Thread by @BlackSocialists

Something the “Left” desperately needs to understand, and quickly:

1) The future of organizing is going to be more spontaneous and decentralized (whether you like it or not).

2) The goal shouldn’t be to organize others, but rather to help others organize themselves in new ways.

To point number one:

Much of this is tied to how we’ve been conditioned under Neoliberalism, how we reflect this conditioning in our outlooks or approaches, the designs of the tech we use to organize, and the hyper-individualization and atomization all of this (and more) brings.

To point number two:

This is not only a point about strategical adaptation, but a point about strategical advantage too; plenty of Black revolutionaries have stressed the utility of creating infrastructure conducive to self-organization, and decentralized infrastructure as well.

The dynamics discussed in both of these points absolutely cannot be addressed without the development of new digital platforms and tech that are conducive not only to the development of new economic institutions, orgs, and systems, but cooperative and democratic practice as well.

As of 2020, we still have a “Left” that largely treats the technological component of our struggle as a mere footnote in both its critique of the current state of affairs and in its conception of radical strategical methods or solutions for the future; it is a glaring blind spot.

As of 2020, we are dealing with a “Left” that is largely unaware of both the radical potentialities that lie in tech development, and the true scope of the barriers that our present technological paradigm defines, particularly for younger generations of people trying to navigate.

Those currently most equipped with the knowledge, skillsets, or programs for the building of counter-institutions and counter-power in the real world must begin to divert more attention toward the development of new tech that lends itself to a new form of autonomous organization.

Through our Open Tech Development (OTD) team, we have tried to open up a digital forum for global comrades in tech to collaborate on projects we feel are necessary for helping poor and working-class people have an imagination about the future *and* move on it in a calculated way.

We ask that if you are a Left developer, UI/UX designer, programmer, etc., you not only loop into processes now, but take initiative in trying to help us see our projects through:

blacksocialists.us/contact

If something significant is not done on the tech front, our odds are slim.

If we don’t do it, then it will not get done.

We can continue to kick the can down the road, assuming that some new tech will magically appear that is somehow tailored to our democratic desires and needs, but this will not only lead to disappointment...

It will lead to fascism.

#DualPower should not be a strategical framework/concept reserved for the non-digital world.

We need a #DualPower technological revolution, and one could perhaps argue that such a thing is a precondition to the kind of wide-scale counter-institutional development we hope to see.

UPDATE:

Some of y’all apparently need convincing on point number one.

Let’s address it.

Poor and working-class people are not going to sign up for your vanguard party, let alone to subject themselves to hierarchy and command outside of already authoritarian workplaces in 2020.

Poor and working-class people have even less tolerance for being told what to do these days, and rightfully so.

Who are any of you to coercively tell anyone how to move in 2020? People want you to make your case, see how it benefits them, and interact with it on their own terms.

Furthermore, it’s already hard enough to get people to struggle with each other through conversation/debate, let alone through communal organization. What makes anyone think that people are going to be signing up (en masse) for anything of the sort that isn’t streamlined somehow?

Most aren't signing up for more bureaucracy or red tape in a society already plagued by these things in service to capital.

No, not even your “radical” ideas about the future are enough of a sell for that, nor are your charity efforts.

Folks want better lives and opportunities.

Whatever comes out of “Left” organization right now has to address these realities.

Trying to replicate outdated (and failed) organizational models from over one century ago in 2020 is like trying to move a square peg through a round hole; it isn’t going to work.

Time to adapt.

UPDATE:

Bad-faith actors are trying to twist our words and present “the future of organizing is going to be more spontaneous“ as “we want the future of organizing to be more spontaneous.”

We don’t.

We wish everything was more coordinated/planned, but larger forces are at work.

The element of spontaneity has been around in revolutionary moments all throughout history. The difference now, however, is that we have a society that is even more fragmented and atomized, not only because of certain elements of technological changes from the last two decades...

The fragmentation and atomization we see and feel is tied to technological changes intertwined with neoliberal conditioning that places even stronger emphasis on personalities (celebrity), hyper-individualism that encourages break from community, hyper-consumerism, and much more.

There are many self-identifying Leftists refusing to confront these realities, insisting on promoting approaches that not only fail to account for the impact of technological changes or neoliberal conditioning, but that provide little-to-no incentive for working-class people too.

Those who tend to take issue with the assessments being posited here most are those whose identities and even relationships have been so tied up in (and shaped by) particular tendencies, organizations, political parties, etc. that they are unwilling to look at the bigger picture.

If there were ever a time for serious self-criticism and re-evaluation, the time is now.

Our lives and the lives of comrades around the world are about to be on the line in a truly unprecedented way.

We desperately need to shed all delusions and prepare for the worst scenarios.

For clarity:

We use “spontaneous” in this thread to mean “emerging from momentary impulse or reaction.”

But “spontaneity” can also be informed and interpreted as synonymous with “autonomy” in certain contexts.

“Informed spontaneity” is going to be necessary for systems change.