Sup comrades,
Being part of or running a chapter/org sounds mega existing, but as anyone who’s done so can attest…the daily work of revolution is much less glorious than you’d think. It’s mostly just, well, organizational stuff. Writing emails, delegating tasks, writing protocols, making concepts, etc.
Still, that part of political work is just as important as the speeches, discussions, protests, theory work, etc. Like a good supply and logistics system is the base of every military, well organized structures and processes are integral to an effective vanguard party.
So what are some tips and best practices you’d give your comrades (without revealing internals obviously), whether they’re just building something new or are part of something established
Personally:
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Seems obvious, but good documentation (opsec etc etc) is damn vital. Especially to anyone starting new, don’t push this off - you’ll lose an overview of what you’ve done and why within weeks as soon as the action starts kicking off. It builds institutional knowledge and there’s nothing more frustrating having to take over a position or organization without proper documentation
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Work conceptually. Don’t just “do a thing”. Make a concept. State goals, make a real plan and then evaluate the shortcomings and strengths of the concept afterwards. Don’t just jump from one thing to the next, you won’t build the institutional knowledge that’s essential for any organization. You also won’t be able to analyze reoccurring patterns and mistakes and grow less effectively because of it
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People need tasks. Soon as you get someone even slightly interested, give them a clear and appropriate task to develop them politically and attach them to the collective body. People will not come back if they don’t feel integrated and like they’re not playing an important role. Whoever even gets close to a revolutionary organization wants to do stuff - let them. And let them fail too occasionally
All fairly basic, but imo essential and unfortunately often overlooked because they seem so obvious.
excellent writeup, i will also add something based on my experience:
It sucks. A lot of effort for very slow gains (if at all) and the journey is rife with disappointments and setbacks. It’s not easy because it is not supposed to be easy.
Just be prepared for it, and understand that all that anger and frustration that inevitbaly comes with trying to organize people is part of the process. That’s why we call it a “struggle”.
Nonetheless, when you do get results, you’ll bask in the realization that you actually did advance your cause in a practical way - which feels waaayyyy better than arguing with teenagers on reddit
Luckily for me everything was very quick and we’ve not had any disappointments so far. Progress has been pretty linear on a steady upwards trajectory. Though that’s not normal and will no doubt change at some point. Essential people will leave, move, things will go wrong, etc etc.
I’d add though minimizing disappointments also has to be the responsibility of the political leadership of any structure. From what I’ve heard from many other groups it’s very common to start out with insane enthusiasm, overload yourself and then collapse beneath the load. It’s a fools errand most of the time to try to eg organize a protest on your own, as a new group with a handful of people. You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment.
We have to be honest about our capabilities and stage of development as a group/collective.
That means our main task could be something as basic as finding a locality for regular meetups. Doesn’t sound like much, but is a major effort for many groups initially. And we have to recognize even these ‘basic’ unsexy, mundane successes as successes. As communists I feel like we tend to always look to the biggest moments in history and strive towards building these. Which is essential in a way. But we also have to focus on the billion tiny, unimpressive steps that actually do build the big historical ones. We’re also still humans after all and operate on a fairly archaic reward system, so we have to work with that lol
Nonetheless, when you do get results, you’ll bask in the realization that you actually did advance your cause in a practical way - which feels waaayyyy better than arguing with teenagers on reddit
100%. Any success in real organizing feels a million times more rewarding than unproductive online discussions on leddit or wherever. Feeling part of a real collective working towards real, shared goals is one of the best feelings you can get as a communist - or really as a human imo.
Our fractured, isolated, individualized online-presences can’t really provide that, especially not in lib infested hellholes like reddit.
Thanks for these tips! I’m working with my party to build a branch in my area because there isn’t one here already. But it’s going at a snail’s pace for a number of logistical reasons. Any advice on building and maintaining popular interest for a party without yet having a branch that people can engage with? What are the best ways to keep applicants from backing out due to disinterest when we don’t actually have a branch to put them in yet?
Yeah that’s a tough one and one, I think, most parties and organizations struggle with. It’s just a weird position to be in when you have a couple of interested people, but no real structure yet.
I was in a similar position about a year ago. We had no member in my area and I was one of those interested. Luckily for us, it turned out we were a few very keen, committed and principled people in the area and were thus allowed to found a group pretty quickly, so we didn’t really spend that much time in this limbo and could get to work fairly fast.
I’d say try to organize just anything to involve ‘applicants’. Even if it’s an online reading group. Maybe just meet for a ‘political pint’ in a bar once every other week for some political talk. Invite them to events from the next larger regional structure. Just take them to tag up your area with stickers. Any buy-in, no matter how small, makes it that much more likely they’ll come back. If you’re a member already or somehow more involved with the party, this’ll heavily hinge on you initially. As the other comrade said, a lot of effort for small gains. But, once you have a couple of people, be quick about establishing a group too. 5 people is plenty to set up a basic structure imo, you can get away with as little as 3 dedicated people if you ask me. And soon as you have a formal group, things should get much easier and quicker. Before long you’ll have more to do than you can manage lol
Unfortunately you’ll probably also have to accept that many applicants will just never become actual members no matter what you do. You can lower the odds of them disappearing, but it’ll happen either way.
