THE SPIRIT OF MAY 28 is one faction of the Party of George Floyd – the composition that announced itself in the 2020 uprising. With the flames that engulfed the Third Precinct of Minneapolis on May 28, 2020 as our starting point, SM28 seeks to bring together partisans of the uprising, to harness the lessons learned in the streets, and develop a praxis consistent with the truths laid bare during the revolt.
Affects
If you were present at any of the riots that swept the country during the long hot summer of 2020, you’ve felt within yourself the opening created by the George Floyd Uprising. You felt that feeling of affirmation and vitality, that sense of being on the cusp of something true and real, that intense moment when you realize that everyone you’re standing and fighting with also wants to break out of the matrix. Because your body knows intrinsically that you exist to live and to experience the joys and wonders and natural pains of life, the exuberance of a life that is free in every sense of the word, not the violence, death, and trauma of this racist, patriarchal, capitalist society.
There was no time or room for incremental change, and there still isn’t. Those who took part in the uprising realized this and acted on it, transforming each other's lives in a matter of hours. What we felt in that moment was as important as the destruction we inflicted on our enemies. Those glimpses of life beyond capitalism are carrying us through to the next upsurge that is surely to come.
Visions
Self-Activity
Revolutions aren't made by any specific group of revolutionaries, but by millions of people. As such, the purpose of SM28 isn’t to lead “the masses,” but to participate in those activities that are already spontaneously oriented towards revolt, to escalate and push them as far as they can go, and to fight against all the forces of reaction that hold back this self-activity. As we saw in the 2020 revolts, the forces of counter-revolution include not only the police, politicians, and the right, but also much of the left. In this sense, the proletariat stands alone.
Crisis
We recognize that it is only through the intensification of crisis and struggle that masses of people mobilize and fight on their own initiative. Therefore, our task is not to propose policy reforms (such as Defund) or solutions to crises (such as the Green New Deal) but to enter into the crisis with strategy, organization, and a program of action that opens up the possibility for revolution. There is no way out of capitalism except through crisis, revolt, and revolution.
Black Liberation
We believe that Black liberation is the most revolutionary form of struggle in the United States. This observation isn’t meant to imply that Black people are automatically revolutionary, nor does it mean that we prefer reductive identity politics. It is instead a strategic argument, based on an analysis of US history and of those struggles which have posed the greatest challenge to the American elite.
Preparation
The George Floyd Uprising isn’t an event of the past but the beginning of a process that will once again open the possibility for revolution in the United States. Given the many overlapping crises facing the world, it’s likely that the coming revolts will be bigger than anything we've experienced in our lifetime. The time to prepare is now.
Follow us @ Spiritofmay28
Email: spiritofmay28@protonmail.com