Does anyone else feel helpless right now?

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20. ((hugs)) white_wolf

I swing between wild hope and despair. I had a moment in Oakland last year, at the first port shut down in November. I came out of the BART station and heard all the drums and saw thousands of people and a huge banner that read "Death to Capitalism". I honestly never thought I would see this in my lifetime, and I felt that even just for a moment, things had taken a turn in history that will never quite go back to the way things were.

Watching the sun set with two veteran commies at the Port itself, even they felt it. We all looked over the crowd of tens of thousands and they said, this might really happen. We might see socialism in our lifetimes, in this country.

I don't put too much faith in elections to fix anything. Any change is going to come from people. There is a rising consciousness again that change needs to come from us. The best we can do is vote for people who are not actively worse for labor and keep hitting in that arena. I was talking to my partner about this just this morning, and he is frustrated with the defensive posture that labor is always in. I am too, but it might be an inevitable result of the death throes of capitalism, that these attacks get more pervasive and savage. We can only do what we can do.

It's hard not to feel depressed, especially when reading about the hard-hitting labor and leftist resistance in other countries. You get an urgent sense of wanting to scream, go faster! Get out there! Those of us with a knowledge of what is wrong have a need to get out there and help, and it feels like you're just watching things roll rapidly downhill. But I think the larger trend is towards progress in the US. I have to believe it, anyway. :/