How to Keep it Up (Momentum, That is)

Momentum is an interesting phenomenon in the social justice movement. You could think of it as something that builds and builds and then slams into a brick wall, either breaking through resulting in glorious victory, or falling crumpled to the ground in defeat. But it seems this well-meaning, yet semi-confusing metaphor doesn’t quite fit for current social justice movements. Instead they seem to reach their peak and then slowly fade back into the apathy that is our current political climate.

For instance, protests grew larger and larger, angrier and angrier, as the War on Iraq was about to begin. Millions marched on February 15th across the globe and on the day the war started actions raged across the country. Downtown San Francisco was shut down freeways were blocked, ports were closed, semi-trucks were abandoned in intersections.

After that, however, the anti-war movement slowly sank. Protestors felt disempowered and went home, crushed that all their work had not stopped the country’s growing militarism. But why did it stop there? As the anti-war movement is learning now, as it once again begins to pick up speed, it’s never too late to stop a war.

Another question to ask is :What if the war had not begun? What would have happened to the anti-war movement if we were successful? The U$ was and still is at war in and occupying Afghanistan. Most likely it still would have backed the coup against Haiti’s democratically-elected president, still would be funding Israel’s military occupation of Palestine, and would still be aggressively pursuing the “War on Terror,” not to mention the War on Drugs, the War on the Border, and the War on the Working-Class.

Would this massive build-up of momentum, which had just stopped a war, have simply died out the way it did when Operation Iraqi Freedom (1) began? There should always be an anti-war movement. If it had the power to stop a war, imagine what else it could do. Or, more pertinent, imagine what could have been done with the power the anti-war movement had as the war started, coupled with the anger of being ignored (2).

On the local level, the 2005 AFSCME strike is an interesting example of the momentum of movements. For a solid year students organized with the union in support of a fair contract for the UC’s service workers. Beginning with a march, then a disruption of negotiations, office occupations, and finally the strike itself, which completely shut down UCSC, there was long ascent of action leading to the contract awarded to AFSCME less than a week after the April 14th strike.

After that the AFSCME struggle lost the force it had grown over the year because students believed that they had won and the fight was over. But for the workers, as well as those students who stuck around, the struggle for workers’ rights within the UC is far from over as has been evident in the Wage Parity campaign (3).

Let’s look at the recent upsurge in immigrant-rights actions across the country, shall we? What we saw on May Day was fucking amazing. Millions across the country marched in opposition to the racist anti-immigrant HR 4437 that rich white guys are attempting to push through Congress that disregards basic human rights as well as basic human dignity (4). Uhmmm… now what?

Well, first we need to recognize that this momentum will hit a peak, hopefully it wasn’t May 1st, but will probably coincide with the vote on HR 4437. May Day was amazing, but will it end there? Will actions, strikes, and boycotts continue up until the date of the vote? And will they stop then?

In my mind this situation is largely comparable to the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. When the vote takes place, no matter what the outcome, will the immigrant-rights movement gradually disappear? With this level of mass mobilization we cannot let this die. If the bill does pass why not have another general strike? What about once a month until it gets repealed? Fuck it, let’s do it everyday.

And if the bill gets shot down, don’t believe the attack on immigrants is over. This is just another instance in a long history of assaults on immigrant rights, and don’t think it’s the last. While this issue’s hot and we’ve got the numbers let’s make the most out of it and demand amnesty for all “illegal” immigrants. Why not? We have the power.

When we think of past struggles we tend to hold a romanticized view of organizing. There was a march on Washington and the Vietnam War ended. Rosa Parks gave up her seat on that bus and down went Jim Crow. What we don’t necessarily think of are the long bitter battles that accompany these historic moments. Somewhere along the line that gets lost. So when we think of May Day and we talk of establishing a world without borders we need to be prepared to dig in for the long haul. The momentum has been built! Let’s keep it rising!


(1) What a fucking stupid name, by the way.
(2) Revolution, anyone?
(3) For more info on the Wage Parity campaign check out these links to see past Project articles covering the fight: http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/03/1807340.php or http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/18033/index.php
(4) To all y’all who weren’t there or went to work or school or whatever… what the fuck?