Gotta square this circle. You definitely don't want to go down the track of being co-opted by democrats. But you absolutely cannot mobilize the masses by just telling them "wait for the revolution".

[–] m532@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

When the masses don't want revolution, check if they are looting the stuff of people in other countries. If they do, you know where to look for real revolutionary liberation potential.

[–] procapra@lemm.ee 11 points 2 days ago

It takes work, and it takes emotional patience with people. Screaming at the top of our lungs that we must have revolution does nothing. We must be teachers first, show the masses that their attempts at reforms are failing. If they are rational at all, they will listen. If they are not rational, getting angry and scolding them does nothing.

The western left (and I self-criticize when I say this because it applies to me as well) tends to be very infantile, very impatient, and has relatively low levels of militancy within it. I'm a full on hoxhaist. I have a very specific view on what I want socialism to look like, and what strategies I believe are actually beneficial. That being said, if I spend the bulk of my time engaged in disrespecting other tendencies instead of doing literally anything I will never see the world I want. No bunkers will be built, and I will be sad. ☹️

The average person just wants to see us do something. How often do communist parties in the west actually organize things themselves as opposed to hopping onto some liberal groups thing? If we can't even, for example organize our own red aid in a remotely comparable way to what some rando charity is doing, we got a long ass way to go ya know? There is hardly room to bicker and try to dictate peoples lives and views until we've proven to be a force of good.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

theres no such thing as waiting for a revolution

it has to be built, and its a lot of work.

luckily if we have a lot of people on board, we can divide the work up and do quite a bunch.

[–] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 12 points 2 days ago

There's gonna be things that can be attended by direct action (union organizing, literacy, breakfast program, that kind of thing) and things that can't. I think what leftist leaders should do about the things that can only be tackled by national reform is to encourage people to vote for the progressive democrats where it makes sense; worst case, they lose and we learn nothing, but best case they win and when everyone sees them fail to change anything, it makes it a lot easier to sell people on further revolutionary action.