GET OUT AND VOTE ON NOVEMBER 5th!

BUT THEN, WHAT ELSE WILL WE DO?

A POST-ELECTION CALL TO ACTION

By Terry Lodge, Board Member, on behalf of the CPA Board

We may not know for weeks, even months, who wins the U.S. Presidency following Election Day, November 5. Think of it: after the election there will almost certainly be endless focus on every up and down in multiple lawsuits, public protests, perhaps even riots and crimes suggestive of a civil war. Regardless of who wins the election, the Biden administration will be a lame duck, with hundreds of managers and administrators leaving places like the U.S. State Department and the White House. The White House, which has played such a feckless, errant role in enabling the Ukraine-Russian war and the Israeli Genocide of Palestine, will have less power and prestige than ever. 

So unless the People do something, very little, essentially nothing, will be happening to stop the Genocide and to end the war over Ukraine. Thousands more will die because of expanded and continuing inaction by our government. Action is now more important than ever, with the real threat of nuclear weapons in both Europe and the Middle East.

Here’s where we are: the system has ensured that up to the election, we can’t vote our way out of these wars; indeed, all possible results of the election lead to more genocide. We’re too propagandized to rise up in sufficient numbers to openly revolt. We can’t even engage in direct action like blocking the weapons shipments and sabotaging the arms manufacturers unless we’re prepared to do some serious prison time.

Then, events after the election will likely collude to smother any formal U.S. moves to stop the wars although we should rest assured that the weapons and munitions makers will continue to profit obscenely from providing the tools to keep up the killing.

So what will we, the antiwar, anti-imperialist, anti-genocide movement do at a time when the United States will be less outward-focused than ever? 

The commentator Caitlin Johnstone suggests that we should feel, for a moment, our powerlessness in these times, understanding that it is the product of very specific strategies undertaken by the American Empire. Once we understand how and why things are the way that they are, she says we must inform everyone we can connect with:

So lean into the powerlessness of this historical moment. Point it out to people. In as many ways as you can, help show people that their political systems are controlled by the powerful, that their news media are propaganda services of the western empire, and that a better world is possible if we can shake off the chains of imperial narrative control and start forcing the advancement of the interests of ordinary human beings.

You can do this using any means at your disposal. Talking to people. Distributing literature. Making videos. Making TikTok skits. Making tweets. Making art. Making memes. Writing on the wall. Writing blogs. Printing zines. Writing letters to the editor at your local paper. Anything you can do to help get unauthorized ideas into eyes and ears which may not otherwise have encountered them, using your own unique set of skills and personal conditioning.

What else can we do? What else will we do?

       Unless we take control of the imperial narrative, the Genocide will continue to the last Palestinian. And the Russo-Ukraine war, as has been said, may be waged to the last Ukrainian and the complete ruination of that country. And we will have to face the depletion of the U.S. American economy and of our humanity.