#left #organizing #labor #tactics #doing-the-math #cohost-repost
2023-08-02

some background: this used to be 5 posts on cohost

people talk about wanting movements but the US is very big and you'll need many movements with their own agility and intel and knowledge of the local political terrain, not national movements. national "connective tissue" type things will be necessary to connect people needing to learn with the people with the skills, but the biggest thing DSA and PSL and etc teach as lessons is that national political organizations are unable and unwilling, due to structural dynamics, pay attention to their locals.

which so far has meant good locals bloom in spite of that body, while bad locals fester because of the lack of oversight or recourse.

but we do need something, because unions are selfish, keeping to their industries. they branch out sometimes, sure, but they don't use their power for things outside their industry much anymore, no matter what people who go to Labor Notes claim.

we won't see a teamsters strike refusing to deliver Pfizer because they started gouging COVID treatments, for instance. unions are not, and in the current political and economic atmosphere, will never be your salvation.

they're still useful as something to gain better wages for an industry and open more fronts for those with the power to have to fight on, but they will never save you. you don't need them to. it's not unions that have the power.

you don't even have to do much. just find people who care and do things together. know each other's contract info in ways that aren't totally burned if you get arrested at some protest or whatever. start a local events / comms thing. there's plenty to do and I'm not doing most of it thanks to illness but I'm out here writing stuff and connecting people so there's that.

but this is the same advice I was giving in 2017. covid cast everyone to the winds but you've had 3 years to catch your breath, an election is coming up, you probably want something built just in case.

all the moderates and moderate progressives are celebrating the trump indictment as if it is a victory, a finish line. don't count on them, they're telegraphing that they're going to brunch it out.

whatever you do, it must be local, even if that's hard for you

there's talk of selfhosting, of friend collectives, of political discords, of countless ways to squander our efforts.

but the only way to make it count is at the municipal level, whether that's mutual aid (the real kind, building structures the gov won't, that become self sustaining) or helping people with hosting, or websites, or whatever. build study groups where you just talk about what's going on, not even left theory unless someone asks, not to cloak it, but because if it worked we wouldn't still be discussing it eight years later. the left is small, so just be gentle with people -- no one has time to learn unless this is their hobby. yes, that means you're a hobbiest, even if you're dedicated to the cause, because "the masses" can't relate to half the things you talk about. perhaps not to your face, but where have most of them gone the past eight years, who you taught?

but also, like, the one place where elections matter are the municipal level. once you've got that, organize per district and grab a state seat. and just roll it. but until we're winning municipal elections nationwide enough for there to be comment, it makes no sense for higher level ones. you need leverage.

online stuff doesn't take territory. you can do a lot online, but it's better left to the people who are unable to do it in person. if you're able, even if you're afraid of people, you gotta try. if it helps, think of it like Battlefield or whatever except instead of guns you've got fliers or whatever. but make no mistake, even politically your tactics are that of an insurgency claiming and holding territory. you'll need to talk to everyone, you'll need to gain their support, and you'll need to build structures there with holding power, both metaphorical and literal. it doesn't need to be electoral, it can be safe needles, it can be cooking for people, it can just be a place where everyone talks to everyone in neutral ground to build the network.

you've got social networking skills, use 'em!

if you organize a neighborhood's majority, you can now have a city councilor who reports to your neighborhood. then enough for multiple councilors and a seat in the state house. then multiple state house seats to get a seat in state Senate. you get the idea.

you're going to have to be nice to the progressives. go take out an excel spreadsheet and do the math if you don't believe me. at it's very peak, full of progressives who barely showed up past voting in internal elections, DSA had 130k, with maybe 15k actually very active members (Bernie poll showed that). the rest of the organized left is at most 500,000 but let's say 750,000, mostly inactive outside of online.

the population of the United States is 330,000,000

we cannot afford you alienating them for dopamine. if you are frustrated, teach or go fuck off somewhere. and when i say teach, i don't mean bombard them with things they don't understand and arent going to read, like you already do.

I'm sure at least one person will come in whining about me being a lib but i want you to go look up how many people lived in wherever you're gonna cite and how much popular support they had, because we do not have that and the population is way, way higher than the 20th century, and most people have way less cycles to learn shit. if just shouting slogans at people worked, France would be a utopia by now.

I am going to stress this a third time: it needs to be local

online stuff has a very hard time:

etc

online organizing has a place but it can never be the front line, and a whole lot of abled people claim it's all they can do when I spent six years burning energy I didn't have to try and build things largely in spite of people who were mostly on line and only in person when it would be embarrassing not to be.

if you're abled and believe in any form of left ideology, it should always be embarassing not to be out there. be embarrassed. or go build things instead.

a lot of the left talks about a "crisis of capitalism" that they must prepare for and capitalize on, that they are biding time for

what makes you think capitalism won't adapt? it's been so good at it these past two decades.

lemmie let you in on a secret

we are the crisis

the structures you build, if they're everywhere, point at what's ignored in the pursuit of profit. it tears holes in the American Myth. it builds self sustaining institutions of the community, with a leftward ideological bent. service and education in one.

hoarding your supplies and your skills and working on an org for a crisis that never comes, as things get worse and worse and those with power figure out ways to capitalize on that suffering is cultism at best. we don't need 500 groups reinventing the wheel while refusing to collaborate, and that's why the future is networks and not organizations imo.

i know a lot of other places are saying this. they're right. i may seem like a copycat but this is from like. thirteen years of experience at this point. occupy was right in that sense.

and hey, even if nothing comes from it, you did something for you community.

who am i to tell you what to do, I'm just some dyke with an internet connection. do it for everyone else.

edit to be clear: this isn't "organize with the centrist democrats to run their candidate. this is the fastest route to build power. ignore the Dems, make them keep up if they don't want to defect.