Not sure how much detail to include here, but I’m angry, scared, and restless and for the first time in my life decided to go to a protest, the ones that happened today at all the state capitols.
Total newbie, but felt let down because the mood felt like half the people there were going to go home feeling good, pat themselves on the back protesting for a couple hours, then go back to doomscrolling for the next 4 years. I went in hoping to see local socialist or mutual aid or lgbtq groups fielding questions or recruiting. You know, an outlet to use this energy. Guess that was presumptuous of me.
You guys seem to have your shit together with local activism, so I thought that maybe hexbear would be a good place to ask if there’s any groups in SW Washington area that you could point me towards. My partner and I were planning to join the auntie network after roe v wade fell, but were unable to offer the space we had planned for hosting out of state visitors. So I don’t know how to spend this itch to help.
Got any advice hexbears?
SW Washington is close to Olympia and Portland, both of which have active socialist organizations. I recommend dipping your toes into an organization to help you get the local lay of the land, as you are likely also beginning a political education journey at the same time and you’ll want to have some flexibility in where you end up. Some indicators of a good org are that they will be Marxist, not Trotskyist, will have active local campaigns strategically embedded in communities, will find balance between political education and praxis, and are not weirdly controlling of your life. Many orgs can have bad national takes but good local organizing or dramatic variation between chapters, so it is difficult to reliably recommend just one partu or org. Maybe check out FRSO or PSL. Or even DSA, keeping in mind that the org, overall, is pretty liberal so you will need to be patient with naive chauvinists and protect yourself from adopting their silly ideas.
Dollars to dimes the “best” org for your area will be something homegrown that I don’t know about. It’s okay if it is the third or fourth org you join rather than the first. It’s better to join a worse org and develop and embed than to hold out for the perfect fit. Just don’t let any org stymy your development. Don’t be surprised when an org doesn’t read or reads from a restricted and counter-productive canon. Just don’t copy them! Keep reading and do your best to reject only reading summaries and editorialized takes on, e.g., Marx. There is currently a reading group going through Capital here. You can catch up!
This is very helpful thank you, gives me somewhere to start looking around here
Like my post touched on I’m pretty new to being involved, but current developments compel me to do something, you know?
Exactly! That’s a great spirit to have. Wanting to do something about injustice is the core motivation shared by all good socialist organizers!
If you pair that with a good theoretical and local understanding, you will then get a handle on what to do, if that makes sensr. One neighborhood might be best reached through mutual aid and political education while another might respond most to direct action against a prison while another might respond most to a (principled) socialist electoralist campaign like public housing or immigrant initiatives. All of these can be threatened by liberal cooption but that’s just the job, you know?
Please feel free to ask any and all questions you might have! And I’m glad you’ll be joining us on the streets and the meeting rooms!