political nepotism and demobilizing BUT using leverage to OWN our workplaces and our movements,
to build organization is a much appreciated critical distinction.
One last example from the community side. We had effectively elected a fully progressive local government only to realize how circumscribed we were by State and National laws and by our tax system. Passing lefty resolutions or making small incremental progressive change was ok, but using resources to seed and support
grassroots neighborhood and tenant organizing helped drive bigger change and imbed political progress.
Good examples, thanks Al.
Love the heat coming off of NH post today. I actually believe anger is good, it’s energizing, and helps us focus, as apposed to rage which does just the opposite. But the other ingredient that always seems to be missing in those moments when power pauses and takes notice, is sacrifice. It's easy to be angry and outraged. No problem demonstrating, “…and carrying signs and mostly singing hooray for our side…”, but that’s where it always seems to end. IMO, the powerful haven’t seen any evidence in recent history that would indicate to them we are willing to sacrifice anything of importance. They giving us lip service seems to always suffice. So the question I'm asking myself is, what am I willing to sacrifice to take back that “cake baking oven”?
Off topic: Really enjoying your book! Your parents sound amazing. I had several great uncles that did in fact read books on the line when it was possible to do so. My grandmother worked at a potato chip factory and never liked potato chips much for the rest of her life. None of my relatives would have been brave enough to try to sell a Communist newspaper to their fellow workers, but as they were all staunch atheists, I hope they'd have purchased one.
Thank you Rachel. Shout out to readers on the line.
Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but if I were a company I'd get rid of "DEI" in outward-facing communications likely to be seen by the Powers, but continue on course internally. Maybe these companies are getting out of the "equity" business only to stealthily revert to the equality business that's already woven into the company culture.
My work career traversed the deep cultural transformations that occurred through feminism and civil rights (two decades? Pfft! How about five decades?). DEI was just a poorly-conceived addendum to decades of taking the EEO poster in the lunchroom for granted: which meant in many cases learning to get along with all sorts of colleagues and reporting to people Not Like You.
Of course all this depends on the internal culture of any company. The "homosexual reproduction" (managers hire people like them; therefore more white guys) discussed by Rosabeth Moss Kant is certainly a major force in the sociology of corpoorations. My own career was in public transit in a liberal city: another source of unbridled optimism (these days they hire anyone and everyone willing to eliminate cannabinoids from their lives, so the driver population continues being incredibly diverse.)
Nevertheless I appreciate the idea of boycotting major retail firms as a pushback to the racism that fuels the Trump's administration's blackmail program. We're all operating on many levels of society and so must act from hope while at the same time resisting.
This has all become more and more apparent to me over time, as American corporations deemed 'successful' work first and foremost as ruthless amoebas, and other aspiring businesses try to mimic the behavior.
I've had the misfortune to stump for equity in a startup and a hollow victory of receiving a contract that seemed above-board. It stipulated that I complete one year of service for equity and ownership in the company to vest. To follow was a successful year of service and growth borne on the back of hard work and long hours of unpaid overtime. Then a small board of investors—fearing the loss of any potential dollar from their own pockets—voted to fire me under the guise of business reconstruction, 3 days before that year completed.
I learned the hard way that in modern American business is not the people who do the hard work in earnestness who are rewarded with power. Not when the already-capital-holders in charge do nothing (beyond already owning capital) but convene four times a year to make self-serving decisions in the interest of protecting every hundredth of a percent of their own exponential profits. After that experience, none of what has happened to DEI initiatives has been remotely surprising. This is how these companies have always been at their core.
My only solace is that the iteration of this particular start-up (against my advice and without my continued stewardship), folded less than a year after my removal as those owners missed the boat to cash out as their industry surged onward. I suspect they are still doing just fine, somewhere else, now riding the trend of trading exponential profits for the exponential suffering of their workforce.
I always come late to these posts. Probably because I work a full time state government job, a part time service industry job, and a whenever-I'm-Not Sleeping, Eating or Trying to Distract Myself with Frivolity-gig job. So I'm always late with my comment, always hoping Mr. Nolan sees it anyway and knows there is one more schmuck out here reading and absorbing and standing in solidarity. I'm ordering the fuck out of that shirt, sharing the zine with everyone I know, and as committed as ever to running my yap against the casino culture and social grift we are enduring. As always, thank you, Mr. Nolan, and thanks to this community that refuses to let the fire die out.
Peace Robb thank you.
Hamilton, while I appreciate your scathing and accurate critique of DEI, your larger point about "the next uprising" would be bolstered by additional examples of major social uprisings that actually gain and, especially, sustain power without becoming oligarchies. All of the major civil rights movements of the past half century have succeeded in gaining real power in the form of legal rights and protections - only to see them obliterated by an alternative uprising calling itself MAGA.
I think most of America's successful social movements-- civil rights, labor, women's rights, gay rights, etc-- have made significant gains that persisted for decades. All these gains ultimately have to be defended politically, I don't think there's any way to escape that.
No argument on your point. However, not to be "too academic:" an uprising is not a social movement and social movements that manage to take real power, sadly, have a disturbing tendency to transmute into oligarchy rather than democracy. Still, I know you and I agree on the goal of achieving power - defending and advancing economic and social justice.
So lucid and impressive. Thank you.
You can never go wrong keeping your focus on power.
https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/methods/studying_power.html#axioms
All of this. We must stop believing that equality can be Corporate Memphis-ed into existence. All those bendy, smiley, primary-colored, multi-ethnic people, used by designers to help sell the idea that corporations were enlightened, inclusive, and empathetic… It was gaslighting - we need a new aesthetic with which to represent a just world.
A thousand times yes.
The last two sentences of your piece are absolutely correct!
Time to REALLY fight the fascists!
CARTOON: MAGA, Go 'F' Yourself -- Trump Sings Praise For Terrorist Killer Of American Troops
It’s done, MAGA. Your whole Red-White-N-Blue ‘America First’ act is done. Toast. All your red MAGA hat childish playground bullying crap is over. A dried up dog turd in the gutter. ...
https://mark192.substack.com/p/cartoon-maga-go-f-yourself-trump
Thanks for making such an important point, Hamilton.
Hey Hamilton! Curious to know if you’ve read Olufemi Taiwo’s ‘Elite Capture,’ which rhymes with much of this piece. https://bookshop.org/p/books/elite-capture-how-the-powerful-took-over-identity-politics-and-everything-else-oluf-7865-769-mi-o-taiwo/17984390?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=16243514117&gbraid=0AAAAACfld40s2jJ0G5xoc0-Zkwyq8sUmm&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiqbBBhCAARIsAJSfZkYLsPIwn3Df-AvtB0ZHE9FgaQbKBE-AZkGjd7OI4hagifdYydvu3jEaAm7cEALw_wcB
Yes, he is very good.
The anti-police brutality protests were a real outburst of popular disgust; BLM was always an establishment sheepdogging fraud because it never addressed economic class. Any movement not based on that will ALWAYS be corrupted by the capitalist establishment.