As Leftist and progressive organizers going into this election cycle, we knew our best chances to continue making gains against oppression would not be under a Trump administration. This is why many, like LUCHA in Arizona, PA Stands Up, New Florida Majority, and Working Families Party, worked to get out the vote for the Biden campaign and invest long hours in Nonviolent Direct Action and de-escalation training in the event of a stolen election.
The AP has just called it for the Biden campaign, and we join in commending organizers for holding the line against fascist authoritarianism and creating conditions that hold more possibility for making antiwar gains. We remain on alert for any kind of Trumpist backlash on the streets or elsewhere, and will be amplifying resources in the event of any escalations.
The most important advances for justice and peace come from grassroots organizers and people’s movements, not the White House. And as we look ahead, we know that this is where our power lies. War is a bipartisan effort in the United States. The normalization of white supremacy under the Trump administration and millions of Americans’ endorsement of this blatantly racist administration affirms that we have a long road ahead of us. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ record also tell us we have a long road ahead in ending U.S. drone strikes and combating the carceral system (to name a few things).
Moving forward, here’s what the landscape will look like.
- Trumpism hasn’t been defeated, it’s just been held back. Organizers, civil rights activists, Indigenous people and communities of color have been actively resisting white supremacy for centuries. Today, rising fascism around the world and a resurgence of white nationalist movements demands our attention and collective resistance - we’re going to need all of us to dismantle white supremacy. Donors and philanthropists especially have an obligation to fund organizing directed at resisting white supremacy and uprooting the root causes of war.
- Under a Biden administration we may not have to worry about rallying to save the post office, but we do need to continue resisting the War on Terror and War on Drugs through pushing back against Department of Homeland Security, the AUMFs and Patriot Act, codified Islamophobia, expansive surveillance programs, and drone warfare. Being antiwar is so much more than pulling out of wars: We must fight for the rights of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees and push for reparations for people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Raqqa (Syria), and beyond. We must stop manufacturing and selling weapons and reallocate the Pentagon’s budget to invest in housing, healthcare, education, and a binding Green New Deal.
- Police abolitionists made significant gains under the Trump administration and these gains should continue under a Biden administration. Likewise, Native-led, decolonial work is also building power in exciting ways, like the work of NDN Collective with the LANDBACK campaign. As we look ahead we must commit to continuing to support and participate in the long-term movement building work that has already begun.
As radical antimilitarists, our work focuses on addressing the root causes of war and militarism. We recognize that the electoral system in the United States is a system that has long been designed to exclude and disenfranchise people along racial lines and that a free and just electoral system would feature an accessible voting process decided by the popular vote. That’s why, as we look to a Biden White House and the currents of Trumpism in the U.S., we will continue our movement-building work to uproot all racist, sexist, and exploitative systems. Our collective liberation depends on it.
In solidarity,
War Resisters League
