The Fasten Seat Belts Sign Is On

[Tom Rinaldo]

We've begun our descent into turbulence. There is no smooth path forward and there are no accurate maps of the territory we now are entering. For the first time since the civil rights movement, since the race riots, since the anti-Vietnam War movement, we are back on the streets and staying there. It happened in the 30's also. Factories were occupied then. General strikes happened then.

In the 60's we were called "the new left". Our message was labeled "anti-American" by our opponents, because of our heated opposition to U.S. war efforts, and because it was fully our intention then to forcefully "rock the boat". In the name of patriotism, for the most part the "hard hats" fought against us in those days. This time will be different. It already is. This time we reach all the way back to the 30's.

We are not there yet, we aren't even close, but that doesn't matter - we've pushed off from the gate and there is no heading back. The civil rights movement didn't begin with massive nation wide protests. It grew from a committed small base and gathered steam. The anti-Vietnam War movement didn't pull hundreds of thousands to Washington immediately either. There were small hardly noticed "teach-ins" on some college campuses in the early stages.

This time it isn't the draft that is mobilizing students and the young into action; it is the prospect of "no future". It is the belief that tomorrow will be worse than today if something isn't done now to change that. In the 60's we all heard stories of farm foreclosure's in the 30's. Today the foreclosures are happening on our block. Today the economic safety net that we believed would catch us is we fell, is unraveling daily, with as many people being thrown off unemployment insurance weekly as are trying to get onto it. Few believe any more that we are in an economic slowdown. We are recognizing the new reality.

In the 30's the Democratic Party grabbed the banner of resistance and road it into power. In the 60's it was slower to do so and more tentative when it did. Between 2002 and 2008, most of the activist grassroots energy that is now feeding the 99% movement was channeled into the Democratic Party. A collective effort swept Democrats into control of first Congress and then the Presidency. But that movement was not encouraged to stay active, it was counted on to stay loyal instead. After a period of disappointment leading to disillusionment, much of that energy is headed to the streets. Both in the 1930's and the 1960's, movements didn't wait for the Democratic Party to lead them - it was up to the Party to win a position at the front. People aren't waiting anymore now either.

Big money owns a part of the Democratic Party today. I don't know if todays Democratic Party can get ahead of the movement this time. The steering wheel for it has slipped out of the Party's hands. I don't know what will happen next other than to say this; we are only in the early stages of significant "social unrest". It's been a while, most people can't really remember what that feels like.