posT-elecTion special issue The IndypendenT #219: deCeMBeR 2016 • IndypendenT.ORG IMMIGRAnTS FIGhT BACK, p6 CAn The deMOCRATS Be SAVed?, p12 hOW TO TALK TO yOUR KIdS ABOUT TRUMp, p16 And MORe... maePoe.Com 2 EDITOR’S NOTE

THE INDYPENDENT

THE INDYPENDENT, INC. LOVE & STRUGGLE 388 Atlantic Avenue, 2nd Floor Brooklyn, NY 11217 212-904-1282 www.indypendent.org e are facing the fi ght of our lives. It’s that fronts at the same time. Liberal opposition will likely Twitter: @TheIndypendent simple. be weak and inconsistent. We are going to lose a lot. facebook.com/TheIndypendent W Not that you would know it from listen- There will be people and places we love who will be ing to leading liberal politicians, media mavens and hurt and we won’t always be able to protect them, BOARD OF DIRECTORS: even labor leaders since Donald Trump won the elec- which will sting even more. Social movements will Ellen Davidson, Anna Gold, toral college and the presidency on Nov. 8. also fi ght back fi ercely and win victories that would Alina Mogilyanskaya, “If you succeed, the country succeeds,” President not seem possible. Ann Schneider, John Tarleton Obama told Trump when they chatted in front of re- One thing I learned from the Bush era is that we porters during his successor’s November 10 visit to will have to pace ourselves for the long haul to avoid the White House. In her concession speech Hillary demoralization and burnout. If there has been a sav- EDITOR: Clinton urged Americans to “keep an open mind,” ing grace since November 8, it is that these terrible John Tarleton about what Trump could accomplish as the 45th events have driven us toward each other in our fear president of the United States, even as his embold- and our vulnerability. In the face of great evil, we ASSOCIATE EDITOR: ened supporters engaged in a wave of bias attacks value all the more that which cannot be taken away Peter Rugh across the country. — love, friendship, our compassion for others. What to expect from Trump was made more abun- In my own life, I fi nd myself not only cherish- CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: dantly clear on Nov. 13 when he appointed white ing friends and family more keenly but feeling an Ellen Davidson, supremacist media mogul Stephen Bannon (See Page acute appreciation for any and all signs of kindness Alina Mogilyanskaya, 7) to be a top advisor in his administration. Bannon and human decency. The mess we’re in can only be Nicholas Powers, Steven Wishnia heads Breitbart News, an infl uential far right website solved through politics and collective action. But the that offers its readers a steady diet of racist tropes strength we will need to persevere may come from ILLUSTRATION DIRECTOR: and wild conspiracy theories. Neo-Nazi groups and quieter moments between the storms. Frank Reynoso the Ku Klux Klan marveled at how they had suddenly gone from the fringes of politics to having one of their DESIGN DIRECTOR: own literally steps away from the Oval Offi ce. HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP This is not normal. Mikael Tarkela The past 60 years has seen a vast expansion in The Indy’s ability to be a powerful voice going for- the civil rights of members of historically marginal- ward is growing. Thanks to foundation support, DESIGNERS: ized groups in our society, i.e. every one who is not we began placing outdoor news boxes around the Steven Arnerich, Anna Gold a straight white male. Cultural norms about what city earlier this fall for the fi rst time. This will al- is acceptable behavior have also changed. Now that low us to double our circulation for starters and SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER: progress is going into reverse. reach audiences who would not have otherwise dis- Elia Gran Yet the normalizing of Trump continues. This isn’t covered The Indy. about the personal failings of establishment liberals. To continue expanding we will need the help of INTERN: The problem is they are fully encrusted inside a power supporters who are willing to keep an eye on boxed Eliza Relman structure that rewards them handsomely. They may placed in their neighborhoods. We also are looking revile Trump but in the end they are more concerned to get the paper into more venues and distribute it at GENERAL INQUIRIES: about the legitimacy and stability of the system of more events and subway stations. It takes a village to [email protected] which the presidency is a key part than about the move a newspaper. To fi nd out more, email us at con- people who will be targeted by Trump. [email protected] or call 212-904-1282. SUBMISSIONS AND NEWS TIPS: In this environment, the Left’s role is to put the [email protected] safety and well-being of people fi rst and resist all the — John Tarleton ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION: ugly manifestations of incipient fascism at every turn [email protected] until it is defeated. Here at The Indypendent, we will accompany social justice movements every step of VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTORS: the way in this struggle and continue striving to give Sam Alcoff, Linda Martín voice to those most affected. It was what this publi- Alcoff, Bennett Baumer, Devika cation was created to do. Bilimoria, Duane Bruton, José We won’t know how bad it’s going to be until Trump and his minions take power in January. We Carmona, Shawn Carrié, Hye Jin can expect them to go on the offensive on many Chung, Annette Elizabeth, Renée Feltz, Ersellia Ferron, Daniel Fishel, Bianca Fortis, Lynne Foster, Robert Gonyo, Michael Grant, Michael Hirsch, David Hollenbach, Rebeca Ibarra, Dondi J, Mamoudou Keita, Margarita SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Kruchinskaya, Rob LaQuinta, Beatrix Lockwood, Gary GET EVERY ISSUE OF THE INDYPENDENT DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME. 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THE INDYPENDENT Amy Wolf. 3 STAGES OF GRIEF

THE MOURNING AFTER WAKING UP IN TRUMP’S AMERICA

By Nicholas Powers doesn’t exist anymore. Time is on our side. We’re strong. We got this.” I thanked her and hung up, soon she texted clips of Black Panthers

he blue morning painted my bedroom into a dark ocean. holding up their fi sts. Moving the phone in front of the window, they PETER RUGH I was at the bottom of it. Sunken by fears that moved looked like giant, Black historical fi gures, straddling the white sub- through shadows like cold currents. Drawing breath was urbs and raising their fi sts over them, again and again. work. Lifting my head was hard labor. I reached for my phone, typed in “NY Times.” TThe previous night, I met friends at a bar in Bushwick to watch FEAR 101 Hillary Clinton win the presidency. But state after state went red for Trump. I left before the fi nal votes were counted, hoping to wake up “My president is Black,” Young Jeezy rapped from the speakers as we and see her shimmy a victory dance on the news. sat on the shuttle bus, students and professors traded looks and smiled Then I read the Times’ headline, “Trump Triumphs.” Sitting up, I as if to say, “What the hell?” Jeezy recorded it after Obama’s 2008 shook my head as if throwing out the words. Something broke. Inside win. Our new president, Trump, was not black and defi nitely not get- me. Like bone snapping. Like a photo of home being torn. ting rap songs showing him love. “I can’t believe they did it,” I muttered, “I can’t.” “They playing this to keep our spirits up,” a young woman said to ev- In the shower, I stared at water swirling into the drain. I got dressed, eryone. “Them DJ’s at Hot 97 are funny. They know what we’re feeling.” left for work beneath a grey, cloud fi lled sky. All around me I saw I nodded and saw a dreamy, far-away glaze on people’s faces as if strained faces. Construction men sullenly strapped on tool belts. Par- they were transported back in time to the euphoria of Obama’s elec- ents somberly took kids to school. People lined up sadly for the bus. tion. As the song fi nished, a troubled wind passed through their eyes Something died in us. Some hope that America could accept our hu- and one by one, they blinked and were again in the present. manity. Where that hope had been was now an emptiness. It echoed We rolled up to the college and I went to New Academic Building. so loudly that I leaned on a streetlight and screamed inside myself: Oh I loved it here. The halls were a little United Nations where Muslim God. Oh God. Oh God. women in hijab laughed with Caribbean guys who then shouted to Rubbing my face, I blinked, the world was still here. Trump was still Long Island white jocks about a party who in turn invited a Domini-

president. The man had called us rapists, terrorists, he said our neigh- can woman with dyed green hair who slung her arm around her girl- ERIK MCGREGOR borhoods were warzones and we were losers. Now he was putting his friend and said sure, we’ll come through. It was fun. It was New York STREAM OF hands on the power of the state and soon would hurl it at us. kids becoming New York adults. CONSCIOUSNESS: New I knew that under his administration, some of us will be arrested. Today the halls were quiet. Professors huddled at doorways, talking Yorkers react to the election Some of us, deported. Some of us fi red. Some of us killed. I felt my low, rubbing words over each other like packs of ice on a bruise. When results on the walls of the friends within me. Already terrifi ed. Political homies who’d be sur- I got to my class, the students were sitting in the dark, staring at their subway station at 14th St. and veilled and beaten at protests. Students who were immigrants. Neigh- hands. When I asked what was going on, a young man raised his face 6th Ave. bors who’d go back to jail. and said, “It feels like someone died.” My phone buzzed, I took it and saw a row of text messages: I asked them to tell me, to lay it all down. One by one, they spoke OMG! — I’m scared of this world — My heart is broken — HATE of fear and shock. One of the women said white people were walking NOT MY PRESIDENT: THIS COUNTRY! I stood there with a phone that buzzed with a with their chest out. Full of pride. In the back, a disabled man who Anti-Trump protesters march new text every second as if I’d taken out my heart and held it as it always dressed like he was going to a club. “I was at the station and through Midtown on the night pulsed with fear. a car of white guys sped by,” he said, face scrunched in post-shock after the election results were It took work to stand up. It took work to breathe and walk to the confusion. “They yelled get out of here nigger!” made known. train. Everything was work now. Others said they felt trapped by the way others looked at them; like they were surrounded by a million little Trumps. “Somehow,” said a student fl ipping through her book nervously, “the wall he wanted LEARNING FROM HISTORY to build was built overnight. It’s in every city and street. It’s in my

“We survived slavery,” she said, “We got this.” “MAYBE THE WALL WAS ALWAYS THERE BUT “Slavery,” I listened to Jamara on the 2016 December phone and looked from the train window at the Long Island suburbs. Trump won Long WE CHOSE NOT TO SEE IT.” Island. Nearly every American city, like New York was liberal blue, surrounded by conservative red suburbs family. I can’t talk to them. I get angry just thinking about it.” She and countryside, packed with whites who threw our nation into the looked at everyone. “Maybe the wall was always there but we chose small hands of a reality TV star. not to see it.” INDYPENDENT THE I scanned the white faces on the train. You in the business suit? Or you in the hard hat and paint splattered boots? Did you vote for Trump? Continued on page 15 “We did survive slavery,” I said to her in a high squeaky voice, “Al- though that is a low bar.” “We have a long history of overcoming,” she spoke in warm, reas- suring tones. “Conservatives are trying to hold on to an America that 4 neoliBeRalism

hOW We WOUnd Up In ThIS MeSS

By Danny Katch to understand how we got to this point. One of the key stories of 2016 is that the Republican

