• 2 Posts
  • 21 Comments
Joined 11 months ago
cake
Cake day: June 4th, 2025

help-circle
  • This is so good. So many things to highlight, but if anything:

    I think the weaknesses of the BPP was that we were young, that our enemy was very experienced, and that we did not have what may be called a strong enough “decolonization program,” whereas while we are doing this work in our communities, while we are combating our enemies, we are consciously trying to work this system out of our bodies and out of our minds, and out of our most intimate relationships. Because I think those are the areas that our enemies use to bring us down: the sexism, the authoritarianism, the fears of freedom, the fears of death—all those things.

    “Fears of freedom” is such a concise way of, what I interpret as, people not seeing that - being scared of - the freedom to self-determine, the weight of having to decide together how to organize and how to deal with setbacks, instead of a boss or government telling you what to, without - in their minds - any choice but to accept.

    “Fears of death” is such a heavy load that comes with individualism and the belief that every individual should fight for their own spot at the top, and that that spot has such innate value that you can’t imagine the potential innate loss of not fundamentally prioritizing that.

    Even realizing when one’s suffering from these two fears is a huge task.








  • I’mmmmm not sure if this is relevant, but there’s a distinction between leaders and… Managers/facilitators etc. Leaders are never assigned or appointed as leaders. Leaders are natural and defined by the fact that people follow them.

    Everyone can be a leader in different ways and on different topics, in different situations.

    This is often confused with managers (and synonyms) who are appointed, and somehow supposed to always be the decision maker in… Many things.

    Someone to keep the oversight and ensure orchestration like an orchestra conductor is important like that.

    Leaders don’t need to be good managers. Leaders don’t need to be managers, though at times they are. Leaders don’t need to be anything, they already do leader things by definition, by the fact that they’ve changed people’s resolve/opinion etc.

    But leaders are natural. It’s so, so, so important that people learn that they don’t always have to be a leader in everything, and on the flip side, can naturally rise to the occasion given their knowledge, passion, and relevant circumstances.

    Makes things way more fluid, less forced, equal. And plays to everyone’s strengths in that regard.

    Sorry, I don’t have a 1 liner for that. Maybe someone else does.



  • Fighting against the man is always anti authoritarian, and that’s a big part with them, too, obviously. I honestly think if you set the bar at a union that wants to abolish capitalism (add in the blanks what that means), then you’ll not be pressuring & negotiating with the bosses, but couping. Or something like that. That’s a different game, isn’t it?

    Anarchism != not being organized, and strategising, learning how to talk to coworkers to organize and mobilize them, can be applied in any context, be it a more hierarchical or a flat one, I’d say. They mostly focus on closed structures rather than elected groups (i.e. groups people just tend to be a part of, like an apartment building or employees to the same company vs rallying people for an anti-racism protest).

    As for that they don’t organize any basic ones soon, just gives you more time to get people together or so, time flies (though that doesn’t help if you really need to get started asap). It’s worldwide & hugely inspirational and think it’s valuable for more & less mature groups alike.

    Hope that helps!


  • https://organizing4power.org/ find 10+ comrades and sign up for a course, that’ll help a ton. Though their courses are more about how to strategize and actually talk to people to get to winning actions.

    It can be a good way to bring focus to a group of people (or to have a clear starting point for a group of people that’s “just learning” and not immediately putting themselves at risk). Just walk up to people you trust and offer to take the course together, and tell them to find others who might be interested, and take it from there.