Category Archives: Health and dignity

The Problem with the “Hands Off” Protests Is Not What You Think

First off I just want to say that this is a stressful time for almost everyone. This is not an easy period that we are living through – whether we’re accustomed to ongoing crises or we’re more recently waking up and feeling it. My heart and love goes out in solidarity to all of us who are experiencing fear, grief, anger, uncertainty, disillusionment, and many other challenging emotional states and real life consequences resulting from the crisis in the capitalist system. 

But there is “hope”, many say, as evidenced by participation in the April 5th protests around the United States, broadly cast as “anti-Trump and Musk”.

My socials are filled with folks proclaiming how “hopeful” it is to see so many people take to the streets in these symbolic protest actions. And along with that “hope” comes the withering criticism of those of us with a “critique”. 

We’re just so naive/misguided they say. “How can anyone sit there and criticize folks who are getting activated for not being “correct” or “radical” enough? We have to meet people where they are!” 

And to that – I completely and unequivocally agree! My criticism is not with the people who showed up for this rally. That would be ridiculous. We need masses of people taking action together, now and always! 

But I don’t believe that the turn-out is in and of itself a beacon of hope. It’s an indication of possibility, but it will take much more to turn that possibility into real hope. Just as faith without works is dead, hope without clear, connected, competent and committed leaders is empty. 

Do you remember, or have you ever heard or read about what happened on February 15, 2003? 6-10 million people worldwide took to the streets to protest the Second Gulf War. The largest protest in human history, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. 

Wall Street interests prevailed, the war proceeded, slaughtering 1,000,000 Iraqi people in the course of the war and its aftermath. The U.S. service members who were forced to wage this war were crushed by Gulf War Syndrome, depression, and PTSD, as well as chronic health conditions from toxic exposures.  

On November 4, 2023, the largest protest in solidarity with the Palestinian people took place around the globe, with estimates of more than half a million in the streets. The Israel-led and U.S. backed genocide rages more ferociously than ever. One child is killed every 30 minutes in Gaza. 

In the course of the summer of 2020, an estimated 26 million people participated in protests connected to the George Floyd uprising. 4,600 people were killed by the police in the U.S. during the Biden administration. White people comprise the largest number of those killed by the police, while Black people are 3 times more likely to be killed by police with figures for Indigenous people ranging from 3-7 times more likely. 

In his important book “If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution”, journalist and author Vincent Bevins examines the global wave of protests between 2011 and 2021, asking the critical question: Why have the upsurge of protest movements around the world not resulted in serious and lasting change?

Which brings me back to my point – what exactly is my criticism? Do I stand against “hope”? 

Of course not!

And yet, I do believe that our hope must be based in reality, not fantasy. 

Our hope must be based in each other, not the misleaders who have kept us on a treadmill of hope and despair, mobilization and demobilization, lying to us about the source of why things have gotten steadily worse across the entire working class in this country for the last 50 years. 

Our hope must be based in each other, not the party that the ruling class used to continue to degrade the position of the working class through NAFTA – the North American Free Trade Agreement (1993) which resulted in massive industrial job loss; Welfare Reform (1996) which replaced a social safety net with market-driven “workfare”; the Telecommunications Act (1996) which led to the rise of media monopolies and the age of disinformation; financial deregulation and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (1999) which led to the 2007-2008 financial crisis; the Troubled Asset Relief Program (2008), or the bailout of Wall Street at the expense of the working class, and the Affordable Care Act (2010) which preserved, expanded and protected the private insurance system that profits off our sickness and death.**

These are among the policies that helped pave the way for the degradation of our living conditions such that we now count 140 million people in the ranks of the poor or those of us one healthcare or housing emergency away – nearly half the country. 

Just like we can’t expect an engine that runs on fossil fuels to belch out anything but polluted air, we can’t expect an economic and political system that runs on systemic racism, poverty, environmental devastation and militarism to produce anything but more of the same. 

So I’m here for the big tent – believe me! The tent I’m building is big enough for 140 million people – and guess what – those people are hurting – across the color line, the party line, and the urban/rural divide. I’m not here to listen to anyone speaking from the podium who says that the problem is chiefly or exclusively Trump. I don’t want to go back to the normal of 2023-2024, when 25 million people were kicked off of Medicaid in this country. We need to go forward.

I’m here for the big tent – but my tent does not include the billionaires and Wall Street – the economic forces behind the two party system in this country. 

I’m here for the big tent – but I refuse to be operationalized and co-opted by one section of the capitalist class in order for another section to prevail. We’ve been there before – we went from the period of Reconstruction after the civil war to the backlash of the Redeemers. We went from the upsurge of independent working class organization in the wake of the Great Depression to the New Deal Coalition which saved capitalism from itself. I refuse to set the table for the capitalist class to continue to eat while we starve. 

