RIOTOLOGY: A DIALOGUE ON RIOTS AND RESISTANCE
conditions. But still, he and the other miners have a sense of what it would to mean to win this particular, local struggle. And, at least, he basically invites climate activists to “get together” and discuss ways of providing a living to the miners in the case that the coal mines are shut down (quoted in Lazare 2019). Ideally, such a meeting might lead to the realization that their demands— essentially a decent life without poverty on a planet whose ecosystems are not entirely destroyed—cannot be provided under the conditions of capital accumulation. Thus, the local, “affirmative” struggle might, in theory, transform itself, once it encounters certain limits insurmountable on its own terms, into a more revolutionary one. Perhaps one could follow Théorie Communiste (2010 [2009]) in acknowledging that the riot itself is another limit to be overcome rather than the form that already transcends the limits of production struggles in the current conjuncture. Parts of the Democratic Socialists of America used to have an idea of what winning would look like, too. For them it was about getting Bernie Sanders elected President of the United States in 2020. Then, a host of programs benefiting working-class people in particular could have been implemented (universal health care, free public colleges and universities and the cancellation of student debt, decent jobs for every American, a Green New Deal, and many others). Again, the issues listed on Bernie’s campaign website do not include the self-abolition of the proletariat or the establishment of communes. Still, despite the limitations of the Social Democratic project, a Sanders presidency might have given radicals a slight chance to push the administration further to the left on some issues. In any case, it was probably naïve to believe that the Democratic establishment would have felt the Bern, in the first place. Instead, they have chosen to play it safe and closed ranks around a candidate accused of 80