This video is a response to the backlash against a recent Abolish ICE protest, a backlash that came not from the right but from those broadly considered within the left. A popular criticism was that it’s wrong to have a protest about ICE at a time when so many are focused on Black Lives Matter.
There were leftists and Black Lives Matter supporters who voiced strong disagreement with this critique, but it's clearly a divided issue.
This is a troubling sign that many of us lack sufficient understanding of the value of solidarity – not just its ethical value, but its strategic value – and lack knowledge of the historical record of how a powerful mass-movement develops.
Movements for different issues are not in competition. On the contrary, they have the potential to strengthen each other. That’s what I argue in this video and I look at historical case studies of mass-movements in Egypt and France to support my point.
An injury to one is an injury to all. Our fates are connected, our struggles are connected, our oppressions are connected; we’re fighting different battles of the same fight.
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