Hello and welcome to the first Dispatch! We’re excited and so happy you’re reading our very first issue - the first of many as we embark on this long journey together. Let’s get started!
BTW, all subscribers, be sure to scroll to the end of this newsletter to read how to join our Discord channel.
Current Calls to Action
⏱~3min | Submit a complaint to New York Times, AXIOS, and NPR for their biased reporting on events in Gaza.
Why: Western media coverage of the genocide in Gaza has played an important role in manufacturing public consent in Israel’s crimes. By using vague and passive language, western media intentionally obscures and distorts the truth.
⏱ 1-3hrs | Boycott (or disrupt) the iPhone 16 Launch with your friends, in solidarity with Palestine & Congo.
Why: Apple is directly complicit in the genocide in Gaza as well as the abuse and conflict in the Congo. The iPhone release is one of their biggest days of the year and a good opportunity to bring attention to both of these issues. There's a variety of ways to get involved, watch this video for more info.
⏱ 1-3hrs |📍NYC. On Thursday, September 26, 2024, Netnayahu is scheduled to give a speech at the UN. PYM & ANSWER Coalition are organizing a large demonstration against his speech.
Why: Netanyahu is planning to justify Israel’s crimes against humanity in front of the world and it’s important to show our world leaders that the people will not forgive or forget.
⏱ 1-3hrs |📍LA. On September 18, 2024, Seen Palestine Film Festival is screening 'Ahmad Alive', a documentary about the director’s experience surviving the genocide. 100% of profits will go to uplift Palestinian Storytellers.
Why: Culture plays a huge role in shaping the perceptions of the public. It’s important to support and amplify the stories of struggle so that they can challenge the mainstream narrative.
Little Wins for The People
Why it Matters: Since 2012, Palestine has only had “permanent observer status” in the UN with no real seat at the Assembly. However, in May, a resolution was adopted to reconsider Palestine’s membership in the UN, granting them some privileges of a full state. While a symbolic victory, it signifies the growing shift in international sentiment and the further isolation of Israel and the US politically.
Why it Matters: Since 2019, the Lockheed Martin Seed Fund was a program administered by MIT International Science & Technology Initiative Israel that connected students and researchers with Lockheed Martin offices in Israel. This is the result of sustained pressure from MIT community and Palestinian advocates and, as the school year begins, it is a reminder of the power of student pressure on institutions.
Why it Matters: In an age of growing housing consolidation, unions are one of the best ways to harness our collective power against abusive landlords. This is the first major effort to organize tenants nationally in 40 years!
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” - Helen Keller
Knowledge is Power: Growing Our Collective Consciousness
Following the news lately, there seem to be right-wing takeovers happening all over the world, but particularly in the West:
- In France, President Macron has named a conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier, rebuking the will of the New Popular Front that won a majority of seats.
- In Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany party has just won their first regional elections in years.
- In the US, the Democrats are actively alienating most of their “progressive-left” base and adopting right-wing policies in their drive to beat Trump.
This can all seem pretty confusing. Why is there a resurgence of the “right” when statistically most of the population, especially in the US, support “left-wing” or progressive policies? This starts to make more sense when you view things through the lens of class.
Typically, we think of class as a measure of your income - simply, the more you make the higher you go. However class has much more to do with your relationship to the means of production than anything else. That is, do you work at the factory/corporation or do you own it? In the capitalist framework, there is the working class (who exchange their labor for money) and the ruling class (who own the banks, factories, corporations, land, etc), both of which have conflicting interests:
- The working class seeks to be fairly compensated for their labor
- The ruling class seeks to keep as much wealth as possible.
In this context, the re-distributive policies of the “left” are in direct conflict with the interests of ruling class and therefore, when push comes to shove, the ruling class will always side with the “right.” It’s also worth noting that the whole left-right dynamic comes from the French Revolution and the physical way representatives were seated in the National Assembly. Those on the right of the Assembly literally sat closer to the king, to the ruling class.
When we look at the leaders of political parties, at least in the US, they are all part of the ruling class. So why have them in the first place? Why have, for example, a Democrat & Republican party if both are owned by ruling class and corporate interests? The delicate balance that a “liberal” capitalist country like the United States must strike is that it must look like a place that caters to the will of the people while still extracting as much wealth as possible from those same people.