The nationwide rallies can be hopeful IF:

The people attending and organizations turning out their members demand of the official sponsors that no politicians be allowed to speak from the podium. The primary task of these figureheads is yoking us to a hamster wheel of 1) mobilization, 2) demobilization and 3) voting for the bad or the worse because they are yoked to a system that puts profit over our lives and planet. Here’s a great example of what it means when poor folks take the stage. 

They become moments to raise class consciousness, unite across issue silos, and talk about the fundamental problem. We are not a compendium of identity groups who need “allies”. We are a diverse working class trying to survive a war being waged on us by Wall Street, whether we currently know it as such or not. We need to get together, desperately, and see our common problems. We need people from the ranks of the organized poor to grab the mic, teach the historical and economic roots of this current crisis, shift the focus away from “experts” and “VIPs” and help the poor and dispossessed to understand ourselves as the only people capable of unsettling this society and putting us on a path of transformation. Here’s a great example from the Rev. Joe Paparone in Albany, NY.

We use them to bring people into the politically independent organizations of the poor and dispossessed. Many people are ready to mobilize, but not yet ready to organize. However, we need to train thousands of leaders NOW as we prepare for much bigger eruptions and outbursts that will inevitably result from the unsustainable organization of and relationships that govern our global economy. Those upswings and outbursts will not as easily be led, co-opted, and directed by the powers that be. As we raise the consciousness of the people turning out for “Hands Off”-style demonstrations, we can immediately begin to help those who gravitate toward us to see themselves as PART of the working class, not simply the “middle class”. This is the beginning of the journey for many folks getting mobilized right now. The work of member-led, staff free networks like the National Union of the Homeless and the Nonviolent Medicaid Army point the way forward. 

Thank you for all that you do every day to put people first.

Some more helpful reading:

**[For further reflection: For those of us who voted for this party that has pursued these policies for the last 50 years – have we been voting against our own interests? Should we be held accountable – as everyday people with no property and power to speak of – for the massive social dislocations, hollowing out of our industrial base, depression of wages, culture of misinformation, out of control healthcare costs, the opioid crisis, deaths of despair? Are these things our fault for voting this way? Or were we simply making the best choice we felt we had at the time?]

Thoughts on King Day 2025

Every King Day, invariably the same silly debates arise. 

“King was cool, but he was into that nonviolence bullshit, and I don’t believe in that.”

“I know right? That shit ain’t gonna work. I’m more of a Malcolm X person myself.”*

This King Day, don’t waste your time debating about the “radicality” of violence vs. nonviolence. That’s making the mistake of confusing tactics and strategy.

What radical really means is “getting to the root”. Radicalism is not a function of tactics but of strategy.** It’s about whether or not your tactics are part of an actual strategy for transformation that gets to the root of the fundamental problem at hand. Any effort lacking an assessment of the root cause, and a course to address that root cause, is simply not radical. The question of “violence or nonviolence” doesn’t begin to address whether one has a clear understanding of the fundamental problem, why the problem, who can solve it, and how.

What made King radical (in the sense of getting to the root) was not nonviolence. What made King radical was that as he evolved as a leader through the experiences of the civil rights movement he began to place himself explicitly on the side of the poor of all races. He began to conceive of a strategy to end the root causes of the interconnected evils of racism, poverty and militarism – first making the correct assessment that all three actually cannot be separated from each other or solved independently of each other. Specifically, linking up with the National Welfare Rights Organization and leaders like Johnnie Tillmon helped stoke the flames of King’s growing radicalism and would lead to the development of the first Poor People’s Campaign of 1968.

These days, it’s possible for some people to make a damn good living off of endlessly describing all the symptoms and manifestations of the fundamental problem that we face. Very few actually offer an actual assessment of what needs to happen – based in a study of history, a scientific understanding of the basis for change, and an assessment of the current conditions and terrain. Fewer still are actually moving on that path with other people to unleash the human possibilities of our time.

Most (so-called “progressive”) leaders speak from the vantage point of their own experience, ignorant to the historical experiences of the working class over time. They have the wrong diagnosis of the disease, therefore they cannot write an accurate prescription. Their diagnosis of the problem is that it’s “white people”, Republicans, “the racial wealth gap”, and a myriad of other (literal) dead ends. They don’t actually focus on the system that concentrates great wealth in a very few hands, is destroying the natural world, and continuously reproduces the false ideologies that sustain it.

