Here in the United States we’re conditioned to believe that electoral politics are the limits to acceptable political engagement and that is no accident. The most oppressive elements of our empire - the carceral system, our war machine, and capitalism itself - have bipartisan support and so that means just about every federal elected official is on-board with profound repression, with different politicians merely waging loud but marginal faux battles with one another to confuse us and get our votes.

Voters are increasingly letting politicians know that this system is unacceptable to us, and so now you’ll notice that more and more politician pay lip-service to the issues you care about. Yet, once in office they stop talking about universal healthcare, vote to fund the apartheid weapons systems they once criticized, and start apologizing to the murderous police they once justifiable blasted as racist.

If you pay close attention you’ll notice that their policy platforms were never all that strong, and so their betrayal of true liberation for colonized peoples and their allies should not be surprising. Barricades is committed to political education and demanding that politicians make clear commitments to the principles we adhere to, and then follow-through on them.

We don’t have sympathy for the supposedly “hard job” elected officials have nor do we make excuses for them when they compromise their souls and your lives in the name of careerism, compromise, or patience.

The world is on-fire, and if we’re to invest any more time in elections it needs to be with an uncompromising posture that demands everything from elected officials before we commit our support to them.

Some of the main issues we’re committed to at Barricades are:

• Socialism

• Anti-colonialism and ending empire

• Universal healthcare, housing and education

• Full employment

• Disability rights, dignity, and safety

• Queer rights, dignity, and safety

• Carceral abolition

• Abortion rights based on belief in bodily autonomy, not on “privacy”