people talk about wanting movements but the US is very big and you'll need many movements with their own agility and intel and knowledge of the local political terrain, not national movements. national "connective tissue" type things will be necessary to connect people needing to learn with the people with the skills, but the biggest thing DSA and PSL and etc teach as lessons is that national political organizations are unable and unwilling, due to structural dynamics, pay attention to their locals.
which so far has meant good locals bloom in spite of that body, while bad locals fester because of the lack of oversight or recourse.
but we do need something, because unions are selfish, keeping to their industries. they branch out sometimes, sure, but they don't use their power for things outside their industry much anymore, no matter what people who go to Labor Notes claim.
there's talk of selfhosting, of friend collectives, of political discords, of countless ways to squander our efforts.
but the only way to make it count is at the municipal level, whether that's mutual aid (the real kind, building structures the gov won't, that become self sustaining) or helping people with hosting, or websites, or whatever. build study groups where you just talk about what's going on, not even left theory unless someone asks, not to cloak it, but because if it worked we wouldn't still be discussing it eight years later. the left is small, so just be gentle with people -- no one has time to learn unless this is their hobby. yes, that means you're a hobbiest, even if you're dedicated to the cause, because "the masses" can't relate to half the things you talk about. perhaps not to your face, but where have most of them gone the past eight years, who you taught?
online stuff has a very hard time:
- preventing evictions.
- getting people housing that doesn't require them moving out of town
- getting people fed in ways that aren't cost prohibitive
- building groups that can do things for the people around them
- strength in numbers when politicians, or outside forces, become a threat
- community defense. no, put down the gun, not that kind.
- disaster response and resilience
- teaching people skills who will actually put them to work instead of collecting skills to some day use them if there's some need some time (the need's always been there)
etc
online organizing has a place but it can never be the front line, and a whole lot of abled people claim it's all they can do when I spent six years burning energy I didn't have to try and build things largely in spite of people who were mostly on line and only in person when it would be embarrassing not to be.
if you're abled and believe in any form of left ideology, it should always be embarassing not to be out there. be embarrassed. or go build things instead.
what makes you think capitalism won't adapt? it's been so good at it these past two decades.
lemmie let you in on a secret
we are the crisis
the structures you build, if they're everywhere, point at what's ignored in the pursuit of profit. it tears holes in the American Myth. it builds self sustaining institutions of the community, with a leftward ideological bent. service and education in one.
hoarding your supplies and your skills and working on an org for a crisis that never comes, as things get worse and worse and those with power figure out ways to capitalize on that suffering is cultism at best. we don't need 500 groups reinventing the wheel while refusing to collaborate, and that's why the future is networks and not organizations imo.
i know a lot of other places are saying this. they're right. i may seem like a copycat but this is from like. thirteen years of experience at this point. occupy was right in that sense.
and hey, even if nothing comes from it, you did something for you community.
who am i to tell you what to do, I'm just some dyke with an internet connection. do it for everyone else.
edit to be clear: this isn't "organize with the centrist democrats to run their candidate. this is the fastest route to build power. ignore the Dems, make them keep up if they don't want to defect.
If I want to learn about organizing on a municipal level in a starting-from-scratch scenario, what should I read?
I don't have much to hand out, so boosting this to y'all until i end up finding some. I've been out of practice a few years recuperating
