It’s a confusing time politically. Outrage has proved useless as the millions walking the streets in protest against the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank are ignored. Freedom of speech is curtailed in Western democracies. Surveillance increases. The shift towards a proto fascism gains traction. Feudal rentier billionaires gain authority and control.  The digital world becomes ever more invasive and controlling and AI seriously begins to colonise communication. A new wave of imperialism surges and the Left is disordered ideologically and practically as the New Year brings a cascade of donation requests. A free Palestine becomes a romance as the genocide continues to be funded and abetted. A further slow genocide takes place for Cuba. Air power including drones which simply destroys infrastructure becomes the modus operandi of political thuggery. The climate crisis reaches a tipping point. In the States the economic basis of political advocacy organisations is threatened by a change to tax law. The small beacon of hope, Rojava, where a socialist, anarcho syndicalist state structure based on the liberation of all identities, is seriously threated by Turkey and Iran. Despite a lurch to the right and a return to the neo liberal model we are so far, sufficiently distanced, to potter along half decently but will be drawn into the mess in our usual self-effacing way. The assassination of a health insurance CEO resonated widely as a moment of justice, sending a whole caste scurrying for security and protection.

Are we in fact in a situation somewhat similar to pre revolutionary Russia, where the occasional act of domestic terrorism revealed the realities of the terror of the system, even while it intensified that reality? What must we insist on? For a beginning, innocence is not an option. Organisations that depend on charity are overly vulnerable. Truth telling is necessary and the hard dialogues must be held. What are we aiming for? What world is possible? What has to be given up? What about ‘the workers’? What is ‘the people’? What collaborations are rejected? Do we need to stop being polite? How do we protect our organisations? Where is the rhythm? What is the antithesis? Is there a counter hegemony? And of course, What is to be done?