Hillary Clinton was both a target of unwarranted Party was too weak to prevent Trump’s right-wing popu- david haLLenbaCh week before Hillary Clinton lost Pennsyl- sexism and a terrible candidate. Even leaving aside her lism from taking over, while the Democrats closed ranks vania, a major strike began in Philadelphia. center-right record as a senator and Secretary of State, to protect U.S. capital from party voters — referred to as Members of Transport Workers Union this is someone with horrible political judgment. She the “Red Army” in leaked emails. Once Sanders was de- (TWU) Local 234 walked off the job to spent the years leading up to her presidential run rak- feated (and largely disappeared inside the smothering em- fi ght pension caps, massive health care cost ing in cash from private speeches to bankers in an era of brace of the Clinton campaign), the door was wide open increasesA and weak safety provisions that allowed bus white-hot rage at Wall Street. That the Democratic Party for Trump to pitch himself as the voice of revolt against a and train workers to be forced to work with as little as felt so confi dent ordinary people would agree it’s “her Wall Street status quo well-represented by Clinton. nine hours between shifts. turn” is an example of the party’s profound arrogance In the immediate wake of Trump’s victory, fi rst Back when she was fending off a left-wing primary and disconnect from the American people. The political thoughts will be defensive: preventing deportations, pro- challenge from Bernie Sanders, Clinton made sure to visit establishment of both parties have now been defeated by tecting against hate crimes, protesting the inauguration a picket line of striking Verizon workers in New York Trump. of the Rapist-in-Chief. But beating Trump and Trump- City. But now that Sanders was long defeated, she had Barack Obama may be seen as a saint in the coming ism over the long haul will require playing offense. The a different strategy, one that was articulated by former months in comparison to his successor, but history may Sanders campaign showed that tens of millions of people Pennsylvania governor and DNC chair Ed Rendell, who one day see his presidency as the fi nal straw in the dis- — including white working class men — will rally behind told the Washington Post, “Will [Donald Trump] have crediting of the postwar two-party system — precisely a socialist calling for wealth redistribution and speaking some appeal to working-class Dems in Levittown or Bris- because, after decades of rising inequality and declining out against the politics of scapegoating. How to rebuild tol? Sure. For every one he’ll lose one and a half [to] two faith in political institutions, he inspired people to have that momentum and connect it with protest movements Republican women.” faith in it one last time. Instead, he delivered more of the like Black Lives Matter and the pipeline war at Stand- As a result, even as her campaign furiously worked to same: bank bailouts, worker sellouts, and an economy so ing Rock will be key questions, as will the debate over turn out the Pennsylvania vote, Clinton ignored a strike precarious that almost half of the people in the richest whether our efforts should focus inside a Democratic on the part of a largely African American workforce in a country in the world live on the edge of fi nancial crisis, Party whose leadership cursed Sanders and enabled city that is a main Democratic stronghold in a key “bat- unable to handle a one-time, $400 emergency expense. Trump. But if there’s one overriding lesson to be learned tleground” state. You may have heard how that turned The breathless reports of job growth and economic from this endless campaign, it’s that the left can’t beat the out. progress regularly touted by liberal pundits, have little right by retreating to the center. Trump’s shocking victory is being widely described as bearing on the lives of most Americans, whose household an upsurge of a disaffected white working class driven by income is lower today than it was in 2007, even as the Danny Katch is the author of Socialism...Seriously: A racial resentment, but the numbers tell a more compli- costs of rent, child care, college and yes health care con- Brief Guide to Human Liberation (Haymarket Books, cated story. The Republican vote was slightly less in 2016 tinue to climb. Obama remains personally popular, but 2015). than 2012 and 2008, while the Democrat vote fell off a the failures of his administration have left a wreckage of cliff — down four million and ten million respectively dashed hopes and bitter cynicism, creating a climate in from Obama’s totals four and eight years ago. Clinton which a con artist and pathological liar can strike tens of lost the vital states Michigan and Wisconsin because millions of people as the only guy telling it like it is. Democratic turnout dropped dramatically in majority But this election isn’t just an American story. The years non-white cities Detroit and Milwaukee — and because since the global Great Recession have seen economic smaller cities that had twice supported Obama this time crises morph into political crises across the world. Frus- went with Trump. tration with political systems that have overseen endless None of which is to say that racism is not a key element austerity has led to a turn towards authoritarianism in of this election. Trump channeled anger and anxiety over the Philippines, Turkey and Russia. Across Europe long- the injustices of 21st century American capitalism into standing parties of the moderate right and left have been the most open embrace of white nationalism of any pres- discredited; challenged by parties of the xenophobic far ident since the civil rights movement. The victory of a right, such as France’s National Front and the Freedom man who fl irts on Twitter with the nouvelle Nazis of the Party in Austria, and the radical left, such as Greece’s alt-right has already emboldened a wave of stories of ha- SYRIZA and Spain’s Podemos. rassment and threats against people of color in “red” and This polarization hasn’t hit the United States in the “blue” states alike. Equally frightening is the confi dence form of major new parties. Instead it has been shoe- that rapists will take from the fact that the country just horned into our rigid political system, creating crises December 2016

voted a sexual predator into a position long-promoted as inside what radicals have sometimes described not as that of national father fi gure. two distinct parties but two wings of the capitalist party. The tens of thousands who have already taken to the While Trump was taking the Republican primaries by streets against Trump and the growing talk of large-scale storm, Bernie Sanders was drawing huge crowds — and protests at his inauguration show that many people want votes — for what he unashamedly called socialism (even to take action against his reactionary agenda. But for if a few generations ago it would have been called New

The IndypendenT those actions to be guided by effective strategies, we need Deal liberalism). Indypendent Ad 5x7 06-23-15.pdf 1 6/23/15 1:56 PM 5 auTHoRiTaRianism BROADCAST ON MORE THAN 1,300 PUBLIC TV AND RADIO STATIONS WORLDWIDE A Daily Independent Global News Hour MOBILIZInG with Amy Goodman ReSenTMenT and Juan González TRUMp’S pATh TO pOWeR

By Chip Berlet

he Trump campaign was a study in populist insurgency. Specifi cally, a right-wing populist insurgency that focused on mobilizing white nationalism, anti-feminist misogyny, xenophobia, Christian nation- alism, and conspiracy theories about the threat of treacherous liber- als and totalitarian “big government.” TTrump supporters make up the classic right-wing populist constituency, the same kind of people who populated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and who voted for Hitler in the late Weimar period in 1930s Germany. Many of the Trump voters are objectively downwardly mobile, or fear they will soon be pushed down DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG the economic ladder. White people — especially white men — also fear the loss of Tune In Live Every Weekday 8-9am ET their power, status and prestige in political, social and cultural sectors. They feel displaced by unworthy others. Trump supporters inhabit information silos, trusting only information from • Audio, Video, Transcripts, Podcasts sources they deem reliable, such as Fox News, Breitbart.com and bloggers like • Los titulares de Hoy (headlines in Spanish) Michelle Malkin. Armed with the supposed truth, they then begin publicly ar- ticulating their grievances — fi rst to family and friends and then on AM radio • Find your local broadcast station and schedule call-in talk shows or social media. In such settings, they can be mobilized to air their grievances through attending a rally or meeting, where movement orga- • Subscribe to the Daily News Digest nizers draw them into participating in rightwing social and political movement activities on a regular basis. Follow Us @ DEMOCRACYNOW Right-wing populist movements rarely succeed, and even when they do, they rarely lead to fascist state power. But once a right-wing populist movement gets going, there are victims. Some of Trump’s supporters will feel the need to re- press, suppress and oppress the bad people; defi ned as women, people of color, “Danny Katch has done immigrants, religious minorities. The danger is not only individual acts of vio- the impossible: he lence — although those will undoubtedly come — but also makes socialism sexy. a longterm political mobili- once tHiS Kind Socialism. . . . Seriously is zation. It is a trajectory that eye-opening, inspiring, social scientists have written and funny. Warning to about for decades. The late oF MoVeMent Jean Hardisty, a political sci- all Democrats, Repub- entist, termed this process getS going, licans, and libertari- “mobilizing resentment.” ans: this book might The John Birch Society, tHere are turn you into a closet founded in Massachusetts, started spreading right-wing socialist.” conspiracy theories in 1959. VictiMS. —Judah Friedlander, Subsequent studies revealed World Champion that Birchers— often dismissed as crazy or stupid by Democratic Party strategists — had, on average, a higher income level and educational attainment than most Americans. By 1964, the Birchers had joined with Christian Right activists and “The most hilarious anti-communists to promote Republican Senator Barry Goldwater, Jr. for Presi- book about socialism dent. Goldwater lost big time, but the Right’s Republican strategists learned they since Karl Marx and his needed to energize a mass base of voters to capture the White House. brother Harpo wrote The Republican Party harnessed right-wing social movement activism to the GOP bandwagon, targeting movements fi ghting integration, abortion, big gov- their joke book.” ernment, and creeping communism among liberal elites. The result was a “New —Hari Kondabolu Right” coalition of Christian evangelicals, economic libertarians, and militarists who put Ronald Reagan in the White House in the 1980 election. “I’ve been waiting for As Republicans were successfully hitching themselves to right-wing social movements in the 1970s, the Democratic Party was doing the reverse, shunning someone to write this the social movements of the left. Democratic Party elites were horrifi ed by the book—a lighthearted, 1972 presidential campaign of Sen. George McGovern (D-S.D.), who brought easy read that packs an as delegates to the Miami convention a signifi cant number of grassroots activists intro course on social- 2016 December from the civil rights, antiwar, student rights, women’s rights, environmentalist and gay rights movements. ism into a short volume. An elite faction of the Democratic Party intentionally sank the McGovern cam- With jokes anthem paign. They then rewrote party rules to favor bigwigs and Inside-the-Beltway- made me laugh out types who they called, with no sense of shame or irony, “superdelegates.” The

loud, and a lot of heart. IndypendenT The Democratic Party quickly accommodated the demands of the corporate elites for austerity and government cutbacks — joining the Republicans as champions of Socialism is for lovers. neoliberal capital. indeed.” All of which leads us to 2016. Clinton sought to cloak herself in a progressive —Sarah Jaffe, host, mantle that she and husband Bill betrayed decades ago. Meanwhile, candidate Dissent Magazine's “Belabored” podcast Continued on page 15 6 ResisTance

nyC IMMIGRAnTS VOW TO FIGhT depORTATIOnS

HeRe To sTay: Several thou- By Astha Rajvanshi States increased the number of border patrol sand immigrant new yorkers rally at agents, heightened border surveillance, and de- Columbus Circle on november 13.

