Protesting Is Not All

On January 4, 2020, protests were held around the world because Donald Trump is provoking further war in the Middle East. One place where good people gathered was Dallas, Texas, where I live. We had over 100 protesters, which made it the largest local anti-war demonstration in several years.

The conversations, the signs, and the speakers shared some good information. The problem was defined pretty well: Trump knows he will lose the 2020 election if he doesn’t do something drastic like starting a new war. The United States has a long history of invading other countries on the flimsiest pretexts. One of the banners said, “Imperialism is the symptom; capitalism is the problem; socialism is the answer.”

By the time the rally was over, even the newest protesters had a pretty good idea what they were up against. But what, they must be wondering, are we going to do about it?

Certainly, public protests are worthwhile. When our friends see us hitting the streets, they are a little bit less afraid and a little bit more likely to join us. Mathematically, it sounds like we will eventually keep adding people every time until we have everybody on our side. But if that were true, the United States would have solved all its problems long ago. Some of us joining this particular protest have been doing it over 50 years!

We are going to have to do more than protest. We are going to have to lead. A leader, simply defined, is someone who knows what to do next. In order to lead, we are going to have to know what to do. To know what to do, we are going to have to go through some hard study.

-Gene Lantz

I’m on KNON’s “Workers Beat” program at 9 AM Central Time every Saturday. If you are curious about what I really think, check out my personal web site