The false competition between Democrats & Republicans, represented as left vs right, is key to upholding this image. It goes something like this:
- Republicans gain power and enact clearly extractive policies favoring the wealthy elite
- The people get mad and demand change, appealing to Democrats
- Democrats gain power and compromise with Republicans in the name of “unity”
- Extractive policies are rolled back slightly (but not all the way)
- The people feel like they won but extraction still continues 🔂
We see this play out in policy all the time. In the US, the capital gains tax under Obama was 35%. Trump decreased it to 21%. Biden has refused to raise it despite building a reputation as pro-worker. Now Harris, the VP & Democratic candidate, proposes raising it to 28%. If Democrats represent the will of the working class, we must ask - why not back to 35%? Why not 50%?
The net result of this is that, despite there being democratic processes going on, society still aligns itself more and more with the interests of the ruling class. This is what’s called the Ratchet Effect. If you’re reading this from outside the US, we’re sure you can find similar examples in your local politics too.
The theme of all of this is that it’s vitally important for each of us to develop an awareness of class that stretches beyond measures of income and recognizes the common interests and struggles we have as a class. This is called class consciousness.
→ The reality is the ruling class is extremely class conscious. They know that they are vastly outnumbered by the working class and are constantly deploying strategies to maintain their power and break solidarity across the working class. Structures like the Electoral College in the US exist, and were created by the ruling class, to mediate people power. Wedges are driven between communities domestically and internationally to break organizations and global solidarity (see: COINTELPRO). These are all things we’ll get into in future dispatches.
We bring this up because this is the first dispatch of the Conscious Citizens, and the name of this initiative stems from this idea. If we’re going to organize, we have to know what we are organizing against. We all need to emerge out of the false consciousness manufactured by the ruling class and step into our shared class consciousness because it unites all struggles at home and abroad. To strike the enemy, we must first see the enemy.
In times when we have seen moments of true class solidarity, like during Occupy or the student encampments earlier this year, we have witnessed extreme repression by the ruling class - physically by the police and culturally through the media. The Conscious Citizens is an effort to build structures that can combat these reactions and reveal the true conflict happening everyday, which isn’t left vs right but top vs bottom.
Artists Confronting Inequalities
James Mollison is a Venice-based British photographer whose work is defined by original concepts applied to social and cultural themes. He’s the author of “Where Children Sleep”, an ongoing project about children around the world and their bedrooms, which explores the complex situations, social and class issues children are born into, but not responsible for.
While many of us here have had our own bedrooms to sleep and grow up in, millions of families around the world sleep together in one room, and millions of children sleep in a space of convenience, rather than a place they can, in any sense, call their bedroom. In this project, Mollison invites us all to reflect on and appreciate our own privilege while more closely examining global inequalities.
Revealing Hidden History
After WW2, between 1945-59, the US government welcomed 1600+ German scientists, technicians, and engineers in a secret program called Operation Paperclip, most of whom were former Nazi Party members. At the time, Communism was deemed the bigger threat to the U.S. than fascism and they feared German expertise falling into Soviet hands. This is just one of many examples of when liberal democracy chose to align itself with the "right."
Resources & Tools
- Protect your digital privacy with our Digital Privacy Guide
View the guide on Instagram | Download your own pocket guide - Bookmark this Protest Safety Guide by Across Frontline (which we discovered through Kalaya'an Mendoza)
- Download a product-checking app to help you boycott Israel
Boycat | No Thanks
Submit a Resource | Request a Resource | View the Full Directory
Elisa & Ray
Uplift The Conscious Citizens
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About Little Wins
Little Wins is a Los Angeles-based creative studio using the power of visual design & storytelling to raise our collective consciousness, connect communities across cultures and classes, and motivate others to improve our world. We do this because we want to see a more engaged, liberated, and regenerative world where all people have access to the knowledge and tools needed to thrive.
→ ATTN: Join the Conscious Citizens Discord!
Because we want to build a lively community, we decided to open up the Discord for all readers. However, paying supporters/members will get more direct interaction with us along with extra education, resources, and discussions. For more details, check out our Sign Up page. That said, please take a moment to:
- 💬 Join our community Discord!
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This is a new initiative and we want to keep improving it, so your feedback would be incredibly helpful in this process.
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