Resistance Is A Lifetime

 

Resistance Is A Lifetime: The Resistance History of the United States (Part 2)

by C. A. Matthews

For an introduction to Tad Stoermer’s The Resistance History of the United States and a discussion of the first four principles of resistance, check out last week’s post The Patterns of Resistance. Here is a brief listing of the first four:

Principle 1: Beware False Prophets—Learn to Recognize False 
Resistance

Principle 2: More Weight—Refuse to Validate the Lies

Principle 3: My Enemy’s Enemy—Your Ally Doesn’t Have to Be 
Pure

Principle 4: Force the Fight, Even When You’re Losing

On to the remaining five!

Principle 5: Resistance Is a Lifetime, Not a Moment

You might not want to hear this but single dramatic acts of defiance are only the beginning of your fight. “Real resistance requires persistence to keep pursuing your goal and resilience to withstand the inevitable counterattacks without breaking.” (Stoermer, p. 332)

Resisters must build their capacity for sustained resistance so they can overcome numerous setbacks and adapt to new threats. In other words, a revolution is a lifetime commitment. It’s not for the faint hearted.

The oligarchs, our oppressors, know they can wait out our first hint of confrontation—a protest, strike, or walkout. They know from past experience that most can’t sustain defiance for very long. Resisters will fold withing days or weeks, not years. Life happens. The oligarchs’ strategy is to outlast the resisters and make simply surviving so tough that people will give up and go back to life as “normal.”

The oligarchs waiting us out works since most resisters don’t realize that persistence is necessary. We must keep our eyes on the goal, even when things seem impossible. Resilience is another trait that helps us recover from the inevitable blows. Resisters must adapt, recover, and build new support networks, to continue on with the unglamorous, mundane, grinding fight.

Nobody said it was going to be easy. You could lose it all—family, friends, home, job, your life. Are you willing to make such a commitment to the cause? “Your persistence—your refusal to quit no matter how long it takes—is what they [the oligarchs] can’t plan for, can’t budget for, can’t outlast.” (Stoermer, p. 335)

“This is the hardest of all the principles because it demands the most. A moment of courage you can summon when adrenaline runs high. A lifetime of resistance requires something deeper—an unshakable core that sustains you when no one is watching, when the world has moved on, when you’re exhausted and alone.” (Stoermer, p. 334)

 

To learn more about the historical figures behind the principles of resistance (and how all nine were used and can be used today), please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

There you'll be able to read the rest of this article, find related links, see more graphics, and leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and receive weekly email posts, along with occasional special articles just for paid subscribers, too.

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Power to the people!    

This article is the 586th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another eleven+ years. Thanks! 

Feel free to make a donation at Paypal or via Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Every little bit helps. Thank you.

Conscientious  Objectors: Call the G.I. Rights Hotline at 1-877-447-4487 or the Center for Conscience & War at 1-800-379-2679.         

Patterns of Resistance

Patterns of Resistance: The Resistance History of the United States (Part 1)

by C. A. Matthews

In last week’s article I promised to provide some patterns of resistance to defeat the patterns (or poetry) of chaos that our oligarch rulers practice. Did you start reading Tad Stoermer’s The Resistance History of the United States like I recommended? It’s okay if you didn’t. This article won’t ruin your read later by giving out too many “spoilers”. (You’ll still want to read the book.)

And don’t worry if you’re not American or have much knowledge of US history—many of the examples Stoermer uses to illustrate the different patterns of resistance aren’t commonly known by most Americans. It’s sort of the point of the book. The oligarchy, the billionaires who essentially rule us all, have been keeping these kinds of historical examples quiet since day one of the United States. They really don’t want Americans (or anyone else) to know how often and how well ordinary people have resisted their abusive, authoritarian power. So, even if you’re not a history buff, I know you’ll find the stories Stoermer tells very eye-opening and enlightening.

First a quick recap of last week’s post about the oligarchs’ pattern of control or“the poetry of chaos”. Things may appear chaotic in the world, but upon closer examination we can define predictable patterns of behavior by the oligarchs who cause the “chaos” that keeps us feeling overwhelmed and incapable of fighting back.

I summed up the oligarchs’ pattern in a three step process... (Read summary in the full article by clicking the link below.)

