Weird story but I need to get it off my chest.
So a few months ago I was trying to find an org to join, and the only one I could find was a group of Maoists.

I set up a meeting with them to work out some ideas and strategies for revolutionary activity that we could partake in.

During the meeting I brought up several ways we could use Mass line organizing and other tactics to help the community immediately. since I drove for 2 hours to get there I prepared about 15 to 20 minutes of dialogue, and I was pretty loud and passionate about it.

I assertively presented my plans to the group and was immediately met with hostility.

They took offense to my insistent and somewhat pushy demeanor, and perceived my plan for action not as motivation to move forward, but rather an attack on their previous work.

Obviously I didn't mean to offend anyone, I was just eager to get things done... But to be honest, i did feel like their past work was inadequate.

Most of it consisted of watching movies together, or having endless meetings instead of actually doing the work.

At the time they had little plan to address food insecurity in their neighborhoods, no interest in stoping the rising local fascist threat, and seem to keep making excuses for their inaction.

They couldn't plant gardens because they didn't know how to safely distance,

They couldn't deliver food because they didn't have access to a large enough facility, they couldn't do mass line organizing because knocking on doors could be dangerous...

Obviously all things that have very simple solutions but they refused to implement them.

But who am I to judge? At the time I had barely done any direct action or outreach, so I had no right to throw stones.

After hearing excuse after excuse, I was honestly taken back in a big way.

I expected the left to be motivated and eager to fight,

But I found these people more interested in telling me why they couldn't do something rather then finding a way to do anything.

I made a fool of myself by the end of the meeting, in my naivety I mentioned that we could work with cops to get food donations

(I didn't know any better)

And we all went away from the meeting being very displeased with each other.

This interaction set me on my path to start my YouTube channel and begin to be active in my own community without an organization behind me.

I have no ill will towards that group, and I wish them the best. I might be wrong and mischaracterizing them. if I am, I apologize.

Unfortunately now that I am directly involved in mutual aid, and have been doing IRL activism every day for over a year now, I thought it would be great to contact them again and hopefully join forces.

But it turns out that I left such an impression on them, and made them so upset with my approach, that they apparently spent weeks trying to reestablish "safe spaces" and "formal conversational rhetoric to meetings"... Whatever that means.

so suffice it to say, they were unwilling to work together again.

but I think the moral is that if you feel bogged down by a group or an organization and you feel like you can get out there and do more...
then go do it!

No one is stopping you but you.

Also I do think it's ironic that a group of maoists (who are known for siding with nationalists to win the War) would think that I was so extreme that they would need to organize a safe space.

Anyway... Thanks for listening, sorry for the long thread.