I'm part of leadership of a small community group for our part of town. I am seeking advice on how to smuggle gold-communist principles into a group that is not explicitly communist or anticapitalist but nevertheless is receptive to the concepts.

So far the group is focused on community resiliency in the face of climate change, sustainability, food/skill sharing, social inclusivity (i.e. age, class, LGBT, ethnicity, nationality), and is generally meant to be an alternative to the chud heavy block watch groups on Facebook that just fear monger about teens after dark and property values. The group's politics are not explicitly leftist/anticapitalist but the most active members think naomi klein is great. If it was 2016 I would bet on the group being Bernard brothers. This is a heavily propagandized part of the west so actual political theory is thin on the ground. The membership of the group is likely to grow significantly over time so it is not realistic to put up a hammer and sickle, but nevertheless I want to lay foundational principles that align with anticapitalist/communist values.

For municipal politics reasons, we will open this group up to members from the neighborhood catchment to stake our claim as official reps of this part of town. We are writing our constitution and bylaws now and I want to bake in some antichud deterrents into these documents so it isn't appealing for chuds. In addition I want to frame all our future events and projects with left language, falling short of dictatorship of the proletariat or mao-aggro-shining.

Help me chapo you're my only hope

  • Maoo [none/use name]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I don't have advice for the charter aside from focusing on defense of any left actions you want to do. Think about what you could theoretically get attacked with. Right now we'd think, "Zionists would call us antisemites for having solidarity with Palestine", so it's useful to have anti-colonial language in your charter.

    Overall, my main advice is to be involved, well-liked, and to create agitational situations. Not because you are personally agitating, necessarily, but by recruiting this group into actions that reveal the nature of reaction and capital. Go to a pro-Palestine rally, put up some signs that will get torn down. Organize against the cops. Go to a picket of striking workers (preferably younger workers like Starbucks or other retail). Find a principal that is a bridge too far for local liberal politicians, push for it, and make your group watch their favorite politician lie about them. Let's say, guaranteed housing.

    These agitations are a great excuse to hold discussion sessions, teach-ins, and reading groups. You'll have to introduce what you want people to think, otherwise they'll find the Naomi Klein explanations instead.

    • carpoftruth [any, any]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yes this is good advice. There were a bunch of chud anti-sogi protests and counterprotests here a little while ago. I used that as an opportunity to talk about why calling these people bigots is so important, debated the merits of civility vs calling out bigotry, and turned the group onto Les feinberg

      Also critical support for naomi klein, she's pretty great even if she doesn't have a good political theory underpinning why capitalism is such shit. I've read a few of her books and it isn't clear to me if she doesn't have that theory herself or if she is afraid to name the beast and the solution. In either case, she's miles better than virtually all western politicians and the vast majority of what passes for public intellectualism in the west. If everyone around here read her books and internalized them without even understanding the limits that would be a huge win

      Actually maybe this is a good project - reading group on one of her books with discussion focused on the limits of the understanding she presents