Be Prepared, America

The future of America is here.

A lot of us might identify as socialists; some of us even identify as communists. Some of us want to defund the police; a lot of us want to abolish the police.

It's easy to laugh, to say that these are fringe beliefs. But to underestimate the New Left would be a mistake.

I was among the first wave of people in New York City to call for defunding the police back in late April. When I was trying to organize various efforts—like testifying in front of the city council and producing a play for the cause—many people disagreed with my beliefs, quite disrespectfully actually. I was made to feel dumb for wanting money for education, healthcare, and housing.

But after the death of George Floyd, suddenly, defunding the police was not so “radical” an idea. The protests and online events in which I struggled to get a couple hundred people suddenly drew crowds of thousands. A lot of people started understanding. Not enough—the New York City Council overwhelmingly failed to defund the police.

But it was not a failure. For the 2021 City Council elections, the new round of candidates believes in defunding the police by at least one billion dollars. Some of them, like Kristin Richardson Jordan and Whitney Hu, identify as abolitionists and want to abolish the police and jails. Others are seeking the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) endorsement.

Why are people seeking the DSA endorsement? Because this year, the DSA (a group I am a part of), won five seats in the New York State Senate and Assembly. This winning of seats continues a trend that began in 2018, when former DSA members like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and State Senator Julia Salazar won their seats.

Non-DSA leftists have also defended progressive champions like Senator Ed Markey from challengers, ending longtime political dynasties like the Kennedy dynasty in the process. His win on September 1 was driven by hundreds of youth volunteers. The main reason why they vouched for Ed Markey was his co-authoring of the Green New Deal, the same piece of legislation that endured so much scorn for being “extreme.”

But there is another piece of the puzzle. Ed Markey was the same man who had voted for things like the 2001 Iraq War. But 2001 was 17 years ago, and now—after introducing bills like the Make Billionaires Pay Act and calling for the canceling of rent—Markey is in the likes of progressives like Bernie Sanders.

This proves that the New Left is not an exclusive club. Anyone can join the DSA, anyone can come to a protest I plan, and anyone can come to our teach-ins to get included.

But for those who fail to listen to our calls for change, we have a special weapon: holding people accountable. No longer can people like Governor Cuomo hide under the guise of being a Trump-hating Democrat while opposing basic measures like taxing the rich to provide economic relief. We show up to the homes of people like Corey Johnson, who take bribes from real estate moguls.

With their “vote blue” yard signs, liberals have remained largely silent as their own local Democratic government cuts social programs. With their love for Obama, they forget that he authorized a genocide in Yemen. Liberals have been failing to mobilize and to vote in their local elections, disregarding the work of the Civil Rights Era.

Instead, we are continuing that work; the March on Washington, the place where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have A Dream” speech, recently had a 57th anniversary march a few weeks ago. And there was one solution championed above all: vendors were selling t-shirts with it. As I marched there a couple of weeks ago, screaming the words “Defund the…”, the crowd screamed back: “Police!” That same weekend in Washington, D.C., I also planned a speak out in defense of Black lives in front of the MLK memorial. It was on the birthday of Fred Hampton, another Black revolutionary civil rights activist. Again, the same message of defunding the police was met with a smattering of enthusiasm.

Like the civil rights movement, we also have many people who hate us. So many liberals take to social media, ranting about how much they hate the defunding of the police movement. When I was quoted in a Gothamist article about my beliefs, the comments section went nuts, calling me a “brainwashed 16-year-old,” among other things I do not want to relive.

But these people have not been kidnapped and put into unmarked police cars. This exact thing happened in a Manhattan protest a couple of months ago to a trans woman named Nikki. They have not spent hours waiting outside of a jail, waiting for their friends to be released. Said friends’ crime? Peacefully protesting.

And when we fail to defund the police, we end up defunding education, healthcare, housing, and a myriad of other things that actually decrease crime.

Democrats should focus on being “realistic,” as former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg told everyone. But why should we listen to him, the man who took donations from billionaires like the owner of one of NYC’s most expensive properties, on the urgency of issues like economic relief for America’s poorest?

And it’s not just Pete Buttigieg who looks down on our movement. As an education advocate, I have arranged private meetings with state legislators and their constituents to convince them to sign onto bills. The lack of humanity is appalling. Despite spending more than 30 hours a week on activism this summer, I was told that we did not work hard enough by a state senator, and he refused to fund education. Our activism for school integration came at “not the right time,” a state assemblymember said. Another state senator I met with to discuss education funding was more worried about the billionaires having another expense than the thousands of teacher layoffs and arts programs that were to be cut this year.

It’s important to note that all of these state legislators are Democrats, but very clearly moderates. And as Jenny Chen, one of the leaders of the wildly successful Ed Markey campaign, said, “It is becoming increasingly clear that broken systems require bold solutions.”

This begs the question: Why are we arguing over the feasibility of Medicare for all in the midst of a pandemic? Why are we refusing a Green New Deal as the west coast burns in wildfires?

Should we not recognize history when we see it? Shaming Bernie Sanders, the man who put progressivism on the national scale, is like shaming Barry Goldwater, the extreme conservative who fell short of winning the presidency in 1964. So they failed. But you forget that in 1980, the extreme conservatives had Ronald Reagan, the man who set the stage for our current president.

So yes, we may have not won a true progressive presidential candidate in 2020. We may have not defunded the police. But we are coming, and everyone should be prepared.

At the core of this is the movement on the streets. As someone who has planned protests weekly since June, I will keep being out on the streets with or without someone in the government who cares about the things we do. We will continue taking up space for our causes.

Movements don’t have presidents—they have people. And I know that we are on the right side of history.

Meril Mousoom is an education justice activist. They organize events weekly around urgent issues like unsafe reopening, police-free schools, and more.