The electoral system is not going away overnight. You can build the new world while lending a hand to those in need.
If you can't be bothered to cast one ballot on one day of the year to help your brothers and sisters, then that betrays a level of callousnoss and sociopathy I want no association with. And I see all too often in this crowd. It's quite sad.
I agree that building more coops and councils is a good start. I do want us to be politically effective too, though. When I say "politically", I'm not talking about electioneering or participating in liberal democracy. I'm talking abeut building power. Expanding the message. Growing coalitions. Growing the movement. That can't be done if all were focused on is endless gatekeeping and purity testing 24/7.
For example: I'm having another conversation with someone else in this thread and all they're fixated on is labels and tags. No thoughtful discussion about strategy. And this is my main frustration with the cause (not you in particular): If we spent 1% of the energy we do gatekeeping and alienating everyone on actual meaningful implementation the world would have turned into an anarchist utopia decades ago. Also, I disagree that taking one day to cast a vote ballot is asking too much. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. If casting a vote helps my Latino or Vietnamese brothers from landing in an ICE detention facility I'll do that while also campaigning and inviting more people to join the anarchist movement. It doesn't have to be one or the other.
You seem really invested in labels and qualifiers rather than accomplishing anything. The aesthetic of the left for its own sake. Kinda like college kids who put up a Cheguevara poster in their dorm room. I want to be on board with a movement that accomplishes something. I'm not really interested in the cosplay part of the left, ya dig? I'm pretty certain at this point you don't even have as much as the semblance of a strategy or plan for implementing.... anything really. Good luck to... whatever it is you're trying to do. Cheers.
You two are talking past each other. None of what you wrote has any connection to what the other person wrote. In fact, you guys probably don't disagree about anything. OP is just giving an explanatory description, not a normative essay.
Again, these are all nice in theory. I love councils. I love cooperatives. Where's the practice, though? I need more. I need a concrete actionable plan. Not high level discussion of structure. Not more conversations about frameworks. I need a plan. I'm a hands on learner.
Also, none of this is mutually exclusive with harm reduction. You can work towards building a classless, stateless society etc while also reducing harm in the now. They are not at odds and anyone that says otherwise is talking from privilege in my opinion.
Generally a stateless and classless society free of the oppression and exploitation. However, at this point I'll settle for achieving anythitg that we want on the left of center. Really, I'd like anythitg (Universal Healthcare, parental leave, end of wage exploitation, etc).. I don't think what I'm asking is very mysterious. Would you like to obfuscate more or can you finally answer the question?
I'm well familiar with anarchist theory. One of my best professors in college was heavily into anarchist philosophy and we've had many in depth conversations. I don't want to sit around and do high brow discourse. I want concrete actionable plans. What's the plan?
yes m'lord. Goddamn this is cringe