Find Existing Groups or Projects This can be tricky if you’re totally new to this scene, and there’s no one way to do this. The writers of this zine all got involved in completely different ways. One way to start can be by poking around in social spaces. Local radical, indie, and DIY spaces sometimes have fliers and zines that might tell you about upcoming events where you can meet people. Ask around and reach out. Learn to see things that aren’t “leftist” as radical. There are powerful social spaces that aren’t legible to the state—like auntie networks—that will always be the backbone of social life. Build relationships on the fringes!
An interesting point about this. A lot of ND people have trouble reaching out actively like this. Like, it goes against all our instincts to just join something new like this and a lot of coping mechanisms to be able to fight back against them. I feel groups need to have some way to do outreach in other contexts to attract people who might be open to such orgs.
Do you have any experiences which type of outreach worked for you personally?
You mean, how I’ve been approached before, or how I approached others?
If you mean the former, I never was.
In the latter case, I didn’t manage to be in an org by the point I realize I might need to do this. Currently I’m trying to setup my own org and we’ll see how it goes.
At its core, the vanguardist’s self-assigned task is to decide what is “revolutionary,” craft a blueprint for all of society, and seize the power necessary to impose this blueprint on the world. The word “Vanguard” itself expresses the idea that this select few is the necessary leader of the unthinking masses toward “revolution,” rather than the “masses” themselves. They justify this with ideological concepts like “democratic centralism” and “historical materialism.” This highly theoretical view of human society and history puts the machinations of the vanguard above the concerns of individuals and whole societies, creating a rationalization for harming colossal numbers of people. The underlying power dynamic is hidden behind a smokescreen of ideological necessity: they claim to know the only true path to revolution, and to stray from it is to betray the struggle and lead us all to certain doom. This is great for them and bad for the rest of us, both in theory and practice
A lot of the constant drum-roll about “read more theory” you’ll hear from them is grounded in this. One needs to keep reading ML theory until they become enlightened enough to lead the revolution. And if you don’t believe that’s should be the case, you obviously haven’t read enough theory yet.
Anyway, nice zine. I saw so many of these red flags in the Greek KKE and surrounding small parties. Good people to have a beer with, and with their heart largely in the right place, but useless revolutionary potential which causes massive churn and burnout of radicals.
This happens all the time on social media. I start following some “leftist” account. It seems ok. Eventually they start with the stalin, vanguard, promotion of fascist invasions, etc.
Once I was told I have “oppositional defiant disorder” for being anti-authoritarian. It’s wild how red fash share the same techniques as classic fascism.
