I’ve heard from various people that the SRA has a lot of problems, most prominently the lack of leadership from the national organisers, who defer virtually all branch affairs to local organisers, who are often absentees who deprive their membership of the opportunity to organise themselves. Are there any members here who’ve experienced these problems first hand, and if so, what are your thoughts on the organisation as it currently stands?
I can just tell you what my friend who was in the SRA experienced (she left because she was caught in so much drama from anarchists that it became impossible for her to remain productively).
Absolutely right. So apparently it’s gonna depend on what your chapter looks like. They really, really don’t care about local leadership and will tell you to figure it out yourselves.
The problems she went through was that anarchists thought it was their club (they started it) and she was not the only ML there when she joined, but she was one of the most vocal. So she always pushed back on typical anticommunist talking points other members brought up.
The anarchists didn’t like that, and tried to have her kicked out at various times, without success. They also brought committees against her (I forgot the name, it’s an MWC) to investigate her behaviour.
Her behaviour was that yes, sometimes she can be stubborn, but she was defending Marxism-leninism and not letting the chapter fall into vulgar anticommunism. Which is allowed in the Socialist Rifle Association. They’re a big tent left unity group so MLs are okay.
Pushing back on China propaganda, Stalin, USSR, etc. And for this they said she was a genocide denier, she had no place in the SRA, etc.
They purposely misunderstood her stance or misunderstood her words to claim she was picking fights with other. Thing is she was galvanising other MLs to speak up too. So maybe that’s why the anarchists didn’t like her.
The way chapters work is they have moderators who are supposed to mediate issues between members. A few of them really didn’t care at all about their role, like they showed up to mediate but then spent the time on their phone or whatever. That’s why one time it led to a misunderstanding they wanted to kick my friend out for. Just didn’t care to do their job which doesn’t reflect very well on the organisation.
And this whole time the organisers were setting up committees to deal with complains and also just telling people to stay civil and stop picking debates. That’s not leadership if you ask me.
Like I said it used to be the anarchists in her chapter and maybe they thought they had their personal clique? And didn’t like when MLs started joining too cause they couldn’t steer MLs like they could demsocs. So they try to get them kicked out.
Also afterwards rumors/allegations/proof of abuse and other super uncomfortable stuff came out (she never entirely specified) and yeah, that’s kinda where the chapter fell apart.
Problem with SRA is anyone can join if they say they’re nominally left. I don’t necessarily mind that, though when you get a guy who sounds like a fed and nobody worries about it, I guess it is something to mind. But the problem is, the SRA is big tent unless you are ML in the wrong chapter. Cause they’ll say shit about ussr, china, etc and if you push back they’ll create trouble over it. To me big tent means either you shut up and stop creating trouble that has nothing to do with a socialist rifle association, or you accept that people will push back when you’re wrong.
Over this whole ordeal which lasted for 2 years I think, two members got kicked out (or one left and the other was kicked out) because in the end they were just harassing her over this and just creating trouble all the time just because she was a vocal ML in the SRA. In the end she left, or said she would, because it was just becoming crazy for her. Honestly, I don’t think they were very happy years of her life.