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The Support Group for Independent Revolutionary Activists (and the Elephant in Room)
Posted 16th December 2010 at 05:49 by Ben Seattle
Updated 16th December 2010 at 07:01 by Ben Seattle
Updated 16th December 2010 at 07:01 by Ben Seattle
The Support Group for
Independent Revolutionary Activists
(and the Elephant in the Room)
It happened.
Crawling, for years, through the a bramble of thorns too thick for sunlight to penetrate, I may have reached a clearing, I place where I can stand and do what I was put on this earth to do:
Fight!
Two nights ago, I met with two fellow activists. We agreed that independent activists need to meet on a regular basis to overcome our isolation.
Alcoholics have AA. Independent revolutionary work is enough to try our souls. Don't we need our own support group?
Many revolutionary activists, of course, belong to some group (often which has many of the characterisitics of a cult). So these activists have other activists to talk to (at the cost of being part of a group with many of the characteristics of a cult).
But what about activists like us: who are _independent_ and disinclined to be part of a cult or some half-baked group dedicated, above all, to perpetuating our own ignorance?
So I made a proposal: that we meet regularly.
We are not forming a group that is either democratic centralist or cemocratic dentralist. We have no program of revolutionary work that will liberate humanity.
But we are going to meet. We are going to encourage one another to maintain a revolutionary perspective. We are going to talk to one another about what is important in our hearts.
One of the problems we cannot escape is that there is no revolutionary movement in society at this time. Nor is there any consensus of what constitutes revolutionary work. There is little understanding of what a revolutionary alternative to capitalist rule (and an economy based on commodity production) would look like or how it would function (much less how we will get from here to there).
So we have no "program" of "action". We have no "practice". We are meeting for the purpose of _talking_ to one another about what is in our hearts. We will see where it goes from there.
It would be nice, of course, to hope that we may be able, by talking, to develop a better understanding of the nature of revolutionary work in the time and place in which we live. And there is, naturally, no guarantee this will happen.
But in a period in which most of what is called "revolutionary work" is 2 parts useful work to 98 parts self-deception, it would seem that we are better off if we are at least talking to one another. The first step, above all else, is to overcome our own isolation.
The left, as it exists in our time, is highly dysfunctional. We are forbidden (by: (1) our ignorance and (2) a host of taboos) from talking about or resolving the contradictions which have paralysed the revolutionary movement and left it helpless in the dirt.
I have been around the block. I have definite ideas concerning what is holding back our movement. We are not being held back by (as many believe) the backwardness or ignorance of the masses. We are paralysed because of what we are not allowed to talk about: the elephant in the room.
And, because we cannot not talk about it, we are helpless against this elephant. It tramples everything in sight, including any work we create in years or decades of painstaking sacrifice. This elephant shits on everything, including ourselves. We pretend we are not covered in shit and we pretend it does not stink. And because we cannot _talk_ about it--we have lost the ability to _think_ about it. And we are left, after years or decades of being battered by this elephant, with the conclusion that the entire universe of possibilities of struggle boils down to only three possibilities:
(1) We can be passive. And give up.
(2) We can beat our heads against a brick wall until we have lost the ability to think.
(3) We can be "effective" only as a long as we restrict our vision to working for those things that are acceptable (or which we hope can be made to be acceptable) to the Democratic Party.
So our little support group is going to talk. We all have different views about a host of questions. But we all, also, have years of practical experience as activists. This is experience not only in numerous strugges for partial demands, but also experience of struggling, with humility, to understand the world in which we're thrown.
And it is just possible, in my opinion, that conditions have matured to the point where something interesting may be possible.
Stay tuned to this channel.
Ben Seattle
December 15, 2010
http://struggle.net/ben/
Independent Revolutionary Activists
(and the Elephant in the Room)
It happened.
Crawling, for years, through the a bramble of thorns too thick for sunlight to penetrate, I may have reached a clearing, I place where I can stand and do what I was put on this earth to do:
Fight!
Two nights ago, I met with two fellow activists. We agreed that independent activists need to meet on a regular basis to overcome our isolation.
Alcoholics have AA. Independent revolutionary work is enough to try our souls. Don't we need our own support group?
Many revolutionary activists, of course, belong to some group (often which has many of the characterisitics of a cult). So these activists have other activists to talk to (at the cost of being part of a group with many of the characteristics of a cult).
But what about activists like us: who are _independent_ and disinclined to be part of a cult or some half-baked group dedicated, above all, to perpetuating our own ignorance?
So I made a proposal: that we meet regularly.
We are not forming a group that is either democratic centralist or cemocratic dentralist. We have no program of revolutionary work that will liberate humanity.
But we are going to meet. We are going to encourage one another to maintain a revolutionary perspective. We are going to talk to one another about what is important in our hearts.
One of the problems we cannot escape is that there is no revolutionary movement in society at this time. Nor is there any consensus of what constitutes revolutionary work. There is little understanding of what a revolutionary alternative to capitalist rule (and an economy based on commodity production) would look like or how it would function (much less how we will get from here to there).
So we have no "program" of "action". We have no "practice". We are meeting for the purpose of _talking_ to one another about what is in our hearts. We will see where it goes from there.
It would be nice, of course, to hope that we may be able, by talking, to develop a better understanding of the nature of revolutionary work in the time and place in which we live. And there is, naturally, no guarantee this will happen.
But in a period in which most of what is called "revolutionary work" is 2 parts useful work to 98 parts self-deception, it would seem that we are better off if we are at least talking to one another. The first step, above all else, is to overcome our own isolation.
The left, as it exists in our time, is highly dysfunctional. We are forbidden (by: (1) our ignorance and (2) a host of taboos) from talking about or resolving the contradictions which have paralysed the revolutionary movement and left it helpless in the dirt.
I have been around the block. I have definite ideas concerning what is holding back our movement. We are not being held back by (as many believe) the backwardness or ignorance of the masses. We are paralysed because of what we are not allowed to talk about: the elephant in the room.
And, because we cannot not talk about it, we are helpless against this elephant. It tramples everything in sight, including any work we create in years or decades of painstaking sacrifice. This elephant shits on everything, including ourselves. We pretend we are not covered in shit and we pretend it does not stink. And because we cannot _talk_ about it--we have lost the ability to _think_ about it. And we are left, after years or decades of being battered by this elephant, with the conclusion that the entire universe of possibilities of struggle boils down to only three possibilities:
(1) We can be passive. And give up.
(2) We can beat our heads against a brick wall until we have lost the ability to think.
(3) We can be "effective" only as a long as we restrict our vision to working for those things that are acceptable (or which we hope can be made to be acceptable) to the Democratic Party.
So our little support group is going to talk. We all have different views about a host of questions. But we all, also, have years of practical experience as activists. This is experience not only in numerous strugges for partial demands, but also experience of struggling, with humility, to understand the world in which we're thrown.
And it is just possible, in my opinion, that conditions have matured to the point where something interesting may be possible.
Stay tuned to this channel.
Ben Seattle
December 15, 2010
http://struggle.net/ben/
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