If you are anticapitalist or have come to the conclusion of being a socialist... it is vitally important to join a socialist organization. I personally recommend multi-tendency and non-sectarian organizations. This piece explains it well https://solidarity-us.org/sot #socialism #marxism #anticapitalist
@marxistvegan The words that ended up convincing me:
> An unorganized socialist is a contradiction in terms.
@christianbundy I would stretch that to include my anarchist comrades too
@marxistvegan Absolutely, I think most of my anarcho-friends identify as socialists, but I know there's some post-leftism/etc where that may not apply.
@marxistvegan @jd Thanks for the reminder and prod. Been reading histories of Greenbelt, MD and a theme is how prepared residents were to organize over every thing that excited or challenged them, large or small. That comes from habit & familiarity, even without deep socialist intentions.
@loppear Is there any socialist organization you are thinking of? Also are in MD?
@marxistvegan really no idea. Would prefer a face-to-face group engaged locally, but live in rural GA. Local anti-trump, local dems, latinx students, church-based outreach, or eco/food justice groups that I know of but nothing so broad-based intersectional and explicitly worker/solidarity.
@loppear ahh I see, I know a few comrades in Atlanta, but where you are, is there a DSA?
@marxistvegan Atlanta is the nearest DSA. In your experience are these groups energetic mostly new folks, or is there a depth of institutional/organizing knowledge to lean on? Years ago I lived near The Wooden Shoe in Philly, which seemed to have that long-term anchoring of skills. Vs reaching out to start something local but new and thin.
@loppear Fair question, I cannot speak to the Atlanta DSA, as I am in Boston and there is a balance of sorts in those terms. Granted that is one of the reasons I joined @SolidarityUS about 11 years ago and still hold that as my home, but actively involved in DSA as well.
@loppear what book(s) are you reading about Greenbelt? I live nearby and recently "discovered" it (and its interesting history) partly by accident when attending a birthday party at the New Deal Cafe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal_Cafe
@edsu The two I've found are "Greenbelt: A Cooperative Community" by George Warner an original resident (and newspaper editor and mayor) written about 10 years after the founding, and "Greenbelt MD: A Living Legacy of the New Deal" by Cathy Knepper, a slightly more academic study written 50 years later. Both are only OK as histories, but give a sense of the evolving challenges of living in a town struggling to adapt cooperative ideals to growth and outside dependencies.
@marxistvegan
I would reccommend staying away from Leninist groups tbh. Leninism has always screwed over non authoritarian leftists over the ages. Its not just a one off thing.
@malatesta1932 yeah that is what i mean by multi-tendency and non-sectarian, though the group I am in comes from a trotskyist perspective it is fully multi-tendency to having anarchist and many variations of marxist.
@marxistvegan oh that makes sense, I didn't know that before.
I know there are anarchists that may take issue with this, so I offer organizations in the US such as Black Rose as being well organized anarchists