It Could Happen Here - Dual Power Part 2

Episode Date: October 7, 2021

What happens when the right gets their hands on dual power and prefigurative politics? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadowbride. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of fright. An anthology podcast of modern-day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons?

Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast,

Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app

or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. The 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming. This is the chance to nominate your podcast for the industry's biggest award. Submit your podcast for nomination now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. But hurry, submissions close on December 8th. Hey, you've been doing all that talking. It's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards.

That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast. And we're kicking off our second season digging into tech's elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google Search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. It's been three months since you and your co-workers took control of the hospital.

Things aren't back to normal yet. You're not even really sure what normal is anymore. But the days have fallen into a kind of routine. It's Thursday, which means it's your turn to go report back to what a friend jokingly referred to as the Endless Meeting Assembly, and was now forever known as the EMA. The EMA is technically the closest thing left to a central government in Seattle. It was formed as a sort of coordinating council between the various organizations and workers councils that had emerged, or simply emerged from the woodworks, in the wake of the collapse of the

police. Two things have become clear very quickly. One, there was need for some kind of coordinating committee between the different bodies. Two, the only people who had any idea what was going on in their portion of the city or in their workplace were the members of the local council, which meant there was no way in hell any kind of central apparatus could dictate to them what actually needed to be done. There just wasn't a way to move the information around. The solution had been decentralization. Let the councils do their work. Let them work out who they needed to talk to. But make sure there was some kind of daily council that people could show up to,

where the various groups would do report backs on what they were doing and what they needed. The structure was messy, but it mostly worked. And at least someone had had the idea to make sure that the delegates to the EMA rotated, so one person wasn't stuck spending half their life showing up every day. The problem, really, was the same problem you'd been dealing with for months now. Even with the pooling of resources, and people donating their last precious American dollars to paying people to import more supplies, the blockade was taking its toll.

Nobody wanted to try to force their way through the blockades and the cascades. There had been some attempts to get in touch with groups in Portland, but the control map was so ugly there was no real chance of getting any assistance. Besides, the real problem was the port. When the cops had fled, the ships had simply stopped coming. They'd rerouted further south, many of them to Oakland, or so you'd heard. The logistics lines were collapsing faster than anyone could piece them back together. What the long-term consequences would be, no one knew. But something was going to have to change. The calls to start engaging in piracy were only half-oaks now. A week later, an answer of sorts

arrived. It wasn't precisely what anyone had been expecting. You'd heard about negotiations between workers' councils, shipping companies, and a couple of governments to try to prevent a bloodbath at the docks. With the Port of Seattle already out of commission, no one could afford another stoppage. You hadn't really been sure what to make of it, but the representatives were here now. What they proposed, in front of the largest assembly you'd ever seen, was a kind of under-the-table deal. In essence, the port workers would go back to work in both Oakland and Seattle, in exchange for ceding part of Oakland itself to a newly formed federation. No one was sure how any of this was actually supposed to work, but it was the first chance you'd seen in months to start solving the supply

problem. That didn't mean everyone else would agree to it. Democracy is still democracy after all. But maybe, just maybe, with a toehold in Oakland, the councils would start to spread, and that so-called government in California was looking shakier every day. Who knew? Maybe next time, you wouldn't be negotiating at all. Who knew? Maybe next time, you wouldn't be negotiating at all. In March of 2004, American occupation forces in Iraq attempted to shut down the newspaper of a Shiite cleric named Maktar al-Sadr. The Americans had expected Sadr to simply fold, under the weight of the coalition's pressure. Instead, they triggered mass protests that quickly turned into an armed uprising. This was a new force in Iraq. The American

occupation force, who'd been expecting to be fighting al-Qaeda and maybe the rump of the remaining Ba'athists, were stunned to suddenly be facing a working-class uprising among Iraq's Shiite population. This new Mahdi army, as it began to call itself, was extremely well organized and were initially able to rout coalition forces. So what was this Mahdi army that had so thoroughly rewritten the rules of Iraq? Shortly after the U.S. deposed Saddam Hussein in 2003, Baqtad al-Sadr, the son of another famous Iraqi Shiite religious figure, both Sadrs had been famous for their support and care for the poor, so when Sader returned to Iraq, he began to build a

political base among Iraq's working class, particularly in Sader City, a working class suburb of Baghdad. He used his organization to redistribute wealth, providing a form of welfare state in an almost completely shattered country. Butter and his allies also began to set up a network of free clinics for pregnant and nursing mothers. They used these clinics, which were enormously popular, to build a base of support. It is, after all, extremely difficult, no matter what your ideological or political disagreements with the group, to attack them when they're running free clinics for pregnant mothers. They protected these clinics with militias, which allowed them to transform

the community organizations and goodwill that they'd gained from the clinic into the military power necessary for self-governance and eventually for resistance against the American occupation. Strategy proved enormously successful. Muqtada al-Sadr is still today one of the most important political figures in Iraq. Despite sustained coalition and occupation force attempts to stamp him out, but for all their working class support, the Sadrists were by no means leftists. In late 2019,

massive anti-austerity, anti-imperialist, and anti-sectarian protests erupted in Iraq as a reaction to the murderous incompetence of the Iraqi government, who, among other crimes, managed to poison 118,000 people in Basra through the mismanagement and subsequent contamination of the water supply. al-Sadr initially backed the protest, but turned on them in early 2020, at which point Sadrist militias began to carry out a brutal campaign of repression against the protest camps that culminated in outridden massacres of protesters.

