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you actually have to "go outside" and "build some communism" to learn how to be a communist. not all knowledge comes from books and articles, and you can learn a lot from IRL organising (hexbear.net)

submitted 10 months ago by cleoburymortimer@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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seriously. it's not that big a deal. if people in gaza are still standing up to their oppressors every day then you likely have zero excuse for not doing more IRL shit (political reading and writing at home are good, but don't mean anything if you're not applying that theory as practice and then assessing the results and adjusting your practice accordingly).

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[-] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 7 points 10 months ago

An example would be joining the IWW. You pay dues, show up to meeting, talk about politics with people, and try to organize your workplace or help other people organize theirs.

A bunch of other orgs are basically like that, except instead of workplace organizing it might be electioneering or selling newspapers.

[-] polskilumalo@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 10 months ago

selling newspapers

Not really something that is going to fly these days, you'll just look like a Jehova Witness. Especially in Poland, for some reason the amount of them has skyrocketed in my city. Since we are living in the internet age, organizations should definitely learn how to use it to their benefit. Adapting to the times and all that.

[-] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 5 points 10 months ago

That doesn't stop orgs in my area! There's even a few IWW papers, but they're more directed towards wobs and other's that already share our ideological leaning. But yeah, distributing newspapers isn't very effective.

[-] HumanBehaviorByBjork@hexbear.net 6 points 10 months ago

I joined the IWW and seeing the state of my branch i'm ashamed to ask anyone else to join. it's not particularly bad, it's just been dysfunctional ever since it was (re)established

[-] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

SF Bay Area GMB seems to be doing a lot of good work. Honestly, most of the organizing at my branch is dual-carders working with a different union, but that's not really that bad.

[-] HumanBehaviorByBjork@hexbear.net 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

our previous one blew up because it was centered around a sex pest and his friends who all worked at the same co op grocery and they decided to withhold dues lmao. the current members are with a few exceptions disaffected young people and grad students with very little experience in politics or labor organizing, myself included. i don't want to make it sound like i'm trashing my fellow workers, this is just as much my responsibility as anyone else's there. Oh also everything is done on Discord. Infuriating.

[-] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 5 points 10 months ago

Yeah, the reliance on zoom and Discord is annoying. WISREA is a lot more on the ball in terms of tech stuff, with SSO, chat, jitsi, and hosting interwob. We could probably be doing better, but that whole RWU ordeal happened.

[-] RedWizard@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 10 months ago

Hmm interesting. So IWW is a union, and I can join it, and potentially get its support if my workplace decides to unionize?

I'm in education, but not an educator, and so not in a union. Its a small dept, and I doubt it'll ever unionize, the wage and benefits are probably the best in the state. I've never understood why the tech/office people in edu (in my state anyway) are always out of the union loop.