davy

By estelle ellison

"It is not lost on us what has finally mobilized white radicals and liberals alike to engage in some form of collective action. After years of insisting we hear fascists out and give them a platform, fascists now make clear their intent with treacherous violence. White americans can now be the target of brutal repression and this comes at a shock to them. They are shocked because, up until now, they believed the worst state violence was only reserved for Black people.

The state apparatus of today is made from the blood of those it has slain over the generations, including that of enslaved Africans. An unbroken line of continuity can be drawn from the technologies of violence developed for and wielded against Black people under chattel slavery to the fascist surveillance state of today. The carceral state born of slave patrols and continues the institution of slavery for incarcerated people.

Despite generous warnings that quiet inaction when fascist violence targets the most marginalized often leads eventually to more privileged groups finding themselves within the crosshairs of mass genocide. Perhaps if white americans were just quiet diligent voters throughout the development of these concurrent genocides we face today, the severity of death, disablement, and incarceration we see globally would not be so severe. But instead we are looking down the barrel of a gun white americans have openly collaborated on assembling. They have helped criminalize and police some of our only avenues of resisting extermination.

Given this history of condemning protests and justifying brutally violent repression so long as the victims are Black, it’s no surprise that this flood of white americans into collective action and self-defense are bringing with them an unbroken belief in peaceful deference to state forces. They still derive some semblance of pride from their chosen democratic mouthpieces who offer nothing but words to obfuscate their active participation in repressing anyone who recognizes what it takes to keep people safe from genocidal violence.

It is difficult not to wonder whether the marginalized folks that elude capture as a result of networks of eyes, ears, and whistles is incidental to white americans who now stand to benefit from this particular resistance strategy. That there are strategies and networks for building safety and care readily available to recently outraged white americans is entirely owed to the work accomplished in 2020 by Black people developing and engaging in various collective actions. And yet, peace policing by white americans continues. Condemnation of any and all direct antagonism with the state led to the incarceration, neglect, and/or disablement of those who risked the most to hinder the state’s capacity for violence. The brazen violence white americans are shocked was used on them for once is a function of both their actions and inaction that diminish many collective deterrents for the escalated violence of today.

It is important that we recognize the political implications of only just now choosing to do something other than vote and participate in peaceful parades. Many could have greatly benefited from this level of vigilance even just a few short weeks ago, as well as months and years prior. So many deportation efforts have occurred unimpeded, under both democratic and republican presidents. But this wave in particular is inspiring many to take incomplete measures towards ending fascism in our lifetimes. This political development highlights a kind of selective collective action where americans opt in to collective actions that either seem easy enough and/or they personally benefit from said actions.

This form of opportunism is most visible among white americans who believe that fascism has only just arrived and white “covid-cautious” people who fail to consider the economic and medical realities of Black people who are exposed to covid. However; selective collective action is not exclusive to white americans.

What is known as lateral violence within a particular marginalized group can also occur in a context of selective collective action where networks of resources of support are coordinated and received. It is possible to be in favor of actions one finds personally accessible but against efforts to make them more accessible or even more effective.

Selective collective action at its root is a willingness to mitigate one hierarchy but not others. Because hierarchies necessarily maintain and reinforce, they all remain intact when people pick and choose which ones to oppose. Hierarchy itself cannot be dismantled so long as it is not holistically opposed. For example, it is contradictory to oppose ableism but not anti-Blackness and vice versa. It is contradictory to oppose patriarchy, but not oppose both transmisogynoir and anti-Black-transmasculinity. It is contradictory to support bodily autonomy but not the self determination of trans people.

When we take stock of how many violences are or are not effectively deterred, we recognize how we marginalized folks have largely been left to fend for ourselves against these vectors of fascism for a while now. This deeply felt scarcity of support and resources is the context in which many understandably settle for anything that’s on offer. These are conditions that make it easier for fascists, opportunists, and reactionaries alike to prey upon the most vulnerable. Fascism urges us to become tolerant of mistreatment and exploitation where they come attached to the things we need to survive. This is why it actively foments oppressive conditions that push us into a desperation that disempowers us.

These conditions of scarcity and neglect have reduced broad and varied strategies of mutual aid to monetary donations. In an absence of robust sustainable relationships and reliable access to resources, care, and safety, mutual aid reduced to monetary donations becomes a necessary concession for the chance of affording food, shelter, and/or life saving medical care.

Even as we see the racial and gender disparities between those who or do not receive this limited form of collective action, our options for survival are so few that we keep asking. Those of us globally who are the primary targets of fascism deserve to live, and surviving is a victory in this sense. But struggling alone should not be our only option and neither should struggling alongside people who inflict lateral violence upon us or with those more classed and privileged than us who enact violence against us.

Collective actions that can upend the whole of fascism grasp the reality of the fight. They require a thorough understanding of why reformism and pacifism haven’t worked instead of hoping those avenues will be sufficient and that fascism will go away over a single election night. True understanding of the severe threat before us can only be measured by the efficacy of collective actions taken. Safety from deportation, incarceration, and murder is of course a worthy aspiration for those looking to fight today’s fascism. But any safety that coexists with a fascist apparatus will always be fleeting and insufficient. Electing someone else to operate it does nothing to stop its violence. Elections won’t resurrect those slain by state arsenals. Voting won’t dismantle prisons, drones, missiles, or bombs. The ballot won’t keep we marginalized folks safe on the streets, at bus stops, in grocery stores, or even our homes.

“Join an org, any org,” has taught people to settle for organizational and interpersonal abuse so long as we think the orgs work is important enough to be above criticism. “A fascist hit the gym, did you?” is effectively thinly veiled eugenics in the face of disabled and isolated marginalized people who’ve been abandoned both by covid denialists and classed liberals who feel they’ve contributed a big enough fraction of their wealth. Even impassioned calls for people to “skill up” fall flat without consideration of which skills are accessible to whom and why.

Collective action that protects and supports Black trans and queer people should be at least as easy to visualize and actualize as collective actions in defense of white queers. It should be as simple to commit to collective action that defends neighborhoods as it is to commit to stopping genocides abroad. Wearing a mask to protect yourself and others from covid should be as easy as it is to carry a whistle. Committing to developing caring and supportive relationships that lessen dependence on donations from strangers should be at least as common as commitments to boosting crowdfund goals. Organized childcare should be at least as common as organized reading groups.

For all the leftist calls for “dual power” we have heard over and over, we do not see orgs meaningfully creating safety from fascism nor do we see them deterring further violence against us. We do not see them helping communities access and cultivate care for themselves. Simply asking people to consider what it would take to dismantle a global fascist apparatus does not actualize the means to do so. Likewise, joining a group that imagines itself at the helm of a future revolution does not actualize the broad concurrent diverse collective actions necessitated by such a revolution. Selective collective action will not suffice. We can’t pretend such actions are universally accessible or that participants each face equal risks.

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