Effective Action

[Alejandro C]

A lot of us have dreams of being in a group or leading a group that makes a difference. But sadly almost all of these groups make the smallest impact and get no mass support. Why is that? There have been other groups in the past in America and elsewhere that have done something. I'd like to start a discussion about what makes these groups or organizations different from those that flounder and eventually end up as wasting time or even worse, turning people away from progressive ideas by turning them away from the people that support them.
My view of American politics is that people are politically against something, not for it. If you ask people why they vote democrat or republican the answers will most likely be because they are voting against the other people. But we are also the other people, most people don't like our ideas or us, and don't want to hear it. What is the most effective way to organize?
Revolutionary left groups are all over the world, but rarely serve any purpose. I'd like to make a short list of things successful groups do, and don't. I'll start with:

Self-respect: teaching people to act right and giving them real hope and desires.
Not being youth driven/headed: I mean not real young, having some elders in the leadership gives people the impression that this is not a youth fad/angst driven flare.
Teaching respectfully: reform people's thoughts in a logical manner that's believable.
Good reputation building: making people want to tell their friends/family/coworkers.
Having an image: suits, nice clothes, logo, etc., makes it seem more organized, more professional, and easier to identify.

Add on.

I'm thinking that now especially in America we don't have a group that is respected. They all are silly/radical or hopeless in the eyes of other people. How can we change that?

(also I know that there are a lot of good groups that do great things, so I don't want to hear about how i'm overgeneralizing, or missing some groups. Let's focus on what specific image these groups have that make them successful/marketable/effective.)

[forza_che]

Unfortunately it seems to me that in the too advanced Western countries left-wing politics is just not identified with by the general population.

I'm unsure of how this problem could ever be rectified but you make a good point in terms of teaching positively and with self respect but I'm not so sure on the image point.

Is dressing in suits and nice clothes really the right way to go for a left-wing party looking to identify with the masses? Or will the party end up much like Labour in Britain.

[Forward Union]

The left is not in a position to successfully overthrow the state or anything, but victories are won all the time. Local groups can make huge differences by acting locally, stopping asylum seekers being deported, fighting for workers rights, against factory closures etc. By acting locally and fighting for things that actually effect working people, you gain credibility and support, and you make a difference, and I feel this will be the backbone that the new revolutionary organisations will be based on. Not ramming communist theory down peoples throats.

Because we are, as working people under attack all the time, and short of killing our opponent, we must defend our class as best we can.

An example, could be the stopping of an incinerator project in Slough a few years back. In which hundreds of ordinary working people got together, organised in a democratic fashion, and stopped a company fucking up their community. If the community can stay organised to fight later battles, the sense of empowerment could, possibly, oneday lead to that community running itself and sorting out it's own issues. Who can say.

Equally, where I live we are undergoing similar projects, the council planned to build 7000 houses on a floodplane (I wont go into listing the thousands of reasons why this is bad for the working class) we were preparing to organise a local base of opposition, most of whom wouldn't have a clue about revolutionary leftism, but were prepared to take direct action to stop the development. Fortunately we didn't need to continue with this, as the company who was organising this development (Prudential) embarrassingly admitted there had been to much of an out cry in response to the plans and withdrew them.

Now I don't think that 'community save the park' bollocks is going to overthrow capitalism. But these campaigns, stopping companies and the state fuck up our communities, is the class struggle in action. They are campaigns we can fight in and potentially win, we can put the class perspective out there, and even radicalise and maintain these organisations made up of local communities. And in the process, make our politics more real, credible, and trusted. Not some abstract, ideological, academic nonsense with no connection to the here and now.


Self-respect: teaching people to act right and giving them real hope and desires.

Well, if you just go around on your high-horse telling people to be better, you will find yourself alienated, ridiculed and without influence. Equally if you go around saying that your ideology has all the answers you will find youself with as much credibility as the preachers. What you need to do is put ideological terms aside, and get shit done. Unionise the workplace! stop that company sacking loads of workers etc.


Not being youth driven/headed: I mean not real young, having some elders in the leadership gives people the impression that this is not a youth fad/angst driven flare.

Yes this is a common misconception of the left, the punk/hippy/euro-traveller scene has also caused problems. But these can be overcome by actually doing stuff.


Teaching respectfully: reform people's thoughts in a logical manner that's believable.

This won't go very far unless you are actually doing something. But indeed, if you have organised some form of opposition to something, you must argue clearly, and respectfully a class analysis. So they get a better idea of their role in economics, and the greater importance of the struggle.


Having an image: suits, nice clothes, logo, etc, makes it seem more organized, more professional, and easier to identify.

