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this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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I don't want to dismiss it - direct action and mutual aid build org cohesion, preserve our members, and allow for us to produce meaningful changes on a small scale.
But the only way that change happens at scale is when those smaller pegs cohere into the mass movement that can go beyond just shutting down one node in the system of death. And that's going to require the takeover of current institutions of power (e.g. the military, police, etc) to both push the movement further and/or preserve it.
I'm sure electoralists might chime in here, and I don't want to entirely dismiss it but electoralism should be aiming to take over and use those institutions of power as well (e.g. the chapo take about using ICE to arrest and try everyone involved in the trump admin).
Needless to say, the only way we survive as a movement or species is through solidarity. But these are tactics for survival, and without an eventual turn to usurp the state monopoly on violence I sadly feel that's all they'll ever be.
A general strike is obviously a great goal but even that, absent inaction from the military or a revolutionary vanguard, would just eventually lead to the use of police/state forces to compel work through violence, no?
I understand where you’re coming from now, thanks for explaining. This is a subject I’m not well read on yet so I can’t comment too much on it, but I appreciate your perspective.
No worries. I'm mostly influenced by the account of more anarchist led movements in Brazil from Vincent Bevins' If We Burn. Basically, I really appreciate the local efforts and ways that direct action can foster change, but in Bevins' account at least, those protests and actions, without a turn to more structured ML approaches, basically just opened the door for Bolsanarism. Now, this is just a journalistic account so YMMV but it really feels like there's certain hinge points in movements where you need to use representation, authority, and for lack of a better word, power and violence to both continue to achieve goals and prevent cooption.
Again, I have tons of respect for anarchist approaches and have nothing against them as tactics and even a strategy in local contexts. However, (and this is just me vibing, I have less theory for it), it feels like there's a point where a movement gets to a size where you can't just rely on mutual aid and decentralized approaches without opening yourself up to wreckers in a really dangerous way.