“Do your part, join an org”
The org:
“Yes, organizing in the imperial core is pointless. You’re better off staying home and posting memes on Hexbear instead.” -
You know how I finally got involved in an org? I had a vision of the rest of my life. Spend my free time reading theory for the next 50 years or so. I could probably get pretty smart at this Marxism thing. Then I die. That big Marxist brain shuts off and I will have left the world not making even the slightest impact on it. Well, some people online knew I was a commie and some family members, but that’s it. I developed all this knowledge - devoted my life to it - and in the end it didn’t mean a thing. I couldn’t handle that, I had to do something.
You know why people like Zizek have such shit takes? I think it’s largely because he (and frankly, most Marxist academics) aren’t involved in even the slightest bit of real praxis. He would rather jerk off other Marxist philosophers with his pettifoggery bullshit than help some homeless folks down the street. Being a commie isn’t about having the right takes. It’s about changing the world (with the right takes). Being right on the internet, now THAT is pointless.
Faith without works is dead, comrades.
Yeah, of course, those of us in the imperial core have our work cut out for us. The conditions aren’t there right now. The conditions aren’t close to being there right now. But you know what, things can change on you fast. Maybe it’s all pointless but if you’re not involved and doing something, then you’ve already given up and we may as well just wait while this whole planet just cooks. And even if it is pointless, do it for yourself. Do it so you can feel that you’re at least trying and doing what you can.
People here whine and moan about DSA and PSL. I promise you, their chapters in your city aren’t anywhere near as bad as you’re probably afraid of. Yeah, sure, maybe some folks there will say things like “China is state capitalist”. But if that’s enough to keep you from organizing then I’m sorry, you’re definitely showing me you have never engaged with other leftists outside of this website. There’s a lot of opinions out there, and a lot of leftist IRL who have a lot of potential are gonna have some shitty takes when you meet them. WHY NOT BE THE ONE WHO HELPS THEM NOT BE SO SHIT?
Both orgs I mentioned are desperate for good, knowledgeable, passionate comrades. A lot of you here are more than capable of doing great things in an org. You would be shocked, if you put the work in, how willing people will be to follow your lead.
It’s important to find good orgs and not just put up with shitty libs ruining your opportunities for praxis. You can go from being a stay-at-home big brain to an infighting-and-pointless-electoralism lib if you’re not cognizant of your org and its weaknesses.
Step 1 is to join an org and begin doing work, including gaining organizing skills.
Step 2 is to either begin launching new campaigns yourself because you got lucky with your first choice of org or to instead join a better org so you can do better work.
Don’t underestimate just how toxic or useless some orgs can get! You might be surprised at how little headway you will make in some spaces where you do the leadership things (organizing, planning, logistics, socializing, chairing, hooking people up, teaching, etc) and can’t get anyone to move on key things like, “maybe don’t put all of your effort into failing to get some random person elected that is already 6 months late into declaring their candidacy” or “maybe you don’t need to put out a message condemning Hamas and both sides” or “maybe don’t be pro-cop”. I’ve seen or heard of all these things from very good organizers who moved on to better organizations. The issues above occurring in self-proclaimed socialist spaces, including some communist ones.
Consider also that step 1 may be hampered by a toxic or incompetent org. You may pick up bad habits or become complacent with failure or simply not be around anyone that can teach you good methods. You might even be in an org that actively quashes attempts to practice good methods because the folks around you think very highly of their own methods that never get results and believe it’s their goal in life to tell you what to do, lol. I’ve also seen this.
So my rec is to try the two steps I listed but know when to bail on a step 1 org that you’re not growing in.
Probably worth sharing the top comment from the lemmygrad thread:
The article was written by John Bechtel, who was chair of the CPUSA up until 2019.
This is their official take on the Oct 7 attack.
https://www.cpusa.org/article/stop-the-war-end-the-occupation-free-palestine/
I’m an anarchist and have no great love for the organization in general, but I think this little screenshot might be a but misleading, and that’s a shit thing to do to other leftists.
Here appears to be recent, relevant posts on CPUSA’s actual website: https://www.cpusa.org/?ssearch=palestine&fq=any&sort=date&order=desc
Some of the titles alone:
- “Gaza: The second wave of genocide”
- “A ceasefire is the first step toward peace and liberation”
- “The cost of silencing voices for peace”
- “CP and YCL take it to the streets: Ceasefire now!”
- “Stop the war! End the occupation! Free Palestine!” (Note: published Oct 8, 2023)
And here’s the first paragraph of that first article:
After several days of ceasefire, Israel again embarked upon its campaign of wanton killing and destruction. This followed yet the latest visit to the region by U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, underlining for anyone somehow still under doubt that the U.S. is most certainly an accomplice to this genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces against the wholly innocent people of Gaza, undertaken of course with an arsenal of U.S. state-of-the-art weaponry, military technology, and intelligence.
I haven’t gone into the details of their writing, but this really doesn’t sound like an organization of zionists who are condemning Hamas or other Palestinians, or supporting the apartheid regime and its genocide.
“Stop the war! End the occupation! Free Palestine!” (Note: published Oct 8, 2023)
They don’t use the word genocide in the entire article and even say “Apartheid-like” They cant even all it an apartheid state.
