The Ones Thrown Under the Bus

a military parade, the No Kings protests, and the criminalization of sex workers

Trump’s June 14 military parade. Photo by Kenny Holston NYT.

Yesterday, “No Kings” protests were held in about 2,000 cities and towns across the US. Some of these were probably useful occasions for people to connect, to express their despair, fear, and resilience with a collective voice, and even to learn how to take over the streets.

I don’t want to negate any of that. What I want to focus on, though, is the role of the Democrats in orchestrating the nationwide protests through connected organizations like the ACLU, MoveOn, and Indivisible.

The massive wave of revolt in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd in May, 2020, caught both parties by surprise. The Democrats did a fairly effective job playing catch up and pacifying the revolt by calling for protests (often indirectly, through affiliated organizations, non-profits, and professional activists), keeping those protests peaceful by collaborating with the pigs, and re-directing the movement towards reformist goals, banking on people forgetting what became of the hundreds of reforms on police authority, use of force, and racism that have already been passed over the last century. They’re also banking on people not knowing the origins of the police, and the State itself. These institutions co-evolved with white supremacy and colonialism.

No Kings protest in Bowling Green. Photo by Grace Mcdowell.

Since the elections last November, the No Kings protests are at least the second coordinated attempt by the Democrats to get out ahead of the resistance, pacify it and confound it in advance, playing the counterinsurgency role that the Left is meant to play, part of the same dance as the brutish, terrifying assaults of the Right.

Hands Off? You Might As Well Shoot Yourself in the Stomach

In other words, Trump’s military parade and deportations, and the Left’s peaceful pickets with witty signs about orange monarchs or protecting democracy constitute the right hand and the left hand of a Leviathan that always has been and always will be exploitive, ecocidal, white supremacist, colonial, and patriarchal.

Between my landscaping job (12 hour mulching shifts are exhausting!), continued economic and health problems (nothing to worry about, but still a huge limitation), and just life doing it’s thing, I still haven’t been able to finish up the essay about the current dangers presented by the Right or another piece about how believing in democracy puts our movements for liberation at such a huge disadvantage.

If you want, though, there’s plenty of lessons to distill here in these anarchist analyses of the 15M movement in Spain, a (much larger) immediate precursor to Occupy! and a direct experiment in direct democracy at scale, involving millions of people.

“Fire Extinguishers and Fire Starters”

“From 15M to Podemos: the regeneration of Spanish democracy”

In the meantime, I’d like to ask all of you to pay attention every time you hear someone say that what Trump is doing is “fascism,” or who mentions “democracy” like it’s a good thing or something we need to protect. Are these people radicals? Liberals? Reformists? Centrists? What does it mean and what are the possible repercussions if radicals and reformists are using the same moral framework or have, at the most basic level, the same analysis of the current situation?

For today, though, I want to boost a few published pieces that really help to illuminate some of the ways the Right and Left are operating. Check them out!

Wait, the Left?

Yesterday’s Reforms are Today’s Oppressions

Pacification and Palestine

Throwing Sex Workers Under the Bus Again

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Wait, the Left?

To be clear: I use “Left” in its original meaning, which is the meaning it still has in most languages other than English: the leftwing of the State. For those who care about real liberation, who don’t ever imagine ourselves ruling an entire nation, and who don’t believe in the “progress” of a society founded on genocide and slavery, we may be anarchists or intercommunalists, Diné or inheritors of some other tradition of struggle: we are outside and below.

One thing the Left systematically does is to throw marginalized elements of society under the bus if they deem them to not be a strategic cause. This tendency trains people to see solidarity as a liability and actual liberation (and therefore universal liberation, intersectional liberation) as naïve. In other words, it trains people to normalize being miserable, backstabby ratfuckers and pass it off as “realism” or “strategy” or simply an unintentional oversight of politics.

