Yesterday, when I wrote Who is colonized now? I was in no way suggesting a false equivalency with those who have suffered from colonialism from the first day the Europeans came to these lands centuries ago.
My focus for months now has been on the consequences of the colonization of this land. For many reasons.
But now, the rapid collapse of the current political and economic systems, with increasing authoritarianism has devolved into state violence against us all, the general public.
Those of us who were among the privileged of this country, find that we no longer are. And because we hadn’t had to adapt to oppressive conditions, we are bewildered about how to respond to this violence directed at us.
Adopting the concepts of the NewCO (new conscientious objector) is how we can respond.
Economic Draft
The concept of the “Economic draft” is helpful here because it shows how huge groups of people are forced to stay in jobs that they aren’t invested in or don’t believe in. Young people from economically disadvantaged communities are targeted by military recruiters. Millions of people are tied to such jobs because they need the healthcare insurance. And millions of others are trapped in jobs they don’t want because they have huge student debt.
The NewCO
Those who have historically been oppressed have been building alternative solutions. The concept of the NewCO (new conscientious objector) provides an integrate way to look at these systems, and the solutions to address them.
This integrated concept is profoundly counter-intuitive because it challenges us to stop seeing these issues as separate struggles—such as racism, economic inequality, and militarism—and instead see them as one integrated system that must be confronted as a whole.
The Ultimate Strategy: Make the System Obsolete by Building a Better One
And the best thing about this solution (NewCO) is that it doesn’t waste time and effort trying to make incremental changes in systems that are themselves the sources of injustice. You cannot create justice as long as you are embedded in the systems of injustice.
The integrated solution of LANDBACK, Mutual Aid, and Abolition of police and prisons is what I have been led to believe is the only just response.
With LANDBACK as the foundation, the NewCO strategy uses Mutual Aid and Abolition to build a functioning alternative that makes the Economic Draft irrelevant.
Mutual Aid is the logistical engine of this new world, operating under the principle of “Solidarity, Not Charity.” Unlike charity, which is vertical, mutual aid is a horizontal, reciprocal practice of people working together to meet collective needs. The Des Moines Mutual Aid (DMMA) “Panther Pantry,” a weekly free food giveaway that I was involved in, is a concrete example of “People’s Infrastructure.” It provides the material “rations”—unconditional food, housing, and care—that allow individuals to “desert” the war economy. These rations directly counter the coercion of the Poverty Draft by meeting basic needs and nullify Job Lock by creating community safety nets independent of employers.
Abolition is the strategy of “Systemic Non-Collaboration”—a total refusal to grant legitimacy to the police and prisons, which are the “domestic enforcement arm of the war machine.” This is not a passive stance but a dual strategy of systematically divesting from systems of harm while simultaneously investing in community-based systems of genuine safety and transformative justice. By refusing their legitimacy, Abolition dismantles the state’s power to execute the evictions and criminalize the poverty that the Economic Draft weaponizes.
