We Must All Stand In Solidarity!
Let's direct our anger at the ruling rich and show each other grace.
All our issues are connected:
The Israeli bombardment of Gaza is a public health issue!
The insufficient response to COVID-19 is a disability rights issue!
Universal single-payer healthcare is a workers’ rights issue!
Trans rights are a human right issue!
Living wages are a women’s rights issue!
Ending war is an environmental issue!
Preserving a habitable planet is a racial justice issue!
This month, we started out with our SNV Special Interview: The Gauntlet On Manufactured Consent For Never-Ending COVID. In this Special, Julia Doubleday, a progressive activist, climate advocate, and writer discussed her SubStack with us. She said that, unfortunately, “the silence is deafening” when it comes to COVID. She says the narrative we were fed about COVID is not lining up with the reality we are facing, and, on The Gauntlet, she calls this “‘manufactured consent’ for never-ending COVID reinfection” to quote Chomsky’s book. She says in that post:
A little over two years ago, on November 16, 2021, CNBC reported on Dr. Fauci’s assessment of what successfully ‘living with the virus’ would look like: “Covid cases must fall below 10,000 a day for U.S. to get to 'degree of normality'”. He went on to say that truly getting the virus under control would probably mean no more than 3,300 cases a day- this would be a reasonable rate that wouldn’t create major disruptions to overall social functioning. He made this projection, notably, nearly a year after the initial vaccine rollout. As of December 18, 2023, the infectious disease modeler’s projection of new daily cases in the US? 964,184 new cases per day. This is, quite factually, not the ‘new normal’ anyone was promised.
Her other posts, like “The Revolution Will Not Be Ableist” and “Hospitals are killing patients because they don't feel like doing infection control,” highlight the effect our society is having on the most vulnerable among us by ignoring COVID. But she highlights other impacts of COVID denialism also with “Institutional COVID denial has killed public health as we knew it. Prepare to lose several centuries of progress” and “Germany entered a recession last year because the average worker needed 20 sick days.” Ultimately, society is an organism, and thus, each area of society affects other areas, and each group that finds themselves under attack can soon have new members. Just because you aren’t disabled by long-COVID now, doesn’t mean you won’t be in the future, as each infection increases your chances of a disabling event.
SNV Special Report: Healthcare Workers For Palestine was our next Special of the last month. It highlights clearly how the ongoing genocide in Palestine, at the hands of the Israeli settler state, is a workers rights issue, an issue of self-determination, a public health issue, and an environmental issue. We featured a speech from Tania Singh, previously staff at Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), and now at United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCWU) 1189, who spoke in a personal capacity. She was fired from her position at MNA for saying, “I support Hamas because I support the oppressed’s right to resist in any way they deem fit.” The speech was from a Minneapolis vigil honoring health care workers killed in Gaza. Singh ended her speech by saying, “the day American worker’s strike against war, the world will heal!” to many cheers.
The Subversive Spirit was the topic of our last Special of the month. In this Special, we spoke with Maki Ashe Van Steenwyk. She is the Director for the Center for Prophetic Imagination in Minneapolis, a speaker, and writer. Van Steenwyk said most people “still relate to their spirituality and religion as a system of morality and obedience.” Whereas Van Steekwyk says that she sees the Holy Spirit, not in this way, but as the way we experience things as “moments of clarity where we can make choices that are different than kind of the predetermined script.” She says “the spirit queers things,” and, “the spirit…nurtures deviance from oppression and oppressive systems.” Van Steenwyk says you can be an atheist and function in this way by saying, “how do we perceive possibilities for action that we would otherwise not perceive.” It is not enough, says Van Steenwyk, to read lots of theory and analysis. I would say it takes contemplation and imagination to see how to move ourselves, and others, in a different direction, to get away from the predetermined script, as she suggests.
For our regular Episode this month, we discussed lots of important news — including the ongoing work of independent journalist Georgia Fort. Minneapolis City Council’s ordinances on safe outdoor spaces, public health responses to homeless encampments and passage of the strongest Ceasefire Resolution in the country. We also discussed unions ceasefire resolutions, recent wins and ongoing growing labor struggles. We also featured news on the international front from Latin America, Europe and Africa. Again, all these stories show how our struggles are all linked.
The interview in the second portion of our show focused on the article What Meaning Will We Give the New State Flag? by Shane M. from Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America. This discussion focused in what Shane said in that article, in part:
For those familiar with marxist analytical concepts of the “Base” and “Superstructure” this is a simple example. The actions of the “Base”, being the material conditions of our economy and day to day lives, affects and shapes the “Superstructure”, the realm of institutions, culture, and symbols that reflect and shape our ideas and values. These superstructure elements then in turn can help influence and reinforce actions at the base. Our state flag is an element of the Minnesota superstructure both influenced by and emanating influence upon our local organizing conditions.
Our new flag is a fresh narrative start and begs the question, what meaning do we want imprinted upon it? Our flag is simply a turning point symbolically and aesthetically for our Minnesota community. The meaning of what our new flag will mean to people both in and outside our state and which emotions it will evoke are up to us as Minnesotans by our actions.
Actions speak loudly — the continued action we take in Minnesota will help shape the narrative of the new symbol of the Minnesota state flag. Ultimately, Shane says, “I don’t think the left should cede ground to liberals or conservatives to generate whatever narratives they want with these symbols.” Instead of getting caught up in the back and forth between liberals and conservatives about whether the old or new flag represents Minnesota better, we can create a socialist narrative for the new flag by taking action. As Shane M. says in the article:
As Socialists we have an opportunity to use our new flag to help build a narrative of a new and better Minnesota. A socialist Minnesota will not only have land and governance power returned to our indigenous neighbors, but also will have our government and economy subordinated to the working class as a whole. A new flag means a new opportunity to help paint to the public what Minnesota can be and help reshape what it means to be a Minnesotan.
We must stand together, show each other solidarity, and welcome as many working people in as we can who are ready to build a better Minnesota and a better society. The most reactionary people in our society may not be won over, but many new, young activists have been swept into the movements from Black Lives Matter to the new Palestine Solidarity movement. The movements must find a way for new folks to participate as they are able, without burning them out, and spend time in discussion to sharpen their political ideas and overcome any false consciousness and build a class-conscious and intersectional movement of solidarity with other social movements.
Let’s link arms and turn outwards towards the ruling class. We must also be imaginative and come up with new forms of direct action and resistance.
Solidarity,
Nick Shillingford - Host - Socialist News and Views
P.S. A Poem - heaven is a place on earth - by arson.