Community organization

[StoneFrog]

I am starting to think that organizing the community, rather than emphasis on the workers would be more productive to the class struggle. Basically let the community itself become the party, let the community itself become the vanguard against capitalism and the bourgeoisie. I have never liked the idea of Unions and the Party, unions become corrupt and the party system ends up oppressing the people who speak against it. When ever i seem to bring this up people start saying that its not just organizing the workers, but by organizing the workers your organizing the community. I don't really agree with this, i feel by giving power to the unions the community suffers from not directly controlling its means to produce what they need. My thoughts do have some points that need to be looked at more, so i came here hopping someone knows of any writings or people that share similar views. I really want some reading material, i looked a bit into council communism and the use of the councils which i kinda like. I am still trying to get more info on council communism, but i think it focuses more on a spontaneous revolution, where i think organizing the community is a better method.
If anyone can provide me with some reading on such views, even if its not directly what i have stated i would be greatly appreciative. Also please post your comments criticisms or other wise.

[bcbm]

this (http://www.revleft.com/vb/we-need-broaden-t125493/index.html) thread might interest you.

[cenv]

I agree. Workplace organizing is important, but it needs to be coupled with community organizing. Revolution will transform people's social relations and everyday lives, and by organizing workers exclusively in the workplace, we're embracing the bourgeois duality between "work time" and "free time." Workers need to realize their ability to empower themselves in all spheres of their lives and transform their everyday lives in their entirety.

One fact that speaks to this is that a lot of the most radical struggles in recent years have been centered around both workplace organizing (forming workers' councils, occupying factories, etc.) and community organizing (forming popular assemblies, social centers, etc.). I don't know of many traditional communists who explore community organizing at length in their writings -- this could be because the importance of non-workplace organizing is a product of modern capitalism. But you might want to check out the events in Argentina (http://socialecologylondon.wordpress.com/popular-assemblies-in-argentina/) because they're a good example of the critical role community organizing can play in our struggle. If you get interested in them, AK Press has a book called Horizontalism that has a lot of first-hand accounts of the popular assembly / occupied factory movement in Argentina from different perspectives.

[Pogue]

http://www.libertyandsolidarity.org/community

Community


http://www.libertyandsolidarity.org/sites/default/files/community_0.png?1237814223 Whilst the workplace is an important departure for class politics, workers are not just workers from 9am to 5pm. Issues such as housing and anti social behaviour cannot be easily tackled through workplace activism, and yet these are some of the issues which people feel most strongly about. These are also issues utilised by the far right in order to stir up hatred and division. Clearly we cannot leave this important area of society unorganised.
While union density is low, community organising in arguably a worse state. Our communities are at best atomised and transient, and at worst, practically divided. Many residents assocaitions and other potentially democratic organs within the community have been co-opted by the councils.
Several decades of defeat have left many working class people with an expectation of attack and no corresponding expectation of a capacity for resistance. In the current climate it is the job of revolutionaries to combat these unhelpful attitudes and to foster more positive values of confidence, confrontation and solidarity.
In the community, as in other arenas, Liberty and Solidarity supports tactics and strategies which promote these values and believe this is best achieved through practical demonstration and the building of grassroots organisations capable of putting them into practice to achieve concrete gains whilst building the power of the class through organisation, and in opposition to the state.
As libertarians, we recognise that power needs to be devolved to the lowest practical level. Strong community organisation is needed to tackle social issues which were previously addressed by the state. Workers control of the economy must be complimented with residents control over their communities.
Resources and Services in the Community
Provision of resources and services, such as Housing, Benefits or Social Services is an obvious area of class conflict on a local level. The ongoing erosion of the Welfare State has seen a rationing of resources and services which is keenly felt by working class people.
Given the existing framework of legal rights, gained by previous struggles, cut backs can often be best achieved through a policy of gate keeping, a deliberate denial of rights, at a local level. This pits low level administrators of the welfare state against those accessing services or resources and creates a front line in council and local Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) outlets.
The importance of gate keeping, with its reliance on policy on a very local level means that grassroots resistance punches above its weight as a method of defending resources and services for the working class.
The daily experience of gate keeping reinforces the negative expectations held by many working class people and discourages confidence in our own ability to achieve victories through confrontation and solidarity. Conversely, campaigning in this area can produce relatively easy victories which have the opposite effect and allow effective and confident organisation to be achieved at the grassroots of communities.
Liberty and Solidarity therefore endorses community campaigns around the provision of resources or services and groups such as London Coalition Against Poverty (LCAP) which organise around these issues. Ideally such campaigns should be tied to the creation of long term working class organsations in the areas where the campaigns are fought.
Association with other groups
Liberty and Solidarity will aim to work within groups that are positively assisting community organisation or struggle within the community. We do not see our own organisation as the sole actor in this arena, and firmly believe that such struggles must involve those outside of the anarchist movement or left in general.
One of the greatest failures of all community organising is the lack of overall analysis which leads to chronic isolationism and more often than not, defeat. Much like the unions, community organisations such as residents associations can be overly cooperative with the council and the sense of importance granted by this. This makes such organisations less likely to fight effectively for the residents they are supposed to represent. The level of co-option amongst varies from association to association, some may be completely independent of the state, whilst others simply mouthpieces for the council.
Our enemies are operating on a larger geographic scale, with more resources, man power, and the state on their side, they show themselves to be more than capable of dealing with individual campaigns. They also have the apparent advantage of a long term memory, an analysis of how to combat irritating groups borne from decades of experience. Something most if not all campaigns lack. It is important for us to move to rectify this state of affairs. The victories and defeats of local groups can be forgotten, and a culture of constantly starting from scratch begins to form. Liberty and Solidarity there for supports moves to build democratic national residents and tenants organsaitons in opposition to the state and local councils.
Community Organising and the Far Right
The recent successes of the far right have been achieved by promotion of an analysis among white working class communities of a scarcity of resources, most notably housing, caused by competition of ethnic groups for these resources. Community organising should seek to combat this by demonstrating more effective solutions to these issues than the far right can offer.
Consequently we believe that positive community organising, as outlined above is one of the most effective ways to combat reactionary influence.
Residents Associations
Residents Associations take on a specific role inside the community, unlike Not-in-My-Back-Yard (NIMBY) or single-issue campaigns, residents associations aim to represent the interests of a neighbourhood, or group of people in an area, to improve their own conditions. This is positive as it reflects some of the basic principals of libertarian socialism that we wish to promote.
However, the quality of residents associations varies greatly. There are many examples of associations going along with council decisions that have subsequently been met with uproar by the community in which they are supposed to be based.
In light of this we argue for our members to be involved with their local residents associations, should they be sufficiently independent, and to take an active part in building them, facilitating their growth. In areas where associations do not exist, or associations are co-opted or dominated by undemocratic factions, new and independent associations should be set up to replace them.
Liberty and Solidarity sees residents associations as a potential basis for democratic local government, and encourages progressive associations to federate in order to build collective power. Such associations can be organs of the working class in much the same manner as unions are, and should be manoeuvred towards a situation of dual power within the communities they represent, directly in opposition to the local council.
Other Community Organisations
Other issues that affect the community will often have organisations set up to address them. This ranges from campaigns against developments, to cultural centres and youth clubs.
Such organisations should be encourage to join, or where none exist, form residents associations, with a view to broadening the struggle.

[StoneFrog]

Thanks for the info, it helps a lot =]