DNC dispatch #1, Behind Enemy Lines, Chicago 

This is the first dispatch from Behind Enemy Lines political battle against the Death and Nakba Coronation in Chicago (DNC). These dispatches will provide commentary on the important political and practical questions rising in the fight against Genocide Joe and Killer Kamala and to shut down the DNC for Gaza. 

Unmistakably, the vibe shift is real. The switch at the top of the Democratic Party from Genocide Joe to Killer Kamala has begun to bear fruit for the sections of the ruling class that pulled it off: not just removing the obviously-in-decline Biden from the ticket, but more importantly disciplining the people that were rejecting Genocide Joe and pulling them back into the warm, deadly, confines of the imperialist Democratic Party. People we’re encountering on the streets here in Chicago tell us,  “I didn’t like Genocide Joe, but maybe with Kamala things will be different…” Or “Don’t you think she’ll be a little bit better…”.  On social media, the semi-ironic coconut memes have turned into open support for Killer Kamala, while the luminaries of the progressive movement including Chicago’s own Zionist mayor are lining up to endorse Killer Kamala, sometimes even pointing to her supposedly “better” position on Palestine. 

We don’t just call this a vibe shift because it’s been our experience talking to people in the streets, but also because the evidence that, somehow a women who built her professional career as a prosecutor, has addressed national meetings of AIPAC, and has been the sitting vice president every single day of the genocide on Gaza would be meaningfully more progressive than old Genocide Joe is only based on vibes. As Behind Enemy Lines has repeatedly written about, Israel’s main function in the world today is as a bloody outpost of US imperialism, the largest aircraft carrier in the most strategic region. The reason that politicians and aspiring politicians from Donald Trump to AOC ultimately fall in line with supporting Israel is because they’re ultimately falling in line with US imperialism. Killer Kamala’s rhetorical differences with Genocide Joe on Gaza aren’t revelations of where her heart truly lies, but strategic maneuvers aimed at pacifying people rightly outraged by the genocide that she’s taken part in.  

Some people online (thankfully not in real life) have asked us about whether voting for Kamala is “harm reduction”. We aren’t public health experts, and we don’t really understand when it became common for people who want to betray their principles to use a public health term as an excuse for that, but we do have a response: Why are people so certain that Killer Kamala actually represents “less harm” or is the “lesser evil”? Since the Iraq war, presidents from the Democratic Party have been every bit as war-making and belligerent as those from the Republican Party, from Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s disastrous NATO intervention, to the aircraft carriers that stalk the South China Sea, to the current day arms sales to Israel and bombardment of Yemen. We challenge advocates of “voting as harm reduction” to tell a family in Gaza whose child was starved to death by famine, died in the arms because the medical facilities were destroyed, or incinerated by an MK-83 bomb, that you’re doing harm reduction by voting for someone who wants to send more of those bombs to the IDF. 

Others say that they’ll vote for Killer Kamala but work to “hold her accountable”. This is the same lie we heard about the election of Chicago’s Zionist “People’s Mayor” Brandon Johnson, whose election was celebrated by Chicago leftists, some of whom got jobs in his administration.  We’ve been waiting patiently for people to hold Johnson accountable for migrant shelter conditions so deplorable that a child died. We’ve been waiting for people to hold Johnson accountable for the police brutalizing students at the Art Institute protesting the Gaza genocide. We’ve been waiting for people to hold Johnson accountable for inviting the DNC in the first place. And we’ll continue to wait, because “hold them accountable” is a lie people either tell themselves or other people when they are convincing themselves to abandon their principles and fall in line with another damn election campaign. 

The Killer Kamala vibe shift, and the newly created enthusiasm for her genocidal campaign both creates new opportunities for those of us who believe in protests outside of politics as usual, and deep challenges. It’s urgent that we continue to struggle with people who are getting sucked back into the system through continuously exposing her role in the genocide and denouncing the vibe shift. In light of the effort to prop up Killer Kamala, the protests against the Chicago DNC become more important to burst the bubble, and crash the genocide party. If there are not militant protests determined to actually disrupt and shutdown the convention, the pliant media will have no problem saying “These protesters have some problems with the Democrats, but they’ll eventually fall in line.” Instead, we must aim to deligitimize Killer Kamala and give people a concrete vehicle to express that they refuse to fall in line. 

Come to Chicago and shut down the DNC for Gaza! 

Last week, Behind Enemy Lines’ first summer volunteer arrived and hit the ground running, going all out to the people to  help build for Uptown and Humboldt Park speak-outs. We strongly encourage people to volunteer to join us in Chicago, to donate funds to support our volunteers, and volunteer to help house and feed them. Our Sunday speak-out in Humboldt Park will be our sixth neighborhood speak-out, the culmination of efforts all spring and summer to bring the fight against the DNC to the people in Chicago. For the next two weeks, as more volunteers arrive, we will be holding training and educational sessions, and most importantly going out to the people every day, building for our anti-DNC speak-outs and protest, getting posters up, and organizing people to Stand with Palestine! Join us!