Effective propaganda tactics

[marxleninist]

I was wondering if anyone knew of any effective propaganda ideas and tactics which is inclined on communism (marxist leninism).

[Achilles]

Hey, I am not a Marxist but I'll give my opinion.

Propaganda (if you want to call it that) is most effective when it relates to the individual. Simply put, if you start speaking about dialectical materialism and lofty philosophical terms, you will lose your target crowd (which I assume are just random people with no particular political inclination. Therefore, what you want to do is to speak about tangible things: How salaries have stagnated for most people (including 'white collar ones') but not for the ultra-rich. How in a Capitalist system, in good economic years it still means 5%+ unemployment rate, high debt burden by individuals and the inability to pay for basic services (education, health care, even food).

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

If you want to know the most effective propaganda, the simple thing to do is to ask people.

OK, that's a bit of a simplification. Obviously, knowing what to ask and how can be complicated.

Case in point though - right now, a group of us are ten months in to publishing a monthly open-submissions broadsheet. We've done certain things to frame our work (we're explicitly feminist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and centre "everyday life" as our terrain of struggle) but generally we've left things open ended. A big part of the project has been emphasizing not simply broadcasting our own views, but working to see what resonates with people, what warrants responses, etc.

By emphasizing what we can learn from other workers as much as what they can learn from us we've actually been learning a remarkable amount.

Just for kicks, I contrasted our content with the content of another local left organization's website. Their website has been up for over three years, and has a significantly larger volume of content. However, I went through ours and theirs and found:
Our paper has only a few less individual contributors (meaning a significantly greater variety of voices).
Our paper has the same number of women contributors (meaning significantly more proportionally).
Our paper has more contributions by people of colour.
Their content is disproportionately by academics, students, and full time employees of unions.

I could go on, but I'm sure you get the gist. Now, maybe, if this meant that their website was putting forward a more coherent politic, it could be justified on some level: the thing is, it isn't. It's every bit as "random" as our paper written by a much wider swath of working people - but we clearly have an appeal that they lack (outside of their existing left cliques).

This is important, and reflects our methodology: Let workers speak to one another about their real conditions and a better working class politics will come out of it than presuming to tell people about their lives.

[marxleninist]

Thanks for the help.