There is much ongoing discussion about steps needed to turn the enormous one day action of the global Women’s March in to a sustained movement to achieve better outcomes for the vast majority of Americans. 1 To focus on just one strategic element, the movement needs to move beyond identity politics to embrace class warfare. The rich and corporations have carried out a sustained and successful class war for more than 40 years. They control the government and the economy. Donald Trump is just a symptom of the underlying issues. We need to break this hammerlock and shift the rules of politics and the economy back towards us, the 90% who are living off the remainders, the scraps from their feast.
This is not to suggest that equality in race, sex, ethnicity, religion and the other identities are not crucial elements of the program. But, without addressing the control by the rich and corporations over politics and the economy, there will just be empty holding actions on the identity equality front. We need to use our political, social and economic resources to achieve different ends. Equality of access to an empty dinner table is a sham.
The only national group that has and continues to take on this control by the rich and corporations is Bernie Sanders’ organization. Perhaps coalitions can be built to lead to a take over of the Democratic Party. That party is still completely in the thrall of big money and cannot be a vehicle for useful changes in the direction and outcomes of our society.
Footnotes
- The energy of this action is illustrated locally by the fact that over a 1,000 people marched in Hudson NY, a town of 7,000 in a county of 68,000. Video here of this event