Learning the legacy of King – and particularly the deepening awareness he developed over time which brought him from a civil rights framework to a human rights framework, means committing yourself to a collective process of liberation. It means divesting yourself from the false solutions of “buying up the block” or “using passive income from rental properties”. If the solutions someone is preaching are individualist then they are not radical. Period. 

Demands for “access”, “affordability” and “opportunity” are not in keeping with King’s legacy. As described in Dr. Colleen Wessel-McCoy’s definitive book on this topic, King argued that economic opportunity was not the same as the right to employment, decent wages, or a minimum income. We must speak and lead from the position of guaranteed human rights as our basic needs that must be secured by the society regardless of whether or not it’s good for Wall Street.

And it’s not just about our understanding – this is not an academic exercise. Humanity and the very planet is at stake. This is about taking action together.

Quoting from Wessel-McCoy: “The maintenance of oppression depended on the cultivation of a sense of incapacity and bewilderment among those who in reality hold the power to transform society. King argued the oppressed were ‘schooled assiduously to believe in their lack of capacity,’ blocked from understanding their own ‘latent strengths’. But taking action together would help them ‘break out of the fog of self-denigration’, study ‘the science of social change’, and ‘embark on social experimentation with their own strengths to generate the kind of power that shapes basic decisions. (Where do we go from here: Chaos or community)

Like Jesus, King was executed by the state.***

So let’s continue to deepen our understanding of King – particularly his evolution as a leader, the lessons he learned throughout the phases of his life, as well as why he was killed.

This King Day let’s take some moments to light a candle and say a prayer for the state of our nation and of our world – for all that has been lost because of the deep failures of distraction, division, false solutions, sectarianism, syndicalism, individualism, opportunism, co-optation and collaboration that have plagued the working class on its path to power.

Can you imagine, where we might be now if a national Poor People’s Campaign, wielding liberation theology with U.S. characteristics, had been building continuously since 1968? If we had continued to love our class, and to work to “kill the system before it kills us”? (Willie Baptist).

We don’t have a moment to lose. Every day we’re not organizing the working class, as a class, united across lines of division, is a day we’re losing ground.

——————————————————————————–

*[Malcolm X was a genius who deserves our love, respect and sincere study of his development over the course of his life (spoiler alert – neither King nor X were static figures and their thinking actually developed and changed significantly over the course of their lives)]

**[oversimplified definition for the purpose of this writing] Tactics are the like the tools in a toolbox, whereas strategy is like the blueprint of the house that you’re about to build.

***For more on that, check out “The Plot to Kill King” and “Orders to Kill” by William F. Pepper.

But How Will We Pay For It?

We pay for it every day with our lives

We pay for it in anxiety, sleeplessness and depression

We’ll pay for it by taking back what was stolen from us

We pay for it sitting in debtor’s prison

We pay for it with GoFundMe

We’ll pay for it by shutting down the war machine

We pay for it rationing insulin

We pay for it with a pile of pulled teeth

We’ll pay for it by eliminating the parasitic profiteers

We pay for it in funerals

We pay for it in tears

We’ll pay for it by shutting down the streets, taking over the hospitals, crashing the stock market

We pay for it in gravestones and waiting rooms

We pay for it in overdoses

We’ll pay for it by liquidation and expropriation

We’ll pay for it in revolution 

Nijmie 101: Get to know me

1968Cartoon_GettingIntoStep

 

Here are some snapshots from my organizing over the years in terms of some of the issues and campaigns that I’ve worked on, and the trajectory of my political orientation and theory of change.

 

Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

A New Poor People’s Campaign on the Dig (audio)

History of the Poverty Initiative (Kairos Center -) one of the two national co-convening organizations of the Poor People’s Campaign

Ending Poverty: Immersion in the Mississippi Delta (article)

Katrina: Poverty, Race and Ethics (article)

Healthcare is a Human Right

On building a diverse working class movement on the Dig (audio)

The Strategic Significance of Healthcare as a Human Right with Sarah Jaffe (article)

Revolutionary Common Sense on Hack the Union (video)

Education is a Human Right

Campaign for Nonviolent Schools (article)

https://mediamobilizing.org/mmptv-episode-6-no-education-no-life-preview/

Housing is a Human Right

Supporting the Community Leadership Institute in Philadelphia (article)

Community Preservation Network (article)

International Human Rights

International Women’s Peace Service (article)

The Landless Workers Movement in Brazil (MST) (article)

Co-founder: 

Media Mobilizing Project

Put People First! PA

Restarted and Former Executive Director

Philadelphia Student Union

Why I Fast

20160831_130726-2I fast to slow down and notice what’s happening inside and outside my body. I fast to enhance my discipline and my ability to examine my own habitual patterns. I fast to give my system a rest.

