When I see today’s flyers and banners that say “STOP THE WAR ON IRAN,” replacing the ones that last week said “STOP THE WAR ON VENEZUELA” or “STOP THE WAR ON CUBA” or “STOP THE WAR ON GAZA” or the easily remembered ones like “STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN/YEMEN/SOMALIA ETC. ETC.” it makes me ill.
How many years…decades…and for some of us GENERATIONS will we be satisfied with taking to the streets in righteous anger, maybe get arrested here and there, forming bucket brigades for one fire after another?
I’ve done all the above, with many valiant, dedicated movement colleagues for 50 years. Most recently, on March 4, a jury refused to convict five of us who blocked our U.S. Senator’s office here in Toledo for over two hours. But I also firmly believe we have to talk about and act on fire prevention instead of just fire fighting.
There is no question we are experts at fire fighting, at opposing the serial horrors rolled out by the U.S. empire. For that matter, we are experts at fighting what the highway lobby, the health insurance industry, the toxic waste industry, Big Ag, the chemical industry throw at us, too. I’m talking here primarily about working for peace, but also including our struggles for universal health care, mass transit, sustainable agriculture, an energy policy based on more than just how quickly we can burn our planet.
So when do we start striking at the root of the problem and not just the branches? What can we do to prevent the empire’s murder and arson sprees instead of just reacting to them? How long do we want to walk in circles with the same signs expecting something different to happen? This is the question that bedevils me – and it is not a rhetorical question.
The U.S. doesn’t cause every evil in the world, just a hugely disproportionate share. We, and so much of the Earth, struggle to survive these crises because, all democracy myths aside, the U.S. is not governed by its citizens. Most people reading this would agree we are run by corporate elites with enormous wealth at their disposal, enabling them to do all the aspects of governing. They buy the politicians, write the legislation, insure it is interpreted for them and their shareholders’ benefit to the exception of all else. Marine Corps General Smedley Butler’s pamphlet, “War Is A Racket” laid it out clearly almost 100 years ago…and it has only gotten worse.
Our health care policy is written by insurance companies, our foreign policy is written by weapons manufacturing corporations, our transportation policy is written by the Highway Lobby. Corporations have achieved this privileged status primarily because the Supreme Court has usurped for them all the constitutional protections originally meant only for human beings. That story has been carefully traced and laid out in brief, plain language.
The way to reverse that history of corrupt usurpation is also laid out in plain language. Here’s former Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg boiling it down to one minute, 15 seconds.
As he clearly says, it will not be a quick fix. There aren’t any. But if we can change the constitution so you can’t drink beer, and then change it back so you can, clearly it’s within the realm of possibility, as suffragists proved with a persistent campaign to get voting rights for women and the NAACP proved with a decades-long strategy to abolish Jim Crow.
The critical change to end corporate rule will be in our minds. That’s where the bars of the prison are. When we see ourselves not as just taxpayers or customers or consumers or workers but as “We the People,” from which all authority flows according to the Constitution, then we can accomplish anything. On the way there, victories like we saw in Minneapolis when people came together to provide for their neighbors as they booted out ICE, and even general strikes, will extend our vision of ourselves beyond victims of the system to democratically running the show for the good of all.
That requires, however, that we learn this history and find ways to articulate it along with our demands for peace, health care, clean air, clean water and a sustainable planet. It’s not hard to do. Here’s my attempt to include it at a Gaza ceasefire rally in two minutes.
To answer a question I often get: I’m NOT suggesting activists drop whatever particular campaign or firefight they’re engaged in. It’s important work we must continue. But if you think about it, there are many opportunities to not only rail against the latest horror, but articulate, even briefly, why they keep coming. The videos linked above are examples. You’ll be able to craft one that works for you.
Then…THEN when lots of people are talking about taking constitutional rights away from corporations, we will be in a good place to join with Move to Amend.org to promote the amendment that will do just that.
We did it so women could vote. We did it so Blacks, under law, would be equal citizens. We did it (twice) for beer. We can do it for democracy and the planet!
Mike Ferner was a Navy corpsman during the Vietnam War. He was formerly executive director of Veterans For Peace and served as a member of the Toledo City Council. He is the author of Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq. He can be reached at mike@veteransforpeace.org.
