Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Category: Activism (Page 10 of 30)

These are posts on activism from the blog Base and Superstructure. This takes many forms. The focus here is on political activism, above all on activist organizing and base-building. One concern is how to build effective movements. There’s also a need to create solidarity with fellow members and build coalitions with other groups. The main aim of good movements is to work together to advance material interests. This section also includes critiques of electoral work, and discussion of how and when to use elections to advance activist goals. Navigating the balance between grassroots work and electoral work is difficult for everyone.

Modified Consensus and Activist Conflict

Activist communities often tread gingerly around conflict. They know it tears activist groups apart, especially personal conflict. It has done so for decades.

Sometimes even political conflict tears activist groups apart. The groups find it difficult to work through disagreement on even ordinary political issues, especially in their first few meetings. Usually groups come together as voluntarily associations of people interested in a few topics, and they don’t have much in the way of long personal history and built-up trust.

Many groups react to all these things by avoiding conflict. They bury the conflict, pretending it doesn’t exist. In the short term, this provides some benefits. But it’s almost always a long term path to nowhere. Let’s talk about better ways to handle conflict, specifically modified consensus as a model.

Many react to this history by avoiding conflict. They bury it – pretend it doesn’t exist. This can help in the short-term. But it’s almost always a long-term path to nowhere. Let’s talk about better ways to handle conflict.

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May Day

Way back in 2018, I wrote a short post explaining the U.S. holiday ‘Labor Day,’ focusing on its differences from the international holiday May Day. Among other things, I posted out to readers that both holidays originated in the United States! Before, of course, the U.S. decided to eff things up and try to stamp out May Day.

Which it failed to do. Sort of. I’ll refer readers to the Labor Day post I linked above for the full details. But, suffice it to say, the U.S. government – with a notable helping hand from right-leaning, anti-communist unions – played its part in the stifling of a workers’ tradition that started in our own country.

It’s a bummer. But it does teach us the lesson that we of the left have started deep traditions before. We can do it again.

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Police Budget and the Justice Center

I wrote a few weeks ago about a debate in Iowa City over a police budget freeze. In that post, I framed the issues in terms of national debates over ‘defund the police’ and the failure of activist groups to build a majority coalition.

In this post, I’ll apply a local lens. We had a county debate a decade ago on funding for a jail expansion. Local politicians proposed that we build a ‘Justice Center’ to relieve jail overcrowding and other issues. But voters twice rejected the proposal. That old debate provides key insights into the current police budget debate.

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Tribunes of the People

The DSA is full of divides and false dichotomies. So let’s try to intervene against some of that. Some in the DSA world divide the org’s electoral strategy into two possible routes. The first one amounts to collaboration with – and capitulation to – the Democratic Party and its interests.  And the second is a Bolshevik inspired strategy called ‘Tribunes of the People.’ In that latter strategy, a core of united DSA elected officials stick to the party line and agitate the working class into a political force.

Various DSA caucuses, usually obscure and sectarian ones, promote this division. But in light of actions from The Squad and majority factions within the DSA, we’ve seen it erupt in larger DSA blocs and spaces. Such as the recent public event put on by several DSA caucuses.

I share many of the critiques of the DSA ‘majority’ faction’s electoral strategy. That strategy amounts to a shortcut to build on-paper membership in the short term without building a sustainable organization that can win power in the medium or long term.

But I’m hardly more impressed by the Tribunes of the People strategy. Let’s talk about that.

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‘Defund the Police’: A Missing Majority

A couple of nights ago, the city council in my city (Iowa City) voted against budget amendments to freeze the police budget and cancel unfilled positions in the police department. The vote took place in the broader context of the slogan ‘defund the police’ and activist movements since the summer of 2020.

I’ll say a word about all this. But, first, some recent remarks from Cedric Johnson provide us with a useful way to frame the discussion.

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