Week 10 - Alex Nguyen - A03

This last article that we’ve read perfectly sums up the answer to all of the issues we’ve discussed and read about. It discusses the importance of not only resistance to the status quo and being active in fighting back against oppression, but also, for us fighters, the importance of forming, supporting, and uplifting one’s own community of similarly disadvantaged people. It is important to note that there is significant power in numbers, which can rival the power of oppressive institutions with money and authority. Organized action in groups whose members are deeply connected and who work to strengthen the community itself rather than furthering one’s own ambitions can achieve great things.

Workers’ unions are a prime example of this point. Unions often have shared funds, which allow their members to be financially supported in the event of a strike. The familiarity with other workers also helps to keep the conditions of labor transparent — gaps in salaries and unfair treatment of certain workers cannot be hidden if all workers cooperate. And because workers control labor, a key element in capitalistic enterprise, banding together and withholding labor would easily get corporations to recognize worker demands and concede to further justice. It was the work of unions which ended the recent government shutdown, after all.

Even if we hold different positions, have different jobs, or come from different places, the concept of a union, or an organized community, still can apply.  The ideologies that strengthen communities are, after all, the desire to help ourselves and each other to be treated fairly, and to live well. Forming community is a basic human instinct. Division and individualism are artificial, and are ideologies deeply rooted in capitalism and neoliberalism. We must, therefore, seek to learn from our ancestors, both in blood and in activism. We must work not out of greed, or self ambition, but out of justice and love.

Dariotis, W. M & Valverde, K. L. (n.d.). "Academics Awaken: Power, Resistance, and Being Woke"

Dovagarnes, Damian. Participants March against Sexual Assault and Harassment at the #MeToo March in the Hollywood Section of Los Angeles Nov. 12, 2017. 17 Jan. 2018, www.peoplesworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/takebackworkplace940.jpg. Accessed 3 Mar. 2019.