Ryan Griffis on Tue, 6 Nov 2018 04:01:52 +0100 (CET)


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<nettime> Taking sides


I take neither side at Charlottesville

Need anyone say more? 
As we in the US have been saying for years about the Republican party's turn to explicit and open authoritarianism, believe people when they tell you who they are.
In my experience, real pragmatism follows action and results. The people moving the Left forward in the US are overwhelmingly POC women and queer organizers. Many of them are trained and educated in political Marxism, as well as cultural and political organizing through institutions like Highlander, the Boggs Center, The Allied Media Conference, etc. They have developed very sophisticated responses to inter-movement/inter-community forms of conflict resolution that avoid the use of state intervention. They have done amazing cross-movement organizing that includes labor, indigenous nations, people who have been incarcerated, etc. They seem perfectly able to find strength in the recognition of intersectional forms of oppression and then take them on without saying, "No, but this philosophy is the one we should stick to!" 
People trying to convince me that these folks' life experiences aren't meaningful to the political struggle I see all around me, while labeling them with the name of a dead European philosopher, just sound irrelevant at best.
I'm not really looking to continue this "debate," but wanted to add my voice to those saying what seems pretty obvious.
Best,
Ryan

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