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.
