The supreme court has done its worst, but we can fight back

The first thing to remember about the damage done by the US supreme court this June and the June before is that each majority decision overturns a right that we had won.

- Rebecca Solnit

We had won a measure of student debt relief thanks to the heroic efforts of debt activists since 2011. We had won reproductive rights protection 50 years ago with Roe v Wade, and we won wetlands protection with the Clean Water Act around the same time. We had implemented affirmative action, AKA a redress of centuries of institutionalised inequality, step by step, in many ways over the past 60-plus years. We had won rights for same-sex couples and queer people.

What this means is that the right wing of the US supreme court is part of a gang of reactionaries engaging in backlash. It also means we can win these things back. It will not be easy, but difficult is not impossible. This does not mean that the decisions are not devastating, and that we should not feel the pain. The old saying "don't mourn, organise" has always worked better for me as "mourn, but also organise". Defeat is no reason to stop. Neither is victory a reason to stop when victory is partial or needs to be defended. You can celebrate victories, mourn defeats and keep going.

Each of those victories was hard-won, often by people who began when the rights and protections they sought seemed inconceivable, then unlikely, then remote. To win environmental protections, the public had to be awakened to the interconnectedness, the vulnerability and value of a healthy natural world. To win marriage equality for same-sex couples and equal protection for queer people involved changing beliefs, which was achieved not just by campaigns but by countless LGBTQ+ people courageously making themselves visible and audible in their communities.