It always helps to dress smartly, for some reason a lot of people feel the need to dress down, but most working people can afford clean clothes, and ties, this isn't the 1930s! Im glad you've noticed and it's not just me!

anyway this is a good thread, geezer! It's good to hear someone making points like these and not suggesting internet campaigns, kicking nazis out of call of duty. Or the people that make new marxist-democratic-parties-of-stalin (for 14 year olds) or some other bollocks,

[Alejandro C]

Good points, thanks.
I think we can add,

Having very specific local goals, something concrete that people can see is affecting them directly. Fighting small winable battles.

This definitely would add credibility. And also from you post I'd add:

Focusing on showing/carrying out your ideology instead of preaching it. Less talk, more action is better.

And also, in the same area:

Being less intellectual and more action driven.

And my point about image was simply that we could work on some basic marketing techniques to gain support and respect. Marketing seems so often overlooked. I think leftists assume that since we obviously are acting in the interest of the working class that they will support us. But that is often not true. If you look at American politics, people often vote against their own interests because the two parties have such good PR machines. Since we actually are in their interests, if we had good marketing and PR we could much more easily gain the people's support. I think we need to think more modernly and start putting some energy into image building and 'branding'. Are there any marketing/business majors out there that can make any good suggestions, I only have a very surface understanding of how to do that.

[firsty]

this topic deserves a bump. whether my reply is a worthwhile bump might be debated. but i'll try.

many movements suffer from these problems. considered radical, crazy and childish, they get little done and spend more time fighting ridicule than either making changes or expanding influence.

the key, which i think has been successfully communicated in this thread, is to focus on doing things. not "converting" people. we have to remember that the image of the idea, the bullet-points of the theory, these are not the critical parts of real-world application. what IS critical is that problems are fixed, things are changed.

we dont change things by getting as many people as possible to officially subscribe to a list of bullet points in any form - demands, tenets, ideas, etc.

we change things by changing things.

what direct "help" can people provide? what a group accomplishes is based less on its ideas and more on how it affects people, and how accessible its action items are to the everyday person, who has responsibilities far above and beyond forwarding this or that economic/social/political theory.

i think love underground is correct in prioritizing direct, local action over anything else. i'd add:

- volunteer heavily. local groups can be organized so that a number of people are involved with volunteering even in areas not directly linked to economics. a low-degree of visibility is preferable - it's ok that the public knows that, say 3 or 4 of the people who helped rebuild a township's river bank were associated with a leftist group, but only at a very basic level.

- maintain clear lines of communication. when something comes up that can be leveraged to a group's advantage, the problems of timing and logistics can be minimalized by having a clear line of communication, transportation, etc. know who to call, how to reach them, and what to do. a group's success cannot, in every case, depend upon months or even weeks of planning.

- the public's priorities should be your priorities, too. the education and experience which has led you to a set of beliefs that you feel are critical to the survival of your values have helped define the person you are. however, your priorities when it comes to action should be the same as how that action applies to the needs of the community. when you do something positive for your movement, you do it in the interests of improving your community, not to forward the movement. so your communications with other people, your dress, your appearance, your actions, must revolve around helping the community, not forwarding the movement. the movement's ideas will only succeed to the extent that its ideas help the community.

i know i'm not offering concrete examples, but, regardless: bump.

[Rawthentic]

Here's a point that I might add. For an organization to be effective and have serious chances of becoming a popular base for revolution, action needs to be backed in theory. Action without theory is guideless, it leads nowhere, while theory without action is useless as well. So, you need a balance of both. Your action needs to be grounded in solid theory, and your theory needs to be backed up by action as well.

[subcal]

First and foremost I think for anything to suceed one must move away from a 'membership base' and into 'movementarianism'.

I think if one creates a force that acts and one can not control then your on the right track. For example, if you create a detached action wing (using leaderless resistance methods) from an open and 'legitimate' orginisation that represents your beliefs you can have a bet both ways. You won't have to turn members away because of lack of activism, and you won't have to turn others away for being 'semi-terrorist' as they can join the open wing.

Orginisations fail, ideals don't. If you can create an open attack on an enemy by any means, any indicidual actions can act as a call to arms for others and also give the legitimate wing an excuse to jump in the media and say ' ooh this isn't the way to go about it, those wanting to help out should join our lobby'. That way its all about media exposure and action,

Should you also have a web page with links, if someone reads an article in the paper about the action and sees a comment from the orginisation it should be able to refer them to actions in thier local area and contact details for them.

Bla di bla bla.... read http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_3...nkel/index.html (http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_3/garfinkel/index.html) to see how some interesting thoughts on the subject.....