...Stoermer describes nine resistance patterns or principles in The Resistance History of the United States that We the People have used and can continue to use to take on the oligarchy. I’ll provide a short synopsis of each, but I encourage you to read the book to gain deeper understanding from the historical figures’ stories. It will make more sense to you to learn who it was that used a certain resistance principle, how they used it, and how effective it was in their resistance.

Stoermer tells us that these principles/patterns don’t have to be practiced in any particular order, and they don’t all have to be used all at once. Revolutionaries/resisters are free to pick and choose what works for them in their particular situation...

 

To learn all about the patterns of resistance (and how they were used in US history), please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

There you'll be able to read the rest of this article, find related links, see more graphics, and leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and receive weekly email posts, along with occasional special articles just for paid subscribers, too.

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Power to the people!    

This article is the 585th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another eleven+ years. Thanks! 

Feel free to make a donation at Paypal or via Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Every little bit helps. Thank you.

Conscientious  Objectors: Call the G.I. Rights Hotline at 1-877-447-4487 or the Center for Conscience & War at 1-800-379-2679.        

 

Pirates of the Capitalist Caribbean

by C. A. Matthews

Yo-ho-ho, me mateys! Come one, come all to this not-so-new movie sensation! It’s Pirates of the Capitalist Caribbean!

Starring Donnie Drip and Marco Ruin-It-All, with cameo performances by J.D. (Juvenile Delinquent) Vice, Pete Hogsbreath, Pam N. Bondage, and a special appearance by B.B. Satans-Yahoo.

In Pirates of the Capitalist Caribbean, you’ll find the story of a rich boy growing ever richer by pirating Venezuelan oil tankers daring to sail the seas along the Spanish Main while he simultaneously enacts a daring real estate grab in the Middle East with the help of a genocidal M.I.T. graduate.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry (mostly), but worse of all, you’ll kiss hundreds of billions of US tax payers’ dollars good-bye in a vain attempt to shore up the fading petrodollar by denying BRICS nations the ability to do business in their own currencies—all the while funding and arming one of the worst genocides of all time.

Pirates of the Capitalist Caribbean is an economic thrill-a-minute ride with a “will-he-or-won’t-he?” vibe as you witness the witless Donnie spill his frijoles by threatening to download his idea of “democracy” onto a socialist republic that is infinitely more democratic than his own...

 

To learn more about what we all can do to take on the profiteering pirates, read the rest of this post by copying or clicking on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special articles just for paid subscribers, too.

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Power to the people!  

This article is the 549th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten+ years. 

Please make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is my only source of income. Thank you. 

 

Hamas Ate My Hamster!!! (And Other Lame Lies)

by C.A. Matthews

I’ve had a rough week. I’m feeling very irritated about life, the universe and everything.

After I watched a video of a State Department spokeswoman blaming just about everything the US has done to further Israel’s cause of genocide against the Palestinian people on “Hamas,” I was livid. But then I read a great comment by Mark (@babasonicos) on Caitlin Johnstone’s article that summed up this spokeswoman’s programmed propaganda response beautifully: “Hamas ate my hamster!!!”

It’s the ultimate liar’s “The dog ate my homework!” type of excuse. This coming week I’m sure we’ll hear a version of “You sunk my battleship!” to explain why the US is committing war crimes by bombing Yemeni tribesmen during their celebration of Eid. Nothing new there. But after that belly laugh at the absurdity of the US State Department trying to cover for our total lack of morals and compassion, I knew what was really bothering me.

I’m tired of the bullshit.

I’m tired of being gaslighted.

I’m sick to death of the lame lies we the poor and oppressed are supposed to believe without questioning.

Here we have billionaires like the Elongated Muskrat showing their true colors to the world with their greedy, self-centered, and non-empathetic behaviors, but we can’t even get the simple truth out of a State Department spokesperson about why the US taxpayer is being forced to pay for a livestreamed genocide.

Come on! Give us a break! We all know the real reason behind this inhuman insanity...

 

To learn how to discern the lies from the insanity, please continue reading the rest of this article by copying or clicking on this Substack link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special articles just for paid subscribers, too.

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Power to the people!

 

 

This article is the 514th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

You can make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or at Buy Me a Coffee or at Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is my only source of income. Thank you.

Money Can’t Buy Me…?

