Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Category: Activism (Page 28 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.

How to Handle Conflicts With Fellow Activists

conflicts leftist

Leftist activists disagree with one another. In other news, bears shit in the woods, the Pope is Catholic, etc. This disagreement is the cause of Twitter conflicts ranging from polite discussion to dumpster fires. How should we handle these conflicts? Should we try to get along? When? How can we tell when we’re taking conflicts too far?

Without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it’s time for our viewers to crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside?

I’ll address some of these questions in this post. Probably not the one from The Simpsons.

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Antifa: Its Success, Limits, and Future

antifa

Source: Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Antifa_logo.jpg).

Writing about Antifa is incredibly difficult. Writing about it well, anyway. But the topic came up at the DSA’s Chicago regional preconvention meeting in a group discussion on how to fight the far right. The relationship between fascism and Trumpism was a related topic of discussion.

I’ll set that latter topic aside, since I’ve already addressed it on this blog. But that leaves us with Antifa. What is it? Has it succeeded? What are its limits? Is it useful to leftist organizing?

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Green Book and Teen Vogue

Green Book

Source: Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book.jpg)

Green Book was an OK movie, not a great movie or even a good one. It’s in good company on the list of Oscar Best Picture nominees. You could make an awards case for Roma, but any of the others would’ve been a weak choice. Bohemian Rhapsody and Vice were the worst of the bunch. Neither of the two best movies I saw in 2018 (Sorry to Bother You and A Quiet Place, respectively) made the list.

Grumble, grumble.

I’ve got an upcoming post on the concept of the ‘liberal bubble,’ and what I’ll say here will preview that a bit. A lot of the criticism of Green Book from a particular set, namely highly educated, wealthier, white, ‘woke’ liberals, runs into a sort of bubble issue.

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