Organize? Organize!

Why, How And What To Watch Out For

Jul 06, 2022

Morning Comrades!

If you have spent any time at all on any “leftist”*! online space over the years, which clearly you have or you wouldn’t be here, you will have heard the calls to “Organize(!)” as a blanket solution, to, well, just about everything.

These calls aren’t wrong, far from it, organizing is a practice aimed at helping people create the social movements and political organizations necessary to wage campaigns and win power through democratic means. However, and I have wondered for some time if the process and purpose, the ways and means of organizing outside of ineffective social media infographics is understood. I feel that it has become an abstract to placate, rather than the tool it is. Secondly, for quite some time now I have felt that the process of organizing has some increasing flaws and thanks to some serious input and work from Eva von Redecker and others, I will briefly touch on that subject also. With that, today’s dispatch will be on the How To’s, Why’s and briefly, the current issues at hand.

*! I know I have said this multiple times, but for clarification. I do not subscribe to the term “leftist” for any meaningful work and I do not “identify” as anything. I work for a better tomorrow predominately along my understanding of communist theory and if that makes me a communist, fine, but as far as I am concerned, identity before action is juvenile and pointless.

Let’s get some commercial and community messages out the way first though. Firstly, the collaborative mutual aid project for Planned Parenthood is available below until Friday.

Secondly, a subtle reminder to tune into the Black Lodges Weekly Jams 147 below.

Organize!?

You see something wrong in the world, anything really and seemingly we have plenty to chose from and you want to change it. I would assume that this is the jump off point for the majority here. You ask yourself, well, how do I change this and this is where the problem starts. You, yourself, cannot and will not affect or bring about any systemic change under our current capitalist reality. The only way to bring about positive, sustainable, democratic change for all is through the organization of everyone into political units of power that exist and work for meaningful transformative change.

So far for the theoretical intro but the question then remains: how? How do I organize anyone and why?

In our collective history, organizing was the way forward but was also the best defense against the deportation of immigrants, scapegoating and attacks on radicals, blacks, workers and anti-war activists that was all part and parcel of the first “Red Scare.” Sound familiar? It should. This tactic remains more than valid today, but we cannot remain stuck on carbon copies of the 19th/20th Century to be effective in the 21st Century.

Today, organizing remains as the most basic task ahead and the greatest contradiction: how to build a movement of people not currently active. It seems so simple: movements grow only when they attract people who are currently not involved or disagree. But that means organizing demands that we work with people we do not yet know and possibly do not agree with. Even if millions have a rough agreement with our values, why are so few activists? Even if people agree on paper, we disagree with their passivity. And that is a far deeper disagreement than a matter of ideology

Organizing Demands Engagement

Engagement is true politics and the starting point for transformative change. If there is no engagement there is no discussion and without discussion there is no movement. Talking with your community and more importantly, strangers, is one of the core revolutionary practices of the organizer’s world. In regards to social media and engagement, don’t. Not only is it pure performance of the worst kind but you will at all times be under the watchful eye of those you are opposing and they will use it against you. Sure, advertise events etc if you have to but the real work is in your home, apartment complex, house, street and neighbourhood.

Saul Alinsky, born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, founded modern community organizing in the 1930s. While Rules for Radicals is his best known book, organizers also turn his earlier and more helpful work Reveille for Radicals. He captured the kernel of organizing wisdom when he wrote:

“As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be.”

The world “as it is” means starting with the people as they are. Then we move forward together. This is absolute key when engaging in a dialogue - dialogue being the key word here, it is not about YOU offering a monologue and hoping for people to engage, but you asking and offering help, structure and commitment. Organizing focuses first on the people, secondly on those in power, action instead of reaction. In choosing tactics, campaigns, or language the need for engagement with people takes center stage.

About Those Units Of Power

Two examples from the U.S., one being Martin Luther King and the Black Panthers. One answer to the problems we face is to create organizing projects that build political structures or what Martin Luther King Called “Units of Power.” Here is King’s critique of his own work:

“Our most powerful nonviolent weapon is… also our most demanding, that is organization. To produce change, people must be organized to work together in units of power.

Many civil rights organizations were born as specialists in agitation and dramatic projects; they attracted massive sympathy and support; but they did not assemble and unify the support for new stages of struggle.

Recognizing that no army can mobilize and demobilize and remain a fighting unit, we will have to build far-flung workmanlike and experienced organizations.

And again here:

“To produce change, people must be organized to work together in units of power. These units might be political, as in the case of voters’ leagues and political parties; they may be economic units such as groups of tenants who join forces to form a tenant union or to organize a rent strike; or they may be laboring units of persons who are seeking employment and wage increases.”

Units of power also take the form of projects that serve the people and enhance their survival. I believe this to be one of the key aspects to always keep in mind when tackling problems as an organization.

While they were famous for black berets and self-defense, the Black Panthers built a solid base with service work. They helped to create an enduring model for successful community organizing. This excellent short video looks at the Panthers’ health care programs but they also had a breakfast program for kids, food for elders, schools and legal clinics. These programs became known as “serve the people,” or what the Panthers thought of as “survival pending revolution.” There is a definitive reason their story and movement has been fought so hard by the U.S. government, mostly because they were successful in self-determination.

Pitfalls and Moving Forward

There have been many times during my own involvement where I became frustrated to a point of leaving as well as making mistakes on my own that I wanted to briefly touch on so that those do not have to be repeated.

Telling people that they have been duped or turned into fools and that we are right is not an effective modus operandi. We do not call people out. We call them in to activity. Organizers have to be wary of exclusivity and we, by all means have to aim to include rather than exclude.

“Don’t be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn’t do what you do, or think as you think, or as fast. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know today.” — Malcolm X

It’s important to be mindful of barriers to entry. Some, granted are important for operational security but that’s a different book all together. Almost all political organizations consciously or unconsciously erect barriers to entry. It is our duty to help people overcome the barriers to entry. Even vanguard parties created front groups. Even in union organizing it’s often necessary to do “vestibule” organizing — can’t get them in the church right away, talk with them in the vestibule.

I most definitely have to mention sexism here, mostly from personal experience but also structurally and once again the Black Panthers were a shining example of how NOT be that organization. Sexism is alive and well in a lot of “leftist” political groups, occasionally overt but often subversively. Organizing under present-tense capitalism, for example takes place in everyones very little free time, or what most men understand as free time - so when we’re out plotting who is doing the unpaid reproductive work ( house work, cooking, child / elderly care and so forth ) - yeah, you guessed it. That, for all future purposes and intents needs not only be addressed but actively worked against. Just a small example I know, and there are heaps more, but again, very important to address and realize.

Lastly, I want to point you to several points that Eva v. Redecker has most recently addressed during the “Art of Assembly” talks, and essentially they raise several additional key concerns in modern day organizing and assemblies: the performative nature without key political goals, fatigue, the surveillance state in opposition, the threat to life as well as inherent ableism in the performative requirements in the current form of assemblies. By all means watch and listen to this talk to learn more. I consider Eva’s work to be some of the most vital, interesting and challenging in my field of interests and I hope there will be more of their work available in English soon.

Lastly, I wanted to share this incredibly useful tool kit with that makes organizing a lot simpler. Download this pdf and use it, I have and will.

As always, thank you for your time and attention. If you have found this dispatch interesting, please feel free to share it with anyone and I hope this helps everyone moving forward.

The fact remains, the world as it is today cannot continue. We can remake the world into anything more sustainable on every level, fairer and worthy. Together. Organizing is the tool to make that happen.

Until Friday, I will remain yours, without compromise,