In 2024
The contours of political struggle are emerging. In a century in which open warfare has been a defining aspect of our lives, we are reaping the terrors visited upon those who choose weapons over words, violence over peace, protection of some over the possibilities of life for the many. It should be obvious to everyone that the use of force to protect some endangers everyone.
This new year will require us to think and act very differently if we are to have a future.
Constructing economies of care and compassion. Since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the US government has made it abundantly clear that it does not respect people, especially those who are poor. It is willing to sacrifice thousands upon thousands of lives. It allows infrastructure to erode, people to drown, starve, or be forced to live in conditions ripe with disease, without adequate food, water, or shelter. Nearly two million people were displaced during Katrina, nearly two thousand died.
From the caging of children to the poisoning of waters in Flint, we have seen the lessons of Katrina repeated time and again. Whole cities with black and brown people are considered expendable.
The devastation of Gaza is the extension of this kind of thinking on a global scale. While it is being carried out with a ferocity not usually openly displayed, it is standard practice in a world where money is made from developing 2,000-pound bombs, tanks, and weapons capable of massive destruction.
To create a world where every life is valued, where people can live with a sense of freedom and dignity, we need to find very different ways of living together, rooted in values of mutual care, respect, and compassion.
Across our city and throughout the land we are seeing signs of new ways of being emerging. Sparked by the movement for black lives, there is a deeper conversation now about what it means to create safe, healthy, enduring communities. Mutual aid societies are being organized at neighborhood and city-wide levels. Efforts to protect each other, to develop economies of care that emphasize creative cultures, local production for local use, and regenerative practices are moving us away from extractive practices, toward connections rooted in an ethic of care. These activities are developing in the spaces opened by the failures of racial capitalism to sustain life. Over this coming year, we need to expand our capacities to shift toward ways of being that reflect the values essential to protect and advance our lives.
Resisting the forces of dehumanization. The humanizing movements of the last century offered the possibility that we are capable of creating a world where all children can grow and thrive, where freedom is more than a dream. Through decades of struggle, people who had been despised, disrespected, and denied by the structures of power created organizations, programs, institutions, and ideas that called upon the best of humanity, that encouraged us to seek a fuller understanding of where we have come from and where we are capable of going.
These possibilities have provoked a fear in those in power who know they are surrounded by unjust gains, taken by force from people and the planet. They are doing everything they can to destroy those who press for new ways of being. They are increasing weapons of control and their capacities to produce death. While Trump is an expression of these forces, he is part of a long, organized effort to protect the power and privileges embedded in white supremacy and racial capital.
Dismantling military and police. The calls nationally and globally to find alternatives to the use of violence and force by states are growing. Organizing for cease fires is accompanied by expansive conversations about the role of the US Empire and the death and destruction required to maintain it. We are coming to understand how the militarism abroad is destroying us materially and spiritually.
This year we expect both the forces of creation and the powers of destruction to intensify. Our task will be to find the ways to turn to each other, to strengthen our resolve to act out of love and faith in our capacities to create worlds worth preserving.