mid a packed crowd of protesters at a #HereToStay rally on Sunday, ported more than 2.5 million people — more than maePoe.Com Nov. 13 in Columbus Circle, 22-year-old Juan stood outside the en- under any other president. But the administration also made reforms. It granted trance to Central Park holding a sign that read, “I’m a dishwasher, protection to undocumented immigrants under its programs deferring action not a rapist.” against those who had arrived here as children or were parents of American citi- Juan arrived in the United States from Colombia a mere six zens, also known as DACA and DAPA. monthsA before Donald J. Trump, who called immigrants “rapists” and “crimi- Over 840,000 undocumented immigrants have been shielded from deportation nals,” was elected President. under DACA for two-year periods and granted work permits. Trump, however, In faded jeans and a green hoodie, he joined thousands of New Yorkers, many could revoke these protections through an executive order and direct the Depart- of them immigrants, to protest Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. Afterwards, he ment of Homeland Security to ramp up enforcement policies. headed to work in the kitchen where he washes dishes. Sylvia, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, attended the rally with her “Hispanic people, Latin-American people, we are good workers. We are not two American-born sons. She arrived in the United States 16 years ago and works rapists. We are the base of this country,” he said. “Donald Trump knows nothing as a community health worker. about people who work in kitchens. It would be nice to see what kind of people Although she is scared about Trump’s presidency, she said she was ready to work in the Trump Tower kitchen.” return to Mexico if forced. “But then who’s going to contribute to the coun- It was the fi fth consecutive day that protesters hit the streets over the election of try?” she asked. Trump in cities across the country. Sylvia plans for her sons to stay here if she is deported. In New York, the protest was organized by Make The Road, a nonprofi t Marco Reinoso, 78, immigrated from Ecuador and has lived in the U.S. for more organization made up primarily of low-income Latino and African-American than 40 years. He is a deli owner in Brooklyn and joined Make The Road 11 years immigrants. Earlier in the day, members and advocates had gathered in the ago. He said he attended the protest because he felt that this was the fi rst time some- group’s Bushwick headquarters to prepare for the protest. After eating a meal one was unfi t to be the president. “To me, [Trump] don’t know nothing,” he said. together, they put on T-shirts, slapped on stickers, and carried protest signs “He’s only a businessman, a real-estate guy, who wants to make billions.” onto the subway. “Our people are suffering and our hearts are breaking,” Reinoso continued. “We As they spilled onto the streets, they chanted, “Say it loud, say it clear, need someone who understands what it means to be president of this country.” immigrants are welcome here!” They marched from Trump’s hotel to his sky- scraper headquarters, watched by Secret Service agents, police offi cers, and civilians on the sidelines. “We’re here to stay, we’re resilient and we’re going to continue,” said Paola Lebron-Guzman, a young LGBT community organizer who moved to the United States from Puerto Rico. The day after the election was tough for Guzman. The fi rst conversations she had about the Trump presidency were with LGBT youth of color inside Gender Sexuality Alliance networks in Bushwick schools. Many of them, she said, wanted to sit and rant, or to ask questions about the election’s outcome. “It was very intense,” she said. “How do you give them hope when you yourself are just fl oating by in a numb state?” Guzman believes that the election results don’t represent the majority of America, because, “there were so many people who didn’t get to vote and inForMation yoU can USe You’ll fi nd the fruits of the collective endeavor Federow kicked off at weren’t accounted for.” (Democrat Hillary Clin- TheWorldIsATerriblePlace.com/OhCrap/ ton got more than 1 million votes than Trump, Almost immediately after election night, two Google Docs offering according to returns available a week after the resources to help prepare for Trump’s presidency — let’s call them Hurvitz document, “Concrete Suggestions in Preparation for January election.) Of New York City’s 3 million foreign- open source survival guides — started circulating on the web; one 2017’s Change in American Government” can be accessed via this born residents, many can’t vote because they’re not began by Ariel Federow, a Brooklyn based-performance artist, another link: bit.ly/2fALDQc. citizens. More than 500,000 are undocumented. is from Boston attorney Kara Hurvitz. Thousands of people have since — INDYPENDENT STAFF In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” on contributed. In another era such documents might have been passed Nov. 13, Trump said he plans to deport 2 to 3 mil- from neighbor to neighbor, comrade to comrade, xeroxed pages with lion undocumented immigrants immediately, par- notes scribbled in the margins. Thankfully, we have the internet. ticularly individuals with criminal histories. “We Together with the protests and organizing meetings underway are getting them out of our country or we are go- across the country these survival guides are a testament to our com- December 2016

ing to incarcerate,” he said. munal ingenuity in times of crisis, which gives us hope. He also told CBS that he still plans to build a In the survival guides readers will fi nd information on self-defense, wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and that once how to respond to acts of intimidation and harassment, immigration the border is “secure,” immigration offi cials would and civil liberty legal aid, mental health, food security, preventing make “a determination” about whether to deport internet surveillance and receiving medical care such as hormone the remaining undocumented. treatments, long-term birth control and abortions.

The IndypendenT Under the Obama administration, the United 7 oRGaniZinG

MOVeMenT BUILdInG In A neW pOLITICAL MOMenT

siGns of THe By Harmony Goldberg meaning out of their fear and anger and suffering, and People’s Action, a national federa- Times: a pair of working with them to see that their real self-interest lies tion of community organizations activists paint banners at

ike so many people, I am still struggling to get in opposing racism rather than investing in it or accept- based in white, Black, Latino, and the may day community iLeia burgoS my political bearings in the wake of the elec- ing it. Native communities around the space in advance of a tion. I think it is very important for left orga- country; #AllOfUs, a new organi- nov. 12 meeting on how nizers to enter this next period humbly, willing zation of millennial activists dedi- to respond to donald L MEET YOU AT THE INTERSECTION to rethink our assumptions and craft new ways of ap- cated to fi ghting racism and Wall trump’s rise to power. proaching our work. But there are a few points that are Street; sections of white organizers very clear to me. Though many people on the left analyze the world in Showing Up For Racial Justice, and more. It will take We need to move through this period differently than through a framework that looks at the intersections be- courage, humility, and a willingness to make mistakes we did during the last moment of ground-shifting roll- tween different forms of oppression, in practice there to reorient our work to think big and to fi ght for ev- back for the left: September 11, 2001. I was a young or- has been a divide between struggles for racial and gen- eryone, but we have no other choice. If we are going to ganizer then, part of an emergent youth movement that der justice and the fi ght against economic inequality, to build the scale of power we need to stop Donald Trump, was working against a wave of racist ballot initiatives — our peril. It would be easy to respond to this election we are going to need a breadth of solidarity that will eliminating affi rmative action and bilingual education, by accelerating that divergence. Many organizers of push us beyond all of our past experiences and many of denying undocumented people access to health care and color are understandably frustrated at being asked to our current boundaries. public education — that expressed the white backlash empathize with the pain of poor white people. On the as California became a majority people-of-color state. other hand, many white organizers are talking about Harmony Goldberg is a longtime political educator Along with many other movements at that time, we organizing white working-class people in ways that ei- who works with community organizations around the were on an upswing, and we were starting to have real ther silence race or frame the work as only being in soli- country. She is based in Brooklyn. impact. Then the planes hit the Twin Towers. We got darity with communities of color, rather than showing scared, rightly so. We turned inward. We convinced how opposing racism is in the self-interest of poor white ourselves that having a better critique of our conditions people. We will continue to lose — and lose big — if was the key to our ability to affect those conditions. We we don’t craft a different story about race, class, gen- made ourselves small in the face of the greatest political der, and nation that can help us all to make a different challenge of our lifetimes, and we lost our momentum. meaning of our suffering. Now, in the wake of a period where we were fi nally There are some organizations around the country once again gaining real momentum, we are facing an that are in the early days of reorienting to the fi ght in even bigger challenge. This time, we need to make a this more expansive, integrative, and ambitious way: different choice. We need to hold each other close and help each other mourn this painful loss tHe MoSt dangeroUS were “inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or after joining the Trump campaign. “What if the peo- over the next several weeks, but harassment of others.” ple getting shot by the cops did things to deserve it? we also need to move quickly to Man in aMerica Bannon, who had previously worked as a banker There are, after all, in this world, some people who face outward, to meet these chal- for Goldman Sachs and as a movie producer, took are naturally aggressive and violent.” lenges head-on. We must prepare In his Nov. 9 victory speech, Donald Trump pledged the helm of breitbart following the death of its Bannon himself has been accused of violence. In to defend ourselves and our broth- to be a president for “all Americans.” If you believe founder, Andrew Breitbart. He quickly turned the a 1996 police report and in divorce proceedings, his ers and sisters who will face real that, we have a condo to sell you. site, already regarded as a far-right mouthpiece, into ex-wife accused him of grabbing her by the throat and growing dangers: Muslims As one of his fi rst acts as President-elect, Trump what he described as a “platform for the alt-right.” and choking her. Police noted red marks around her and immigrants and queer people on Nov. 13 appointed Stephen Bannon, the former Under Bannon, breitbart embraced white national- throat, corroborating her account of the confronta- and Black people. And we need to head of the breitbart news Web site, as his chief ist tropes like black-on-white crime, immigrant crim- tion, but she failed to testify against him later. She strategist. America’s white supremacists greeted go big, step out of our left bubbles inality, and Muslim “rape culture,” and ran headlines also said he had not wanted to send their daughters it with glee. and actually try to speak to all like “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and to a Los Angeles area private school because it had “What timeline are we even on anymore,” poor and working-class people in Crazy.” It also promoted conspiracy theories about too many Jews. Tony Hovater, a leader in the neo-Nazi Traditional this country. We need to both ex- Jewish control of the banks and media. “Lenin wanted to destroy the state and that’s my Workers Party, remarked on Facebook. “We’re plicitly challenge racism and speak The site’s technology editor, Milos Yiannopou- goal too,” Bannon told daily beast reporter Roland 2016 December like one or two degrees of separation away from los, was permanently banned from Twitter last Radosh in 2014. “I want to bring everything crashing to the suffering of poor and work- the fucking President.” ing-class white people. summer after trolling comedian Leslie Jones with a down and destroy all of today’s establishment.” Richard Spencer, a poster child for the ostenta- slew of racist tweets. Bannon will work with more establishmentarian This is not likely to be our fi rst tious, youth-driven white nationalist movement impulse in the wake of an election “breitbart has become the alt-right go-to Republicans in Trump’s inner circle, including chief known as the “alt-right,” also expressed approval. website, with Yiannopoulos pushing white ethno- of staff Reince Priebus, who previously chaired the in which 58% of white people cast “Strategist is the best possible position for Steve nationalism as a legitimate response to political Republican National Committee, and the vice-presi- IndypendenT The ballots for the racist demagogue Bannon in the Trump White House,” he tweeted, correctness, and the comment section turning into a dent-elect, Indiana Gov. Michael Pence. Donald Trump. But polls indicate a few days before Twitter suspended his account. cesspool for white supremacist meme-makers,” for- that a signifi cant section of Trump “Bannon will answer directly to Trump and focus on mer editor-at-large Ben Shapiro lamented in August. — INDYPENDENT STAFF voters voted for him despite his the big picture, not get lost in the weeds.” Twitter Bannon left the site in July to lead Trump’s cam- racism, not because of it. We need said it had suspended the accounts of Spencer paign for offi ce. to fi ght for those people, too, and several other alt-right fi gures because it had “Here’s a thought,” he told mother Jones shortly helping them to make a different “seen an uptick in the number of accounts” that 8 THis is GeTTinG old