These massacres became semi-regular features of satirist mass mobilizations, and alongside state and paramilitary disappearances of activists, the attacks essentially crushed the uprising. The violent homophobia and sexism of the Sauterists may seem at odds with their anti-imperialism and concern for the poor, but right-wing organizations have often adapted specific policies, positions, and organizational structures from the left. And in this case, the Sauterist mobilizations have been extremely effective. Indeed, right-wing organizations are often more effective at utilizing dual-power tactics and organizations than leftist movements. This is partly because of a fundamental asymmetry between the right and the left. Right-wing organizations can almost always depend on financial

support from wealthy political backers, who, when push comes to shove, can simply create a movement with pure money as the Kochs did to create the Tea Party. Leftists, the ravings of right-wing conspiracy theorists notwithstanding, have no such backers. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonorum. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters, to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time.

Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me in a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters.

From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast,

Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. The 2025 iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. The 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming. This is the chance to nominate your podcast for the industry's biggest award.

Submit your podcast for nomination now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. But hurry, submissions close on December 8th. Hey, you've been doing all that talking. It's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. This funding and support can go a long way towards explaining the success of groups like Hezbollah.

It is certainly true that without Iranian support, Hezbollah would not be the movement that it is today. But a great deal of their success is simply attributable to the tactics themselves. This does not escape the notice of the U.S. Army. Joint Special Operations University's Major James Love wrote a monograph entitled Hezbollah, Social Services as a Source of Power. In it, he writes, efforts. It is through the work of the social service section that all party activities are possible. Hezbollah's social service section was designed to influence all aspects of Lebanese Shia society. The original intent of providing needed services to an oppressed people appears

to have been manipulated by Hezbollah as a vehicle to bolster its ranks, provide a humanitarian shield to the organization, increase influence within the Lebanese government, and combat its sheer rival, Ambal. The social service section serves as an equal arm within the organization and is used as much as the military and political wing in terms of leverage. Hezbollah's deputy secretary general describes the purpose and intent of the social service section in the following passage. Hezbollah paid particular attention to social work. Not one aspect of aiding the poor was neglected as the party worked towards achieving joint social responsibility, answering the urgent needs, and introducing beneficial programs.

Such work was simply considered party duty, and concentrated effort towards raising funds and making available social service resources served towards achieving these goals. The party worked to the best of its capacities, cooperating with official institutions to respond to societal needs. Hezbollahs provided medical aid, reconstruction assistance, education programs, and particularly programs to take care of veterans and widows, which have served to solidify their base. These organizations were critical to Hezbollah's meteoric rise from a political non-entity to arguably the most powerful fact-shaded side of Lebanese politics. Hezbollah's state within a state, as it's become known, was capable of even resisting the Israeli army. Major loves frustration with the inability of the American army to either deny Hezbollah's own aid efforts or replicate them in a way that could strengthen American power, are testaments to the effectiveness of such a technique

and the dangers they pose to the American imperial and state project. One of Bajor's concerns is that American aid programs are simply caught up in red tape. They're unable to respond as fast as community-led efforts, which means that those efforts will get off the ground faster, get to the scene faster, and thus reap the political benefits. When the state is unwilling or unable to provide services, especially in the wake of disasters, it leaves a power vacuum for organizations to exploit. You may not have heard of the RSS before. It's a paramilitary group affiliated with India's ruling party, the BJP, and counts among its members India's Prime Minister Modi. It's also probably the world's largest fascist organization. The RSS was founded

in 1925 as a group nominally dedicated to protecting and promoting Hindu interests. What this means in practice is that the RSS is dedicated to creating and promoting Hindu interests. What this means in practice is that the RSS is dedicated to creating a Hindu state and maintains and promotes a violent hatred of Muslims that results in RSS members being at the forefront of anti-Muslim pogroms. The RSS's pre-World War II leaders were open admirers of Hitler and Mussolini, and while they eventually abandoned those positions at the start of World War II, the RSS's politics have remained thoroughly fascist. In the intense communal rioting that both preceded and followed the partition of India and Pakistan after independence, which saw mass population transfers of Hindus and Muslims, and the death of somewhere between

