Has /r/socialism_101 been compromised? I have noticed over the last 2 or so months some incredible takes in the comments and this thread is even locked.
I usually don't really care but this kind of thought is on par with libs that use "utopian" when talking about Marxism. Just so confidently wrong. I'm not even that well read yet on theory but, Jesus, this set off my lib radar bad.
Do you ever feel like it would just be better to call yourself a Stalinist since thats what people will label you as anyway? I have always called myself a tankie and it has made me a lot less weak looking because i dont have to deny anything.
Activism is usually done with people who like you anyway, so it doesnt matter that this makes liberals terrified. Youre going to be organizing with homeless people anyway, so they wont care what you call yourself as long as you are cool.
Ive really struggled to find a reason to come up with a label myself though. I only called myself a tankie because my enemies did so.
Hi. My name is toomanyjoints69. Im a tankie. Have some free food. Would you like to help cook food for your fellow homeless people?
Three weeks later.
Thanks for helping us every week with cooking. The UMWA is having a picket event in town and it would mean a lot to me if you came to this to make the crowd bigger.
A month later.
Some liberal angrilly leaves the group because its led by a tankie, meanwhile the group mainly consists of homeless people grateful for the IDs, Social security cards, and food ive helped them get. We continue to do our activism while getting free labor from liberal hippies that post fliers for us until the enevitable cancellation attempt.
Im not pretending to have solved activism. My own groip fell apart after 3 years because it relied to heavilly on myself and im bad at strategy. HOWEVER i do maintain that i was very good at recruitment and building a base of supporters who arent just activist liberals.
activism is frickin hard, 3 years is nothing to sneeze at
Thanks. The previous 3 years have been both the proudest and most regrettful part of my life. In the end I "helped people" but I didn't accomplish any kind of change.
I fed the homeless for 4 years. In a lot of ways it feels like we are the nameless, thankless heroes actually doing things while the other side just keep talking about solutions and not doing shit, or simply virtue signalling on social media.
I'm always proud of my comrades when I hear them doing actual activism. I'm extremely introverted and activism is fucking hard. If I go to a women's rights march, I risk getting shot by an angry chud. I know that. But it's easier being part of the crowd/movement for the current thing.
I'm looking at starting a club/chapter for one of the orgs in my city and it's going to be a huge fucking uphill struggle. I think my approach if I can get people on board is to start by reaching out to our other activist groups like Food Not Bombs and working with them to get a feel for it, then start organizing and agitating.
I think a lot of protests sort of jump on the current thing and then fizzle out while media tells us to be mad at the next thing. I'd want to keep focus on each of the aspects and try to keep bringing people into the fold. The black struggle didn't end after the Floyd riots. Women's suffrage didn't end after a few marches.
I guess I'm rambling...
But for sure be proud of those 3 years. That's real fucking change.
One thing that really helped me out is finding an existing project, and helping that. If you work circles around them without denouncing them, you will attract new members and gain allies that already have a presence. It was so wierd that the people defending me, the open tankie, were the anarchist famous in my area for being confrontational bullies. They simply appreciated the help that me and my friends could bring, and saw that we were willing to defer to their judgement when it came to their projects. When I say cooperate with an existing project, I don't mean take it over, and they were actually really grateful for that.
Protests in general always seemed more like parties than real activism to me. I agree with you.
Once you have allies and members you can think of a goal and try to achieve it. Perhaps you will have more vision than me lol.
I have 2 groups in mind that are already established and one just had a facelift and new president and with that, they seem to have a lot of new energy. But I sort of know the previous president and she was an old guard Democrat on her 70s or 80s. I might start by reaching out to them. The other I mentioned above is our local FNB group and I've worked a small bit with them with a food drive and they had tasty vegan soup lol. I can try and reach out to them but I don't have FB so I'd have to figure that out.
Hell, maybe I should be focusing my unemployed energy on this.
I also have a potential contact that might be interested in helping start said org chapter if I ask but he's already pretty busy.