I’m in North America. I’ve recently moved to a new city for a decent job. Not a big city, but not a small town either. Not gonna say where due to safety concerns and whatnot. The place is kinda racist, kinda xenophobic, and more-than-just-kinda conservative. I’m basically reduced to being a cryptocommunist to keep my ass out of danger. But I want to organize. Get out there, do something useful. I’ve been slowly catching up on my theory thanks to this site, but I have enough time that I could also be out there being useful to both the people in my community and the cause in general. I can’t donate money, not more than I already do, but I can donate time and effort. Sadly, I have exactly zero idea of how to do it usefully. Or safely.

I know some basic things I can do. Building mutual aid from the ground up, joining a party, pamphleting, educating people, etc. However, if I’m being entirely honest, the local communist org seems kind of useless (think of the book club in Disco Elysium, for lack of a better comparison), the local aid orgs I’ve seen are tremendously reactionary (church-adjacent, and not the “love thy neighbor” kind of church), and I am a minority.

Seems like this community has a lot of well read people, so instead of direct advice, I came here to ask if there’s any good readings on the topic that you would recommend. I’d like to get started on the right foot, and with some knowledge of why I’m doing what I’m doing. Most of all, I want to be safe while still doing something worthwhile. Ngl, with the crazy ass situation being what it is, I’m not super comfortable rubbing shoulders with people who might want me gone from their sight one way or another if they realize I’m a communist. In other times, I’d remind myself that good revolutionaries work with people they don’t like all the time… These days? I fear that those guys might well Do Something About It. I’m new in town. I don’t know how actively hateful the vibe is here, and it’s not like the government or the police would side with me.

Anyhow.

Any good reads on “How to Be a Cryptocommunist Without Just Sitting on Your Ass at Home Doing Nothing”?

  • Makan@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    8·
    15 days ago

    American Trade Unionism by William Z. Foster

    But honestly:

    Keep the option of joining a labor union open (and I don’t mean just the IWW, but even other independent unions and even AFL-CIO unions, despite their conservative nature at times).

    Oh yeah, and read the book I gave you up top.

    • AngeryProle@lemmygrad.mlOP
      7·
      15 days ago

      I’m going to start reading this today, thank you.

      I should mention - I’m a union man. Years long member of an “apolitical” one. They protect the workers on the floor well enough, and the only thing people ever talk about are salaries, working conditions, retirement, how to file labor complaints, that kind of stuff. It’s quite nice, but it doesn’t offer a lot of room for agitation, or education, or much of anything else. I tried.

      But maybe… Hmm. Maybe the local here is better than the local I left behind. And maybe Foster addresses that. I should investigate. And read. Thanks for the rec!!!

      • Makan@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        6·
        15 days ago

        Oh, well, it’s good that you’re already apart of one!

        Yes, William Z. Foster was a communist and prolific trade unionist. Quite a famous one too. Led the 1919 general strike in the United States shortly after WWI.

      • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
        6·
        13 days ago

        They protect the workers on the floor well enough, and the only thing people ever talk about are salaries, working conditions, retirement, how to file labor complaints, that kind of stuff. It’s quite nice, but it doesn’t offer a lot of room for agitation, or education, or much of anything else. I tried.

        This has been my experience as well. This is especially bad in countries where unionization is highly regulated because while this increases the overall rate of unionization, it severely limits what unions can actually legally do. They become nearly impotent except as intermediaries for negotiation between labor and capital. This is purposely done to “depoliticize” them, which means to neuter them as instruments of class struggle. Also some unions are just outright reactionary and align themselves with imperialism.

        All this to say that, yes unions are generally a good thing and as a worker you should be in one, and as communists we should try to work with and within unions, but they are not sufficient and communists need to form and join real political organizations that are willing and able to do more than just negotiate for slightly higher pay and a few more benefits.

      • Makan@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        5·
        15 days ago

        Oh yeah, and Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? by MLK, Jr.

        Also on Audible (and Spotify, I think).