200,000 and 2 million people, the RSS established itself as a protector of Hindi refugees against Muslim violence, provided protection and aid to those trying to survive the chaos. The goodwill this generated, however, collapsed after a former RSS member did the most famous thing anyone associated with the RSS has ever done, assassinated Gandhi. The RSS was almost immediately banned. But in light of the terrible PR you get when you're associated with killing Gandhi, the RSS became increasingly involved with disaster relief. Over half a century of painstaking organizing,

it created schools and youth programs to spread its influence and use them to fuel further anti-Muslim violence. In 2001, the organization gained national acclaim for its response to a massive earthquake in Gujarat. The RSS heavily emphasized the non-discriminatory nature of their aid work and their propaganda. But in reality, many of the villages the RSS had rebuilt after the devastation had been transformed into miniature versions of the fabled Hindu state that the RSS seeks to impose on all of India. Strategically, this should look familiar to us

now. It's essentially a fascist form of prefigurative politics. The RSS used an earthquake to build the structure of the new Hindu society in the shell of the old. The BJP's dominance over Indian politics, while led by a member of the RSS, and the brutal crackdowns Modi carried out in Kashmir, are a bloody testament to the success of their strategy. Christian fundamentalist organizations have also been extremely effective in utilizing their own form of right-wing prefigurative politics, though in a somewhat different way than the RSS. Their new world is defined above all by theocratic, patriarchal authoritarianism. Fire and dare enter. Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora.

An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time.

Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of My Cultura podcast network available on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast hey i'm jack peace thomas the host of a brand new black effect original series black lit the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories.

Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Black Lit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers

and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new We'll see you next time. on the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Hola, mi gente. It's Honey German, and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, música, películas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities,

artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week, we'll explore everything from music and pop culture to deeper topics like identity, community,

and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Like the radicals that occupy, the religious right was operating off of a form of contagion theory theory that exposure to their social organizations and forms would essentially be contagious and spread but the christian rights preferred form is the patriarchal family which serves as a microcosm of the kind of hierarchy and patriarchal violence that dominate their long-dreamed-of theocratic society. The Christian right would instill these values into their children and send them off into the world to propagate their ideology. Edinger, an expert on the Christian right, wrote this about the second phase of the strategy. In 1975, several church leaders came up with a new approach, identifying seven spheres of culture to focus on, one after another, to try to bring about the lasting change and have a significant impact on the superstructure of American culture.

Missionary Group Coordinating International and National Mission Trips for Young Christians, describes these seven areas as such. These are the areas you can go on as missionaries. Here they are. First, it's the institution set up by God first, the family. After the family was the church, or the people of God. The third was the area of school or education. The fourth was media, public communication in all forms, printed and electronic. The fifth was what I call celebration, the arts, entertainment, sports, where you celebrate within a culture. The sixth would be the whole area of the economy, which starts with innovation in science and technology, productivity, sales, which starts with innovation in science and technology, productivity, sales, and service. The whole area.

We often call it business. But we leave out something. We leave out the scientific part, which actually raises the wealth of the world. Anything new, like making sand and chips for a microchip, that increases wealth in the world. And then, of course, prediction sales and service helps to spread the wealth. And so the last area was the area of government. This is a neat encapsulation of the right for figurative politics. Start first with the family, and then with the church, then reshape school and education, and mass media in their image. And from there you can begin to take the entire economy. Churches have also long used aid programs to proselytize and also expand their control over the population, which becomes dependent on their aid. In the places where the left has failed to

provide for their community, the far right has stepped in and has been able to rapidly and effectively reshape the political landscape. This does not mean, however, that they can't be beaten. Cooperation Jackson has offered one of the most powerful visions of dual power in the modern U.S. A product of the New African People's Organization and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement's Jackson-Kush Plan, Cooperation Jackson has put forward a radical and democratic model of dual power with the aim of turning over control of the land and the means of production to Jackson's black working class and allowing it to achieve its own self-determination. Corporation Jackson has formed mutual aid networks, started an incubated program to

help workers' cooperatives get off the ground, and formed a community land trust that purchases abandoned buildings in Jackson and turns them over to the community. They've also, somewhat unusually, wound up engaged in the electoral process after the untimely death of ally and Jackson mayor Chokwe Lemumba, which led to the election of his son, Chokwe Antar Lemumba. This placed the movement in a somewhat awkward position of having allies, even if constrained by the realities of state power, in the state itself. even if constrained by the realities of state power in the state itself. But politics in the real world is never as clean as the models we create to describe it.

It is only in our ability to adapt to the changing conditions of struggle while maintaining our political principles that we can build the new world in the shell of the old. And we can build it. The question is simply, will we? or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trejo,

and step into the flames of right. An anthology podcast of modern-day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturno on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast Sniffy's Cruising Confessions.

Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

New episodes every Thursday. The 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming. This is the chance to nominate your podcast for the industry's biggest award. Submit your podcast for nomination now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. But hurry, submissions close on December 8th. Hey, you've been doing all that talking.

It's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast. And we're kicking off our second season digging into Tex Elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from.