Until resistance really started heating up, most Democrats did very little to speak up against the racism, hypocrisy, and inhumanity of deportations, let alone borders. In fact, they often helped spread xenophobic, anti-immigrant, pro-border rhetoric. And of course, Democrats Obama and Biden both beat Trump by a significant margin in total deportations.

Yesterday’s Reforms are Today’s Oppressions

So academic abolitionists have started saying that not only does abolition not mean the abolition of the State, but that the State is the best-placed vehicle to bring us to abolition, which is just an insult to memory and the struggles of those who went before us.

It’s so upsetting I went on a rant about it:

The death of abolition

With Juneteenth coming up, I’m reminded of a conflict that existed in the original abolition movement. The tension was between those who believed that the legal abolition of slavery, enforced by the government, would be enough, and those who believed more radical social transformation was needed. The radicals, in this debate, were people like Harriet Tubman, John Brown, and, in his later years, Frederick Douglass. (I write about this more in my book on the loss of movement memory, They Will Beat the Memory Out of Us.)

The debate should be settled by now, since it’s not speculation, it’s not a hypothetical scenario. The State was fully in charge of abolition the first time around, and that’s what gave us the modern prison system. Yesterday’s reforms are today’s oppressions.

Abolition today, the abolition of the prison system, is only abolitionist if it also supports the abolition of the State and all other oppressive power structures, in the true spirit of solidarity and contrary to the false realism of the reformists.

But, it’s easy to forget that when those non-profit and tenured academic jobs pay sooo good.

Here’s Malcolm X, speaking on how priviliged sections of the oppressed become important agents in the defense of oppression:

one minute version // 20 minute version

Pacification and Palestine

The response to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine is one major difference between most Democrats and more progressive Leftists. A strategic question to ask, though, is what is the result of a major movement, like last year’s encampment movement, that is mostly pacifist, that doesn’t sabotage or obstruct the war machine, that does not develop many means to defend itself while organizing in a way that makes it an easy target for repression?

Does it inspire people or exhaust them? To avoid a purist or unnuanced analysis, let’s also ask: what are the good things such a movement accomplishes, organizing in this way? Now the synthesis: are there ways it could accomplish these good things without the pacification, exhaustion, and vulnerability to repression?

Are you in touch with anyone who still has any doubts that Israel is carrying out genocide? Share this with them:

Deadly Double Standards

And here’s a surprisingly good (for the NYT) article documenting how Israeli settlers with support from the police, military, and far Right politicians gradually made harassment, killing, land theft, home demolition, and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in the West Bank a systematic, daily occurrence supported by the entirety of the Israeli state.

Is there anyone out there who is new to movements who think nonviolence makes sense, not just as a personal choice but as a movement strategy? Actually, it’s not really an open question anymore: nonviolence doesn’t work.

Historical movements like the fight for Civil Rights, against Apartheid in South Africa, against the US war in Vietnam, and environmental struggles were most effective where they used a diversity of methods. The resistance against the Nazis or against the invasion of European colonizers give us more open and shut cases: nonviolence doesn’t work.

And the largest, exclusively nonviolent protest movement in history, against the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, silences any lingering doubt: nonviolence doesn’t work.

Proponents of nonviolence don’t engage with these arguments. They falsify history, take money from governments and big non-profits, and keep repeating platitudes, trying to lead yet another movement astray. They’re either engaging from a place of bad faith or from extreme ignorance and privilege. They don’t deserve any more hearings.

Here are two of my contributions to the debate:

How Nonviolence Protects the State

The Failure of Nonviolence

(For folks who prefer audio and video over paper books, there are plenty versions of the book or presentations I’ve given on the topic, on Youtube and other places. I don’t have any to recommend since I can’t stand watching video of myself, listening to my voice, etc. but I’m sure you can find something in under a minute.)

Throwing Sex Workers Under the Bus Again

Democrats and certain progressives did an about face after Trump’s electoral victory and decided they had rocked the boat too much by supporting trans people’s right to exist. Since then, the Democratic Party has become more and more transphobic.

