“Get the f*** out of your house and join an organisation. Groups are how we make movements. They’re how we make political and social change. They’re how we transform. Nobody does anything of value alone.” — Yotam Marom

If you’re feeling politically powerless, you’re not alone. Yotam Marom — full-time organiser, facilitator and veteran of Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter — has spent his adult life on the front lines of progressive movements. His new book, For Louder Days: Reaching Beyond the Politics of Powerlessness, explains why progressive movements keep losing — and what to do about it.

Marom’s diagnosis is that the left has developed a “politics of powerlessness” — an attachment to purity, insularity, and performing resistance rather than building power. In contrast, the right understands that people’s pain is real, and channelling it into something organised is the only route to political change. The liberal model of showing up every few years, voting, and then going home is insufficient. And the left too often sabotages itself by dodging conflict and choosing righteousness over action.

His prescription is to “get the f*** out of your house” and join an organisation. Groups are how societies change and where people find meaning, purpose, and connection. So go on the streets. Turn up the volume. Your days will be louder and more meaningful.

Five Takeaways

• The Politics of Powerlessness. Progressive movements put enormous numbers in the streets and fail to convert that into power. Purity over winning. Insularity over coalition. Righteousness over effectiveness. The right channels pain into organised power. The left performs resistance.

• The Right Channels Pain. Trump tells people they’re being screwed — and he’s right about that. Then he continues to screw them. But the left cannot counter this with policy arguments alone. Bernie, AOC, and Mamdani know how to speak to people’s pain. That’s what works.

• Liberal Democracy Is Necessary but Insufficient. Voting is important. It’s not enough. The labour movement, civil rights movement, suffragette movement — big political change comes from mass social movements, not from electoral cycles alone.

• Conflict and Leadership Are Good, Actually. Groups that face conflict with dignity come out with better strategies. Leaders who accept responsibility give movements something to coalesce around. The fetishisation of horizontalism has kept progressive organisations small and ineffective.

• Get the F*** Out of Your House. Join an organisation. Not a mailing list — an actual organisation where people gather, disagree, and act collectively. A union, a community group, a mutual aid network. Groups are where change happens. They’re also where people find meaning and connection.

About the Guest

Yotam Marom is a full-time organiser and facilitator, co-founder of IfNotNow and the Wildfire Project, and the author of For Louder Days (The New Press, June 2, 2026).

References

For Louder Days by Yotam Marom (The New Press, June 2, 2026): thenewpress.org/books/for-louder-days
Christopher Clark, Revolutionary Spring

About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.

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Chapters:

00:00:31 The politics of powerlessness
00:02:27 The loneliness epidemic
00:03:21 The limits of liberal democracy
00:05:25 Is the right more effective?
00:07:00 The right channels pain
00:08:37 Marom’s biography: Occupy Wall Street
00:12:00 IfNotNow and the Wildfire Project
00:20:00 Purity over winning
00:25:00 Conflict and leadership
00:38:00 The joy of movement
00:40:50 What should individuals do?
00:42:02 Get the f*** out of your house