 

Money Can’t Buy Me…?

by C.A. Matthews

I'll give you all I've got to give
If you say you love me too
I may not have a lot to give
But what I've got I'll give to you
I don't care too much for money
Money can't buy me love –Paul McCartney & John Lennon

The Beatles are more than the greatest pop group in history. They are the proletariat’s philosophers. Their catchy song lyrics often express deep truths that aren’t easily ignored. Their 1964 hit Can’t Buy Me Love is still a favorite of many.

Wonder why? Could it be because it’s true? Sure, money can buy all the accouterments of love, but it can’t buy the real deal. One has to earn another person’s love and respect or else… It’s not really love, now is it?

The same could be said for buying votes.

Kamala Harris spent upwards of $1 billion dollars on her ill-fated “Joy” campaign. She still owes some $20 million to her campaign workers and some of the celebrities she bribed to endorse her. Beyonce’s asking price was $10 million—and that didn’t even include her giving a concert, which was a huge disappointment to the many fans who came to a Harris event just to see Beyonce perform. Oprah Winfrey’s production company had an asking price of a cool $1 million. That’s a lot of incentive to “love” a candidate, isn’t it?

Did giving tons of money to these celebrities truly earn their love and respect for Harris? The Beatles had it right, don’t you think?

So, what did Harris get for her record-breaking spending spree on the campaign trail? Well, it didn’t get her the White House...

 

To learn more about what money can't buy you, continue reading the rest of this article by clicking on this Substack link: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com There you'll also see related article and video links, all the images, and be able to leave comments. You can subscribe to receive the weekly blog post in your email box as well. 

Subscribe today! Power to the people!

The Long Flight of Jim Crow

This week marked the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall Riot.  Featured this week are photos of area activists coming together to use their platform to promote the BLM movement, especially Black LGBTQ and Trans lives.  And keeping with remembering our not-so-shining history, our resident historian takes a look at the long history of racial discrimination in America. Is there an end to it in sight?

The Long Flight of Jim Crow 

by Coast Watcher
photos by C.A. Matthews

Even the name Jim Crow is racist. The original Jim Crow was a black minstrel character found on the Victorian vaudeville circuit, but the term defines the collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial discrimination in the United States.

The history: 19th century

Beginning from 1865—immediately following the Civil War—these laws crept into the statute books as white legislators and their rich white sponsors sought to circumvent the Thirteenth Amendment. By enacting Jim Crow laws they aimed to marginalize black and colored people by denying them the right to vote, hold good jobs, live in decent housing, find an education or do anything else a pre-emancipation slave couldn’t do. Those who fought against the blatant discrimination often faced arrest, fines, jail sentences and death at the hands of lynch mobs.

By means of Black Codes, formerly enslaved people were restricted in how, where and when they could work, and for how much compensation. By creative use of legislature whites forced black and colored people into indentured servitude and even seized children for labor purposes.

For decades after the Civil War, former Confederate soldiers working as civic authorities, police officers and judges ensured the black population of the South would never rise above their former slave status. It became nearly impossible for legal representatives working on behalf of black people to win a court case with such opposition stacked against them.

The Jim Crow laws were designed to work in conjunction with labor camps where prisoners were treated like slaves. Black and colored offenders received longer sentences than their white counterparts. Because of the conditions in which these incarcerated individuals had to live and the appallingly hard work, they often didn’t live out their entire sentence.

About the only bright spots in the whole horrible saga were to be found in the big cities of the South. Greater populations tend to lead to greater freedoms under law. By the 1880s this had led to substantial numbers of black citizens moving to the cities where they would face less oppression. Unfortunately this migration led to a commensurate decrease in the very freedoms that had attracted them. White city dwellers began to feel threatened by the increasing black population of their communities and demanded the enactment of Jim Crow laws to restrict and control African Americans.

This rise in support for their racist measures enabled the white legislators to expand the Jim Crow laws throughout the South and to increase their harshness. Segregation became the way of life, with public transport waiting rooms, restrooms, water fountains, elevators, cemeteries and even amusement-park cashier windows being designated Black and Colored Only. It didn’t end there. Neighborhoods became African American only. Public swimming pools, hospitals, asylums, jails and residential homes also fell under this racist legislation. It was common for towns to set up signs banning African Americans the right of residence or even passage through the township limits.