Another group that often gets thrown under the bus in one the Democrats never let on the bus in the first place, along with many progressives: sex workers. Institutional (pro-state) feminists have often made themselves indistinguishable from the Christian Right in leading the charge.

Here’s a great article by Raechel, analyzing these trends in the media-promoted bestseller, Girl on Girl by Sophie Gilbert.

I am engaging with Gilbert at all because I think this book is smart enough and important enough to hold accountable, and because this is such a common pattern in mainstream feminist criticism. I love thinking seriously about pop culture, but when criticism ends there—or when it extends only to electoral politics— it puts us back on another spin around the hamster wheel. The root cause of misogyny and gender-based violence is deeper and messier than any media censorship or election could solve. The good news is there are huge swaths of radical thinkers and activists who have been writing, organizing, struggling, messing up and trying again to address these issues beyond the same, stuck liberal frameworks. We don’t have easy answers—and we certainly don’t all agree on how to get there—but we’re making dents and fissures, and I wish, genuinely, that more liberal feminists would consider joining us.

a grrrl on "Girl on Girl"

Finally, here’s an interview with Red, a sex worker and educator who explains how the repression of sex workers, particularly on the internet, has progressed over the last couple decades.

Some of you will recognize the name from my Truthout article from last month, “Trump’s Censorship Campaign Draws on Decades of Infrastructure Built by Big Tech”. Unfortunately, I was only able to take a few quotes from Red in that piece. Here’s the whole thing!

1. Hi! Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m Red, I’m an organizer with The Support Ho(s)e Collective, splitting working and living time between Austin, TX and Chicago, IL. I’ve been in and around the sex trades (in various sectors) since 2008.

2. What's a basic timeline for censorship and repression against sex workers on the internet, some sites that sex workers largely had to leave (obviously losing a lot of effort and reach in the process), and how did that impact the ability of sex workers to have work conditions of autonomy and greater safety?

It depends on which “internet” we’re talking about. I really want people to know that online censorship and repression of sex work(er)s predates SESTA/FOSTA, and the subsequent frankenstein bill that was passed; Survivors Against SESTA reminds us that, “Both bills FOSTA (HR 1865 ) and SESTA (SB 1693) became one law on April 11th, 2018. What is popularly referred to as “SESTA/FOSTA” is actually named Public Law No: 115-164.”

The Backpage CEO’s home was raided in 2016, charges brought, offices and the founder's home raided in 2018, until seizure by the Justice Department occurred on April 9th 2018. The Rentboy CEO and six workers got rounded up before that in August of 2015. MyRedBook before that (gone in 2014), Craigslist Erotic/Adult Services before that (gone in 2010), and Usenet before that feeling the targeted repression as early as 2008…

There are always testing grounds; sites that get too popular and rise into the mainstream’s stigma-laden eyes, become test cases for “across the aisle” political collaborations, the proprietors are publicly are punished, censored, the workers suffer, pivot, find new channels, platforms we can shape into what we need, some of us die, some of us are caged…repeat, repeat.

The groundwork for SESTA/FOSTA passage, the introduction of EARN IT later and all of the garbage in between claiming to care about “women and girls” and “the children”, all has its roots (I think) in legislation like the Comstock Act (of 1873) and we’re just seeing new forms of the old policing stretch and flex their power to wrench more queer, trans, sex working, deviant, radical people into the criminal legal system(s).

The fear and uncertainty of the Backpage Raids, SESTA/FOSTA and EARN IT had a catastrophic impact on the sex working/trading sectors. Even before legislation was passed we lost people to suicide, or who disappeared (afraid to be seen or heard from). There were/are very real concerns about collective organizing in our communities because when we gather together we could be charged with brothel keeping, aiding and abetting human trafficking, third party exploitation among a host of other laws designed to isolate, intimidate and discourage sex workers from collaborating toward safer workplaces, staying alive, sharing harm reduction techniques and of course making money together. Those of us that could, rallied, hard, and those formations, collectives, and resources became the backbones of our current movement work toward decriminalization and destigmatization of the trades.

