Tag: Chuck Morse

Radical Movements Have Shaped the Presidential Race for Democrats

By Chuck Morse (December 3, 2019)

Bloomberg apologizes for “stop and frisk;” Kamala Harris backs away from her record as a prosecutor; Cory Booker voices regret for heavy handed police tactics in Newark; Biden attempts to blabber his way out of accountability for his role in passing the “crime bill.”

It is a big deal that these candidates feel compelled to define themselves in relation to mass incarceration and police terror.

This is a huge victory for Black Lives Matter, the protestors who marched in city after city, and everyone who spoke out (and speaks out) against state terror. They forced the issue onto the agenda and the world is an immensely better place for it.

The faction of the left focused on punching nazis will miss this, but it is a gigantic affirmation of what radical movements and people of conscience can do.

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No Bogus Compromises About the Dreamers!

By Chuck Morse (September 7, 2017)

This is what we’re looking at:

Trump: We’re going to deport the Dreamers in six months!
Democrats: Don’t do that!
Trump: Ok, I won’t deport them, but you have to support my plans to further militarize the border. 
Democrats: Ok, sure. No problem.

–
We can’t allow this to happen. The militarization of borders breeds pure misery. We have to fight bogus compromises. No human being is illegal. The right to migrate is a human right!

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Why is the Left Silent on the War Ripping Mexico Apart?

By Chuck Morse (August 31, 2017)

I am mostly optimistic when I think about the American left these days. While Trump’s election signals the right’s ascendancy, it also indicates a broader crisis in the system and the intensification of a fight that we have to have—an inescapable, unavoidable battle that we might lose, but might win! When he singled out anarchists during his rally last week, it said something about the protagonists in this battle and affirmed that we are a threat to the established order on some level. I heart that.

However, I am disturbed by our relative silence on the war ripping apart Mexico right now. The entire country seems to be turning into a mass grave as bodies pile up relentlessly along the border in Tijuana and elsewhere. The brutality and devastation and anguish is overwhelming.

I understand that it is a another country and that there is a language barrier for many. And it is also true that, to make sense of this conflict, we need to break out of the state-centric perspective that has shaped political thought for so long (because of the importance of non-state actors like the cartels, etc). I get all this, and I don’t have any particularly insightful solutions or strategies to offer, but it feels so urgent and terrifying. I hate the thought of passively watching this process unfold.

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Trump is Setting the Stage for a Much Worse Regime

By Chuck Morse (January 28, 2017)

It’s tempting to see Trump’s attacks on the media and the democratic system (voting) as an expression of his self-sabotaging vanity, but I think we’re seeing something much more malevolent. I think he’s setting the stage for his re-election in four years and the assertion of a much more violent, racist regime.

That is, he introduces policies that throw the world into chaos and aggravate social polarization, which of course compromises his popularity, but his attacks on the media undermine the setting in which opposition can be articulated and his attacks on the voting system undermine the system that could dislodge him from power. This is straight out of the Stephen Bannon playbook.

This puts the left in a very difficult position. I think it basically has three choices.

1. Stay silent and prepare to die.

2. Defend “democracy” and the media. This would mean lining up behind outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and the NYTimes, which are hardly allies. And it would also mean supporting “democracy,” which of course has a million problems.

3. Fight for something else entirely.

Who Deserves to be Captain?

 

By Chuck Morse (September 23, 2015)

Bernie Sanders is running for president and I know people who say that, given the options, he’s the best choice. I understand this position, but I think it confuses things. We should ask less about what type of president we’d like and more about what type of political culture we want.  Continue reading “Who Deserves to be Captain?”

The Fight Against Police Violence is About Politics Not Identity

 

By Chuck Morse

I just had a long talk with some local ex-cons about how much they deplore the recent protests against police violence. These guys (all of whom are Black) have spent huge amounts of time in the prison system and most are still linked to it on some level. Continue reading “The Fight Against Police Violence is About Politics Not Identity”

Is the “Fight of the Century” Really About Class Warfare?

 

By Chuck Morse

I didn’t watch last night’s fight (although I did talk about it with a bunch of my neighbors on the street while walking my dogs). I could have watched it for $25 at the soul food place at the end of my block (with some food included), but the thought of giving these billionaires even more money turned me off completely.  Continue reading “Is the “Fight of the Century” Really About Class Warfare?”

Interview: Chuck Morse

Chuck Morse is an American anarchist, academic, translator, editor, and writer. He founded the Institute for Anarchist Studies and The New Formulation: An Anti-Authoritarian Review of Books. Morse was the editor of Perspectives on Anarchist Theory and taught at theInstitute for Social Ecology. Continue reading “Interview: Chuck Morse”