We Have Two Paths
The following is a transcript of the speech given by Marion Koshy of Space City Anarchist Organisation at the Houston Organizing Fair on the 8^th of February 2025.

I was at a show a few ago, and a couple of folks were giving speeches. After the first couple speeches, a comrade told me that these speeches were amazing, but they made her feel so hopeless. I think an important part of speeches like these is that it shouldn’t be just to agitate and educate the folks that we’re trying to get up and act, but to inspire them to organize. So I just want to say that, that every single one of you has the ability to act now towards a better future. The Biden Presidency have been nothing but badly negotiated peace. There are literal armed Nazis with swastika flags marching in the streets, an emboldened Trump administration hell-bent on cutting our rights, the Zionist entity continues to oppress the Palestinian people, and slowly, our planet continues to heat up. So now, we have two paths, Path A, and Path B.

Path A.

Path A goes something like this. You wake up without power, covered in sweat. Hurricane whatever knocked out our shitty power grid. You turn on your phone, and with the last bits of power left, you doom scroll through the apocalypse. Watch as every job is automated out, egotistical technocrats push AI into the economy, destroying our creative output, and our already dreadful work turns into overt slavery. Christian fundamentalist cults conspire together to create a theocracy, their coffers flooded by ghoulish oil barons that want to erase any aspect of queerness in our society. Nazi march in our street once again, attacking political dissidents, and marginalized communities in their path. Government services fail, privatized by the likes of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. Meanwhile, we gamble our futures away in the political system, and we continue to bark without teeth. We work endlessly as landlords and bosses extract our very lifeblood and turn it into profit. And maybe in the next election the bad guy is finally voted out, people go back to brunch. But climate change, fascism, and poverty only worsen, and with a gasp, we go silently into oblivion.

I know I said that I’d try to not make people hopeless, but bear with me here. There is also Path B.

Path B.

You wake up, and take a breath. The world is burning outside your window, but you know that the only way out is through. You and your comrades join together somewhere, whether its a park, someone’s apartment, a library, a resource centre. Different communities, different people from all walks of life who have been marginalized one way or another meet together, determined to make things better however they can. In struggle, they find a passionate way of living that allows them to take back their lives. A diverse range of talents, skill sets and wills join together to build a movement. Everything for everyone, everything a tool, everything a weapon. Workers in essential utilities, tired of incompetent administrators and bosses, take over their workplace and start distributing their labour for free. Autonomous supply lines break strangleholds as people realize hallowed words: “ALL HELD IN COMMON”. We learn skills lost to the ages, and through repeated skill shares, skirmishes, and bookclubs, people find courage to break through.

We live in a time of upheaval. It is no secret that the system that we live under is not sustainable. A system in which every 10 years, there’s an economic crisis is not a system that we can live under. We wake up, do the same routine over and over again, while out of touch politicians gamble with peoples lives. Pay check to pay check, month to month, our collective stress is what hangs over our heads. Our labour is what keeps this world alive, it is what makes this world go around, but in the end, we don’t feel apart of it. We’re packed into suburbs, dreary offices, with jobs that ensure that there is no free time for what we want.

We want a more dignified future. A future where we can determine our own destiny. All you have to do is think, “If I had the ability to do so. what would I be doing?”. You are not alone. Through our collective alienation, our suffering, our loneliness, is where lies our solidarity with each other. You may think that you are powerless, but I promise you: you all have the pieces to build something together, a life in common, a life where you can determine your own future. The age old question of “Shall we only hope for heaven when we’re dead?” is only answered with the realization that the Only Way Out Is Through.

To begin, we must find each other. We are born into a world of demoralization, isolation, defeat, but we’re capable of living differently. Take stock of what you have, who your friends are, what your skills are, your capacities, your connections. You have the ingredients to build a life in common.

We do not live in isolated struggles or context, we must participate in social struggles around us. You’ll find that other like minded people, who are tired of how this world works are also fighting. We have the ability to directly act against our oppression. We can engage in blockades, fight against fascism and the state, organize a food or clothing drive, build a community garden. We can have a little audacity to do change in our communities. We must have audacity to demand a better world for ourselves.

In order to build, we must cast away oppressions such as class, gender, race, nations, capitalism and other authoritarian implements that seek to destroy our autonomy. We must develop structures to help build a better world, building on small term gains that over time, build into a larger movement for liberation.

It is important, now especially, to start organizing. We are living in the aftermath of an election that has put an administration that is bent on destroying the futures of black, brown, trans and disabled people. It is clear that elections don’t work in keeping our communities safe from creeping fascism. Politicians don’t have the answers to what is impacting our daily lives. The only solution to them is to show up to elections and put your vote in the ballot box. Elections don’t stop hate crimes, homeless people freezing to death, climate disaster, or people who have been abandoned by the system.

It is intimidating to face oppression or injustice, but you are not alone. No politician, no saviour is coming to stop suffering, it is up to us, regular people, to organize and to save ourselves.

You can get involved, even if you think you don’t have the skills. Showing up is already half the battle completed. I started out taking notes at meetings and handing out water to renters on strike.

So if you want to do something, but don’t know where to start, feel free to approach the SCAO table, and talk to us about organizing. We have a Thursday distro that feeds our un-housed neighbours, we operate a free store that gives out goods for free, and we do direct action against local Nazis.

Marion Koshy