eLdeR ABUSe RepUBLICAnS ThReATen SOCIAL SeCURITy FOR FUTURe GeneRATIOnS

By Eric Laursen Should Trump be reelected, however, anything Those concerned about the fate of retirement in ChriStine LarSon could happen. With Ryan and McConnell by his America may want to look for warning signs well onald Trump is rolling out his White side to wheedle and fl atter him, he just might de- in advance, however. House team and forging alliances cide to adopt Social Security “reform” as a legacy with Capitol Hill Republicans he issue. The good news is that Warren and Sand- Eric Laursen is an independent journalist and ac- once claimed to disdain. In the pro- ers are expected to assume a higher profi le in the tivist. He is the author of The People’s Pension: The cess, the conversation on Social Se- Senate — and both are even more convinced that Struggle to Defend Social Security Since Reagan curityD has changed drastically and, for millions of tacking to the center would be fatal to Democrats. (AK Press, 2012). Americans in the later years of their working lives, Chuck Schumer, who will become minority leader, disastrously. hasn’t supported expanding Social Security, but The US is racing toward a retirement crisis, fu- has never supported cutting it either, and has hap- eled by the elimination of traditional employer- pily attacked Republicans for doing so. Together, sponsored pension plans in the private sector and that suggests the Dems can exercise the discipline full-frontal attacks on those for public employees, to stall any challenge to the program with a fi libus- the failure of 401(k) and other employee retirement ter threat. savings plans to provide an adequate replacement, The bad news is that the balance of power could and the failure of Congress to increase Social Secu- shift in 2018, when 23 Democratic Senate seats will rity benefi ts to make up for these shifts. be up for reelection — and in the era of Citizens For decades, Washington has more or less ignored United, it’s only become harder for candidates to this problem, focusing instead on fi nding ways to resist the lure of big money and the policy positions cut benefi ts to solve Social Security’s long-term it tends to favor. Centrists will argue that the Dems funding problems — even though these problem either have to tack to the right or face big losses. are really a function of decades-long wage stagna- Some Democratic-leaning power centers in tion, which means fewer payroll tax dollars to fund Washington were pushing back against progressive the system (over $750 billion is collected annually). positions on issues like Social Security even before And even though the decline of pensions has made the election. The Progressive Social Security more vital to working people than Policy Institute, a center-right ever: Some 60 million people nationally receive think-tank, published an op- old-age and disability benefi ts every year, making ed in late October resurrecting eLection BrieFS prevention among gay youth, the number it by far the biggest income support program in the the fl awed argument that So- of calls, texts and requests for online chats country. Social Security is immensely important in cial Security crowds out other POPULAR VOTE doubled. New York State as well, where 3.5 million people spending — this despite the Donald Trump won the presidency with at TRUMP WIN SPARKS CALLS FOR receive retiree, spousal, survivors’, and disability fact that the program is entirely least 290 electoral votes. However, Hillary SECESSION b e n e fi t s . self-funding — and that Demo- Clinton won the popular vote by more than 1 In California, where Clinton beat Trump by al- It was an extremely hopeful sign when, two years crats must stop “favoring” the million votes, a margin that could reach 2 mil- most 2–1, a group calling itself the Yes Califor- ago, the conversation started to change. Democrats elderly over everyone else. The lion once absentee ballots from California are nia Independence Campaign says it plans to like Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and AARP, a huge lobbying pow- counted. It was the second time in the last fi ve elections that the winner of the popular vote introduce a ballot initiative in 2018 proposing Sherrod Brown, and advocacy groups led to So- er with 37 million retired or that the state secede from the U.S. The idea cial Security Works, began talking up proposals to over-50 members, attempted to lost in the Electoral College: Democrat Albert Gore had a 540,000-vote margin in 2000, but has attracted interest from a handful of Silicon boost Social Security benefi ts signifi cantly for the straddle the line politically with Valley investors. But in Oregon, organizers fi rst time in more than 40 years. an ad campaign that posits an the Supreme Court’s 5–4 decision to stop a recount in Florida gave the electoral vote to quickly withdrew a proposal to secede and But with the Trump’s election, all such talk has enormous loss of benefi ts if So- George W. Bush. possibly form a new nation with California. died out. Much has been made of the fact that cial Security isn’t “reformed”

the president-elect, during his campaign, argued right away. PRIVATE PRISON STOCKS RISE — INDYPENDENT STAFF against cutting Social Security, setting himself What’s to be done? Progres- Trump says he will deport anywhere from 2 to apart from virtually every other Republican can- sives who have defended Social 11 million undocumented immigrants — and Security for years have pushed didate. But in previous years he has supported it, stocks in private-prison companies jumped and the principal argument he mustered during the back hard with a petition de- the day after he was elected. CoreCivic, campaign was that cutting Social Security was a manding AARP stop buying formerly the Corrections Corporation of political non-starter —not that he didn’t think it into right-wing arguments America and the world’s largest private- made sense on the merits. about the program. They are prison contractor, rose 58 percent. GEO Group, Now that he’s planning his transition, Trump also focusing on the pledges the second-largest, went up 28 percent. The is focused on repealing Obamacare and passing a the president-elect made dur- federal government relies on private detention massive tax cut that would overwhelmingly benefi t ing his campaign. “If Trump centers to hold immigrants who are awaiting a the richest Americans. To do so, he’s cozying up goes along with plans to cut or hearing on whether they should be deported. to Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate majority leader privatize Social Security, this is Mitch McConnell. Ryan, the GOP’s congressional a huge breach of faith with vot- LGBT SUICIDE HOTLINES FLOODED WITH policy driver, has been pushing to “reform” — i.e., ers,” writes Dean Baker of the CALLERS December 2016

cut—Social Security for years. Tax breaks for the Center for Economic and Pol- Suicide hotlines specializing in gay and rich always come fi rst when Republicans control icy Research. Activists should transgender people received a record number both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue — they’re the hold his feet to the fi re, and if of calls after Trump’s election. “We had more GOP version of crystal meth — and it’s more likely he broaches the subject, “this calls during election night and the day after than not that political prudence will keep them should be a career ending move than in all of November of last year,” Greta from attacking Social Security, at least during the for Trump and any of his ac- Martela of Trans Lifeline told ABC News. At the Trevor Project, which focuses on suicide The IndypendenT fi rst Trump administration. complices.” 9 Join us at these upcoming events! Free and open to all! REFUGEES The World Wide Refugee Crisis: ARE WELCOME HERE Syria and Beyond Wednesday, December 7th // 7 pm WBAI Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church 85 S. Oxford St., Brooklyn

MICAH BAZANT & THE JVP ARTIST COUNCIL • JEWISHVOICEFORPEACE.ORG • JEWISHVOICEFORPEACE.ORG COUNCIL BAZANT ARTIST JVP & THE MICAH NOT JUST YOUR DAD’S Sarab Al-Jijakli Audu Kadiri Syrian-American activist and President, Nigerian Asylum Seeker & Community (OR GRANDDAD’S) Network of Arab-American Professionals Organizer, African Communities Together RADIO STATION ANYMORE... Flora Mej Loubna Mrie Kosovo Refugee and Amnesty International Syrian Asylum Seeker and activist, USA Public Outreach Representative photojournalist Performances by: Sarah Sakaan, performer Faton Macula, musician and Kosovo refugee Taulant Mehmeti, musician [email protected]

Open Community Meeting A Donald Trump Presidency: How can we resist? Thursday, December 15th // 7 pm to 9 pm The Commons, 388 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn (between Bond and Hoyt) Join with Friends and Neighbors for an open discussion: What are the new challenges to the cause of peace and social justice? How can we build a strong political movement to defend the members of our communities and to advance these goals? PROGRESSIVE + INDEPENDENT Founded 1984 Brooklyn For Peace brooklynpeace.org // [email protected] // 718-624-5921 NEWS, ARTS + MUSIC @ 99.5 fm brooklyn4peace brooklynforpeace Streaming online: wbai.org brooklynforpeace brooklynforpeace #wbai some places you can find The IndypendenT

