Ok, the election is over. Let's organize a third party.
How do we organize? What do we do first?
Anyone else thinking about this?
It sounds like you’ve got the right spirit but are likely treading a path that’s already been tried by a lot of people rather unsuccessfully. I would second @FunkyStuff@hexbear.net’s recommendation of reading State and Revolution or Blackshirts and Reds.
We don’t recommend this stuff to be elitist or condescending or to gatekeep. We recommend it because people have tried the obvious solutions for hundreds of years at this point and we can learn from their failures and successes. There is no worthwhile theory without action, but there is also no worthwhile action without theory.
Can I just throw in If We Burn as a very recent example of what happens without the work done in those other texts? You can see it as a "how not to do it" manual in many ways.
It’s about failed progressive revolutions (that turned into color revolutions) of the past decade, mainly due to poor and spontaneous organizing. It’s the same author as Jakarta Method and I really recommend it
How do we organize? What do we do first?
I know a certain someone who wrote about what is to be done
There were multiple third parties running for president. There are many more at a local level. I don't think our problem is a lack of parties.
Also, organize a party with people near you, not over the internet. You have zero chances of winning an election if you don't organize locally.
Why don't you just join one of the existing third parties like PSL or the Greens?
This isn't going to go well for you. You should probably just delete this post and move on.
You realize you posted this on the furthest left instance, right? The comm thumbnail is literally a picture of Lenin.
It was my favorite one out of these other candidates when I was looking for comm pfps to use back when we upgraded the site enough to do avatar pfps
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Please don't use the word "liberal" as interchangeable with "left".
Democrats are liberals, yes, as in proponents of liberalism, as in proponents of the natural rights of the individual crucially including the right to own private property. Liberalism is in other words the political philosophy of capitalism.
Left, on the other hand, basically means that relative to another party or ideology, a given party or ideology favors greater equality or less hierarchy. Democrats are today generally left of Republicans, albeit not by much. Democrats, however, are not leftist — because leftism generally points specifically to Marxists, anarchists, and other people who specifically want to abolish private property.
In other words, if you're only thinking of Democrats and Republicans, then Democrats are "the left"; but if you're including all the Marxists and anarchists around, then Democrats are suddenly on the right. The equation of "liberal" with "left" in the USA then serves to confuse people and limit their imagination and understanding: it is best to draw the line between left and right at the point of preserving or abolishing private property, because when one party wants to completely change the whole mode of production of society, and another wants to keep the mode of production as-is, then their use of slogans about the plights of minorities are a purely superficial point of comparison.
Unserious. If you don't see why describing the most illiberal party in America as liberal is stopping us from taking you seriously it's probably time to pick up a book, I recommend State and Revolution or Blackshirts and Reds.
Now this is going to sound rude and elitist but please believe me when I'm saying this advice is very beneficial for you. You really need to work on developing your political education so as to develop a rich depth of knowledge that allows you to move past the bourgeoise' stunted-by-design social construct of a left-liberal right-conservative political spectrum.
lol gonna need you to post hog so that we can verify your account before you can post on this instance more, liberal
PSL and the Greens are pretty liberal
lol, lmao. deeply unserious, no understanding of what words mean.
some feedback: if you're gonna make a thread about starting a political party, make sure you spend at least 5 minutes informing yourself on what basic terminology like "liberal" means. also read Lenin lol this is embarrassing
This is the right idea!
In my opinion the best thing, if it is an option for you, is to join a local left organization and develop yourself and the organization in terms of your theoretical understanding and practical efficacy, which basically to say reading and gaining expertise at taking action. And to be clear, when I say left, I mean something socialist.
It can be difficult to recommend a specific org because I don't know where you live and you shouldn't tell me. But I can suggest some things to do to help guide you:
- Pick a socialist one.
- Pick it by attending an action that they organize and getting a sense for the people and their positions.
- You can discover events by looking for posters in hotbed areas (college campuses, downtown) and social media.
- A good rule of thumb is that if they are anti-imperialist and name the US as imperialism's exemplification, their other positions will be better as well.
- Avoid Trotskyists and anything associated with Avakian.
- Once in an org, focus on building positive relationships with people, being dependable and active, and reading and then teaching once you feel confident enough.
If you use these tips you should end up in a good enough org and can help build it. It's okay if you end up leaving your first org. They are often just a way to get a sense for what exists locally and where energy and good practice are centered.
I'm an overseas American so I'm not necessarily thinking of a third party within the borders of the USA, but I have sometimes thought about how it would be nice if there were a "Socialists Abroad" like how there's a Democrats Abroad and Republicans Overseas.
