Message to “Never Biden” voters

I’ve had some extended discussions with people who no matter what aren’t going to vote to keep Trump out, by voting for Biden. These are people I basically agree with on most (but not all) issues. There’s no point in butting our heads against a wall here. We’re not going to convince each other. So here’s what I’d like to say to those, especially those who are so enfuriated at Biden for his support for Israeli genocide that they’ll never vote for him:

Okay, we disagree on voting for Biden. So, let’s figure out where we go together from here. We need to draw up a plan of action for when Trump:

• Openly aligns with and encourages the outright fascists in the Israeli politics, meaning Knesset members Itamar Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and the settlers;
• Enables the fascist-connected Putin to take over all of Ukraine, leading to mass slaughter in that country and further advances of his supporters around the world, including America First and other fascists here in the US;
• Pushes for a national abortion ban;
• further enables attacks on lgbtq+ people;
• Gives the green light to oil exploration right next to or even inside our national parks;
• Rounds up hundreds of thousands (he says “millions”!) of undocumented immigrant workers for deportation;
• Does what the Republican governors of Texas and Georgia have done on college campuses (University of Texas-Austin and Emory University);
• Establishes a national free speech ban on college campuses like what DeSantis has done in Florida, including having tenured professors fired;
• Takes direct personal control over the federal bureaucracy through “Schedule F”
• Frees from prison hundreds of violent fascist organizers (the January 6 rioters);
  

  The Oath Keepers on January 6. Trump is on record saying he’ll pardon these and similar fascists.

• Moves to put US troops on the streets and declares martial law.

As recently as 10 years ago, if anybody had raised this, I’d have said they were hysterical. Not now. Trump is not like previous Republican presidents. He’s already called for all of this. Knowing him, that makes it likely, if he can get away with it.

In fact, we’d better be ready for the possibility that several Republican state legislatures try to steal the election, meaning they’re eliminating our right to vote. And if you think that right doesn’t matter, why do you think it is that black people in the South fought so long and hard and sacrificed so much for that right? And why do you think it was that denial of that right went hand-in-hand with lynching and official segregation?

Plan of action
So, if you’re so pissed off at Biden for understandable reasons, and if enough people feel that way, and that puts Trump back in office, then we need to plan for that. Here’s what I think:

First of all, let’s review how we got to this state of affairs, and that gets back to the sorry state of the US labor movement. For nearly 100 years, the union leaders have been telling us that we have no alternative but the Democratic Party. For all that time they also have been telling us that we are on the same team as the employers, so let’s be nice to the Democrats, let’s not demand too much, let’s be a docile labor force. We need to organize among the rank and file to oppose that.

Four years ago, the Vermont AFL-CIO issued a call for a general strike in case Trump got elected. That call was nothing but words because they didn’t do a thing to prepare that. We need to organize within our unions to make a break from the past. But it won’t be so easy, because many of our very own members support Trump!

We need to organize committees of resistance in the communities that will come under the most attack, including the Muslim community, people of color, the immigrant community, and on the college campuses and even in working class high schools. These committees of resistance have to be run democratically, with all voices on our side being heard.

We need to use this organizing to start down the road towards building a mass, working class oriented party that can coordinate the fightback and run its own candidates against both the Republicans and Democrats.

And one last thing: Even if Biden does win and gets back in office, the fascist-connected and nationalist far right will not go away quietly. They’ll prepare more violence, and I doubt anybody really thinks that the police and the Democrats will be adequate protection from them.

So, one way or another, we need to organize independently of the Democrats and of their representatives. That includes the union leadership and the nonprofiteers.

Update: We have just read the Time magazine report of its interview with Trump. Anybody who thinks we’re exaggerating should read just the opening paragraph for starters. In fact, even if you don’t think we’re exaggerating you should read it. Here is an excerpt:

“What emerged in two interviews with Trump, and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world. To carry out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 million people from the country, Trump told me, he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland. He would let red states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans. He would, at his personal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by Congress, according to top advisers. He would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn’t carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America’s founding. He is weighing pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury. He might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn’t paying enough for its own defense. He would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic-preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.”