The left needs to become revolutionary and do the work to become informed in theory and action. There are not many of us right now and the vast majority of organisations are simply unserious in their knowledge, strategy, positions, and achieving strategic goals.

Many commie/anarchist groups are very small, fail to embed with the people to build off of community issues, and spend all of their time arguing about a German guy from the late 1800s or about why China is revisionist or going through the motions of what their LARPie tendency makes them think they should be doing but without working it into a coherent agenda to build power, to build revolution.

For example, orgs whose approach to unions is to just cheerlead regardless of what is happening. That Maoist article criticizing PSL, FRSO, DSA etc was about 70% correct, just presented in the most insufferable way possible and with no real conclusion of what to actually do aside from having an opinion. Every leftist group appears to have forgotten how to say, “yes and” or “yes but” in order to recognize the value and insufficiency of the union status quo. It’s just “yes that’s awesome” or “I condemn this in the strongest terms” dressed up in left-sounding language. They’ve definitely forgotten how to influence unions or carry out a realistic campaign around doing so. Roughly 50% of IWW groups appear to be deeply incompetent, don’t provide useful support to workers, get people fired for no reason, but seem to care a lot about getting “cred”. I know two people who were head of IWW groups in two cities and they now work at unions and they are some of the worst organizers I’ve ever met, doing the easy stuff you’re supposed to be focusing on getting other people to do (stand at a picket…) and not the things the organizer has to do (ensure materials are available and delivered, recruit people to do tasks, create an organizing committee, have any strategy at all for winning).

The commonality I see for all of this is that they have zero institutional support showing them how to do it, forcing them to read, training them to be competent organizers, let alone socialist organizers, so they adopt what they are exposed to: the non-profit industrial complex model and the ubiquitous liberalism of avoiding reading but desperately needing to have an opinion to feel valid. Having an opinion or title is somehow the most important thing and simultaneously does not depend on gaining expertise or succeeding at your work. Telling other people looking to contribute no (because of X flimsy theoretical reason they don’t understand) is more important than rerouting that enthusiasm into a political program.

This isn’t all orgs, but it’s very common. Competence is the exception and is diluted and frustrated. Also, in case I sound unreasonably grumpy, competence includes building bridges and creating non-asshole spaces that define strategy and carry it out, not some elitist academic form of competency.

Basically, it seems like the basics need to be taught from scratch in most places. The left was a zombie before and now it’s a zombie with a bunch of babies with no mentorship but who really want to do something.

On the bright side, I see signs of us transitioning out of the armchair larpy socialist phase. I see more and more competent orgs, I see competent factions within incompetent orgs, I see little fits and starts of a rekindling of socialist organization (some cities’ organizers during the George Floyd protests). We are learning by doing where we have failed to learn by reading (even just 3 books, I’m begging you, Western leftists).

I hope we can learn and grow quickly enough.