====================================================================== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. ======================================================================
If we are following Socialist Alternative’s original vision of a hundred Sawants – or preferably, a thousand Sawants – by encouraging people to run for office, then we need to understand that it’s going to be utter chaos. Some people will run and have no idea what they’re doing. Others will run with somewhat bizarre platforms that maybe we don’t entirely like, or want to be associated with. Still others may run in small-town, suburban conditions which we don’t know much about. Some will run with the support of various socialist groups, others will have to build their support entirely on their own. Every attempt is both an opportunity and a danger – if people have a tough time and we leave them in the dark, they’ll just burn out and wander away more cynical than they started. But in trying, people learn.
So not only are we at the historical stage where we should be encouraging everyone and their brother to make electoral attempts, but we should also be connecting with them, and connecting them with others. This way people are sharing information about how to do it successfully. They are helping stabilize each other’s emotional swings (“this is awesome!,” “this is pointless!”) into a steady consciousness that they are part of a larger movement that is trying to make things work, and learning through trial by error…
…lots of error. But if those errors are part of a larger movement, and a collective learning process, they are not discouraging. They are the building blocks to getting where we eventually want to go – a mass party that can wreak serious havoc on capitalist business as usual.
full: http://spreadtheinfestation.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/socialist-electoralism-from-spectating-to-participation/
________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
