As of today, your local “progressive” libs are ready to hear that the Democrats are going to take them nowhere but loserville. If they care about protecting vulnerable populations like they say they do (most are genuine), then it’s time to get serious about other options. We have 4 years to draw something up and it starts today.
Surely they already know you as something of a politics nerd if you post here. They are probably looking to you for an indication if you weren’t too smug about “I’m not voting cause it doesn’t matter” for the last 6 weeks (not advised). The existing socialist parties are somewhere between problematic and just too much for your well-meaning friends to sign up for (are you even a member yourself, liberal?).
One way to kick things off is to demonstrate some Democratic Centralism.
- Find 2 people you have very few fundamental disagreements with. Especially if they can be like “yeah, socialism, lets make our community more like Sweden”.
- “We are now the socialist party of [Libtown, USA], consisting of three members, somebody design us a T-shirt or something”.
- Then you start working through it. Write down a few bylaws, but be clear about your commitment to your comrades. “I’ll vote for Kamala Harris 100x if that’s what the party decides democratically, but also I really, really, don’t think we should do that”.
- This is all a great opportunity to educate, discuss politics, study/teach theory, and build bonds with political allies.
- Hopefully you get past being a 4 person book club and do some volunteering with your growing squad of 10 members.
- The endgame is that your mini-party will eventually be mature enough to vote to merge or have an official relationship with an actual substantial political party. Could be a merger with PSL or something, could be a merger with the dozen folks doing the same thing over in [Libville], the next town over.
This is organizing, this is praxis. It starts off as some nerd shit over a round of drinks, but it’s at least an attempt to wield a bit of political power while also bringing more people into the fold. Your position is strong right now.
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Write down a few bylaws
“but that’s authoritarianism!”
It’s the duty of party leaders to convince our comrades to make the best decisions for the party at large. You’ll get very sharp going through the process in good faith with people who want to work with you.
Another, more anarchist approach you could take is as your group grows, doing direct, organized mutual aid in your community. Just start feeding people and talk about your radical bookclub/movie nights as you do so. You would be shocked by how many people (especially chuds) can be radacalized this way. As you grow your mutual aid networks start doing other things to help people directly; begin building dual power. Once you hit a dozen or so members and plenty of connections with other radical orgs (socialist rifle association, PSL, black rose federation[?]) you could think about federating with a national org such as the symbiosis federation. I highly recommend everyone look into Cooperation Jackson, and their book “Jackson Rising” for an example of a successful anarchist adjacent movement that is truly helping people. They have inspired other “Cooperations” in Tulsa, Denton and others.
Comrades, we must get organized now and radicalize as many as we can. While the libs may well forget about it and go back to brunch soon, oppressed people across the country will be in need of alternatives for the next four years.
Excellent suggestions, thank you comrade!
reverse entryism
Lol that’s a great way to put it, I wish it was that easy to explain to my liberals
Good post OP. I just made a comment to my local liberal-y friends about joining some leftist organizations out there and they immediately started planning looking around and joining some. It’s way easier than you might think people.
Good thing you got to them before The View or Rachel Maddow did. Lib psyches are vulnerable to truth right now and it’s only a matter of time until we get some best-seller book that makes them feel alright going to brunch again while reassuring them that it’s only 4 years until the next :vote:
Ugh i really did hammer home the voting jokes yesterday, that probably cost me some support this morning.
Proud to see the self-crit comrade, we need to be thining ahead. I think some of my sarcastic comments didn’t go that well myself, even though I try to keep it tempered down for that reason.
it doesn’t have to be a socialist party, it could be built around serving the people
That’s pretty much the definition of a socialist party. But if you’re trying to avoid the S word in order to not scare away the liberals, that’s fine.
Not in US, a socialist party implies what OP posted, making a brand, some rules, and a book club. virtually no socialist party in america of note is actively engaged with serving the people at all, and their membership is mostly made up of people who do not look like the most marginalized and oppressed.
True. A mutual aid org is probably a better use of anyone’s time in the terminal collapse of an empire.
yes exactly “we can build our own resilience hubs and logistic networks so we can feed ourselves when the government abandons us again” is a stronger sell and meets people where they are vulnerable, their own survival. Connecting to people by immediately helping them survive is going to build stronger relationships quicker. apply all the concepts that we know to the structure and organization but I think going “socialist party” route is old hat
The comments I have had the most luck with are policy comparisons where Kamala was to the right of mid-2000s Republicans (border wall vs bipartisan support for the Dream Act, massive military buildup vs “big government bad, cut all spending”, Bush Sr. was the last president to threaten aid to Israel, Romney’s health care policies in Massachusetts).
Also, “I wish I could just have some say in the process; there should have been a real primary”
And a lot of sappy ‘there was a time when I could be proud of this country’, focusing on when both parties were to the left of current DNC positions (except homophobia, obviously)
Just watch, the 2028 platform will be throwing queer people under the bus to try to get more conservative votes.
GOOD post
Yours too, comrade.
As it pertains to Hexbear, I think we need to consider putting a throttle on our irony. Hate to see our comrades experiencing hopelessness when we never expected this to be easy. Idk a lot to think about this morning. Let’s post through it.
Liberals taking a massive L is always a great time to radicalize well-meaning people. They’ve been mislead their whole lives thinking that Democrats actually want to do good. Time to show them how cynical and owned by corporations they really are.
The irony was for the smug liberal that was so thick dynamite couldn’t break their worldview.
Now is the time for aftercare so they can rebuild a better worldview.
I feel you
