Fully agree. Here is pretty good at being even handed at anti sectarianism. I'm a former anarchist and a punk so most of my social circle is anarchist and it's super frustrating being treated like the weirdo who's trying to be an edegelord by not thinking Stalin was as bad as Hitler. Not only do they not engage at all its dismissed as something I did to be contrarian or something. Which made me realize none of these people have picked up a book before and although they do a lot of good shit, it's not advancing anything, it's just poor people running poor charities for other poor people, which is all well and good but isn't changing anything.
I relate to that rant big time. I had so much built in doubt about communism to call myself that even though my politics have actually been ML more or less since I got into radical politics as a teen 15 years ago, I just arrogantly believed it was my cool and smart way of achieving anarchy that no one had thought of before, when I talked about it with that mindset I was routinely agreed with. Now that I actually put the work in and given proper credit I'm taken less seriously and the anarchists around me are for the most part the same, Marxists who call themselves anarchists because it's the cool ideology that punks have
it’s just poor people running poor charities for other poor people, which is all well and good but isn’t changing anything.
This tends to be my primary critique of Anarchists that actually participate in real world praxis. Red charity is good and there is always a demand for it to be done in the material conditions we find ourselves within, but to call solely that revolutionary praxis when the action of supply distribution is not accompanied with educational or organizational materials to build the foundations of a dual-power structure outside of the existing capitalist system.
I'm not really totally certain how to take that next step from our current position but considering that there is actually a pretty robust bit of 'mutual aid' going on, we actually have a full on leftist community center that does shows and events has a free food fridge and kitchen, a jam space and recording studio, print screening access, computers and printers and a large zone library (that only takes self published stuff for some reason so most actual theory isn't available), we have resources but the conversation never moves beyond how to share them and not what could be done with them if any amount of discipline wasn't total anathema.
Huh that's a pretty neat setup over there. I can't speak on what y'all should do since I'm a dirty card-carrying Red, but I can suggest on trying to get some kind of organized reading session going on to actually get some learning going. Whether that's intra-organization to try and get your group start cohering beyond what it currently is, or utilizing your space to make a more public education session, that can be up to you and your mates. Of course you should know your audience when it comes to selecting reading material, so if something very simple and straightforward like Why Communism? Plain Talks on Vital Problems by Moissaye J. Olgin would scare or shut off your audience's brain because certain spooky scary words, then Kropotkin's Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution would make a more viable alternative. Of course at the end of the day it also comes down to the dedication and drive to the socialist cause overall. Not everyone's a dedicated Vanguard partymember willing to set aside a normal life to work towards building their party and the Revolutionary movement, nor is everyone a dedicated Anarchist organizer willing to bust their ass building up a network of comrades to build towards regional autonomy, and so on and so forth, point is if your mates just don't want to do anything other than keep what they got then that's fine. If you want to do more then spread your wings and go find yourself an org to network and build with.
I like being able to anti anarchist circle jerk somewhere and I'm not allowed to here so I like it for that.
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Fully agree. Here is pretty good at being even handed at anti sectarianism. I'm a former anarchist and a punk so most of my social circle is anarchist and it's super frustrating being treated like the weirdo who's trying to be an edegelord by not thinking Stalin was as bad as Hitler. Not only do they not engage at all its dismissed as something I did to be contrarian or something. Which made me realize none of these people have picked up a book before and although they do a lot of good shit, it's not advancing anything, it's just poor people running poor charities for other poor people, which is all well and good but isn't changing anything.
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I relate to that rant big time. I had so much built in doubt about communism to call myself that even though my politics have actually been ML more or less since I got into radical politics as a teen 15 years ago, I just arrogantly believed it was my cool and smart way of achieving anarchy that no one had thought of before, when I talked about it with that mindset I was routinely agreed with. Now that I actually put the work in and given proper credit I'm taken less seriously and the anarchists around me are for the most part the same, Marxists who call themselves anarchists because it's the cool ideology that punks have
This tends to be my primary critique of Anarchists that actually participate in real world praxis. Red charity is good and there is always a demand for it to be done in the material conditions we find ourselves within, but to call solely that revolutionary praxis when the action of supply distribution is not accompanied with educational or organizational materials to build the foundations of a dual-power structure outside of the existing capitalist system.
I'm not really totally certain how to take that next step from our current position but considering that there is actually a pretty robust bit of 'mutual aid' going on, we actually have a full on leftist community center that does shows and events has a free food fridge and kitchen, a jam space and recording studio, print screening access, computers and printers and a large zone library (that only takes self published stuff for some reason so most actual theory isn't available), we have resources but the conversation never moves beyond how to share them and not what could be done with them if any amount of discipline wasn't total anathema.
Huh that's a pretty neat setup over there. I can't speak on what y'all should do since I'm a dirty card-carrying Red, but I can suggest on trying to get some kind of organized reading session going on to actually get some learning going. Whether that's intra-organization to try and get your group start cohering beyond what it currently is, or utilizing your space to make a more public education session, that can be up to you and your mates. Of course you should know your audience when it comes to selecting reading material, so if something very simple and straightforward like Why Communism? Plain Talks on Vital Problems by Moissaye J. Olgin would scare or shut off your audience's brain because certain spooky scary words, then Kropotkin's Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution would make a more viable alternative. Of course at the end of the day it also comes down to the dedication and drive to the socialist cause overall. Not everyone's a dedicated Vanguard partymember willing to set aside a normal life to work towards building their party and the Revolutionary movement, nor is everyone a dedicated Anarchist organizer willing to bust their ass building up a network of comrades to build towards regional autonomy, and so on and so forth, point is if your mates just don't want to do anything other than keep what they got then that's fine. If you want to do more then spread your wings and go find yourself an org to network and build with.
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