What Do We Do Now?

Author: Scott Johnson License: CC-BY

This past week has brought an unprecedented increase in fascism in America

We have to call it what it is people. This is fascism.

There was:

The "police" officers in MASSACHUSETTS smashing their way into an immigrants car - Juan Francisco Méndez - with a sledge hammer. MASSACHUSETTS is a BLUE STATE and they fucking did this there. This was designed to terrorize the left and show us there is NO WHERE SAFE. Video
The admission that they won't return Kilmar Abrego Garcia because they want the ability to deport AMERICANS not just immigrants
The authorization of 5 more prisons in Venezuela

I cannot tell you how many people have asked me WHAT DO WE DO?.

And that's what we are talking about right now.

Now I've got to give some credit. This speech was a direct product of my interactions with some wonderful folk right here in Indiana:

Tori, Janet and Taelar. They're my most senior folk and they pointed out a crucial insight
Morgan aka Muncie Morgan. As far as I'm concerned, she is the bravest woman in the damn state. She has also joined our senior leadership. Morgan got me to look up from my work and READ THE NEWS. She then kept at me forcing me to think on this issue
Kim Saylor. Kim is a local activist and she made damn sure I saw the sledge hammer video
Brad Lorton of the Democratic Socialist Alliance. Brad is one of those people I'd never in a million years have thought of as a friend and then all this and I'm proud to call him comrade. Brad put me in touch with Kathleen Robertson who made it all come together for me
Kathleen Robertson. I haven't met Kathleen yet but she had a FB messenger conversation with me after midnight on Tuesday and that's when all this gelled for me and it was just crystal clear.

So thank you all. You gave me the difficult thesis that I'm going to impart to everyone.

Now I'm going to do a cheap political trick -- I'm going to rip someone off and use his power.

I am going to paraphrase John F Kennedy:

We do non-violence not because it's easy but because it is hard

And that's the truth people.

We come out here as part of 50501 which is a NON VIOLENT movement and now that it is getting hard, WE CANNOT BECOME THEM.

We are NOT the January 6th Insurrectionists.

We are NOT that stain on America.

I get it.

I feel the temptation.

I was at the state house on Tuesday.

I was mere feet from Indiana's own Baby Fascist in Chief: Micah Beckwith.

And he was just waving at the crowd thinking everything was ok.

What a dumb fuck.

So this is where it gets HARD people.

Right now these cowards are picking on the most vulnerable among us:

people of color
people who don't know the law
people who may have communications challenges

And we have to WATCH it happen and not do a DAMN THING

I don't know about you but I feel guilty

It makes me SICK

So now the question is ARE WE REALLY COMMITTED TO NON VIOLENCE?

I am. I didn't like the thoughts in my head on Tuesday at the State House.

Now Let me tell you if we kick off the violence then what do you think is going to happen?

Honestly what do you think will happen?

And this is where I need to quote from my conversation with Kathleen Robertson who generously let me use her words

She led with:

HER: I wonder if it would be possible to have an Occupy event

ME: I remember Occupy. I remember it well. The times have changed.

HER: But an on going presence..sustained supported occupation in a peaceful way

ME: Even if we're peaceful, it won't matter. They passed the Imprison The Homeless act the other day we will simply end up in jail.

HER: But the mechanism used would still apply. Fascism is cruel

ME: I understand fascism is cruel, but we've already lost due process. And if you watched the interview today, the goal is to get US citizens deported to labor camps outside US borders.

ME: When occupy was a thing we had a functioning set of courts. We had different justices who weren't bought and paid for. We no longer have that because Trump has defied the courts openly.

ME: If any of us go to jail, there's a strong chance we're never coming out

HER: Even better moving the protest around the city to confuse and confound those who would end it.

ME: I understand your point, but my suspicion is they will simply attack in force and take us all

ME: Bear in mind that Homelessness is now CRIMINAL so if we do an occupy movement, we are CRIMINALS

So here's my thesis people

WE STAY THE COURSE

Now we talk about non violence but I haven't heard anyone in 50501 ever quote from the DAMN SOURCE so:

Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

That's Gandhi. He brought down an empire with non violence.

WE STAY NON VIOLENT

Now that doesn't mean we don't make some changes

Because we have to NOW admit that what happened with the sledge hammers could happen to any of our protestors

IT COULD HAPPEN TO A PROTEST LEADER

IT COULD HAPPEN TO ME

So what are the changes we need to make?

We -- 50501 Indiana -- need to do a better job for you.

That's right I said "for you".

And that's because I believe in servant based leadership. I believe that just as I serve my staff, 50501 serves all of you.

So:

We must become organizationally resilient

Now I've known that we need resilience for some time.

One of the first things I did when I came into this role is I named my successor

No I won't tell you who it is but I put in place succession planning from my second week because I think I'm ON THE LIST

A leadership failure can be crippling so I dealt with that EARLY

But we have to do better.

And I've identified a bunch of ways we need to do better:

We need to lose our egos and recognize what we are doing is making ASSETS FOR THE REVOLUTION. Everything I do belongs to the revolution. That's a hard one for me to be honest because I'm a published author and I made my life from intellectual property for nearly 40 years.
But to that end, I have put the FULL TEXT FOR ALL OF MY SPEECHES ON OUR SITE SO OTHERS CAN GIVE THEM. If you want to give this exact speech, IT IS ONLINE and use it with my blessing
As has RESISTING ORACLE and the HELPFUL HIPPIE
We need to cross train so that if they disappear one of us, the movement continues
We need to get past so much information BEING LOCKED IN SOMEONE'S PHONE or SOMEONE'S BRAIN. That's my problem and I'm working it.
As an example, I am the only person who knows who our contact with IMPD is. THAT'S STUPID.
We need to harden our technology so if one bit of it goes down, another part takes over. And we can't be reliant on Amazon's cloud or Google's cloud because THEY ARE COLLABORATORS. We need to go old school.
We need to do a better job vetting and managing volunteers so more people can help us
We need to introduce tiger teams. Tiger teams mean that you have an A team and B team and they rotate between events i.e. the A team does week 1 events and the B team does week 2 events. And you have a small cadre of leadership that is consistent across teams. Tiger teams are HARD to pull off but the reward is real and burn out can KILL us we will be expanding our leadership again.
As leadership we need to focus ourselves on what matters - DEFEATING TRUMP - and not on internal distractions

AND WE CAN'T DO ANY OF THAT IF WE ARE IN JAIL

There is a balance to all of this -- we can resist but we have to do it the right way

And what I mean by that is this:

Again I'm going to quote:

WE MUST NOT THROW AWAY OUR SHOT

Y'all know that's Hamilton.

WE MUST NOT THROW AWAY OUR SHOT

Non violence is OUR SHOT

IF WE GO TO JAIL WE HAVE THROWN AWAY OUR SHOT

We keep it peaceful.

We keep building bigger crowds.

We make our organization stronger

We keep educating the public about what is really happening

We keep it nerdy and safe and we use our damn white privilege

We get to that 3.5% and then WE KEEP AT IT

WE MOVE THIS FROM A PROTEST EVENT TO A CONTINUOUS PROTEST AT THE STATE LEVEL

AND IF YOU WANT TO HELP, COME TALK TO US

WE STAY THE COURSE

So in conclusion:

AGAIN:

WE STAY NON VIOLENT NOT BECAUSE IT IS EASY BUT BECAUSE IT IS HARD

WE STAY NON VIOLENT BECAUSE WE WILL NOT STAIN AMERICA

AND We blow our whistles when we see ICE

We will NOT be bystanders