(instead of starting with the motivation behind this approach, or listing the problems with other approaches, I'll just launch right into it.)

We need an expanding network of co-ops, secretly coordinated, behind the scenes, by some kind of vanguard party.

The network attempts to assimilate local businesses and, eventually, entire local economies, and use the profits to buy out residential land from the banks and landlords. We lower rent (almost?) to nothing. We then cut the workweek and spread less work across more people.

With a much shorter workweek and higher net income, workers now have the time and morale to 1) volunteer in community life, 2) attend political meetings, and 3) develop a revolutionary consciousness, preferably without even realizing it.

To help that along, we assimilate (or displace and replace) local news outlets to reduce the impact of propaganda. We start removing billboards and advertisements from public spaces. We also organize our own on-call social services which essentially function like citizen police. These services gradually supplant the local police.

Throughout this process, we avoid using marxist language. We hide the communist character of the whole thing, even though we are literally doing communism. We gotta keep everything low-key as long as possible. Our goal is to grow this network as big as we can before capital gets wise.

When capital does get wise, we'll see 1) media attacks, and 2) maybe attempts to frame vanguard members for various crimes. These are under-the-radar attacks. Somehow we need to prepare defenses against these. We want to force capital to respond above-the-radar, in ways normal people will perceive as attacks, so that each response radicalizes more and more people.

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How we assimilate businesses and economies is its own conversation. I think there are numerous ways to do it, and the approach will depend on the situation. Personally I think we should couch this assimilation as a social movement, not just an economic process. But I don't want to distract from the main post.

Ok, tear my idea to shreds folks, let's hear it

  • coinflip [none/use name]
    hexagon
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    4 years ago

    No one's being tricked into revolution. This isn't the revolution, it's just prep work.

    Also, co-ops are businesses. They're separate from the community organizing stuff. To control them we just set them up that way, like a franchise. We make their material operation depend in some way on cooperation with the larger organization.