An anonymous contributor has posted the article below from the LaRed website. Latinopia felt the content merited more widespread distribution and is, therefore, reposting it herein. While the author prefers to remain anonymous, Latinopia believes the material is worth consideration and, yes, discussion.
TO MY PEERS WITHIN THE CHICANO/LATINO STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
INTRODUCTION
In the wake of the very real threat that Trump represents to our country and its people, we who represent those that are on the front lines of the Chicano/Latino fight for social, political and economic justice are faced with certain realities that we must address and come to terms with. Here are a few that should be evident to all of us:
IN GENERAL, OUR MOVEMENT IS SPLINTERED AND FRAGMENTED
With the exception of the late 60’s up to the mid 70’s, our forces for change are scattered into a thousand pieces. There is no cohesion, no common direction, no common plan and objectives, much less a common strategy that is guiding our work. As a result, there is overlapping of resources and duplicate work. There is a tendency to implement plans on a local level, many of which are creative and offer concrete solutions that help our community. However good, these lessons remain local as there is no mechanism for sharing valuable lessons with others who find themselves reinventing the wheel instead of perfecting what has already been invented. It’s a situation where for all practical purposes its “everyone for themselves”, oblivious to the work that is going on maybe even in the next city over. The fragmentation can be seen in all the sub-sets of our progressive forces from immigrant rights, to women’s rights and all those in between. (this can be elaborated on further to show the absurdity of the situation).
IN GENERAL, OUR MOVEMENT IS TOTALLY REACTIVE INSTEAD OF PROACTIVE
This can be seen historically, with very few exceptions, if we were to look closely. When there is an injustice or an outrageous act is committed against our people or community, we are quick to mobilize our community to respond, to rally, protest, hold press conferences, marches, prayer ins, candlelight vigils, hunger strikes, petitions and the list goes on. The expectations that measure success is based on numbers mobilized, press coverage achieved and if lucky a response of those in power expressing regret and launching an “investigation” and in rare cases someone is brought to trial and convicted. The actions, not part of any long-term view or strategy are simply one-shot deals that come and go in an endless cycle that not only does not accomplish anything lasting but also over time, burns our activists out as there is always another injustice and always another reactive response and always another call to action as the nature of the system that oppresses us is an everyday, 24/7 fact of life.
There is and always will be a need to react. The problem is that those that lead these reactive measures though motivated by legitimate sentiments, have failed to develop a long-term view of our struggle. They are still seeing it as if were back in the 60’s and 70’s when protest and reaction was the order of the day and mass actions got things done. We are no longer in that time period and those in power have long since learned our method of responding. We are very predictable.
OUR CITIZEN RAZA ARE NOT IN SOLIDARITY WITH OUR IMMIGRANT SECTOR
Among our ranks a significant percentage of our own people do not feel solidarity with our immigrant sector much less our undocumented immigrants who live and work alongside each other. An embarrassing reality surfaced when election results showed that over 40% of our own people voted for Trump knowing full well the agenda he plans to carry out against their own people. Though a percentage of those votes were from conservative Latinos that fled countries that the U.S. opposed, it doesn’t alter the fact that the majority were not. This means that the solidarity that was common place between our own people just two generations ago is gone. We have in our own communities Raza who would report our undocumented residents.
OUR YOUTH HAVE LOST CONNECTION WITH THEIR HISTORY AND CULTURE
Among our youth the connection to our historical struggles has been severed and with it the consciousness of solidarity and political activism. A poll taken at a Chicago high school asking Latino students how they would vote in the 2024 presidential elections revealed that 50% preferred Trump over Harris. When asked why, they could only respond that they felt he would do a better job. This means that not only did Trump’s narratives reach down to our youth, it also means that they did not make the connection between what he represents and the plight of their own people. This is a phenomenon that has been developing since the decline and influence of the progressive movements back in the late 70’s. The older generation failed to ensure the continuity of our struggles continued. For example, today the once very political and active MECHA chapters across the country have been reduced to Latino social or cultural clubs, their very essence water down so that they no longer play a role in providing the education and leadership needed to train the next generation of fighters for our people.
WE ARE A FASCIST PERIOD AND HAVE TO ADJUST OUR WORK ACCORDINGLY
As a country we are entering a totally uncharted territory. Today we are facing what amounts to a period of extreme repression that will gradually increase from the snail’s pace to a full gallop making sure at each step the American people accept it as necessary for our “own protection” and that of our country. We need to ASSUME that one of the first stages will be to identify all those who are leading efforts to resist or in any way organize against the current regime. We should ASSUME that our forces will become targets and adjust our plans accordingly.
There will be those that declare that they “are not afraid” of being picked up, arrested and jailed or say “We need to let them know that we will resist whatever they come up with” and promote bold, mass actions to show “them” that we will not “back down”. Basically, implying that those who don’t agree with these views are showing fear and / or cowardness. They fail to see that the objective of this repression is precisely to isolate and remove any form of leadership before organized mass resistance that can throw real blows can emerge. At this stage of the game, what consequences and “demands” will our adversaries relent to? These efforts at this point amount to what must be seen as not only bluffing, but walking into their trap. They are EXPECTING mass resistance, displays of resistance.
We must think this out clearly, methodically and work in a manner that provides us cover and not expose ourselves and more importantly the community we are working with. There will be a time for exposing ourselves and there will be those among our ranks who will play public, open roles knowing that they will be subject to repression or worse at the hands of the state and its armed para-military “patriot” supporters. We all knew that this comes with the path we’ve chosen. This must be on OUR terms, not theirs.
We are entering into an extreme defensive period and we must seek out expertise from those who are trained in these kinds of situations and develop forms of struggle that leverage our strengths including the ability to defend ourselves physically from those that will want to neutralize us. Do NOT take this situation lightly nor panic but instead use our intelligence to develop plans of action that take this reality into account.
WE HAVE NOT DEVELOPED ALLIANCES WITH OTHER COMMUNITIES OF COLOR
The Chicano/Latino community does not have organized alliances with other communities of color who represent our immediate allies. The racist nature of this new administration is going to roll back and gut gains on the legislative, judicial, and executive level of which we should have NO doubt. This means we should expect cuts on probably every level in funding from breakfast programs to aid for seniors, the needy in our collective communities and the thousands of nonprofits that serve them. Without these ties, each community is on its own to deal with the fallout in an “every man for himself” scenario.
OUR MOVEMENT DOES NOT HAVE A DEVELOPED MASS MESSAGING SYSTEM
This is especially seen in the fact that we are unable to counter the mass of lies and disinformation that floods our people everyday 24/7. While we have plenty of people with the skills and resources, they are not organized in any way to leverage this. We have the potential of making messages go viral and reach every sector and class in our community.
OUR CULTURAL WORKERS AND INTELLECTUALS MUST UNITE AND TAKE THEIR PLACES
The reason our Raza youth and citizenry have become removed from the plight of our people and our once militant and vibrant organizations a shadow of their former self has a lot to do with the fact that the education the helped us older fighters become who we are was given to us by our historians, academicians, cultural workers and artists of every flavor that saturated our communities and our lives with the knowledge and pride in our history and cultures. We learned that we were descendants of a colonized people who had to fight for freedom, not always successfully but with a determination that we will absolutely NOT let ourselves submit. They instilled in us a feeling of responsibility and duty to our community and our Raza and fought with a VENGEANCE that has yet to be duplicated. This is the spirit that filled our hearts and our minds and pushed us to do the impossible with nothing.
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