Comrade Marcel
8th July 2005, 09:22
Greetings Comrades,
I was just browsing through the forum here, and I saw that a few of you are talking about starting groups over the internet, like Youth For Revolutionary Change for instance.
As someone who acted as General Coordinator (i.e. the lead organizer) for over two years, for a small but really active youth group in Toronto (a major city) I want to tell you that it's not so easy.
We got the group from about 5 dedicated people, to grow to 15-20 (fluctuated), and even tried to form a Nation wide network (Rebel Youth Network) with other youth groups.
Young Left was the name of our group. The group is still around, but I since resigned because I felt that things were not going anywhere. They are still a bunch of really good people, and they are still around, and I have 95% positive things to say about them as individuals. As far as politics go, at least in practice, I think there was a lack of discipline and lack of planning.
1.) We got some really good training from experienced activists in the Philippines, however training can only take you so far as your practice it. Knowing is nothing without doing.
2.) We failed to study our predecessors. Although many of the YL'ers had already experienced failure to form a YCL, I don't think there was really a concrete analysis of the mistakes they made. I think errors are doomed to be repeated whenever this is the case.
3.) The Rebel Youth Network was an excellent idea; however we were totally low on resources, moral, and should have thought things through more thoroughly.
4.) More on 2, we need to study the history of youth movements internationally, but really focus on the current and past ones in our nations, so that we can learn from the past mistakes and achievements. We also need to study the history of the entire movement in our nation.
5.) I realize now that without a Communist Party to guide our youth movement we were kind of like lambs without a sheppard. Roaming without guidance and sometimes wandering in the wrong direction. What I am saying here, is that without older comrades to teach us theory, practice and other "clerical" stuff that we have to deal with, we have to basically learn everything from scratch. This takes up time and energy that could be channeled elsewhere. If you have to do things alone, then it's all the more important to take heed to 2 and 4.
6.) Finally, we need professional revolutionaries as leaders. These are people that can live on welfare or disability, or from some other means, that don't have to work. When a group gets big enough, they can have paid organizers. These usually are better off to be non-family comrades, as the family is a huge responsibility in itself. Some people can handle it though (and this is coming from a family comrade). If you don't have pro-revs, then the work will have to be divided among comrades who already either work or go to school. A lot of times comrades will start falling back on other comrades and let them do much of the work well they slack. Concrete ways of avoiding this and concrete ways of disciplining those who don't fulfill their duties need to be found. Things like meetings, conferences, and document drafting (i.e. writing rules, constitution) are usually a gloomy prospect for comrades, so we need people who really can have the time, and we need to convince people to share in the grunt. This stuff has to be done. But a student who already has a paper due in a day or two will be useless in this respect.
7.) As I began in 6, we need to have foundations for a group. A written program, constitution, rules, etc. should be in order. With no path to follow, you will be more or less lost. Making the path along the way is a slow and awkward process. Have things drawn out before you move too fast.
8.) If you start as two people, don't call yourself a organization. Get yourself a few new interested people by talking to other activists who are frustrated and not already in a group. Also talk to youth in your areas, but you will find that street and proletarian youth will be reluctant, especially if you are not established in some way. After you get 4-5 people, act as sort of a club. Hold small things like Study groups, film showings, discussions... Endorse stuff that other groups do, like protests and bigger events. Show up at a lot of events and make sure you pass out flyers. At this point you should be focusing on politics, and talking about activism, getting a feel for stuff you would like to do in the future. Once you get 5-14 people, you are an organizing committee. This is when you should start writing your program. Set up goals, some rules of order, etc. Start getting involved in more activism and do some of your own medium sized protests and events. Make sure you get everyone to be active in there own area or campus to promote your committee. Once you get to 15 or more people, and have ratified a constitution and real program, you can call yourself an org. at that point things are getting bigger so you may want to build a sort of central committee. But you have to be careful because if you start dividing up too soon, things can go sour. At the same time if you don't divide things up, it can go sour: think about it, having 15-20 out to every meeting can get really frustrating, and it is really hard to keep track of everything when it gets to big. So at some point you want to set up neighborhood committees. So if you have five people on the east side, set up an east side cmt, etc. and a central committee to function the body. When things get bigger, you may want district committees in-between, i.e. a district cmt for the north end to be a body that looks after the 3 or four groups there. You may consider having committees representing different schools, if you get enough people. Hold a conference every year (six months later for your first one might be a good idea so you can evaluate things) to make sure things are going smoothly, elect new committees, make appropriate changes, etc.
9.) When and if you ever reach the point that you have 1,000 members or so, you really are a mass movement, and probably capable of doing significant things. You should take a good look at what kind of impact you can use and how your group can impact society effectively and influence other youth.
10.) I know this might sound sort of unappealing to some of you, but read Mao's red book, even if you are not a Maoist. There are so many good points that Mao makes that should be considered when organizing, such as Unity, Discipline, Criticism and Self Criticism, how to behave and function meetings, etc. and they are really important things to know and practice. Even if you do not agree with the politics, you would probably agree with the organizing and practice of Maoism.
Again, I can't emphasize 2 and 4 more! Study history and the failures and successes of your predecessors!
Those of you comrades in Kanada, start here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Communi...eague_of_Canada (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Communist_League_of_Canada)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Star_Youth_Collective
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Left_%28Canada%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Youth_Network
These are just off the top of my head, someday I may write a more detailed critcism and conclusion, but I hope this helps bring forth some thought. I would love to here other's opinions on this as well.
