We Need To Celebrate the Small Wins. This Is Going To Be a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Something shared by one of my activist friends whose immigration status puts them at risk —

"With genuine love:

I am a curmudgeon-y Leftist. Years of working on immigration issues got me here. And you best believe that in the current atmosphere, I am filled with anger and bitterness at what could have been.

But people need to ease up on these critiques of the marches and rallies we are seeing. OBVIOUSLY many of those marches don't speak sufficiently to many of the issues I care about. Would I love it if the messaging was better? Absolutely. Do I have concerns that they will only result in people being shepherded into a Democratic Party that continues to show that it is not up to the task of resisting this fascism? Yes.

But these rallies are more about getting people engaged, many of whom have never or seldom attended political protests. They are going to pool together people with lots of different positionalities, stances, politics, etc...With sizes like this, it is literally inevitable.

This is also organizing 101: Even at the most local level, whenever you put together a campaign, you end up working with people whose politics you don't like. I have been shocked at the politics of people I have temporarily allied with in the past. That continues to happen. It's just a fact of activism.

But one of the things needed right now is a show of size and strength. We cannot gather huge crowds if we start to police the politics of every rally. And even better, beyond the stated goals of a lot of these marches, they DO include a lot of people speaking to issues like Palestine and Dem complicity in the immigration crisis (for example)....I've been impressed with some of the signs I've seen.

Finally: they are working. Trump is considerably down in the polls. This is not just about these marches, but they have helped people see that the idea that Trump had a "mandate" is BS. All this helps with broader organizing, beyond the scope of these mass gatherings.

We need to celebrate the small wins. This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint."

My husband and I at one of many recent protests in Portland

My response to their message....

Thank you. As always, I appreciate you. You articulate so much so often so well.

And maybe it’s different here in the Pacific Northwest, but countless times I see people here with signs and songs and shouts for Palestine, for immigrants, and calling out the infuriating complicity of the neoliberal democrats with the fascist regime in power today.

And any injustice is connected with every other injustice, atrocity, brutality, dehumanization, and the many faces of violence. It’s just all connected. It is my belief  that whatever brings us together in ever growing solidarity builds on itself and is part of the new world that is trying to birth itself.

I post many images and videos from every protest that I participate in. Deeply energizing, inspiring, passionate, and caring. More and more people are waking up and caring and beginning to take action.

And, wow, that just happened Thursday near our home in Vancouver, Washington. My husband and I were going to a town hall with Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, whose alliance with the fascists has been infuriating. We were getting closer to the venue at 4:40 for the 5:00 town hall when we saw cars lining up in the road and people walking from blocks away — and 500 people showed up! In little Vancouver! Wow! We had no idea that we’d be going to a full blown rally as the overflow crowd that couldn’t get in surrounded the glass windows on both sides of the building where Gluesenkamp Perez was trying to speak with signs and shouts and condemnation of this person we’d voted for who ended up often voting like her fascist opponent Joe Kent. And hundreds of people were mad as hell and calling her out inside and outside. It was all over the news. And the chances are strong now that a true progressive will run against her in the next election.

More and more people are rising up! And I am profoundly grateful for whatever inspires anyone to engage and act on behalf of a higher good for us all. — Molly