I periodically recommend to our outnumbered state legislators that they consider us activist types as their scouts. Say, at Gettysburg. They are engaged in pitched battle down in the capitol. Their focus is straight ahead, on fending off each successive wave of frontal attacks from political adversaries.
Meanwhile, we scruffy activists are out sniffing around the edges of the battlefield for troop movements outside their field of vision. Where is the next attack coming from? Are reinforcements on the way or not? From what direction and how many? They might want to know that. They’re tied up. We just see it before they do. A few of them actually listen.
Many progressive activists would like to mount all-out, frontal counter-attacks to achieve whatever objective is of foremost importance to them. Whatever the costs. Sure, it might be Pickett’s Charge across three-quarters of a mile of open ground into cannon fire from Cemetery Ridge. But better to go down in a blaze of glory than tolerate another incremental attempt at gaining inches. Right?
So, it was interesting to hear what a veteran of many battles long before I enlisted had to say about the one just ahead. Angela Davis, the legendary 1960s activist now professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has fought more than her share. She now learns from people 50 years younger, and that helps keep her in the fight:
Now 76, she speaks over Zoom from her office in California. Does she feel now that, after so many years, meaningful change is possible? “Well, of course, it could be different,” says Davis. “But that’s not guaranteed.” It’s an understandably cautious tone from Davis, who has seen everything from the Watts riots and Vietnam to Ferguson and Iraq. “After many moments of dramatic awareness and possibilities of change, the kinds of reforms instituted in the aftermath have prevented the radical potential from being realised.”
She is, on the whole, buoyed up by the vast protests triggered by Floyd’s death. Although there have been large-scale protests as recently as 2014 – after the death of Michael Brown, and others including Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and Eric Garner – Davis thinks that this time, something has changed. This time, white people are beginning to understand.
“We’ve never witnessed sustained demonstrations of this size that are so diverse,” says Davis. “So I think that is what is giving people a great deal of hope. Many people previously, in response to the slogan Black Lives Matter, asked: ‘But shouldn’t we really be saying all lives matter?’ They’re now finally getting it. That as long as black people continue to be treated in this way, as long as the violence of racism remains what it is, then no one is safe.”
“I do think we have to participate in the election,” Davis told Democracy Now!, even though neither major party represents the future she wants to see.
“But the election will not be so much about who gets to lead the country to a better future,” Davis explains, “but rather how we can support ourselves and our own ability to continue to organize and place pressure on those in power.” She has no doubt which presidential candidate will allow that process to go forward.
The electoral arena may not be the best place for the expression of radical politics, Davis says, but to move forward we need someone in office who will be amenable to mass pressure. It’s not the current occupant of the White House. That means we have to translate the energy from our street protests into remedying that through our votes.
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For The Win, 3rd Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV mechanics guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.
Note: The pandemic will upend standard field tactics in 2020. If enough promising “improvisations” come my way, perhaps I can issue a COVID-19 supplement.