I suspect a lot of the people here are struggling with the "build an affinity group" part of this as they don't know even 5 serious people who are willing and able to get shit done.
what makes it hard is that an affinity group either needs a larger pool of people to pull from or come together from the death of something older. otherwise, you end up trying to work with the first 10 people who come your way, only to discover after a bit that people will tell you they're serious all day but fail to follow through. I think this is something that will get easier with time as people get more used to the idea of "doing" rather than "talking about".
this kind of organizing is profoundly exhausting as you end up with a couple of serious people trying to pull teeth in order to get things done whereas affinity groups need a more horizontal structure as they're rooted in mutual trust. they're much too small for hierarchical structures to even function in the first place as personal relationships dominate.
I don't really have an answer for this but that the best time to get started was yesterday and the second best time is today. you're going to have to meet a lot of people and make a lot of mistakes before you find something that works for you. listen to your gut about people - don't extend trust where it feels uncomfortable and withdraw it when it doesn't feel safe.
they don’t know even 5 serious people who are willing and able to get shit done
this is why polycules are important, people
but how else will i arbitrarily increase my already out of control ego????
I don't know anyone very left irl and kinda got any plans to investigate local groups fucked by covid and my mental health is best described as "poor". I at least donate to bail funds 'n shit but I dunno my dude it's tough.
Online organising is still an option. Infiltrate some chud groups (follow @antifacattlerustler guide), help pull together websites and platforms for leftists / leftist organisations, donate your time and labour to helping libs understand theory.
Click, share, push our narrative, help where and how you can.
We're still in lockdown where I live, so I've also had the issues you have. If I can do it with three kids and fucked mental health, I know you can to. We're here to support one another comrade.
I don’t know anyone very left irl
Radicalize your friends/family
I try, lord knows I try. It ain't easy. I have been fighting hard to and I'm pretty sure all its gotten is most people in my life sizing me up for a straight jacket.
I feel you. I'm a sickly skrelington of a dude with Lyme and a porcelain mind palace so I'm trying to do my part by learning and then reaching out to the people around me about it.
Phone banking is something you can do from home, helps build up the skills for talking about left issues in a low pressure way.
I don’t organize chastise or anything. Honestly I was just starting to get into local orgs and do things and then the pandemic happened. Realistically, wtf am I supposed to go do without dying? I’ve just been holed up.
Some of the things you might be able to do are work with mutual aid orgs to help centralize urgent needs for your neighbors. If you are out of work nd able/willing to go to work in a pandemic, consider salting/rooting for a union. You can teach classes for a skill you have to people in your community, like reading or English language.
It's also a pandemic, so it may not be possible for you to do these things right now. Which is understandable, and a frustrating position to be in. Also, if you do end up doing some of these things, it's best to not post online. Once you are into some of these things, they serve to lead to other organizing activities as well.
Most of the local orgs in my area have been still having online meetings at the very least including doing some digital canvassing stuff for some leftist candidates running for state house.
I think (hope?) a lot of people who are terminally online are still doing organizing.
I teach in the community (not just as my job), and have organized in some ways that I simply don't feel comfortable disclosing for opsec purposes, even on an anonymous fringe board like chapo.chat.
I guess I assumed that a lot of others were similarly careful about what they talk about online.
I checked my local psl and they are doing a car protest to encourage voting.
Fuckin narp
Yeah, I wanted to do stuff like breaklight clinics or starting some kind of comunity aid org. Especially in the wvent of a trump win i bet they will have a lot of willing members joining.
I mean, they are for sure better people than me for trying.
I just can't walk that path.
An online commie didn’t brigade facists to stop blocking roads during a fire. Possibly saving lives, These always online commies haven’t spread the word about the protests and gotten their friends to join or participated any many of them. Aren’t a part of mutual aid groups. Aren’t actively trying to radicalize their inner circle. And so forth.
Go off tho.
Imagine being a communist and the libs do slightly more praxis than you.
I'm not sure how to get started with organizing, honestly. I'd like to soon though.
Jane McAlevey's book is good. Her interview at Current Affairs is shorter.
The one good Chapo episode. I like the spreadsheet.
Short version is - pick a group of people to organize. Figure out exactly who is in that group. Talk to all of them, one at a time. Recruit the ones who already know what you're doing. Tally how much support you have. Either convince more people, or try a thing that's possible with the level of support you have. Check how much turnout you get. Convince more people, try a thing that's possible with the level of support you have, check results. Repeat.
Do you organize OP?
Edit: Still waiting for that answer OP
Edit: I'm so mad this fraud's thread is this highly upvoted
Everybody's got to do it at their own pace. Give people time, some just aren't in the place to do it yet, or know how to.
