Fantasy & Necessity Of Solidarity Is Good Book To Read As We Fight And Organize

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I'm reading The Fantasy And Necessity Of Solidarity by Sarah Schulman. Above you see a picture of the book.

​My view is that we are headed to a conflict or emergency & that everyday we are preparing. I don't know what it'll all look like. I don't know what our roles will be. I believe that the "leaders" or whatever the right term is, will be people with the ability/willingness to act with autonomy from current structures and holders of power. Hopefully there is a "victory" ahead, that is something more than just holding back a nightmare or an endless fight for control of the nation with really nasty people. I don't know what that "victory" looks like anymore than I have a firm view of the full extent of the challenge ahead. But I'm going to proceed. 

From Truthout: 

​"Schulman resists the notion of solidarity as something pure, instead revealing intrinsic power dynamics. “As long as we think of solidarity as saintly, we will not be able to fulfill it,” she writes. If the “purpose of this book is to make solidarity doable,” her method is unconventional — expose the contradictions, the limitations, the fantasies — in order to show the ways that flawed individuals under duress can still take meaningful action to challenge tyranny... When “resistance grows, but the killing does not stop,” Schulman writes, it’s time to become more strategic, methodical, innovative, collaborative and dedicated to justice regardless of the whims of corporate power, institutional oppression, or societal approval."

I've also read Ms. Schulman's Let The Record Show about the ACT UP movement in New York. It was really good. Read the review of the book I've linked to for a strong account. Organizing people and working together across racial, gender, class and ideological lines is difficult even when lives are clearly on the line. 

But that is the task ahead. Let's prepare each day and become more ready and able for what is ahead. 

Here is the Houston Democracy Project list of things each of us can do to fight Trump/Musk. Here is a fundraising pitch for the Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.

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