chat

Thanks ya'll. I can count on this board to take my random rage thread about sectarianism online and turn it into a useful discussion. <3

I wrote this when I saw the Anarchist/ML beef thread after dealing with some local beef. I'll try to be vague without leaving out important details...

My local org approved working with a much smaller, more sectarian org for some political education sessions. We would work together on some more advanced poli ed stuff and be good-weather friends when it came to tabling for May Day, rallies, that sort of thing.

At first things went well. A couple of months in we started hearing from comrades that the leader of the other group was making wildly inappropriate comments to those of us in long-term relationships. Basically the kind of thing they were saying was "if you can't commit to being a revolutionary full time then we don't want you." The worse part was saying things about our partners and insinuating that we should break up in order to get more serious about the work.

Of course this turned into a big beef that's so far culminated in a lot of chapter reflection about working with these people, lots of poli ed to new lefties about "Maoist/MLM sects" and how they have done this for a long time, votes to stop working with them on events but others want to keep doing the poli ed stuff. It's just a mess and it really boils down to one guy who had to say some stupid shit and ruin a at-the-time good relationship.

I feel like I've seen this same kind of divisiveness play out online over and over again. A real digging in on this or that issue that isn't relevant. If we can't agree that Israel shouldn't exist / major changes are needed to free Palestine, then yeah GTFO. But I'm seeing people bring up things about historical figures that have been dead for centuries or nit picking AES countries or coming up with new terms to describe the combo of books you personally love more than others.

I'm not here for an online bookclub! I'm here to shit post with the rest of ya'll, but also find ways to create more leftists. Nothing can get done without numbers, and we need them badly. My org is doing some direct action, I won't say what, but we could do a whole lot more of it if we had a few dozen more people actually show up to help. I don't see the endless bickering over Dengist Chinese policy from 40 years ago (and it is endless) bringing anyone new into the fold. There's a time and a place for the deep dives into history & theory. Some people need to know these things so we don't repeat the mistakes of the past. We just can't keep gatekeeping every well-meaning Lib that shows up. We have to grow, and throwing a reading list at people is only going to keep attracting the kinds of people who like spending their spare time reading dense theory...

There is no leftist project in the west, until there is a focal point to rally around we will all be wolves lashing out in the forest.

This and similar takes showed up several times here. I don't agree that there's "no" Left in the U.S. Yeah, we're not packing Madison Square Garden for rallies, but there are active DSA, PSL, and smaller group chapters all over the place and in some of the most fash parts of the country. That's not enough but also not nothing.

Personally, I feel like I have a hard time approaching strangers & getting them to talk to me. IDK if its something with my body language or tone or w/e. I dress normally and I speak in plain English but I wonder if people have a "autist-dar" and get a vibe from me or something. IDK, it's hard to explain. All I know is me + general public = awkward.

And whatever this rally point is its not going to emerge out of the internet

Yes and no. I agree that an online-only movement is nothing more than another bunch of posts with lots of "likes" or whatevers. I find social media to be a waste of time and a great way to absorb organizing energy without doing anything meaningful. At the same, one of the mantras I was taught as an Organizer was "go where the people are". So much political organizing starts online. This is where the people are. I think what you were getting at is we gotta get those people who are spending their time writing long posts arguing to log off for a while and get their butts to an org meeting.

there is no "left" in the united states in any meaningful sense of the word.

There is major potential for a "left" to sprout here, but it won't happen without work. I will self-crit and say the agit prop project I wanted to get off the ground this year hasn't been given any work. Life gets in the way and unlike both flavors of lib I don't get a paycheck to propagandize all day. I'd like to get that trading I'm doing to "consistently profitable" status to the point where I can trade in the morning then work on my projects in the afternoon.

I'll have more to post another day about this, but the main thing that's bouncing around my head is: We're not accessible to the general public, we don't speak their language, and we are off-putting with the way we present ourselves to them. We need more and better "Socialism 101" literature, better marketing, actually do marketing (at least put some ads in the local alt papers), etc. to find our people. I am very sure there are millions of comrades out there just waiting for that seed to enter their minds, but we can't just wait for it to happen. And I'm tired of hearing people say the masses will "wake up when the conditions get worse." Sounds like a cop-out to me. Shit is getting really bad really fast and yeah for some of us we are privileged enough that it isn't hitting us right now but if we are friends with anyone with darker skin... things are really bad out there.