This one's for my fellow leftists
Get in the tent, we're fighting fascism.
Today’s editorial is written by a 50501 South Carolina Organizer. They would like to note their use of the em dash is because they are a professional, not AI, so “don’t get it twisted”.
When I first started drafting this the night of the No Kings protest on June 14, I was furious. Thankfully, decades of organizing have taught me not to pop off at the mouth publicly when I feel like that, because it usually shuts down any chance of getting through to people and just creates a bigger mess. A little reflection before reaction can go a long way.
So now, I’m going to get straight to the point: If you don’t like the way the movement is doing things — get in the tent and work with us. The revolution is never not ever going to look exactly the way you want it to, and if you wait until it does, you’re going to be waiting forever. Is there room for critique? Absolutely. Constructive criticism is generative. Shitting on the coalition movement for internet clout is destructive and antithetical to who you say you are, and what you claim to value and want.
I got home around 11 p.m. after the No Kings protest. I had left the house 12 hours prior. It was a long, exhilarating, exhausting day. And I did what so many of us do when we get home: I changed clothes, grabbed a drink, pet the cats, and sat down to mindlessly scroll on my phone for a little bit. At first, scrolling was fun. There were videos from around the country, lots of folks sharing their experiences — for so many, their very first experience taking action. If your gut reaction to that is, “about time” or “what took them so long” or similar, I get it, I’ve felt it too, and I invite you to sit in the discomfort of realizing we haven’t been able to reach them before over the noise of this country’s capitalist propaganda machine and the near-constant infighting and policing each other on the left.
But, as they say, I built my FYP brick-by-brick, and it quickly started showing me videos from leftist creators calling the protests performative, critiquing the playful signs, the "shady" leaderless nature of our movement, relationship with cops, and more. My first instinct was to scream. My second instinct was to listen so I could find where I might have gaps in understanding. After doing that, I wanted to scream again. So now that I’ve sat with it for a week, let’s get into it.
50501 is a decentralized movement
As a decentralized social movement, there’s a very limited hierarchy, and authority is distributed. Decision-making is spread across states and local groups instead of being concentrated at or controlled from the top.
While we do share some resources — like national dates, some coalition partners, some trainings, social media boosting by way of sharing each other’s events — each state and local group runs a little differently and pretty much does their own thing. There’s no big pot of money, no staff, no administration, and no shadow group pulling strings.
We’re used to questions and conversations like what I was seeing online, but usually more so from folks on the right.
For example, at our local No Kings event, a man in Trump gear was “just asking questions”. In addition to a lot of the usual talking points, he wanted to know who was funding it. I stood near him listening for a bit before I turned and answered him.
Me: “I am.”
Him: “What?”
Me: “I’m funding this action today. I’m one of the organizers.”
Him: “No I mean who is funding it, not who is organizing it. Funding and organizing are different.”
Me: “That’s my point. No one is funding it but us.”
He got bored pretty quickly after that and left with his buddies.
Across-the-board, we are all volunteers, and most of us have jobs, school, family and kid responsibilities, health needs, and all of the regular life stuff everyone has to manage.
Other decentralized groups you might be familiar with include Narcotics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous, Black Lives Matter, Arab Spring, and Occupy Wall Street.
Or, to repurpose a common saying: If you’ve interacted with one 50501 person or group, you’ve interacted with one 50501 person or group.
So, what is “National”?
Maybe you’ve heard a 50501 organizer or community member refer to “national” or you’re curious who is behind the main social media, website, etc.
The answer? A bunch of state liaisons — or representatives — in a trench coat.
I’m so serious right now. “National” refers to a group of liaisons who represent each state to each other. They bring state issues to each other, and share information back to the states. They don’t have control — they have communication and coordination responsibilities, and ultimately, they defer to their state groups.
What about the big tent?
We’re run locally by busy humans who make mistakes and definitely don’t always agree. The big tent is built on a unifying belief in upholding the Constitution and ending executive overreach — and that this current administration is a danger to us all.
Look a layer deeper, and our big tent is full of folks from almost all parts of the political spectrum. From disenchanted Republicans to liberals and moderates and every flavor of actual leftist to folks who don’t identify with anything. This is the nature of the big tent. And some states are more progressive than others. Here in the south for example, a lot of our organizers are further left than organizers in blue states because organizing in the south is different, and living in a red state has pushed us more left as individuals.
And this is why we are drawing the crowds we’re drawing. It’s not partisan. It’s not “my political ideology is better than yours” (don’t at me, we all do it).
It’s not perfect.
Perfectionism is a tool of white supremacy. Decolonize that ish.
Did I have feelings about all of the flags on No Kings day? Absofuckinglutely. But I understand optics and marketing, and the flags and fun signs (even the ones that make me cringe) are meaningful to people. And making meaning is a useful tool.