In the field of education, the old edicts banning the teaching of black people to read and write resurfaced in a new, more oppressive form. Some states required separate textbooks for black and white students. New Orleans regulated prostitutes according to race. In the courtrooms of Atlanta, Georgia, African Americans were even given a separate Bible to whites upon which to place their hand upon and swear. Marriage and even cohabitation between races was outlawed.

This is not to say there wasn’t firm push-back against these increasingly harsh restrictions as we'll soon see.

The 20th Century
 
As the twentieth century progressed the oppression of African Americans began to be marked by increasing violence. Lynching incidents rose significantly in number and frequency. As they rose, so too did race riots. As the lethal Spanish Flu pandemic began to subside in 1919, twenty-five such riots occurred across the country. The scale of these uprisings led to the period earning the name the "Red Summer." One of the last incidents of that summer was not a race riot yet proved the deadliest of them all. Some two hundred African Americans died in and around the city of Elaine, Arkansas, following an all-out assault by armed white men afraid of a Communist insurrection by black workers. The final death toll is uncertain, as witnesses spoke of seeing black people taken by whites—including US army troops—off to undisclosed locations never to be seen again.

The 1920s saw a significant migration of educated black people into the North, which had its own Jim Crow-style laws. Some states required black citizens to own property before they could vote. Segregation had even infected the cities with black only neighborhoods and schools. The pervasive influence of segregation extended nationwide with the popular "Green Book" travel guides having a separate African Americans only issue listing places where they could stay, visit or find entertainment.

The Great Depression marked yet another upswing in lynchings. World War II created a kind of intermission because everyone was needed for the war effort, yet black veterans returning from the war were still met with discrimination and violence. Suburban developments both North and South were built with segregation in mind. Blacks found it difficult to impossible to find mortgages in some locations. The city of St. Louis, Missouri, was not alone in having an entire real estate industry dedicated to keeping black and white property owners in separate neighborhoods.

Jim Crow crashes and burns...

Inevitably the pendulum of history began to swing back the other way. In 1948 President Harry S. Truman ordered the integration of the US military. Before this date African American troops mostly saw service in labor battalions or as transport drivers. Increasing awareness of civil rights in the African American population led to increased focus on the right of blacks to vote. The Jim Crow laws began to erode, starting with the famous 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education, a landmark Supreme Court ruling for desegregation of schools across the country. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 which legally ended the segregation brought about by Jim Crow laws. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 stopped efforts to prevent minorities from voting, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 ended discrimination in the property market.

The 21st Century—Has anything truly changed?

Not much. If anything the rise of white supremacists under the Trump presidency has made matters worse. Police forces across the country are guilty of killing African Americans with little to zero provocation. Black Americans account for around 13% of the US population yet the percentage of those shot and killed is twice as high as that of white Americans. Black Lives Matter protests are frequently harassed by armed gangs of white supremacists, and sometimes with the full cooperation of the local police departments. Lynchings are back, with a number of black men killed recently in California and the Carolinas. Incarceration of African American citizens is at an all-time high as unscrupulous capitalists take advantage of the involuntary servitude clause of the Thirteenth Amendment to exploit their free labor in prison sweatshops.

In 2012 Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer. In August 2014 the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, led to days of rioting. This year the death on camera of George Floyd ignited protests worldwide. In Louisville, Kentucky, Breonna Taylor was shot dead by cops while asleep in her own home. Louisville business owner David McAtee was shot dead by officers from that same police department during a protest over Breonna Taylor’s death. Many others have died at the hands of the police before and since simply for the crime of not being white.

Perhaps things are finally changing as the momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement grows. Perhaps white liberals are getting involved because it’s "fashionable." In any case, the country is now addressing the blatant discrimination against those who happen to have a darker skin color. Statues of well known racists are toppling across the world. 

With Trump’s popularity declining—poll numbers show his support dwindling daily even in his heartland states—it looks like the GOP may lose control of the White House and Senate come November. However, I very much doubt Joe Biden will be much better as president in protecting the civil liberties of persons of color. This is the man who helped to create the Patriot Act and supported segregation in Delaware when he served as their senator, after all. Regardless of the duopolist political party sitting in the White House, the BLM movement has gathered such a pace that it appears nothing can stop it. It's high time to bury all the legislation of Jim Crow and his bastard children, too.

BIO: Coast Watcher studies history and hates to see it repeat itself over and over again in violent and oppressive cycles. Now is the time for us to fight free from this destructive pattern. Black Lives Matter!

Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/elaine-arkansas-riot-1919/

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/the-purpose-of-a-house

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2020/05/28/police-shootings-black-americans-disproportionately-affected-infographic/#6ede37659f7c

Related Articles:

Finally Healing the Wounds of Jim Crow
https://www.fathommag.com/stories/finally-healing-the-wounds-of-jim-crow

Black Lives Matter Want To End Police Brutality. History Suggests It Will Go Much Further
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/63696-black-lives-matter-wants-to-end-police-brutality-history-suggests-it-will-go-much-further

Trump Made Racist Joke in a Phoenix Megachurch and the Crowd Went Wild
https://theintercept.com/2020/06/24/trump-made-racist-joke-phoenix-megachurch-crowd-went-wild/

3 North Carolina Police Officers Fired Over Racist Remarks

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article243779512.html

Colorado Governor Appoints Special Prosecutor to Reopen Probe of Young Black Man Killed in Police Custody

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/63690-colorado-governor-appoints-special-prosecutor-to-reopen-probe-of-elijah-mcclain-a-young-black-man-killed-in-police-custody

***

This introverted 23-year-old was just walking home when he was murdered for being Black. Charge these killer cops, now!

Sign Now

"I'm an introvert. I'm just different. That's all. I'm so sorry. I have no gun. I don't do that stuff... You all are phenomenal. You are beautiful. And I love you. Try to forgive me. I am a mood Gemini. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Ow, that really hurt. You all are very strong." Those are the final words of young Elijah McClain, a Black massage therapist who loved to play the violin for lonely shelter cats to calm them down. After going out to buy his brother an iced tea, he was walking home and listening to music when someone called the police to report "suspicious behavior" because they couldn't see his face. Elijah had anemia, so he often felt cold and wore many layers and a mask to stay warm. When three police officers arrived, they didn't even wait for him to take his headphones out of his ears before they pounced, locking him in a chokehold. As he sobbed and repeatedly vomited, authorities injected the 23-year-old with twice the amount of ketamine needed to subdue someone as small as him. He suffered two heart attacks, and by the time he arrived at a nearby hospital, he was brain dead. Police clearly don't want us to know about this. They claim that all three of their body cameras mysterious fell off, but audio recorded at the scene captured one officer telling another, "move your [body] camera, dude." To this day, not one of these cops have been fired or charged with murder. All three are still out patrolling the streets of Aurora, Colorado, even though they have blood on their hands. Sign the petition to demand justice for Elijah! Thank you for all that you do, Miranda B. The Care2 Petitions Team P.S. Police from killed him just for wearing a mask while Black, even as he forgave and praised them. Demand that these sadistic murderers finally face real justice now!

***

From UltraViolet:

Imagine a world where the website that's home to some of the "most violently racist content" on the Internet bans hate speech.¹

It may sound unbelievable, but together we can make it happen. Reddit has long harbored white nationalists, extreme misogynists, the alt-right, and other hate groups. But in this moment of reckoning on systemic racism and hate, millions of Reddit users, tech leaders, and UltraViolet members have come together to say it's time for Reddit to be on the right side of history. Right now, the COO of Reddit is speaking on a virtual panel about the importance of community. If Reddit truly wants to build community, it must ban hate speech against protected groups, ban hateful users and moderators, hire more women and people of color, and hire paid community managers.

Can you take a moment to send a tweet to tell Reddit that if it wants to build community, it must ban hate speech?

Send a tweet now: Reddit must ban racism and hate speech--and hire more women and people of color.

Share on Twitter ►

Reddit has shown that it will listen to complaints about hateful pages on its site, and together we can push Reddit to act now. Reddit even shut down one so-called men's rights group for inciting violence against women after a petition and negative publicity. By showing public support for the demands of Reddit community members, we can force Reddit to take action and stop the spread of white male supremacy online.

As long as Reddit continues to allow racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic groups to have a home on its website, it is complicit in promoting violence and hate.

Send a tweet to demand that Reddit ban racism, sexism, and other hate speech on its platform.

Thanks for speaking out!
--Shaunna, Kat, Kathy, Anathea, Sonja, Melody, Lindsay, Pam, Maria, Kimberly, Katie, and Elisa, the UltraViolet team
Source:
1. Reddit Is Finally Facing Its Legacy of Racism, The Atlantic, June 12, 2020