 This is George Floyd. This is Henry. On May 25th, 2020, George was murdered by a cop named Derek Chauvin. In June 2018, Henry was kidnapped from his mom by Asians from ICE. And this five-year-old boy was locked in an immigration prison. Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, even as George begged and pleaded for his life, even as George called out desperately for his dead mother. Even when George lost consciousness, Chauvin did not stop to perform first aid. He continued to crush and continued to kill. Henry was eventually reunited with his mom, but he's too young to understand that their separation was beyond her control. He thought it was her choice to send him away, and so he believes that she'd rejected and abandoned him. His heart is broken. One day, he'll be old enough to understand. She had no choice, but it will be too late. It won't undo the damage. George Floyd lost his life, lost his chance to ever fulfill his hopes and dreams, lost his chance to see his children grow up. Henry lost his belief that he's loved by his mother, lost his ability to trust. Psychologists say these wounds can be permanent. George Floyd was murdered, Henry was psychologically murdered, one the victim of police, the other the victim of ice, both victims of the same police state. After George Floyd's murder, people rose up to protest in numbers that may be bigger than anything seen in American history, and in a touching show of international solidarity, protests were held in over 60 different countries. These protests were not just for George Floyd, but for every black person who's been murdered by police, and for the fact that black people have for so many centuries and in so many ways been treated as if their lives don't matter. On June 14th, in the midst of these protests, hundreds of people gathered in front of Los Angeles City Hall to protest against ICE, the agency that enforces immigration law. Since 2017, what ICE did to Henry and his mom has been repeated thousands of times. ICE has kidnapped several thousand children, even toddlers and babies. Many have been locked in immigration prisons where they're severely neglected and in some cases sexually abused. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants of all ages have been held in these concentration camps, and near the border, U.S. Border Patrol agents frequently commit violence against immigrants, including rape, torture and murder. I didn't hear about this ICE protest or even know it existed until I went on Twitter a few days later and saw that the hashtag Mexicans was trending, so I clicked on it to see what the latest tweet storm was all about, and this is the first tweet I saw. Here, I'll say it so you don't have to. Mexicans are so annoying and self-centered, like let Black people mourn without making it about you. Wow, so first of all, when it comes to opinions on Mexicans, this person seems about as impartial as Donald Trump. But let's focus on her main point. Her tweet is reacting to photos from the ICE protest, and her point is that, in her opinion, it's wrong to protest against ICE at a time when people are protesting for Black Lives And she's not the only one who felt that way. At least about the protest, hopefully not about hating Mexicans. I mean, Jesus Christ. But 3.4,000 people liked this tweet. That's a lot of likes for a tweet from someone with 2,000 followers. I mean, I have about that many followers, and I feel lucky when my tweets get even 10 likes. Fuck yeah. And not only did this tweet get all these likes, there were many tweets from other people who were also angry about this protest, so we can't just dismiss this opinion as the thoughts of some highly unusual lone outlier. But we also shouldn't assume this opinion is shared by the typical Black Lives Matter supporter, and in fact, there's reason to believe that the typical Black Lives Matter supporter does not share this opinion. For example, the ICE protest that was being attacked on Twitter? Black Lives Matter activists were at that protest. And this is nothing new. Black Lives Matter activists are at a lot of ICE protests. This solidarity makes sense. ICE cages and deport Black people too, so fighting against ICE is part of fighting for Black Lives. And it's also important to note that of the tweets I saw that were dissing the abolish ICE protests, most did not come from Black people, but from non-Black Latinx people. So why am I even talking about this? I mean, this shit went down what, 10 weeks ago? By internet time, that's like 10 years ago. What is this, crash course in obscure leftist Twitter history? Usually, I don't like to be jacking up old business, especially when that old business took place on Twitter, the internet's best known cure for a desire to live. However, the type of mentality expressed in these tweets is an example of a troubling and perhaps growing trend I've seen on the left, so I feel that a response is needed. So let's look at some more criticism of this ICE protest. I know this is going to piss a lot of people off, but I'm tired of seeing these pics going around. It's so self-centered and not as pro-Black as it tries