Non-Yank with a question for Yankie comrades.
I've recently been going back over Lenin's writings, in particular What is to Be Done?:
We have said that there could not have been Social Democratic consciousness among the workers. It would have to be brought to them from without. The history of all countries shows that the working class, exclusively by its own efforts, is able to develop only trade union consciousness, i.e. the conviction that it is necessary to combine in unions, fight the employers, and strive to compel the government to pass necessary labour legislation etc
What do USAmerican Marxists think the current correct organisational strategies are, given the particular conditions of the US? What are the limits of activity within trade-unions, compared to other countries?
I think it comes down to an aversion to communication. Perhaps this is just me projecting my own shortcomings on the matter, but it really seems like the United States systematically selects against learning communicative skills. Kids go to schools, where they receive instruction. They come home to parents that are overworked and, frequently, too tired to engage. In the past, entertainment was broadcast television -- passively watching a script play out for 20 minutes with 18 minutes of advertising; today it's a grab-bag of trending auto-play videos -- all still inundated with advertising.
This isn't to say that nobody learns commutation skills -- merely that, overall, fewer people enter adulthood able to confidently have a discussion as co-equal interlocutors. So when people try to organize, instead of having intimidating conversations about their ideas and intentions, they jump straight into building an organizational framework -- out of a naive sort of "build it and they will come" hope that it will just sort of work itself out. But it doesn't work. You have to know the goals and ambitions before you put it together. You have to have some idea what your partners are thinking and expecting. You can't have a party line without first having a party conversation -- and not the sort where you keep minutes. Minutes come after. The sort where you just talk.
I mean, I think you're on to something but I'd go one further.
You just need a lot of time with people before you incorporate them into a reliable friendly organizational setting. And so much of young life is atomizing. We change schools every four years. We don't have large families anymore, so we have limited sibling relationships. Our careers scatter us to the four winds and slot us together as contractors on a temporary project rather than team members on a multi-generational local industry.
Even before you get to forming an organization, you need a squad of friendly people you know who will support you. So much of modern American life works against that.
This is a great point. I think a lot about the communication breakdown. I want to write something at some point on other people and how they go about relating to one another. We've certainly lost the skill as a population (obviously there are exceptions, this site is a pretty decent one) to communicate with people we don't agree with but could. Instead people get slurped down literal slipper slopes because they don't think to leave whatever silo they happen to be in in the first place. People acquire their ideologies and ideas largely passively.