“Biden’s election is not an end”
Siri spoke to Bhavi Mandalia after the announcement that Joe Biden had beaten Trump in the United States election. In the interview for India's "PledgeTimes" Siri talks about "Writers Against Trump", Trumpism, and whether Biden can make bold changes.
BM: What made you decide to found the movement Writers against Trump ?
SH: We have mobilized around two thousand writers and organized seminars on Zoom in the “swing states” to encourage our members to take concrete actions. We have in common a sense of urgency. It was clear that the election would be decisive in knowing if we saved a democratic and representative republic, however imperfect, or if we lost it to fall into an authoritarian regime. Our message was to encourage people to vote.
We particularly focused on young progressives, some of whom were disillusioned with the Democratic Biden-Harris ticket, who were tempted to abstain. Biden’s election is not an end. It simply makes dialogue possible with an administration that is not deaf to systemic racial and gender injustices. An administration aware of the failure of the health system, of the devastation due to climate change, of the global pandemic and of the growing inequalities which have concentrated wealth in unprecedented proportions since the end of the 19th century.
