askchapo

Disciplined orgs require reading, at least for cadres. So at some point a person either has to read or be relegated to not having much decision-making power. Even if this is not an explicit rule, many orgs will de facto enforce it by describing certain potential members / general members as undeveloped because they don't read and cannot contribute to discussions at a level that is relevant. So they won't chair committees or lead projects or otherwise change the direction of the org, instead acting more like a member of a front group.

It's true that all by itself a group that reads might be uninteresting for someone that doesn't want to. They could definitely call it nerd shit. But that is why you join it to work and participation, it has to be relevant. And if it isn't relevant, then the theory isn't necessarily something to focus on reading anyways. Choosing works that don't apply to an org's conditions is a common mistake in immature orgs, like having brand new members read some esoteric works of Mao even though almost nothing about his conditions relate to, say, the group's status as an imperial core student group that is, under no circumstances, going to just mass quit college and go to "the countryside". Not that the work shouldn't be ready, but leading with it will be actually and truly pointless if not counterproductive. On the other hand, reading someone like George Jackson or Bevins can be mug more immediately relevant and help steer them away from ineffective means of organizing and unprincipled capitulation.

Anyways, what I mean is that the actual work of the org is the "carrot" to draw in someone that otherwise won't read theory. The reason to read the theory is so that you can constructively criticize past organizing actions or frame your approach to community or choose the next action. The person should join because they want to, say, help organize a rent strike that the org is running, and then read because they are going over capital and rent and strategy, etc.

Anyways it isn't foolproof at all, someone could still decide to bail and not read. But I think that making is tightly coupled to organizing can usually bridge this gap.