to be. Fellow non-Black Mexicans, if you are making the Black Lives Matter movement about us rather than staying focused on Black issues, you are part of the problem. So I don't know why this person thinks that Mexicans who protested against ICE were trying to make Black Lives Matter about themselves. That's a very weird accusation to make just because some people had a protest. But that's not really the most troubling thing here. The most troubling thing is this belief that fighting for the human rights of immigrants is competing with Black Lives Matter. The belief that it's a threat that has come to steal the spotlight. This same misguided mentality was behind most of these tweets. Think about the reason why you're protesting about this now. Is it because y'all feel uncomfortable that the world is focusing on Black issues? If so, ask yourself, why is that? Have you been to an ICE rally before? Have you been to an ICE rally before? The unspoken accusation being that they have not. Well, that's a big assumption, but let's pretend it's true. Everyone there is at their first ICE rally ever. So, what? Does that mean the reasons they're protesting now is because Black Lives Matter made them feel jealous? Or could it be that Black Lives Matter made them hopeful? That it gave them inspiration and courage? That it lit a fire inside them? That the spirit of rebellion is contagious? And that the spreading of this spirit, of this fire, of this righteous resistance is a beautiful thing? It really breaks my heart that instead of getting excited that Black Lives Matter has inspired more resistance against ICE, some see it as competition. That's not how this works. These issues overlap. Each movement can make the other stronger. It's all part of the same fight against the same vicious police state. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one thinking this. Many Black Lives Matter supporters had the same thing. That's a very generalized statement on the Mexican community. Can't we just be proud they're standing against the same people we're standing against? When are you gonna realize that it all coincides? This is what the movement needs, oppressed people uniting, supporting each other's cause and numbers the movement grows stronger. Reading these is like a breath of fresh air. Actually no, it's more like someone's been kicking you repeatedly in the groin and then you get a nice pack and an oxy and you're like, oh, oh yes, oh that is so much better. The relief. Some people still recognize the value of solidarity. That includes the co-founder of Black Lives Matter herself, Patrice Cullers. In her words, Black Lives Matter has been outspoken in the fight to abolish ICE and will continue our advocacy for the immigrant community. And there was also this tweet from someone who was actually at the protest. I took this photo myself. This was towards the end. There was also Central American Flakes, countless Black Lives Matter shirts and signs, a Black speaker mentions of there aren't just Mexicans in cages, there are Black kids as well, et cetera, et cetera. This felt like a unifying march, not a pick-me-march. Now that is great news and it was also great to see that this tweet got 3.8 thousand likes, 400 more than the tweet claiming that this protest was about Mexicans being self-centered. But before I celebrate too hard, I want to acknowledge that there were some criticisms of the protest that I think are valuable. Some people said that whoever organized the protest should have made more effort to include more non-Mexican people because in the photos it's mostly Mexican flags you see waving, which is a problem because people in these immigration prisons are from all over the world, especially Central America. And some people also mentioned that waving the Mexican flag is probably insensitive when Central American immigrants are also deported and imprisoned by the Mexican government. It's healthy to have constructive criticism, but can we please please do it while showing support and solidarity for each other? Can we do it as comrades who are struggling for liberation together, rather than as competitors who are struggling against each other? So I want to switch gears for a bit and it may seem like I'm going way off-topic, but don't worry, I'm going to tie it all back together. I want to talk about Egypt, which by the way is the only country to have ever worshipped the correct God. Worship your pussy, worship your pussy, worship your pussy. Fuck yeah. In 2011, the Egyptian people had an uprising that overthrew Hasni Mubarak, a dictator who had been ruling Egypt with an iron fist since 1981. 