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greenPoint Library T 10 11 Crain’s reported. “Nine was fi lmed here. It concerns a teamwas of employees fi Tower HeistTower reported in October that former Kazakh oligarch Viktor Khrapu- , analyzing property tax records, estimates that just 108 of the iconic , analyzing property tax records, estimates that just 108 of the iconic A 2014 real realA 2014 A 2014 estate estate listing listing offered offered a glimpse a glimpse inside inside one one apartment apartment that that featured featured tax tax plan planTrump’s Trump’s is is a gift a gift to to his his Park Park tenants. tenants. Ave Ave They’ll They’ll save save an an average average of of Orbán,Orbán, like like other other far-right far-right leaders, leaders, has has been been emboldened emboldened assent. assent. by by Trump’s Trump’s This This tried triedTrump Trump to to evict evict Parc Parc East’s East’s rent-controlled rent-controlled tenants tenants when when he he bought bought the the BeBe careful. careful. has has bragged bragged Trump Trump he he could could shoot shoot someone someone on on Fifth Fifth without without Ave Ave Hmm.Hmm. Okay. Okay. TheThe building building was was recently recently renovated renovated to to meet meet LEED LEED (Leadership (Leadership in Energy in Energy and and TRUMP INTERNATIONAL HOTEL & TOWER 1 Central1 Central Park Park West West lmed here. It concerns comedy comedyTheThe Heist 2011 2011 Tower a team was of employees fi atat a luxury a luxury highrise highrise who who scheme scheme to to rob rob one one of of the the building’s building’s residents, residents, a Wall a Wall StreetStreet banker banker who who embezzled embezzled their their pensions. pensions. Inspiring. Inspiring. WOLLMAN RINK IN CENTRAL PARK PerhapsPerhaps the the only only mildly mildly endearing endearing ever ever thing thing did did Trump throughout Trump throughout a lifetime a lifetime ofof self-aggrandizement self-aggrandizement was was renovating renovating this this ice-skating ice-skating rink rink 30 30 years years ago. ago. guregure H8s H8sGuestsGuests on on the the frosty frosty today today can can carve carve pond, pond, sip sip fi fi hot hot cocoa cocoa and and enjoy enjoy a whitea white power power Christmas. Christmas. TRUMPTRUMP AVENUE AVENUE PARK PARK 502502 Park Park Ave Ave LocatedLocated on on the the Upper Upper East East Side, Side, this this long-time long-time haven haven for for old-monied old-monied white white people people boastsboasts some some of of the the priciest priciest condos condos in the in the priciest priciest real real estate estate market market in the in the country. country. “coffered“coffered ceilings ceilings with with 22-carat 22-carat gold gold leaf leaf gilding. gilding. . an . an elegant elegant Parquet Parquet de de Ver- Ver- ooroorofof solidsolid whitewhite oak,”oak,” andand bathtubbathtuba a saillessailleswithwith “clad “clad largelarge fl fl slabsslabs ofof purepure whitewhite nestnestThassosThassos marbles marbles in the in the marble, marble, world.” world.” one one of of the the fi fi million million on on their their tax tax 2017 2017 returns, returns,$1.1 $1.1 while while the the corporate corporate tax tax rate rate will will be be sliced sliced 20 20 percentagepercentage points points to to just just percent. percent. 15 15 As As America’s America’s wealth wealth gap gap widens, widens, we we poor poor disheveleddisheveled masses masses will will know know where where to to vent vent our our rage. rage. TRUMPTRUMP PALACE PALACE 200200 E 69th E 69th St St TheThe tallest tallest building building on on the the Upper Upper East East Side. Side. This This is is where where percent percent the the .1 .1 move move toto look look down down on on the the 1 percent. 1 percent. Sickened Sickened by by the the “degree “degree to to which which the the very very name name ‘Trump’ has degraded the public discourse and the nation itself,” former MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann sold Palace his Trump condo earlier “Got this year. back 90 percent of my money and 100 percent of my soul!” Olbermann tweeted. TRUMP AND PARC TRUMP EAST PARC Central100-106 Park South Misspelled words are classier. They possess European élégance. Speaking of which,which, France’s France’s le le Front Front National, National, Holland’s Holland’s de de Partij Partij voor voor de de Vrijheid Vrijheid (Party (Party for for Freedom)Freedom) and and others others on on Europe’s Europe’s far-right far-right are are overjoyed overjoyed win. win. “What “What by by Trump’s Trump’s greatgreat news,” news,” Hungarian Hungarian premier premier Viktor Viktor Orbán, Orbán, who who has has proposed proposed taxing taxing the the internetinternet wrote wrote on on Facebook. Facebook. “Democracy “Democracy is is still still alive.” alive.” summersummer he he described described refugees refugees as as “poison” “poison” and and “terror “terror risks.” risks.” Sound Sound familiar? familiar? buildingbuilding Like Like for for million million America’s America’s $13 $13 in 1981. in 1981. immigrant immigrant population, population, they they re- re- fusedfused to to leave. leave. A seven A seven year year legal legal battle battle ensured. ensured. some some failed. failed. Parc Parc Trump Trump Today, Today, EastEast residents residents pay pay as as little little as as a $1000 a $1000 a month a month in rent. in rent. TRUMPTRUMP TOWER TOWER Fifth Fifth721 721 Ave Ave AlreadyAlready a target a target of of mass mass demonstrations demonstrations since since was was elected, elected, Trump Trump NewNew York York building’sbuilding’s 237 237 residential residential units units are are utilized utilized by by full-time full-time residents. residents. Did Did some- some- bodybody occupy? occupy? say, say, in a $100 in a $100repercussions.repercussions. million million Tower Tower pent- pent-ooroor of of Trump Trump He He lives lives on on the the top top fl fl househouse under under a fresco a fresco of of Greek Greek gods T TRUMP Dear New York City tenants and guests, York Dear New with big league style, classy the Trump brand is synonymous As you know, revulsion. Over service, amenities that are so, so good and, more recently, of tranquil- you might notice discrepancies in the level years the next four come to expect at Trump properties.ity you’ve instance, be exiting your limousine outside Trump Inter- might, for You ne afternoon when, instead of a doorman one fi national Hotel and Tower to carryoffering your shopping bags, you are greeted by unwashed profes- they’ll shout as you scurry in- sional protesters. “Shame, shame, shame,” scattered behind you. Goodman merchandise a trail Bergdorf side, leaving Or perhaps you’re unwinding with a glass of sherry on Bar d’Eau’s pool aming at Trump SoHo afterdeck a soothing hammam experience, when fl no doubt, from one of lands on your lap — catapulted way, bag of feces losers below. the lightweight your pain more than Donald J. Trump. Afterall, feels our new pres- Nobody on the part outrage of of unprovoked is the target ident more than anyone immigrants, women, Muslims, Jews, African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, construction people, unionists, Polish workers, lesbians, transgender gays, every- contestants and pretty much pageant former-beauty Megyn Kelly, and white. who isn’t wealthy York body in New we across the city, visitors and tenants of Trump complexes the loyal To everyone else, this map of Trump apologize. To real estate might sincerely come in handy. DISSENT TRUMPLANDIA ELSE EVERYONE AND PROTESTERS PROFESSIONAL FOR A GUIDE TEXT MIKAEL BY | DESIGN TARKELA PETER BY RUGH 12 WHicH Way foRWaRd?

The deMOCRATS’ IdenTITy CRISIS BATTLe eRUpTS BeTWeen pARTy InSIdeRS & The GRASSROOTS

By Jake Johnson alize, and they are representative of the many paths class” would not be happy if Ellison became DNC beth whitney the party could take: The coming struggle over who chair. “Good,” he added. he Democratic Party now fi nds itself in is to head the Democratic National Committee is one Along with being one of the few members of Con- the midst of an identity crisis. such fi ght that should be taken seriously. gress to view Sanders’s populist message as the proper After Hillary Clinton’s startling loss As of writing, two of the early contenders appear antidote to right-wing demagoguery, he was also one to the incompetent, unorganized, and to be Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison — who of the few prominent politicians to really grasp the bigoted Donald Trump, Democrats are formally declared his candidacy on Monday — and danger of such demagoguery early on. Tnow beginning the typical, solemn postmortem as- former DNC chair Howard Dean. During a panel discussion on ABC’s “This Week” sessment. What, they are asking, went wrong? Although it is far from clear that the race will come in July of 2015, Ellison said that “we better be ready Many Democrats are, in good faith, asking this down to these two, exploring the contrasts between for the fact that [Donald Trump] might be leading question. But many, including those at the center of the them can be helpful in understanding the Democrats’ the Republican ticket.” Clinton team, are not. Instead they are casting about, much-discussed identity crisis. The response from the panel, including the host in some cases wildly, for others to blame: James Com- Dean ran for president in 2004, and has used the George Stephanopoulos, was laughter. “I know you ey, Jill Stein, young people, Bernie Sanders. resulting prominence to attain advisory positions at don’t believe that,” Stephanopoulos replied, smiling This should not be surprising. For decades, the par- major fi rms that lobby for the pharmaceutical and widely. Perhaps he is no longer smiling. ty has operated under the principle that, as Emmett biotechnology industries. In 2009 he was hired by Ellison understood the moment; he grasped that Rensin recently put it, “the Democratic Party cannot McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, which later merged Trump was taking advantage of a vacuum left by a fail, it can only be failed.” with Dentons, Dean’s current employer. Democratic Party that has proven unwilling or un- Thus, Clinton’s monumental lose, her unfl inching As Lee Fang of The Intercept has reported, Dean’s able to deliver material gains for the working class — apologists say, is the fault of those who failed to em- views on health care have shifted substantially since including those members of the white working class brace the Clinton agenda, one that was focused not he began his work for Dentons as a “senior adviser.” who voted for President Obama twice. primarily on the need for a radical new approach to Earlier this year, Dean joined the Clinton team’s fran- Some, however, have expressed skepticism that El- economics and politics, but rather on the horrifying tic and misleading attacks on Sanders’s health care lison — an ardent opponent of the Trans-Pacifi c Part- qualities of the opposition. She assumed — falsely — proposals, arguing that they would effectively elimi- nership and an advocate of a $15 minimum wage — that it would be suffi cient to offer voters something nate Obamacare and leave people without insurance. to rally against. Dean’s views can also be gleaned from a number Continued on page 15 The Democratic Party’s identity crisis is largely of of op-ed pieces in which, Fang its own making. Party leadership has, over a period observes, he is often reduced to of decades, turned away from progressive goals under “repeating GOP arguments”; he rayS oF LigHt state’s anti-trans bathroom bill this year — the guise of pragmatism, leaving a vast opening for has argued, for instance, against appears to have been defeated by 5,000 votes, right-wing phony populism to emerge. allowing Medicare to negotiate “There is a crack in everything,” the late, great although he is calling for a recount. To be sure, there are splits within the party, and drug prices. Leonard Cohen once wrote. “That’s how the A number of candidates backed by Bernie thus the party’s “identity” is no monolith. Contrast, In response to accusations light gets in.” In that spirit, here are some Sanders’ Our Revolution won. Ilhan Omar, a for instance, the approaches of Bernie Sanders (an in- that he has used his resumé in cracks in the darkness of Nov. 8th’s results. refugee, became the country’s fi rst female the public sphere to advance his dependent who caucuses with Democrats) and Presi- Voters in Maine approved ranked-choice Somali-American lawmaker, winning a seat dent Barack Obama. career as an infl uence-peddler, voting, meaning they will have multiple in Minnesota’s legislature. In Washington, While his personality certainly played a role in his Dean has offered the rejoinder options on the ballot. If their first pick does Pramila Jayapal won the race to succeed unexpectedly successful presidential campaign, it was that he is not, offi cially, a lobby- not win, their vote automatically defaults longtime Rep. Jim McDermott in the 7th Sanders’s ideas that sparked the enthusiasm that car- ist. to their second choice. The new electoral Congressional District, which contains most ried him forward and ultimately made him the most This is technically true, but system is expected to be a boon to third of Seattle. She is the fi rst Indian-American popular politician in the country. His call for a politi- highly misleading. While he is parties such as the Greens, which are often woman elected to Congress. cal revolution emboldened and inspired millions. not registered as a lobbyist, Fang accused by critics of siphoning votes from Jayapal told supporters in her victory President Obama harnessed similar enthusiasm, noted in January that Dean “en- more electable candidates. speech that her district could be “a light in but he frequently insisted that he was a “New Demo- gages in virtually every lobbying In addition to joining three other states in the darkness,” adding: “If our worst fears are crat” and that he was “not a particularly ideologi- activity imaginable, helping cor- legalizing recreational marijuana sales, vot- realized, we will be on the defense as of to- cal person.” Contrary to Sanders’s repudiation of big porate interests reach out to law- ers in California repealed the 1998 “English morrow. We will have to fi ght for social justice money donors, Obama embraced the corporate class makers on legislation, advising in Our Schools” initiative, restoring bilingual as never before.” that bankrolled his campaign and appointed bankers them on political strategy, and education in public classrooms. They also — INDYPENDENT STAFF and those with deep fi nance industry ties to key roles using his credibility as a former upheld legislation restricting the use of in his administration — a particularly striking move liberal lion to build public sup- plastic bags, and passed a measure that in- given the dire economic circumstances he inherited. port on behalf of his lobby fi rm structs their representatives in Congress to Throughout the primaries, Sanders spelled out, re- clients.” back a constitutional amendment to repeal peatedly, the fundamental difference between his own Keith Ellison, on the other the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, political approach and that of the president. “Thank hand, is not a corporate lobbyist which opened the door to a flood of money you very much for electing me, I’ll take it from here,” in any sense. In 2007, Ellison be- into politics. was how he described Obama’s approach. Sanders, came the fi rst Muslim-American Ballot initiatives to raise the minimum for his part, has embraced the view that democratic to be elected to the United States wage passed in four states: Arizona, Colo-

December 2016 rado, Maine, and Washington. South Dakota change springs from the work of popular movements, Congress, and he was the second voters vetoed a law to lower the minimum for not from enlightened, benevolent leaders. member of Congress to endorse workers under 18. Maricopa County, Arizona To dismiss these splits within and around the Dem- Sanders in the Democratic pri- Sheriff Joe Arpaio, notorious for immigration- ocratic Party would be to abandon key fi ghts that will mary. enforcement tactics that stretched legal help shape both the opposition to Trump and the al- Sanders has returned the fa- bounds, lost his bid for re-election. North ternatives once he fails those he promised to save. vor, arguing that “the political Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory — who backed the

