Thread by @maaaaaaayuri, I want to throw some thoughts out there about radical leftist organizing [...]

I want to throw some thoughts out there about radical leftist organizing in theory vs. in practice.

Caveats:
- tweeting is not organizing
- I speak for myself
- my experience is a mix of ethnic studies in academia and watching QPOC organizing in Austin

(1/?)

So. I hate structure. I hate working within rules, I hate process. Not because these things are bad, but because these things are very liable to recreate the very institutions that I’m fighting to tear down.

But practically speaking, they’re necessary, and I know this.
(2/?)

Ideally, I want to work in a group that structures itself beyond what has already been done, in a horizontal, shared-labor fashion.

Realistically, this is only possible if everyone else you’re organizing with is on the same page. Otherwise, it just won’t work.
(3/?)

I know this because I wasted many hours last year trying to push White folks into reimagining how we distributed power within a city committee structure. Realized that unless I could have this conversation with everyone involved, their ignorance would undermine us.
(4/?)

In small groups, where everyone agrees in horizontalism and shares the same radical vision, where people bond with one another and bring joy to each other, radical organizing comes to life. You build community as you build campaigns. It’s like organizing with your family.

(5/?)

Extending this horizontalism to large groups is hard, just like loving all members of a large family equally is hard. It’s possible, but it requires trust, love, and patience.

I have never seen all three of these in any White space. It takes some unlearning to get here.

(6/?)

I am willing to trust anyone I meet until that trust is broken, but society does not encourage that behavior.

In other words, building up to radical leftism in a large, multiracial organization is going to take a shit ton of time, and it won’t be easy.

(7/?)

Let’s look at labor organizing. I work at a company with hundreds of thousands of workers. I wish I could talk to all of them and build trust, but I can’t. I can’t even build trust with the people I have access to until they unlearn enough to not be actively harmful to me.
(8/?)

I want a radical leftist labor union. But I am not a fool. I will not get a radical leftist labor union served up to me in a platter. I will have to actively work for it, bit by bit, year by year.

And I will, even when it seems hopeless, because I’m used to hopelessness.
(9/?)

I have specifically engineered my presence to force people to think. I push people to the left with everything I do. I don’t have all the answers, but this is where my lack of experience is useful. I don’t have to unlearn corporate power structures bc I never learned them.
(10/?)

Here’s the other thing about labor organizing: the boss that you’re fighting is fucking huge! Sorry, but we aren’t going to get the power to fight that overnight, and we are going to have to make concessions due to the sheer power that we’re pushing back on.
(11/?)

I don’t like conceding on my principles like this. But again, practically speaking, we need power to fight power.

I’m not saying to give up on radical ideals. I’m saying to put them in your pocket for later, and also slowly convince everyone else to use them, too.
(12/?)

Key word: slowly. I’m playing the long con here. I accept that I must do something I’m not 100% comfortable with right now to be able to do the things I want to in the future.

I’m not conceding my beliefs. I’m just switching tactics.
(13/?)

I hate being tactical. I really do. It feels like I’m agreeing to play the game where capitalism has set the rules.

But, well, I’m going to have a higher chance of convincing people to adopt radical leftism if I can first get them to adopt any leftism at all.
(14/?)

And you know what? We NEED radical leftist orgs to push other orgs to do the right thing. But there’s a reason these orgs are usually small.

A labor union fighting against a giant tech company cannot be small, or it will not the power required to make change.
(15/?)

Organizing requires trust in your comrades and faith in the future. I believe that we will make our union the radical union that I want it to be, but. Progress is slow.

As someone who lives in a state where the most vocal people are violently opposed to me, I know this.
(16/?)

To me, a labor union cannot be like organizing with my family; there is too much Whiteness to unlearn. There’s no experience with democracy or communal structures or trust!

It’s like organizing with my friends. I like being with them, but I also have to pull them left.
(17/?)

(Yes, this is actually how I treat my friendships. You can ask anyone I have ever befriended. I literally pull them left every day.

I do this with my coworkers too. Watch out, I’m coming for you ;))

Patience is a virtue, y’all. And I hate waiting, but I have to do it.
(18/?)

I may not agree with everything CWA has done, or will do. But I bet I can influence the future by being there, and we need their power in our union.

Like, Google could literally sweep AWU under the rug right now if we weren’t officially backed. 800 employees is NOTHING.
(19/?)

I have been in AWU for a month. I can guarantee that I don’t have the full perspective on CWA’s history, or on Google organizing history, or on labor movements in tech.

What I do know is that systems do not crumble unless challenged by power, and we don’t have that power.
(20/?)

I am willing to believe that CWA can change. That they will stop having cop unions, and that they will move when we push.

That takes a lot of faith, but you can’t organize without trust. And as much as we need skeptics, we need people willing to get burned, so here I am.
(21/?)

I occupy many middle identities: Asian American, cis woman, asexual. I have the privilege of being less marginalized than Black folks, than trans folks, than folks whose queerness can’t be hidden.

That means I also have the privilege of taking risks. So I choose to trust.
(22/?)

The movement is not going to succeed tomorrow, or next year, or next decade.

If AWU is a mistake, then we’ll learn from it. But I am choosing to do my best to prevent us from being a mistake. We aren’t sacrificing our ideals. We’re just taking things slowly.

(23/24)

Also, it feels a little premature to judge a union that is so new and undeveloped. It’s like judging a baby right after they’ve learned how to stand but don’t know how to walk.

Please give us a chance to take our first steps, and to fall down, and to get back up again
(24/24)

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