Maduro, ICE, and Visionary Organizing: The Urgency of Now

Matt Birkhold

Law enforcement is murdering people on camera. The federal government is lying about it and kidnapping the heads of sovereign states. All this less than two weeks into the year.

2026 will likely be a year of constant urgency. How will we respond?

In Minneapolis, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other cities, people have righteously taken to the streets to oppose ICE. In Minneapolis faith leaders have played an especially important leadership role by naming opposition to ICE as a moral issue. 

This work is vital. It shows people that we don’t have to tolerate this violence and take repression lying down. We can fight back. Protesting and making demands is only half the work this moment requires of us however. 

The other half requires Visionary Organizing. We live in a world that doesn’t work. The ability of law enforcement officers to shoot women in the face on camera and be defended by the federal government is proof of that. The increasing number of demonstrations around the country show that increasing numbers of people know that the world doesn't work. 

Visionary Organizing shows people that there are other ways to live, be, and to get our needs met. When we use Visionary Organizing to create systems that meet our needs, people get to see new possibilities for life. In a moment when people know that things don’t work, visions of what might work creates interest in new possibilities and become willing to leave the old behind. 

By creating the world we need with the resources we have now, Visionary Organizing can create the conditions for the world to transform by providing a creative, transformative outlet for those who otherwise might become dejected and sink more deeply into powerlessness. By transforming despair into creativity, Visionary Organizing can lead to a world where the policies and actions that we currently have to protest can be left behind along with an outdated world.