Pragmatic Leftist Theory

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The neolibs are too far right. The tankies are doing whatever that is. Where's the space for the people who want fully-automated-luxury-gay-space-communism, but realize that it's gonna take a while and there are lots of steps between now and then? Here. This is that space.

Here, people should endeavor to discuss and devise practical, actionable leftist action. Vote lesser evil while you build grassroots coalitions. Unionize your workplace. Participate in SRAs. Build cohesion your local community. Educate the proletariat.

This is a place for practical people to develop practical plans to implement stable, incremental improvement.

If you're dead-set on drumming up all 18,453 True Leftists® into spontaneous Revolution, go somewhere else. The grown ups are talking.

Rules:

-1. Don't be a dick. Racism, sexism, other assorted bigotries, you know the drill. At least try to default to mutually respectful discussion. We're all on the same side here, unless you aren't, in which case kindly leave.

-2. Don't be a tankie. Yes I'm sure you have an extensive knowledge of century-old theory. There's been a century of history since then. Things didn't shake out as expected, maybe consider the possibility that a different angle of attack might be more effective in light of new data.

-3. Be practical. No one on the left benefits from counterproductive actions. This is a space informed by, not enslaved to, ideology. Promoting actions that are fundamentally untenable in the system in question, because they fulfill a sense of ideological purity, is a bad look. Don't do that.

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10 effective things citizens can do to make change in addition to attending a protest (theconversation.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by Artisian@lemmy.world to c/PLT@sh.itjust.works

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[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

3 is questionable - I'm disinclined to regard 'dissident' Republicans as numerous enough to make a coalition with them anything but repulsive to left-leaning voters, and US 'libertarians' are not much more than Republicans themselves.

5 is a bit optimistic - I'm not ready to write off elections in the US just yet, but regarding it as the best method to defeat autocracy is questionable. A handful of strongman leaders and autocrats have fallen due to elections - most notably, Pinochet in Chile - but most consolidate enough power from supporters in the government that faking or ignoring electoral results, like Maduro in Venezuela, is trivial.

Otherwise, this is solid advice.

[–] Artisian@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

As a tactic in the near-term, I don't mind it. As a concrete example, there are many counties that have not (and likely will not) have a serious progressive candidate. In these spaces and races, I think there's a good argument for finding a libertarian or never-trumper whose willing to endorse and push guard-rails and electoral reform. (For example, it's pretty easy to find libertarians who endorse ranked choice voting and multi-seat districts. They're probably better candidates in Idaho than otherwise available.) One value from having non-leftist endorsements on some issues is that it breaks the 'red vs blue' tribe narrative.

I agree they don't make sense in major organizing roles, and wont be part of a long-term coalition. But if breaking up the polarization and 2-party system is an important step, then I think there's a much bigger cohort that would be interested.

Yeah I think their use of 'best' is not in terms of 'most reliable' or 'leading to best outcomes for people'; it might be in terms of 'least damaging to the established political systems'.

I like the OP post. I appreciate the examples of actions that work. I do wish, for example, that I knew of more parallel systems and citizen assemblies in my state. More research to do.