The IndypendenT Already, we are seeing such fi ghts begin to materi- establishment and the billionaire 13 December 2016 December The Indypenden The T 14 bluestockings DRUG REFORM radical bookstore | activist center | fair trade cafe 172 ALLEN ST • 212-777-6028 bluestockings.com

WED NOV 23 • 7:00PM–9:30PM DISCUSSION: We will explore how being queer and/or transgender informs our spirituality. We will honor queer ancestors across time and cultures, learn about who they were, and how they were viewed in their respective societies — as shamans, healers, mystics, and so on. HIGH TIMES HAVE MON NOV 28 • 7:00PM–9:30PM READING: Youth poets from the Bronx Academy of Letters will read poems in support of and in solidarity with the NEVER FELT SO LOW people of Haiti. FOUR MORE STATES APPROVED RECREATIONAL WED DEC 7 • 7:00PM–9:30PM DISCUSSION: Join the Icarus Project MARIJUANA MEASURES, WHAT WILL TRUMP’S NYC, part of a radical mental health support network and media project JUSTICE DEPARTMENT DO? by and for people who experience the world in ways that are often diagnosed as mental illness. We envision a new culture that allows the space CHARLYNE ALEXIS and freedom for exploring different By Steven Wishnia “deadly” and allow the sale of pot-laced candy that could “kill states of being, and recognizes that children and pets.” breakdowns can be the entrance to hile the rest of the nation was electing Don- The Trump administration could cause serious problems for breakthrough. ald Trump President Nov. 8, four states vot- states that have legalized marijuana. Growing and selling it are ed to legalize the sale and growing of mari- felonies under federal law. While more than 90 percent of drug juana under regulations somewhat stricter prosecutions are under state law, federal law supersedes state law. than those for alcohol. The current federal tolerance for pot farming and retail sales in WCalifornia, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Maine all approved states like Colorado rests on a 2013 memorandum from Deputy legalization initiatives, while Arizona rejected one. Eight states Attorney General James M. Cole, which said that federal pros- now allow the sale of recreational cannabis, and Washington, ecutors in states that have legalized recreational or medical mari- D.C. permits personal possession and home-growing. Mean- juana should concentrate their resources on things like prevent- while, Florida, Arkansas, and North Dakota voted to legalize ing sales to minors and stopping revenue from going to gangs or medical marijuana, the fi rst such measures in the South. cartels. If the new Attorney General were to “repudiate the Cole It was “a remarkable set of victories” that refl ected “massive memo” and authorize raids on cannabis businesses, Nadelmann momentum” in popular support for legalization, Drug Policy said, that would have a “chilling effect.” Alliance head Ethan Nadelmann said on a telephone press Trump’s pick for Attorney General, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) conference the next day. But he worried that Trump could de- said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 2014 that mari- stroy many of those gains, especially if he appoints a hardline juana could not be safer than alcohol because, “Lady Gaga says prohibitionist Attorney General. she’s addicted to it and it is not harmless.” I design the Indy. In California, Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, DPA legal director Tamar Todd is more optimistic. She said I design for change. won 56 percent of the vote, piling up a margin of more than 1 that if federal prosecutors decided to crack down on marijuana I can design for you. million. It will let people 21 or older have and share up to one retailers, it might be diffi cult to get convictions in states that had ounce of dried cannabis or 8 grams of concentrate, and grow voted to legalize it, and they might also encounter resistance from up to six plants. The state will issue licenses for retailing, indoor state offi cials who’d put effort into developing regulatory systems. and outdoor cultivation, and more, including “microlicenses” for “I think the politics are such that they will have to respect small shops that both grow and sell it. state marijuana laws, even if they really don’t want to,” Tom The only remaining state marijuana felonies, says Lynne Ly- Angell of the Marijuana Majority wrote in an e-mail. “Attack- man, the Drug Policy Alliance’s California state director, would ing broadly popular marijuana-law reforms will create huge be selling it to a minor and using butane to make extracts at home. distractions and political problems that the new administra- The about 6,000 people serving time in state prisons and jails for tion just does not need.” pot offenses could petition for release, about 1 million Califor- How might these votes affect the prospects for legalizing nians could apply to have their criminal records expunged, and marijuana in New York? Public support for legalization is people convicted of drug charges would not be barred from the “very strong” here, says Nadelmann, and Massachusetts is legal cannabis business. right next door. Revenue from a 15 percent excise tax on sales and a cultiva- “Every time another state moves down this road, there is more tion tax will be mainly directed towards drug education and pressure for New York to do the same,” state Sen. Liz Krueger treatment, with smaller funds earmarked to help “communities (D-Manhattan) told the Village Voice in September. She has in- disproportionately harmed by drug war policies” and to restore troduced a legalization bill in the last two legislative sessions, and damage caused by pot-growing on public land. Gardens of more plans to do it again next year. than 22,000 square feet would be prohibited for fi ve years “to On the other hand, both Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the give the small farmers a head start,” according to Lyman. Republican-controlled state Senate have opposed all but to- Massachusetts’ Question 4 won by a narrower margin. It al- ken changes to the state’s laws. In 2014, they insisted that the lows adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, state’s medical-marijuana law allow only cannabis extracts and grow up to six plants in their home. A state commission, and not actual herb. The GOP retained its Senate majority, funded by a 3.75 percent excise tax, would oversee the licensing which means Krueger’s bill can’t reach the fl oor without per- of retail stores and commercial cultivation. Nevada’s new law is mission from the Republican leadership. similar, except that the tax would be 15 percent and people could “If the Democrats had taken the state Senate, I’d be a lot more grow their own only if they live more than 25 miles from a store. optimistic,” Nadelmann said. December 2016

Maine’s Question 1 passed by barely 2,600 votes. It would let adults 21 and older possess up to 2½ ounces of marijuana, tax Steven Wishnia is former news editor for High Times and author sales 10 percent, and allow licensed “retail social clubs” where of the Cannabis Companion. adults could get high on the premises. But Gov. Paul LePage, a Trumpoid loudmouth, has said he would try to stop it from be- ing implemented, on the grounds that it would force him to vio-

THE INDYPENDENT M T   .@ . . /  .   .  . / late federal drug laws. In October, he said the initiative would be 15

MOURNING AFTER RESENTMENT IDENTITY CRISIS Continued from page 3 Continued from page 5 Continued from page 12

STREET HEALING Trump built a neo-fascist mass base. He was celebrated by could win over disaffected white voters in the Rust Belt former and current neonazis, Klansmen, White Suprema- states that both helped carry Obama to victory and helped, Speed. Everything was picking up speed, going too fast, cists, anti-Semites, and Islamophobes for moving their this year, to ensure Hillary Clinton’s defeat. blurring into a montage. I was on the train, rushing out agenda to center stage. “Defeated Dems could’ve tapped Rust Belt populist of Long Island to the city and when I blinked, a roll of White members of downwardly mobile working-class to head party,” tweeted Jonathan Weisman, the deputy images fl ashed. Trump. Rain. Scared eyes. The wall. Ner- are susceptible to Trumpism: the scapegoating of people of Washington editor of the New York Times. “Instead, vous fl ipping of book. Rain. color and immigrants and the belief that liberals are treach- black, Muslim progressive from Minneapolis?” The wall was in my chest. Breathing was hard labor. erous and subversive. Weisman is apparently concerned that white voters in Muscles tense as if waiting for a giant fi st to hammer me It’s for the hearts and minds of all blue-collar workers the Rust Belt will be repelled by a “black, Muslim pro- down. For the whole campaign, whole swaths of white that progressives must fi ght if they wish to combat Trump- gressive from Minneapolis.” But the focus on identity male America had been squeezing their hands into fi sts ism in the wake of Trump’s victory. Unlike the complaints serves to obscure the appeal of an ambitious, populist and now the fi ght started. of relatively privileged core Trump supporters, working- economic agenda. The wall was in my mind. What thoughts could I class economic woes are real, and can be addressed with Throughout his run for the presidency, Barack Obama think? What stories could I tell myself? When would I be real solutions. Since many Trump sympathizers live in the utilized such populist economic messaging in states like told that my truth was illegal? alternate Foxy post-fact universe, however, the only way to Wisconsin, which he carried in 2008 and 2012. Clinton The train rolled into Penn Station. I dashed out, up to get them to consider alternative political, social and eco- diverged from this strategy in 2016, choosing instead to the street, the lights, the noise, the people. My friends nomic solutions is through face-to-face organizing. This is focus her advertising dollars on highlighting Trump’s texted me directions to the march and I felt them, heard what the AFL-CIO did in the last three weeks of the elec- worst features, offering little in the way of a positive them before I saw them. Loud rhythmic chants. A thun- tion, recruiting activists to “knock on one million doors in agenda. Clinton was simply not a credible populist; her dering river of people, some holding placards, some mak- key battleground states.” ties to industry were too deep, her image as an establish- ing a megaphone with their hands and booming out no to Human rights activist Scot Nakagawa, in his blog Race ment fi gure too entrenched. Trump, no to hate, no to fear. We wove through the thou- Files, warns that whether or not the left can build a move- Most Americans —71 percent, according to some data sands protesting in front of Trump Tower like a centi- ment “in time to get ahead” of the organized Right, “will be — believe the economy is rigged. Most of the popula- pede but in the shuffl e, broke apart. I stood there, feeling the difference between winning the day as the demography tion also believes, again correctly, that too much power everything rising up, up, up into my throat. The rage at of the U.S. changes, or losing out to an increasingly reac- is “concentrated in the hands of a few big companies.” America. The sorrow of lost hope. The blue lit morning. tionary” white plurality. But he urges progressives to see Trump is a fraud, but he tapped into this reality more An ocean of sorrow. The silence that moves through our this moment as an opportunity: effectively than Clinton, who spent much of her time lives. All of it rose to my lips and I just shouted, “FUCK We ought not be pessimistic about what lies ahead. We on the campaign trail arguing that “America is already TRUMP! FUCK TRUMP! FUCK TRUMP!” have struggled long and hard to arrive at a moment when great,” that everything is fi ne. We all yelled. We yelled for our dreams. We yelled for old norms can fall to new ones. This moment may not be Right-wing populism cannot be countered by politi- our loved ones. We yelled and our breath, our music was what we’ve imagined, and the fi ght before us will likely not cians with deep ties to corporate America. It can only be a like a horn blasting across space and time. We yelled be waged entirely on our terms, but the opportunity to act countered by progressive populists. and the wall he wanted to build came down. and make a meaningful, defi nitive positive difference is The choice of DNC chair seems relatively inconsequen- nonetheless before us. tial in the face of a Republican-controlled Congress and a Movement-building should have a second aim: pulling Trump presidency. But, as Glenn Greenwald has pointed the Democratic Party left. This is what Trumpism and its out, it is “a perfect test of whether Dems [have] learned predecessors can teach the left, just as the left once taught it anything.” to the right. Many religious right leaders openly admit that The Democratic leadership and DNC members have a they learned their tactics and strategies from the labor and choice, one that will indicate the direction in which the civil rights movements. It’s a fact: strong and vibrant social party will move in the coming months, even years. And, movements pull political parties in their direction. once more, the choice will likely be between a candidate Some progressives will opt to try to take over the Demo- with deep ties to corporate America and a genuine popu- cratic Party. Others will decide to become active in social, list with an ambitious, progressive vision for the future. economic and political mass movements outside the Demo- Keith Ellison as DNC chair would be a step in the right cratic Party. We need both strategies. Deploying an inside/ direction, while Howard Dean would represent more of outside strategy is exactly how right-wing social movements the same, maintaining the status quo that helped make pulled the Republican Party to the far right. Trump’s victory possible. As we move beyond the horrifying 2016 election, let us join local, diverse, and collaborative campaigns to defend An extended version of this article is available at Com- the rights of women, people of color, immigrants, Muslims, monDreams.org. union members, water rights activists and public schools defenders — any and all people upon whose backs Trump, with his false claims and conspiracist rants, has painted a target. It’s time that we organize to take power.