For me, fasting is a proactive decision to slow down. I work a lot and can sometimes find myself in the position of my body shutting down or becoming ill in order to stop me. This is not a positive pattern and fasting is one way of interrupting it and making a conscious decision to reduce my activity on my own.

For me, fasting is not a quick way to lose weight or a crash diet. In fact, I don’t fast to lose weight at all. Fasting for me is a spiritual practice.

Fasting brings me closer to the natural rhythms of my own body which are connected to rhythms in nature. Therefore it brings me closer to all life. It gives me the opportunity to re-evaluate what I “need” and also the relationship between food and my emotional life. I recommend keeping a journal, or adding what comes up for you during fasting to the journal you already keep. Fasting invites us to notice what comes up and deeply feel it while carefully choosing our reaction to it. That’s a powerful practice that we can apply to other areas of life.

In my experience, the best times to fast are when I have a reduced workload and when I’m not travelling. When I have time to prepare juice (which is time consuming) and also the space to rest and take naps as necessary.

You may want to consider fasting for a day or over the weekend just to get started and you can try out longer periods as you make other space available in your life.

I have a device (refurbished Vitamix) that pulverizes all parts of the fruit and vegetables, so I’m not losing any fiber. Traditional juicers often separate the fiber from the juice. Either way is okay, and you should be aware of the difference.

And lastly, I don’t do any strenuous exercise during a fast. The everyday walking and moving coupled with some light yoga or stretching is all that I do during a fast. Lastly, please remember to drink LOTS of water!

Refuge, Reason and Resolve

My mother's grandparents, immigrants from the Levant

Pictured: My mother’s maternal grandparents, immigrants from the Levant (at the time known as “Greater Syria” including what is now Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine/Israel), pre WWI

There is a petition circulating right now in Pennsylvania asking Governor Wolf to reject Syrian refugees. Over 70,000 people have signed it. One of the most frequent reasons petition signers give for their position is that there are hundreds of thousands, millions even, of people in our state who are suffering, and who don’t have what we need. If you signed this petition you may have real concerns about your neighbors, friends and even family members who are trying to make ends meet and dealing with unemployment or underemployment, challenges around housing, healthcare, education or childcare, or caught up in the system in some way.

And you’re right that there are altogether too many people here in Pennsylvania who are struggling. One fifth of our children are living in poverty. We have over 15,000 homeless people, and 50,000 thousand people locked in cages due to mass incarceration. The number of our homeless veterans increased by nearly 50% in the last six years. Nearly one and a half million Pennsylvanians live in poverty. That’s over 1 million/10% of whites and 28.7%/370 thousand African-Americans. A full-time, full-year minimum wage worker earns $15,080 annually, an amount still below the poverty line for a family of four.

However, we have to ask ourselves, are the Syrian refugees the source of these problems? Will not admitting refugees fleeing war and poverty solve the problems that we as poor and working people have in Pennsylvania? Will refusing refugees help homeless veterans? Will it house those who need housing? Will it provide medical care to those who need it? Will it feed the people who need fed? Will it educate the students who need education?

Not only will refusing refugees fail to make any of these situations better, it also won’t create more resources for any of these things – because as we can see, we are already don’t have them. The only way to get what we need is to stop blaming each other and come together. By doing this, we can begin to understand how we got here and what we need to do to change it. We only get what we are organized to take and we aren’t asking for anything but the basics that we need to live. You are right to sense that the priorities of the powers and principalities are not working in your interests. But the refugees are not to blame.

Let us not allow ourselves to be motivated by fear. Let us now allow ourselves to be motivated by despair. Let us not be fooled into thinking that there isn’t enough to go around. Love knows no boundaries and no borders. Let us feel and be motivated by love. And in doing so work for a world in which the last, whomever and wherever they are, shall be first.

Discussion Questions:

Pennsylvania has a flat tax system meaning that whether your family makes $15,000 or $15,000,000 dollars, we are all taxed at the same rate. Do you think that is fair? Why or why not?

Has anyone in your family/anyone you know ever held a job that hurt/polluted themselves, other people, or the air, land, and water? How do you feel about the choices that we have to make to survive?

What is the history of your family? How did your ancestors come to be in the US? Were they brought here by force as enslaved people? Were they immigrants? Refugees? Are they Indigenous people?

Have you or someone in your family gone to war? How did it impact you/them? What were the stated reasons for the war? What were the real reasons?

Sources and further reading:
http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2010/03/living_below_poverty_in_pennsy.html
http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org/map-detail.aspx?state=Pennsylvania
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/philadelphia/62343-despite-national-trend-more-veterans-homeless-in-pennsylvania