30 years of dictatorship, swept away in only two and a half weeks, but the momentum behind this had been building for more than a decade. For most of Mubarak's rule, Egyptians rarely dared to protest or go on strike. Those who did were attacked by the police, arrested, tear-gassed, beaten, tortured. Some were even shot to death in the street. Egyptians were ruled by fear, afraid to say a bad word against Mubarak, even in whispers. Then in September 2000, there was a big breakthrough when Egyptians held demos to show solidarity with the second Palestinian intifada, and another breakthrough came in 2003, when 30,000 Egyptians took to the streets to protest the US-led war against Iraq. These protests inspired a new generation of young activists, and over the next several years, activists organized a round of variety of issues, including protests against the dictatorship and government corruption, protests demanding academic freedom for professors and students in the universities, riots due to bread shortages and extreme increases in food prices, protests demanding a raise in the minimum wage, protests by peasants after a local government forced some families to lose their land, labor strikes against various grievances like privatization, loss of benefits, forced early retirement with little to no compensation, low wages and so on. Among these various focuses of activism, the one with the most activity during these years was labor strikes. After workers on strike at a huge textile factory won a major victory, this inspired a strike wave that spread across the country. As the years rolled by, the labor militancy continued, and in 2010, there was a sense that things were escalating. It became normal to come across a strike on your way to work, or a protest on your way home. Kind of like how in the US, as you go to and from work, you might come across Ronald McDonald strangling a puppy, and later see Jeff Bezos steal candy from a baby and use it to stab a homeless man in the eye. You know, typical American things. In the midst of all this, an event took place that shook the nation. On the night of June 6th, 2010, a 28-year-old man named Khaled Said sat in an internet cafe. Then, out of the blue, he was seized by police, dragged outside and beaten to death in the street. That summer saw an outpouring of outrage at this brutal murder. The streets ignited in protest, and social media was set ablaze. Dozens of Facebook groups sprung up to call for justice for Khaled Said, and bring attention to Egypt's horrendous problem with police brutality. The issue of police violence was thrust into the public spotlight, provoking widespread outrage, and this happened during a time of frequent labor strikes on economic issues and frequent protests on various political and social issues. So, here's my question about all this. Should Egyptians have worried that this attention on police brutality was robbing attention from all these other issues? Should they have said now is not the time? And what about earlier that year when peasants protested the forced surrender of their land? Should they have been called out for stealing the spotlight from the movement to raise the minimum wage? When students and professors started a movement for academic freedom, should workers have gotten upset claiming this was a distraction from the economic issues they were striking for? Should those who took part in the bread riots have been scolded for shifting focus away from the movement against the dictatorship? No, no, no, no and no. All these issues are connected, all these struggles are connected, all these movements energize and inspire each other, all these movements gain strength as they combine forces. And that's exactly what happened. From the 25th of January to the 11th of February 2011, all the people who were angry about all these issues came together to sweep away a 30 year dictatorship and the once feared Hosni Mubarak was left powerless, humiliated and crying for his mummy. Don't cry Mubarak, mummy still loves you. Unfortunately, in the end things didn't work out well for the Egyptian Revolution. The new government quickly became a new dictatorship and even if they had achieved a so-called democracy, most of their problems would have remained unsolved because those problems are rooted in capitalism and the state. But that's another story for another time. And this doesn't change the point I was making. A powerful mass movement often grows from smaller movements as more and more sectors of society become mobilized with their own demands and as people involved in these movements start to see the interconnections between their diverse issues and see that the best way forward is to combine their strength. History has many examples of this. But if we turn activism into a competition, if we squabble over whose turn it is at the mic, we squash our power, we stifle our potential and we limit how far we can go. Another example comes from France in May 1968, a date that has become somewhat legendary in France. It began on May 6th and 10th when student protests turned into riots and street battles with police. Hundreds of students were arrested and injured, but they fought back bravely and furiously and the cops were forced to retreat. Across France there was outrage at the police violence and a protest was scheduled for Monday, May 13th to show support for the students. The labor unions called a one-day general strike so workers could attend the protest. One million people marched in Paris that Monday and the next day the strike was supposed to be done, but some workers kept on striking. At first it was just a few hundred workers, but