Chip Berlet is the author of Right-Wing Populism in Ameri- ca: Too Close for Comfort (Guilford Press, 2000). December 2016 December FOLLOW THE INDYPENDENT ONLINE WWW.INDYPENDENT.ORG FACEBOOK.COM/THEINDYPENDENT INDYPENDENT THE TWITTER.COM/THEINDYPENDENT INSTAGRAM.COM/THE_INDYPENDENT TO SIGN UP FOR OUR E-NEWSLETTER, [email protected]. 16 family Values

TALKInG TO My ChILdRen ABOUT TRUMp

‘i WaS aFraid tHat WoULd an aWaKe teen-ager Happen!’ By Priscilla Grim By Maria Muentes “ don’t have to go to college to become Presi- dent,” my teenage daughter jokingly responded y 10-year-old son fell asleep during the election Iwhen I asked her what she has learned from night returns. When I wake him on Wednesday witnessing this year’s theater-of-the-absurd presi- Mmorning the fi rst thing he asks was “Who won?” dential election. BatMan, SpiderMan and When I tell him he slumps back down into his bed, “I was As a mother, I have to continually help her in trUMp gary martin afraid that would happen!” he says. learning how to navigate a sometimes misogynis- By Luis Moreo-Caballud & Begonla Santa He tells me he is afraid of President-Elect Trump’s pro- tic world. She knows what to do on the subway if Ceecilia posed ban on Muslims, he imagines that Trump doesn’t she is traveling alone, she knows what real friend- know anything about Muslims and will probably just target ship looks like, and she knows how to make good people with olive skin and black hair like him. choices for herself. I’m not worried about my kid; ecause we are interested in and affected not “What will he do?” He asks. “Break into people’s hous- I am concerned about all of the men who will now only by electoral or institutional politics, but es to see if they’re Muslim?” His fears are not baseless, as hear misogyny validated from one of the most Balso community, everyday politics, our three- a candidate, Trump has fanned the fl ames of racism and powerful positions in the world. I am worried that year-old, Max, wants to know about it and asks violence, against women, Blacks, Latinx, Muslims, lesbian, she is going to grow up in a world in which her ef- questions. We have had to decide whether we try gay and trans people. I tell him I too am fearful of what’s forts and accomplishments don’t matter, because to direct his attention somewhere else or we try to to come, but we also have the ability to organize and fi ght her gender will always defi ne the space in which include him in our political life. We are trying to do back. she will work. I am worried that she is going to the second at the risk of sometimes sounding like we He tells me that when Trump says make America great grow up in a world in which she will have no con- “indoctrinate” him. again he must “have thought it was great when women trol over her reproductive cycle. Max knows about the housing movement in couldn’t vote, and there were separate schools for black and I used to joke that she could go to college only in Spain, the PAH, because he has seen several times a white.” Although those are different eras historically, he states that had safe abortion services on demand. documentary about people resisting evictions. From has picked up on the meaning of Trump’s campaign slogan, Now I am deadly serious. there he got the concept that some people -and “the that women and people of color have too much power. That The day after Trump’s win, we went to see the banks”- don’t know how to share and want every- white people are aggrieved because they perceive themselves Julie Ruin perform at Irving Plaza. Band member thing for themselves. When the angry face and the as having lost power. Kenny Mellman kept pleading with the “young yelling of Trump appeared in his life, he quickly He even manages to joke about the now president-elect’s people” in the audience to “take up the fi ght” identifi ed him with that kind of people. arrogance and say “Trump will change everyday words against the new form of fascism that has risen in He was asking why Trump is like that, so we to ‘Trump’ so we all have to say his name every time we tandem with Trump. My daughter kept looking made up a story about Trump’s childhood: his par- speak.” down; I think because, sometimes, growing up in ents refused to love him unless he always was “the For my 16-year-old daughter, the effects of a Trump pres- Brooklyn is hard enough without having to think fi rst” and the “winner” in everything. That’s why he idency are more immediately scary. What will this mean for about fi ghting fascism. I point out daily that we see became so angry and sad for the rest of his life. Then her as she plans to go to college in two years? Will college be oppression when poverty forces people to sleep on Max continued the story: “and then Spiderman and unaffordable and even the meager college aid that currently sidewalks and teenage moms to shoplift diapers. Batman went to his house and they played music for exists slashed?. What does “fi ghting fascism” look like when you him so he wasn’t so sad in his heart.” She describes to me the post-election day discussion at her are a teenage girl who just wants to watch RuPaul’s We are scared about the fate of public schools school. Several students were crying. One girl is afraid be- “Drag Race” after school? What does “fi ghting with Trump’s administration. Our son is a person of cause her mother is a teacher. Will Trump cut funding to the fascism” look like when you are both fl irting with color. We worry about the increase in racism. At the school or otherwise target teachers? Will her mother lose and fi ghting off objectifi cation? same time, we think there is going to be a possibil- her job? How will they survive? Another student is afraid Over after-show burgers, she told me that a few ity for a stronger political alliance between social that Trump will end the public assistance benefi ts her family of the other kids at her Park Slope school have con- classes and races in the city to resist what’s coming. needs to survive. Yet another is afraid because she is part of fessed that their parents voted for Trump. “What a religious and cultural minority she fears could become the do you think about that?” I asked her. She said target of such a racist and intolerant president. “By the end they were shocked and upset. Her generation is as we were all crying,” my daughter say, “but we realized we baffl ed as the rest of us as to why the words of rac- are not alone.” They made a plan to go to Union Square to ism and sexism have resonated strongly around the be together with others who woke up on the morning after United States. Listening to her, I’m hopeful. She is the election to fi nd their very lives in the crosshairs. awake, and I hope she will remain that way. My children know that we’ve been here before, even if not quite this same way. In their young lives we have marched for immigrant rights, against the war in Iraq, against the December 2016

destruction of our environment and against police brutal- ity. They know I will not dismiss their fears because I know how very real they are. They know we will fi ght whatever terrible changes come our way, together. The IndypendenT 17 ReVeRend Billy’s ReVelaTions

Dear Rev, to pay attention in the real world. some Monsanto executives were holding in the State Capi-

I have anxiety from this Trump thing. I’m surprised at how The other day at the White House, sitting there in a chair tol building. I would like to visit those conservative people QuiLty John strong this feels. I feel unsafe with this guy and his cronies, next to Obama, Trump looked disappointed by the whole again the next time I’m in their neighborhood. Giuliani etc. He brings back bad memories. He scares me. thing, like he was already bored. Hate is always monolithic from a distance. If there is a We will let our light shine and our work will help us safe way to get closer to the hater, their condition looks — Amy in the East Village. overcome our anxiety. We need to be willing to be shamed, more like fear, even entrapment. People are trapped out inconvenienced, arrested, hurt. We are being forced to be there in the rural, deindustrialized terrain between the Dear Amy, what a lot of us avoided before — a social movement. coasts; trapped and broke and “deplorable.” And they are This Little Light of Mine, I’m gonna let it shine… The reason that we won’t be anxious is because we will trying to fi nd a way to have dignity. Cynical candidates urge Donald Trump is starting to dismantle the Environmental freely risk life and limb for what we believe, and we will be them to hate. Protection Agency. Paul Ryan wants to privatize Medicare. in a community of like-minded believers. Can you be with your family and take the blows? At least It is happening so fast. for a little while? If you can rope-a-dope them and keep I ask this question humbly, but do we have time to be • • • listening, their hate may become more complex, clearer, and anxious? The threat of Trump’s impending violence puts us even sad. At some point compassion kicks in. If you sit with on a schedule like a family from Aleppo. We can run away, Dear Reverend Billy, the haters and slow everything down, their hate turns into or stay and fi ght. I’m going back home to Peoria soon for the holidays something else. It’s got to! If we stay and fi ght, then we are doing what our progres- and my folks are big into Trump. I love my them but I sive rhetoric has been saying for decades. just don’t know how I’m supposed to stomach sitting at — Reverend Billy Talen Trump is like a rapist comedian. After the crime he tells the dinner table with them, listening to all their Trump jokes. Trump is special though, being post-meaning and talk. Any suggestions? Reverend Billy is an activist and political shouter, a post- without irony. He doesn’t confess or apologize. He tries to — Erika, Flatbush religious preacher of the streets and bank lobbies. raise cruelty up to a noble pursuit, making it up on the spot. No planning, no notes, no action, no memory, no regret. Dear Erika, GOT A QUESTION FOR REVEREND BILLY? JUST Trump is media-as-person. There’s his obese late-Elvis How we face relatives and friends who were taken in by the EMAIL [email protected] AND body — but really he’s a screen only. To deal with him, iron- Horror Clown is something that we’ll all be studying for UNBURDEN YOUR SOUL. ically, we need to be free of media as a dominating psycho- a long time. I am considering this in my own life, regard- presence. Our devotion to the glowing screen in our hands ing my Dutch Calvinist relatives in Iowa. I go on trial in and other forms of consumer hypnosis must end. We need Des Moines this January for protesting too close to a party December 2016 December The IndypendenT The 18 CONSPIRE CREATE CELEBRATE BooKs STARR BAR A NIGHTLIFE VENUE & HOME FOR THE SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMUNITY. DANCE, WATCH MOVIES, LISTEN TO LIVE MUSIC, AND PLAN YOUR NEXT ACTION WITH A DRINK IN HAND! A dIARy OF pROTeST FOR The UPCOMING WEEKLY dAyS TO COMe Fri 11/25 Get down w/ Xicano Sun Live Music Boogie + DJ Cali Torrez Tues Salsa N!ght Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt Sun 11/27 Million Hoodies By Sarah Jaffe in Bentonville, Ark. nation bookS Wed Live Comedy Nation Books, 2016 Jaffe clarifi es murky For Justice Fundraiser Fri & Sat Come Dance! terms like “horizontalism” Sun 12/04 Haiti Fundraiser and “intersectionality” by By Michael Hirsch showing how they operate Fri 12/9 ARTE Fundraiser in practice within protest Sun 12/10 New Women New ne might be tempted to organizations. Leadership can be both read Sarah Jaffe’s book diffused and effective, she illustrates. Yorkers Winter Bash with a kind of archaeo- Class and identity are not at variance, Sun 12/11 Alea Jazz logical nostalgia, to look but indissolubly entwined. upon it as a remnant of a Her sketch of the Labor Religion Co- Obygone-era when the left had confi dence alition of New York State is one example Full events list @ in the gains it was making, before a me- of the intersectional nature of struggle. Facebook.com/StarrbarBK teor named Trump struck earth. The ongoing battle to end the school- But the people Jaffe describes don’t to-prison-pipeline teaches activists from have to become fossils buried beneath the diverse groups in the coalition that WANT TO HOST AN EVENT? the sediment of the nascent Trumpian- ending mass incarceration requires liv- era. The struggles her heros and heroines ing-wage jobs. EMAIL [email protected] face prefi gure future battles to come. One the book’s strongest chapters Writing from the not-so ancient times of covers police militarization. Jaffe docu- Bar proceeds help sustain our sister project MAYDAY, pre-election America in 2016, Jaffe offers ments how weapons developed in war example after example of what ordinary zones and occupied nations abroad are a community resource and organizing hub for all move- people can do when pushed too far and now used routinely on restive, urban ments for justice a short walk away. fb/maydayspace the Trump White House will likely push populations at home. most of us to our limits. Another powerful chapter deals with Necessary Trouble: Americans in Re- storm-damage rescue work in New York 214 Starr St L to the Jefferson Stop volt is chockablock with stories we can following Hurricane Sandy. Jaffe tells learn from of ordinary Americans who how former Occupy Wall Street protest- 35 years of celebrating music have just about all they can bear. Shak- ers launched a massive relief effort in en out of complacency and resignation the Rockaway peninsula when the Red of peace and resistance! they rise confront the social problems Cross and the Federal Emergency Man- affecting their lives. agement Agency failed to deliver aid. They were moved fi rst to make chang- Surprisingly, Jaffe has some kind es directly around them, at work, in words for confl icted Tea Party members their communities, and their cities, but who don’t buy the Republican claptrap their increased involvement in activism that unleashing business from regula- broadened their horizons. It led them to tion will raise all boats or that corporate think beyond the scope of their imme- leaders are job producers. diate interests, to seek common ground Will those Tea Partiers come around and work with others struggling with to fi ght for social justice someday? Is distinct but overlapping troubles. Jaffe’s wondering about that overly optimis- vivid narrative outlines the transition tic? Blind to the dangers of the coming December 3 from the personal to the political. The Age of Trump? Charlie King & Bev Grant people she profi les were moved by expe- Perhaps, but we knew a Clinton ad- riences of intimate and communal loss ministration would be no springtime in to confront a social and economic sys- paradise. Neoliberalism is an uninspir- December 10 tem that is long past its sell-by date. ing alternative to Trumpism, and the The book’s snappy title comes from neoliberal order is cracking up, even Adele Rolider an interview Jaffe conducted in 2013 if it is doing so in a manner few imag- Dave Dersham with Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a leader ined possible. A fi nely written book of the Student Nonviolent Coordinat- such as Jaffe’s is not just a palliative of ing Committee during the 1960s civil- hope: The stories she reports of people December 17 rights movement. Lewis said that elec- building power through struggle offer a Mai Hernon & Celtic Font tion activity was just one part of the healthy direction forward. process of social change. Activists, he Marie Mularczyk O’Connell & Friends insisted, need to fi nd “a way to get in the way,” to “get into trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble.” The book, to its credit, isn’t a simple rhetorical call to “unite and fi ght,” Saturdays at 8 p.m. though it could be read as a faithful di- Community Church of New York Unitarian-Universalist ary of protest. It charts the struggles of 40 E. 35th St. (Madison/Park) dozens of hard-working, mostly young New York, NY 10016 and neophyte activists who sought to right social wrongs in the years follow- December 2016 doors open 7:30; wheelchair accessible ing the 2008 Great Recession — to end 212-787-3903 police murders of African-Americans, www.peoplesvoicecafe.org to clean up toxic dumpsites, to restore their labor unions. The Walmart em- Suggested Donation: $18, $10 PVC subscribers ployees Jaffe profi les took their griev- More if you choose; less if you can’t; no one turned away ances not just to individual store man-