Do I wish organizers in some other states were less seemingly-cozy with their law enforcement and weren’t out there thanking them at the end of events? Of course. And. I also don’t like seeing protestors get beat up and gassed and treated like shit, and I do think we can build a bigger coalition and a lot more solidarity if we can get law enforcement to understand they are working class too (there’s a lot more to this, so please apply some nuance).
Am I sick and tired of all things “kings” when it comes to names? Sure am. But at the end of the day, the people like it, and I’m here in service to liberation of us all so if using that damn word gets people a step closer — so be it.
Do I share frustration and concern at the online registrations? Yup. We make the events for purposes of having a central location where people can find information. Registration is never required.
Do I also sometimes just want to scream and fight and escalate? I’m not clueless enough to say so on the Internet, but I feel the rage, the injustice, the helplessness — the same as I believe you do — and I also understand that using only that tactic has unintended consequences and actively harms the most vulnerable people in our communities.
I’ve been organizing for long enough to remember when climate activists and anti-war comrades were being snatched off the street, never to be seen again. I’ve been arrested — intentionally and not — and gassed and pelted with rubber bullets. I’ve held the line and also been pushed into weird and scary situations by law enforcement. I know the scent of fear, and that energy shift right before everything goes upside-down. And I share that to get through to you that I’m writing from experience, not complacency.
And as much as we’ve resisted that way for so long — we’re still here. Right now. In this moment. I’m not saying resisting in those ways doesn’t work or that there isn’t a time or place for it, because there is. I’m saying this moment is also demanding us to move in different ways. We need to bring in more folks to the movement, and protests like what have been happening this year are an entry point. They are not the be all, end all, and aren’t intended to be.
Also, if you think the national days have no demands, you aren’t paying attention. They are clearly listed on the websites, on mobilize, and should also be part of the actions (which you refuse to attend because they aren’t done how you want them to be, so I guess you wouldn’t see or hear them there…).
Everyone wants a revolution, but no one wants to do the dishes.
We need to do the dishes.
What I am saying is we need to be more open on the left to learning and using tools that are different instead of frothing at the mouth to “do a revolution”. We need to understand that every toolbox has multiple tools for a reason, and revolution without community care harms the people and communities who are already most at-risk.
We need to stop policing each other (acting like cops towards each other isn’t very ACAB anyway) so we can work together and build a broader coalition with folks who also want a lot of the same things we want, but they don’t have the theory or language for it. Often because they’ve been doing it instead of reading and theorizing and pontificating on the Internet for clout. I’m not shitting on intellectualism here, but intellectualism without action is missing the point. I’m also not saying we shouldn’t pontificate on the Internet (um, hi from my Internet soapbox). I am saying that can’t be the sum total of it. We must do the dishes.
Doing the dishes includes:
Connecting with organizations that have already established their roots and are already doing the work to support our community in the areas being attacked by this administration
Building or supporting focused community networks: mutual aid, direct action, bill tracking, rapid response to ICE, sit-ins, and more
Taking care of ourselves and our communities. Not in a “take a bath hehe self care” way, but in a genuine way that is based on connection and presence
Attending actions, even if they are “too peaceful” or “too parade-y” or whatever, and talking to people (and recruiting them!)
Meeting people where they are
And so much more.
De-centralization of the 50501 movement helps us avoid being at the whims of one person’s vision, helps us avoid some of the “cut off the head and the movement disappears” risk, creates a relational movement where we are taking collective responsibility — and allows state and local organizers to not only be more efficient by not duplicating efforts, it allows us to be more flexible as we tailor our efforts to the needs of our local communities.
At the end of the day, for any liberation movement to work, we need multiple tools doing multiple things. If your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If your only tool is getting beat up by the cops, everything else looks like “not good enough”. Expand your toolkit. We need collective action and more tactics. We talk about how there are roles in the revolution, yet some leftists seem to want everyone throwing bricks. Cmon now.
Get comfortable being around people and working with them even if you don’t fully agree with them. As long as they aren’t denying your humanity or the humanity of others, we can all fit in the tent. If you want people to agree with every single thing you say and do, join an evangelical church. Purity politics don’t help us do or be better.
So if you’ve got a complaint about the movement — cool. Us too. Get in the tent, and let’s figure it out together so we can fight arm-in-arm.
Thank you for all you do as an organizer! You are appreciated
I appreciate your words all you do and all the other organizers do🙏🏼 please rest(….so as not to allow those who are not seeing past the ‘small things) so you can keep going!!! I am not an organizer but do repost and share and get out and protest regularly!! Thank you Thank you 😊 ❣️❣️❣️❣️