I do have to say that what a lot of people don't understand is that a lot of people in this country, I'd say the majority, do not pay attention to politics until major election years. They literally try to avoid it, including any discussions about it, and are scared of it making things awkward or weird. They avoid people handing them flyers in the street, the word union sounds scary and the word organizing or meetings sound exhausting, they make fun of overly political people talking to them, and they don't want to be fired by association for even talking to someone related to it. Outside of an election year where they're looking for information on who to vote for, they'll shut the door in your face for talking to them.
Running for office gives an avenue to access people who become amenable to talking and thinking about politics during the election years. During that time, people are thinking of who they want to vote for. Most people know there's issues in our system and hate both parties, but don't know what the alternatives would be. I know our local PSL chapter has basically doubled in people attending the last couple meetings since the election. Without a reason, such as political campaign, a lot of people will avoid these interactions. I doubt they'd be effective if they ran ads saying don't vote for anyone, come to our local meetings or something.
I think that there is merit to this argument if you are talking local politics, but even still I have doubts that this is more effective than dozens of other programs. Tenant organizing, labor organizing, food distributions, school supply drives, tutoring programs- there are so many things where you are actually impacting people in a way that builds sincere, strong relationships that can be mobilized to do more than just show up to vote every four years. With the amount of money and labor hours PSL throws into campaigns, resources that most colonized groups will never have in their organizing work, it is really wild to me that people are out here defending what is essentially a PR stunt. You would expect there to be some other call to action beyond donating money and voting once.
I have hope for PSL anyway, there's not much else going on in the US outside of hyper local groups, but these contradictions are certainly there and no one from PSL seems to want to acknowledge them.
I do have to say that what a lot of people don't understand is that a lot of people in this country, I'd say the majority, do not pay attention to politics until major election years. They literally try to avoid it, including any discussions about it, and are scared of it making things awkward or weird. They avoid people handing them flyers in the street, the word union sounds scary and the word organizing or meetings sound exhausting, they make fun of overly political people talking to them, and they don't want to be fired by association for even talking to someone related to it. Outside of an election year where they're looking for information on who to vote for, they'll shut the door in your face for talking to them.
Running for office gives an avenue to access people who become amenable to talking and thinking about politics during the election years. During that time, people are thinking of who they want to vote for. Most people know there's issues in our system and hate both parties, but don't know what the alternatives would be. I know our local PSL chapter has basically doubled in people attending the last couple meetings since the election. Without a reason, such as political campaign, a lot of people will avoid these interactions. I doubt they'd be effective if they ran ads saying don't vote for anyone, come to our local meetings or something.
I think that there is merit to this argument if you are talking local politics, but even still I have doubts that this is more effective than dozens of other programs. Tenant organizing, labor organizing, food distributions, school supply drives, tutoring programs- there are so many things where you are actually impacting people in a way that builds sincere, strong relationships that can be mobilized to do more than just show up to vote every four years. With the amount of money and labor hours PSL throws into campaigns, resources that most colonized groups will never have in their organizing work, it is really wild to me that people are out here defending what is essentially a PR stunt. You would expect there to be some other call to action beyond donating money and voting once.
I have hope for PSL anyway, there's not much else going on in the US outside of hyper local groups, but these contradictions are certainly there and no one from PSL seems to want to acknowledge them.