"Opening up political ed opportunities" seems like an iffy and vague goal, but I'll table that because it's hard to gauge the downstream effects of these movements, especially when they're ongoing.
Obviously "muh white anarkiddies" is a shit take, but that doesn't discount that poll, and that data does make me wonder if "Abolish/Defund the Police" comes across as an incomplete vision to a lot of people who do live in impoverished areas, who do have genuine experience with and concerns about crime from living in those neighborhoods. Seeing cops do fuck-all for victims of crime in their neighborhood doesn't necessarily innoculate people to the Pure Ideology of thinking that maybe the fear of police still reduces crime in some way. Or even with the full understanding that police don't really do shit to reduce crime--"great, police abolished, now what about all the other shit we're dealing with?" Just conjecture loosely based on talking with people I used to know from the city, but my point is that these slogans could do with alluding to a more comprehensive plan, like emphasizing the use of those police hoards towards aggressive poverty reduction.
if we're not taking every opportunity to instill political education, what kind of vanguard are we?
the problem with this take is that it's fundamentally tailist. it sets you up to follow where people are at and what they profess to want today and treating that as some kind of immutable truth. in fact, people got into the streets and fought the cops to demand police abolition - so the revolutionary segment of the class is already ahead of this sentiment. that bourgeois opinion polling - intended to recuperate that demand - says that the demand isn't popular isn't particularly surprising or noteworthy. chase the polls into electoralism if you like, but the revolutionary path is to work out what future demands the class ought to make on its path to overthrowing its masters.
"Opening up political ed opportunities" seems like an iffy and vague goal, but I'll table that because it's hard to gauge the downstream effects of these movements, especially when they're ongoing.
Obviously "muh white anarkiddies" is a shit take, but that doesn't discount that poll, and that data does make me wonder if "Abolish/Defund the Police" comes across as an incomplete vision to a lot of people who do live in impoverished areas, who do have genuine experience with and concerns about crime from living in those neighborhoods. Seeing cops do fuck-all for victims of crime in their neighborhood doesn't necessarily innoculate people to the Pure Ideology of thinking that maybe the fear of police still reduces crime in some way. Or even with the full understanding that police don't really do shit to reduce crime--"great, police abolished, now what about all the other shit we're dealing with?" Just conjecture loosely based on talking with people I used to know from the city, but my point is that these slogans could do with alluding to a more comprehensive plan, like emphasizing the use of those police hoards towards aggressive poverty reduction.
if we're not taking every opportunity to instill political education, what kind of vanguard are we?
the problem with this take is that it's fundamentally tailist. it sets you up to follow where people are at and what they profess to want today and treating that as some kind of immutable truth. in fact, people got into the streets and fought the cops to demand police abolition - so the revolutionary segment of the class is already ahead of this sentiment. that bourgeois opinion polling - intended to recuperate that demand - says that the demand isn't popular isn't particularly surprising or noteworthy. chase the polls into electoralism if you like, but the revolutionary path is to work out what future demands the class ought to make on its path to overthrowing its masters.