Hands Off

[u/counselorq]

Go to your Hand Off protest today, wherever it is. And next time plan it for a Tuesday, all day National strike.

[u/leveller1650]

I went to Lansing (about an hour from where I live), and I need to vent; hope this is an okay place to do so...

LOTS of people, maybe a few thousand? One of the speakers said 7,000 which seemed a bit extra but I don't know. Way more people than the rally I went to there last month, fwiw.

The speakers were almost entirely elected Dem politicians. It was basically a Dem party rally. And this isn't my first foray into activism, I know how these things can go . I was very active from 2002-2012-ish, particularly anti-war, anti-racist, labor and occupy stuff, in Michigan, Chicago, DC, NYC, etc. There were constant issues in organizing groups/coalitions between independent/left activists vs the progressive Dems or whatever. I'm not naive about all that. But today was something else imho.

I made it through speeches from several state politicians, a couple of whom I have a soft spot for, a couple of whom spoke some truth and didn't romanticize 'the system' or whatever. I even made it through Debbie Stabenow's speech BUT....

There was a general implication in speeches that our system is amazing and freedom and democracy and.... it's just corrupted right now and we can fix it. We can be great! We can lead the world!

There were multiple "USA! USA! USA!" chants. WTF?

Dana Nessel, our state AG who chose to arrest pro-Palestine activists at U of M stood up there and acted like she gives a shit about authoritarianism. Hypocrite.

State Rep, Carrie Rheingans said we all have to work together but we cannot criticize Democrats. I wish I could remember her exact words. But she literally said not to talk bad about elected Democrats.

That's when I bailed. I cannot stand with that shit. At least some of the crowd reacted and chanted "Do Your Job! Do Your Job!".

Fuck, I'm bummed. I thought I had a high tolerance for this. I'm used to being the anarcho-commie in a sea of progressives who don't know the difference between left and liberal, and being able to work with that anyway. I also understand that a lot of POC and immigrant folks who may normally participate are staying the fuck home this round and with good reason. And perhaps some honest truth and more radical ideas are lacking at the protests because of this.

But i'm pretty sure that any lefties or independents who are finding their first inspiration for protest, let alone any conservative/Republican types who are finally disillusioned, will NOT be encouraged by what sounded like a fucking Dem party campaign event. I understand that there's an ad hoc flavor to these current rallies but FFS if the next one is like this I'm gonna be hard pressed to go to the one after that.

Sorry, I rarely rant like this. This just really threw me off balance. Maybe it's just me. I'll shake it off and get ready for the next one, be more mentally prepared and try to connect with more comrades in rural Michigan (are you there? where are you? lolol).

[u/lilberg83 → u/leveller1650]

That really sucks. Especially wanting to work within the system.

I went to the one in Fargo and was pleasantly surprised. No elected speakers, only unions members, teachers and indigenous speakers. It was a very class conscious rally here. They bluntly said that the government and courts are not coming to help, that we must fight for ourselves.

[u/leveller1650 → u/lilberg83]

I'm happy to hear this. I went to a Lansing rally last month, too, and it was more like what you're describing. Hoping the next one in Michigan is more like that. There are a lot of union workers and leaders here, so hopefully we'll get more of a labor voice next time, and more BIPOC speakers. Or maybe I'll drive all the way to Detroit or something so I can see a different scene. In any case, despite my rant I'm mostly just frustrated at how co-opted it already seems but I'm still gonna get out there whenever I can and try connecting with more folks from different groups.