3. Did you feel support from feminists who weren't sex workers? From the Left, from anarchists? How did it all feel like?

Sex workers have always been at the forefront of social and liberation movements. However our movements toward decrim, harm reduction, unionization, and anti-stigma campaigns often go unsupported by the broader Left, so-called feminists, etc. There did feel like this blip, this wild moment in like 2017 - 2020 where progressive people at least paid lip service to sex workers causes… though typically when we were presented as either sexy and sex positive or beaten and dejected. It was during that time I saw some of the most mainstream and left publishing on sex work, sex workers, online repression, and the decrim movement. It felt like there was an opening, and we didn’t lose any time trying to get our art, whore politics, messaging out there. Some anarchists backed us up, some didn’t. Some organized Leftists backed us up, most didn’t. But it was the so-called feminists that brought the most hate, vitriol, and violence to us. They were willing to dox us, call cops on us, out us in community organizing meetings, raise money for law enforcement exit programs, engage with anti-trafficking non-profits that make their money off the rescue industry…it was staggering to see the lengths to which carceral feminists (TERFS and SWEFS) would go to harm us. It felt like a soul-killing.

4. Friends and acquaintances who are on that part of the internet generally say there's a lot of love, support, and community on SW social media, which obviously contrasts with most other realms of social media, like the rest of the online Left. Is that your experience too, and if so, why do you think that difference exists, and how did it show up in the face of repression and censorship?

There was some of that, earlier on. I felt love and community on Tumblr (until the TOS change) and (very early) Twitter, like from 2007 - 2015. But mostly I saw people doing the work of the cops or the oppressive state against each other, punching down and across, willfully misinterpreting each other, doxing each other, and doing some outright violent shit. Yes, there were corners that were worthwhile, briefly. But I also don’t mourn social media. I’m grateful when we can build things, or take space online or off, but I never take digital/online technology for granted. I’ve watched those in power wield it against the rest of us my whole life. For me, there’s no substitute for meeting your people, especially your clandestine or criminalized working community irl–that’s where the love, care, brave conflict, messy realness always lives.

Thanks Red!

Finally, the “What Fucking World Were You Living On??” award goes to Michael Guberman from the suburbs of Tel Aviv, who, after a retaliatory missile strike by Iran partially destroyed the apartment block he lives in, exclaimed: “I still can’t believe that this was real, that this happened!”

Mr. Guberman’s government has been bombing its neighbors with impunity for decades, and just in the last two years has murdered over 100,000 people and made over 2 million people homeless in Gaza, just a couple dozen miles from Guber’s demolished residence. Iran’s missile strike was in direct retaliation to a much larger barrage by Israel, which killed many more people than the 6 fatalities in Guberman’s apartment complex. I have no idea whether Mr. Guberman is complicit (most Israeli adults serve in the Israeli military and live on stolen land) or even supportive of Israel’s ongoing genocide. What is disgusting and astounding is his extreme sense of shock that a single chicken, of all the millions of lethal chickens Israel has sent out into the world, has come home to roost. It’s such a huge hypocrisy, a sense of entitlement, and a clear indication that Guberman doesn’t think of Israel’s victims as human. Personally, it reminds me of the moralistic shock of many Americans on September 11th, 2001, as though the attacks that day were somehow entirely unprovoked…

Just in case there are any big Iran fans out there, or fans of large scale explosive attacks against “the enemy” or fans of describing an entire country, ethnicity, or religious group as enemy, Iran’s missile barrage also killed several people in a Palestinian town, and Iran practices torture, execution, and mass imprisonment against internal political and religious enemies, as well as ethnic cleansing against Kurds.

Well, that’s enough for today. Keep talking, keep fighting, and take good care of each other.