Commies have always done this kind of thing, but it’s long been a core of Anarchist thought - Small affinity groups, ad hoc organizing, mutual aid networks within the decaying corpse of the state.
I’m not talking about nihilistic ecofash crap like “Desert” or whatever, but rather how to work in these small, nimble, and responsive groups and organizations. I think that as global warming rips nation states apart and capitalism continues to fuck everything this kind of organizing is going to be very important. There may not be an industrial proletariat to organize by mid century if global warming puts enough pressure on the world to cause widespread logistical and economic collapse.
I think that’s likely enough to merit serious consideration, including working out what communist organizing would look like, and how it would work, in a post free-trade, post-international just in time logistics world.
There’s that old story where an old man is walking down the beach after a storm. The storm has washed up thousands of starfish who are stranded now. The man sees a little girl throwing starfish back in to the ocean. He says “Why are you bothering, you can’t save all of them.” and without looking up the girl says “I can save this one” and hucks another starfish in to the surf. The man thinks about that for a second and then joins the girl in hurling starfish.
As global warming continues to worsen, as the neoliberal state continues to auto-cannibalize, all these disasters are going to add up. Things that are destroyed won’t be repaired. There will be knock-on effects as the collapse of infrastructure in one region accelerates the collapse in surrounding regions. Flexible, relatively small scale organizing groups doing on the ground relief, repairs, or even outright replacing infrastructure will likely be vital for the survival of many communities.
A lot of us are already involved in projects like this in one way or another. Pooling theory, personal experiences, and other resources to apply our dialectical magic to the problem can only make us stronger.
There’s that old story where an old man is walking down the beach after a storm. The storm has washed up thousands of starfish who are stranded now. The man sees a little girl throwing starfish back in to the ocean. He says “Why are you bothering, you can’t save all of them.” and without looking up the girl says “I can save this one” and hucks another starfish in to the surf. The man thinks about that for a second and then joins the girl in hurling starfish.
This is beautiful comrade. I seriously can’t get the thought of a liberal telling me this story then asking me to vote for Kamala L3Harris out of my head though.
To the point though, you’re completely right. I think a huge weakness that the left has is simply not being visible and not having much to show people in terms of what our ideals actually mean when put into practice. In an ideal world without propaganda, we would point to China, Cuba, Burkina Fasso, etc and say that the advances those countries made to advance the position of their poor rural working classes was only possible under socialism. In America, this kind of mutual aid is probably the most realistic implementation of really existing socialist principles for the next couple of decades.
my friend told me in her county only the churches were really doing aid. and they were overwhelmed.
she’s probably the only leftist doing mutual aid work there and only as a community member not as part of an org. i really doubt any leftist org of any flavor showing up to help in the early stages would have been turned away for being “woke” or anything. that stuff goes out the window in these situations and you can leave people sold on a mutual-collectivist vision outside their normal framework