less than two weeks later the strike had exploded to 10 million. Two-thirds of France's workforce. When the unions called the one-day general strike, the purpose of the strike was so workers could support the students, who had various issues, grievances and demands that they had been protesting for over a year. But as the strike continued and grew, workers brought in their own issues, their own grievances, and their own demands. Their main focus was to get better wages and better working conditions. And the students supported this. They never scolded the workers like sacrible. Students are the ones who started this uprising. But now you're making this about you? How dare you, monsieur? I spit on your shoe and slap your face with my glove. Nope, just the opposite. The students were thrilled to see the workers rise up. And it wasn't just workers who were inspired to rise up with demands of their own. Peasants in the countryside near the city of Nantes put up roadblocks on the roads to the city. They did this in solidarity with the striking workers and students, but also brought in their own demands. Immigrant workers and students from countries colonized by France occupied the Paris headquarters of the State Immigration Department. Immigrants from Northern Africa distributed a leaflet declaring support for the general strike and denouncing the dictatorships in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. In Paris, a group of young Catholics occupied their church and demanded that there be a debate instead of mass. High school students began protesting the centralized and conservative education system. Doctors, nurses, and other medical staff began debating and challenging the rigid hierarchies in hospitals and medical schools. Artists, writers, and musicians held discussions to critically rethink the role they played in society. Even professional athletes got involved. Football players occupied the headquarters of the French Football Federation. Hey, when you need someone to kick capitalism in the balls, I say call the guys who kick balls for a living. What you see here is quite typical of a mass movement. The waves of that movement ripple out far and wide, spreading the radical influence into multiple sectors of society, provoking rapid shifts in consciousness. As each sector of society rises up, they rise in solidarity with others, but they also rise in pursuit of their own goals and demands. This is something to celebrate and encourage. It helps a movement grow and gain in strength and power. And for this movement, the power was incredible. Two-thirds of the country's workforce was on strike. That's a huge amount of power with enormous potential. From there, it's not a far stretch to workers forming councils and restarting the economy under democratic self-management. And that's the foundation for abolishing capitalism. So, although this was not a revolution, revolution was visible on the horizon. Unfortunately, that potential was not fulfilled. The strike was crushed, partly by state violence, but mostly by manipulation from the corrupt bureaucracy of France's biggest union, the CGT. Nevertheless, this moment in history still has a lesson to teach about how a mass movement arises. A large, powerful mass movement can be the result of one movement inspiring others, and then those movements growing and becoming a powerful force together. Isn't solidarity beautiful? Like, look at this picture from a Black Lives Matter rally. Black people, white people, Asians and brown people, all coming together to say, if you love BBC, then you need a stand for BLM? Um, shit. Okay, bad example. Let me start over. We are stronger when we come together. And the capitalist class knows that. Our political rulers know that. Our bosses know that. That's why they try so hard to keep us divided. And unfortunately, we sometimes help them by dividing ourselves. Too often, we try to address oppression in ways that push us further apart rather than bring us together. That get us competing or self-segregating, rather than building solidarity. That get us treating each other with hostile suspicion, rather than building trust. That make us constantly emphasize our difference and ignore what unites us. Liberation is not a competition. That's what our oppressors, the capitalist class, wants us to believe. Are we so brainwashed by their games of divide and conquer, so poisoned by the competitive mindset that capitalist society creates, that we're unable to see that we're stronger when we join together, stronger when we find links between our struggles, stronger when we unite those struggles as one fight, but instead, we're fighting each other over whose turn it is to speak. We're fighting for the spotlight when we could be shining brighter together. An injury to one is an injury to all. This has long been a slogan of the labor movement, and it's an essential insight of class consciousness. But as we become increasingly focused on judging whose injuries are more important, I'm afraid that it's an insight we're losing sight of. I really hope that you enjoyed these tips for the beautiful, sacred art of pussy worship.