This is my first writing in what I hope is a series about different political and philosophical ideas. I am going to tag the collection with “beef” as in “my beef with…”

A.K.A the not-so-small manifesto about being both a socialist and an anarchist.

At it’s most essential, my politics boil down to “I hate corporations and I hate cops.”

More specifically, I see civil society as subjugated by corporate power and the police state. It doesn’t matter how many political parties you have, if all of those parties are corrupted by monied interests there is esentially one party: the oligarchy. I hate corporations because I am a socialist. I hate cops because I am an anarchist. I beleve in soldiarity because I am a socialist. I believe in mutual aid because I am an anarchist.

What about democracy?

Liberal democracy is great when it protects the people from corporate power. So long as politicians (the state) are only concerned with winning elections, they will give away power to billionaires and corporations to fund those elections. When that happens, civil society loses. As long as corporate power profits from extraction from the environment and exploitation of the worker and defrauding the consumer, the state will always be powerless to protect the people.

So we should abolish the state and destroy capitalism?

The state as it works now? yes. American corporate capitalism as it works now? yes. The state as a provider of security and social welfare? No. Capitalism as a competitive free-market and means to accumulate capital for large scale public projects? No.

The state doesn’t have to suck as badly as it does. It could work for the people. Sure campaign finance laws could change. Sure, a social safety net could be offered to protect the working classs. But above all else, the state must be accountable to civil society. Before that can happen, civil society needs to be kept safe from the state.

Capitalism is different than the free market. Capitalism doesn’t have to suck as badly as it does. Corporations could stop colluding and follow laws that protect workers, consumers, and the environment. Sure, competition could push corporations to offer products and services that ethically provide utility and value. Sure, protecting consumers, workers, and the envoronment could be seen as a competitive advantage. But above all else, capitalism needs to be held accountable to the state. Before that can happen, civil society needs to be kept safe from capitalism.

Keeping The People safe from corporate power and the corrupt state

Rather than fantasize about a stateless utopia where everyone gets along without any form of conflict or coercion, I would rather focus on American society as it is now, and then prefiguratively find a way to improve it. The state is here and it’s not going anywhere. Corporate power is here and it’s not going down without a fight. We, the people, can organize.

There are a lot of problems with American democracy and capitalism. Like, so many. But they mostly boil down to fact that people of all kinds have no protection from corporate power or government over reach. Corporations wield power over the people through wage stagnation and price gouging. The state weilds power over the people through austerity, deception, and violence. Corporate power over the state leads to post-democracy, oligarchy, and ultimately authoritarian capitalism.

Protection from state and corporate power can only come from solidarity and mutual aid. Solidarity of workers, consumers, and voters comes in the form of labor unions, tenants’ associations consumer groups, and voting blocs. Mutual aid for individuals, families, and whole communities comes in the form of intentional communities, community gardens, makerspaces, and skill sharing networks.

Holding corporate and state power accountable

The polite way to tell capitalism and the state that you are upset is by voting and boycotting. If you take a look around, you can see that being polite hasn’t done shit. You know what has affected change? Taking action on the street.

Not only do mutual aid and solidarity weaken the powers of corporations and the state, they strengthen direct action. Direct action comes in the form of strikes, boycotts, and civil disobedience. Now when the government gets shitty we protest in the street. When corporations get shitty, we go on strike. The reason that we can’t do that now is that we constantly face economic uncertainty, so we can’t leave work to strike or protest because we will end up homeless, which will land us in jail. Or, we protest the wrong things, like the Palestinian genocide, and we end up in jail. Because, you know, the police state.

Unions and food banks help strengthen direct action. However, direct action, even the nonviolent variety, risks retaliation from the police state. This is why soilidarity and mutual aid has to extend to legal defense funds, community medical care, and community resistance to state surveillance. If the cops throw you in jail, you need more than a lawyer that gets you a plea bargain. If you get your ass kicked by either the cops or white supremacists (is there even a difference?) you need more than an ER visit that your commercial health insurance refuses to cover. If you are going to be on the streets turning up for social justice, you need more than the empty promise of The Bill Of Rights to keep you safe.