The IndypendenT agers but to the company’s home offi ce 19 communiTy calendaR deCeMBeR

SUNdAYS NOV 20 thRU dEC 18 malcolm x. Follow this link to regis- support the publishers and print FRi dEC 9

1:30Pm • $15 ter in advance: bit.ly/2g0omhb. collectives that keep us informed 6:30Pm • Free SChomburg Center For reSearCh in bLaCk CuLture hoLiday Show: reverend biLLy Schomburg Center for research in with great writing, research and CoQuito maSterS QuaLiFying and the StoP ShoPPing Choir black Culture beautiful, striking prints to carry round earthalujah! reverend billy and 515 malcolm x blvd us, our friends and families into the as part of the 15th annual Coquito the Stop Shopping Choir, an nyC- coming year. masters competition, contestants based radical performance com- FRi dEC 2 the Commons brooklyn bring in their version of coquito, munity that includes 50 performers 6Pm–9Pm • Free 388 atlantic ave a traditional Puerto rican holiday and a congregation in the thou- Laundry workerS Center drink made with rum and coconut. sands, are back at Joe’s Pub. Join FundraiSing gaLa mON dEC 5 you become the judge to see who wild anti-corporate gospel shout- members of the Laundry workers 7Pm–10Pm • $30 goes on to the 2016 new york fi - ers and earth loving urban activists Center have inspired so many in CeLebrate 20 yearS oF DEMOC- nals! id required to taste and vote. as they exorcise the demons of new york and beyond. they are RACY NOW! Presented by the international consumerism and militarism from immigrants fi ghting for justice in Join harry belafonte, noam Chom- Coquito Federation. our city and the planet this holiday the workplace, backed up by union sky, Patti Smith, danny glover, bronx museum of the arts season. more at revbilly.com. members, activists and community danny devito, amy goodman, Juan 1040 grand Concourse also, check out reverend billy’s groups. Join them in celebrating gonzález and more for a historic new advice column on page 17. their progress and help support evening celebrating 20 years of WEd dEC 12–SUN dEC 18 Joe’s Pub their worker-led, militant organizing Democracy Now! tickets available daily • $18, $13 for students, chil- 425 Lafayette St. model. at democracynow.org. dren and seniors 33 w 14th St. the riverside Church bread and PuPPet theater: tUE NOV 29 490 riverside dr. FOUST 3 7Pm–10Pm • Free FRi dEC 2–SUN dEC 12 the demand for more light which CLimate ChaoS: WORLD WAR 3 daily • $18, $13 for students, chil- mON dEC 5 goethe issued at his own death ILLUSTRATED dren and seniors 7Pm • Sliding scale, $6–$15 requires a new model of Foust, an release party for CLimate bread and PuPPet theater: taLk: organiZing in the gig actor in the history of light, a con- ChaoS, the new issue of the WHAT FORWARD CIRCUS eConomy spirator who pursues the disorder- longstanding, alternative graphic a group of stone-age technology the gig economy has been called ing of the existing order of life, and magazine WW3 Illustrated. the puppeteers, brass players, and per- the future of work. but, as Indy sides with the Proletariat’s demand night will feature presentations cussionists check out the promi- associate editor Peter rugh will for the radicalization of leisure. from Seth tobocman and The Indy’s nent forward-moving passions and detail, it’s really just plain 19th-cen- the show starts at 8 Pm daily with Steve wishnia, among others. politics of our capitalist culture, tury-style exploitation. but while additional 3 Pm performances on max Fish and make real and unreal against- Silicon valley is turning back the weekends. For tickets and more 120 orchard St the-grain proposals to identify and clock on progress, gig workers are information visit theaterforthenew- fi ght an anonymous monster: the organizing and fi ghting back. city.net. WEd NOV 30 big fat wrong. this show comes the Commons brooklyn theater for the new City 7Pm–9Pm • Free complete with mongolian hordes, 388 atlantic ave 155 1st ave taLk: THIS VAST SOUTHERN singing toilets and stilted fl ying EMPIRE businessmen! the curtain goes up tUE dEC 6 FRi dEC 16 a discussion with Jacobin editor at 8 Pm daily, with additional 3 Pm 6:30–8:30Pm • $7–$10 9Pm–2am • $15 matt karp and famed historian eric performances on weekends. For death and mourning in kramPuSFeSt: buShwiCk’S Foner, on slavery and struggles tickets and more information visit ameriCan FoLk muSiC anti-ChriStmaS Party over control of the u.S. state. this theaterforthenewcity.net. musicians eli Smith, the Four Cult rites, bonfi res, electronic mu- event will celebrate the release of theater for the new City o’Clock Flowers, and mamie minch sic — everything you need to get in Women WHo

matt karp's fi rst book, This Vast 155 1st ave will play american folk songs cen- the krampus spirit. Wouldn’T Be Joe QuiLty Southern Empire: Slaveholders tered around the theme of death Catland moVed: on dec 1, the at the Helm of American Foreign SAt dEC 3 and mourning in the down-home 987 Flushing ave. Schomburg Center remembers Policy. obtain tickets in advance at 8Pm–11Pm tradition. a conversation with the forgotten black heroines bit.ly/2fi v1ac. bookS through barS 20th an- the musicians will conclude the mARK YOUR CALENdAR: of the civil rights era, includ- new School university Center niverSary bingo FundraiSer performance. JANUARY 20 ing gloria richardson, the 65 5th ave nyC books through bars is an american Folk art museum Stand againSt trumP bad-ass pictured above. all-volunteer group that sends 2 Lincoln Square Progressives from all over the thU dEC 1 free, donated books to incarcer- country will be descending on 6Pm–8Pm • Free ated people across the county and tUE dEC 6 the united States capitol to pReacHinG iT: mad honoring the LegaCy oF has been doing so for 20 years. 7Pm–9Pm • Free stage a massive demonstration genius and indy columnist bLaCk women radiCaLS Join them for a fun night to raise book LaunCh: “ALL THE REAL along Pennsylvania avenue on reverend billy and his Stop black women who were at the fore- much-needed funds for postage INDIANS DIED OFF” AND 20 OTHER inauguration day. this is your Shopping Choir are exorcising

front of the black revolt in the 1960s to mail packages of books! bingo MYTHS ABOUT NATIVE AMERI- chance to stand together with tens america’s demons at Joe’s 2016 December have been omitted from history cards per round will be $3 each or CANS of thousands of people against war, Pub this holiday season. Can books. now the time is ripe to un- 2 for $5. there will be beer from the author’s roxanne dunbar-ortiz and racism, xenophobia, inequality and you feel it? cover their stories. ashley Farmer brooklyn brewery and many great dina gilio-whitaker will discuss trump. will describe the story of new prizes. their latest work which critically washington, d.C. york’s mae mallory, including her mayday Space deconstructs persistent myths courageous fi ght for freedom from 176 St nicholas ave, about native americans that have IndypendenT The the harlem nine to the monroe taken hold in the united States. self-defense movement. Joseph SUN dEC 4 bluestockings books Fitzgerald will detail the story of 12Pm–6Pm • Free 172 allen St. • 212-777-6028 • blue- new york’s gloria richardson from 2nd annuaL LeFt hoLiday stockings.com the militant Cambridge movement book and Print Fair in maryland to her alliance with before books get banned come