I was just browsing through the forum here, and I saw that a few of you are talking about starting groups over the internet, like Youth For Revolutionary Change for instance.
As someone who acted as General Coordinator (i.e. the lead organizer) for over two years, for a small but really active youth group in Toronto (a major city) I want to tell you that it's not so easy.
We got the group from about 5 dedicated people, to grow to 15-20 (fluctuated), and even tried to form a Nation wide network (Rebel Youth Network) with other youth groups.
Young Left was the name of our group. The group is still around, but I since resigned because I felt that things were not going anywhere. They are still a bunch of really good people, and they are still around, and I have 95% positive things to say about them as individuals. As far as politics go, at least in practice, I think there was a lack of discipline and lack of planning.
1.) We got some really good training from experienced activists in the Philippines, however training can only take you so far as your practice it. Knowing is nothing without doing.
2.) We failed to study our predecessors. Although many of the YL'ers had already experienced failure to form a YCL, I don't think there was really a concrete analysis of the mistakes they made. I think errors are doomed to be repeated whenever this is the case.
3.) The Rebel Youth Network was an excellent idea; however we were totally low on resources, moral, and should have thought things through more thoroughly.
4.) More on 2, we need to study the history of youth movements internationally, but really focus on the current and past ones in our nations, so that we can learn from the past mistakes and achievements. We also need to study the history of the entire movement in our nation.
5.) I realize now that without a Communist Party to guide our youth movement we were kind of like lambs without a sheppard. Roaming without guidance and sometimes wandering in the wrong direction. What I am saying here, is that without older comrades to teach us theory, practice and other "clerical" stuff that we have to deal with, we have to basically learn everything from scratch. This takes up time and energy that could be channeled elsewhere. If you have to do things alone, then it's all the more important to take heed to 2 and 4.
6.) Finally, we need professional revolutionaries as leaders. These are people that can live on welfare or disability, or from some other means, that don't have to work. When a group gets big enough, they can have paid organizers. These usually are better off to be non-family comrades, as the family is a huge responsibility in itself. Some people can handle it though (and this is coming from a family comrade). If you don't have pro-revs, then the work will have to be divided among comrades who already either work or go to school. A lot of times comrades will start falling back on other comrades and let them do much of the work well they slack. Concrete ways of avoiding this and concrete ways of disciplining those who don't fulfill their duties need to be found. Things like meetings, conferences, and document drafting (i.e. writing rules, constitution) are usually a gloomy prospect for comrades, so we need people who really can have the time, and we need to convince people to share in the grunt. This stuff has to be done. But a student who already has a paper due in a day or two will be useless in this respect.
7.) As I began in 6, we need to have foundations for a group. A written program, constitution, rules, etc. should be in order. With no path to follow, you will be more or less lost. Making the path along the way is a slow and awkward process. Have things drawn out before you move too fast.
8.) If you start as two people, don't call yourself a organization. Get yourself a few new interested people by talking to other activists who are frustrated and not already in a group. Also talk to youth in your areas, but you will find that street and proletarian youth will be reluctant, especially if you are not established in some way. After you get 4-5 people, act as sort of a club. Hold small things like Study groups, film showings, discussions... Endorse stuff that other groups do, like protests and bigger events. Show up at a lot of events and make sure you pass out flyers. At this point you should be focusing on politics, and talking about activism, getting a feel for stuff you would like to do in the future. Once you get 5-14 people, you are an organizing committee. This is when you should start writing your program. Set up goals, some rules of order, etc. Start getting involved in more activism and do some of your own medium sized protests and events. Make sure you get everyone to be active in there own area or campus to promote your committee. Once you get to 15 or more people, and have ratified a constitution and real program, you can call yourself an org. at that point things are getting bigger so you may want to build a sort of central committee. But you have to be careful because if you start dividing up too soon, things can go sour. At the same time if you don't divide things up, it can go sour: think about it, having 15-20 out to every meeting can get really frustrating, and it is really hard to keep track of everything when it gets to big. So at some point you want to set up neighborhood committees. So if you have five people on the east side, set up an east side cmt, etc. and a central committee to function the body. When things get bigger, you may want district committees in-between, i.e. a district cmt for the north end to be a body that looks after the 3 or four groups there. You may consider having committees representing different schools, if you get enough people. Hold a conference every year (six months later for your first one might be a good idea so you can evaluate things) to make sure things are going smoothly, elect new committees, make appropriate changes, etc.
9.) When and if you ever reach the point that you have 1,000 members or so, you really are a mass movement, and probably capable of doing significant things. You should take a good look at what kind of impact you can use and how your group can impact society effectively and influence other youth.
10.) I know this might sound sort of unappealing to some of you, but read Mao's red book, even if you are not a Maoist. There are so many good points that Mao makes that should be considered when organizing, such as Unity, Discipline, Criticism and Self Criticism, how to behave and function meetings, etc. and they are really important things to know and practice. Even if you do not agree with the politics, you would probably agree with the organizing and practice of Maoism.
Again, I can't emphasize 2 and 4 more! Study history and the failures and successes of your predecessors!
Those of you comrades in Kanada, start here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Communi...eague_of_Canada (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Communist_League_of_Canada)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Star_Youth_Collective
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Left_%28Canada%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Youth_Network
These are just off the top of my head, someday I may write a more detailed critcism and conclusion, but I hope this helps bring forth some thought. I would love to here other's opinions on this as well.