Mutual aid and solidarity as the way forward

We are all waiting for some kind of reform or revolution. The problem with reform is that power structures never give up power willingly. The problem with revolution is that usually just replaces one form of coercion with another, and also the the bloodshed. These are not 4 year problems that can be handled by a presidential election. If a problem can be solved by an executive order, it can be undone by a different exectutive order. If a congress narrowly passes a law, the next congress can repeal that law.

The advantage of reform is that it uses democratic processes to deliver incremental changes over time, allowing society to adapt. The advantage of revolution is that it happens in far less time, and the change is more comprehensive.

If you wait for reform or revolution, it’s never going to arrive. Even if it does arrive, it’s not going to do what you want. You can’t change the system from within, and you can’t use violence to enact change from the outside. Instead, you build your new society in the shell of the existing one.

Show me what democracy looks like

As our communities strengthen, as our solidarity deepens, as our aid networks expand, capitalism and the state will shrink. The state is not “a more perfect union”. Capitalism does not “promote the general welfare”. Neither have done a great job of “securing the blessings of liberty” for anyone but the wealthy elite. Of the people, by the people, for the people means we have the power. The power to vote, the power to organize, the power to march, and if necessary, the power to resist.

Because the state is already here, and because capitalism is already here, they cannot be eliminated without coercion. Instead, they must be confined; they must be caged like the dangerous animals that they are. Right now, we the people are caged. We need to push the walls of that cage back until those very walls encircle those that would have us caged.

We do this by dreaming. We do this by growing. We do this by learning. We do this by building.

We dream about possibilities. We dream about solutions to problems. We talk about those dreams with others. We listen to the dreams of others. We let our dreams inspire others to take action and we let the dreams of others inspire us to take action.

We grow ourselves, our families, and our communities. We grow ourselves by being open to possibilities, by being open to the possibilies of other people. We grow our families by sharing with others. Other families grow by sharing with us. We grow our communities by connecting to eachother. We form aid networks, social clubs, and cooperatives. We discuss, we debate, we reach consensus, and then we activate. We figure out not just what to do, but how it will be done, who will do it, and then we give them what they need to succeed.

We learn from the world around us. We explore new places, new people, and new experiences. We learn what new places have to offer us, and what we can offer to new places. We learn from new people by listening to their stories, the good things and the bad things that happened. New people also learn from us by listening to our stories. We learn from new exeriences by succeeding and failing at things. We learn from the experiences of others, and others learn from ours.

We build things instead of consuming. We build new sources of food, shelter, and energy, and we share the knowledge that we gain along the way. We build new spaces in existing buildings and infrastructure. We build new organizations to share existing resources in new ways. We build new tools and technologies to help us build and connect with fewer resources.

This is what democracy looks like./f

When we are able to rely on ourselves and others, we rely less on the state and on corporations.

The state operates off of taxes and votes. The more we provide for each other, the fewer taxes they collect. If they want us to work, buy, or sell, they need offer us labor, environmental, and consumer protections.

Corporations work on supply and demand. They want us to give them money for the goods and services they sell (demand) but they also want us to sell them our labor to produce those goods and services (supply). The worker and the consumer are the same. If they want us to work, buy, or sell, they need to offer us labor, environmental. and consumer guarantees.

For all of it’s problems, the state does provide security. Currently that security comes mostly from wasting tax dollars on excessive law enforcement and defense. The state has tremendous purchasing power because of our taxes. If we would prefer that security to come in the form of health, welfare, and regulatory expenditures, they need to listen to us, the voters, and not the corporations.

For all of its problems, capitalism does build big things and make big technological advances. Currently those big things are mostly expensive housing and cars, and those technologies are mostly gadgets and media that destroy our personal privacy. If we would prefer those products and technologies come in the form of ethical and sustainable product and service offerings, they need to be divested of their oligopoly powers and brought to heel by the state.

All we’ve got is each other

By building solidarity and mutual aid, we can displace the power of the state and of corporations without violence, destruction, or coercion. Currently our lives are governed by the coporations who exploit us for profit, and the state, that threatens us with violence if we do not allow corporations to exploit us for profit. Governments and markets will not give up power voluntarily. We need to join together, in solidarity, and build networks of mutual aid. Once the power of corporations and the state has weakened, we can grow our solidarity and aid networks. It won’t happen over night, but it will happen without bloodshed.