this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
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askchapo

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Is there actually something useful to do behind the curtain of local political organizations? (hexbear.net)
submitted 3 days ago by mr_sunburn@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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In the last year, I finally decided to drop out of the democratic party and work on politics more aligned with my principles. I'm trying to get politically engaged and stop being a keyboard warrior / lazy DSAer / bare minimum protest attendee and help organize... for the Revolution!

But so far I'm finding I'm failing to actually make it through the other side of the entry barrier. I've attended union organizing trainings and felt like I left a series of seminars and was now basically on my own. When trying to enter local socialist orgs, I'm getting tested on my ideological fit and they're making me do a lot of reading and interviewing.

I appreciate the education and all, and the people have been nice and generous with their time, but after attending an intro meeting or two I have to ask: is there any there there? Once I actually get let in, is it still people sitting in rooms reading theory at each other? Is it just more meetings? When will it get pragmatic? When will I actually be doing something useful? Or does that come later and right now I'm a liability / not educated enough to contribute?

Appreciate perspectives from those that have been down a similar path and open to suggestions and recommendations.

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[–] Dimmer06@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

Imo the best thing you could try to do is organize a union or something along those lines. Maybe your local orgs know a place that needs a salt. Most of the political parties in this country don't have any idea what they're doing because they aren't actually rooted in the working class. They have no organized base of workers to lead in struggle against the system which means the parties don't actually learn anything. This leads to meaningless debates and continually rereading and misinterpreting theory.

Also forget everything you know about unions and read about "direct join unions" or "solidarity unions" because that's the only way you'll ever organize a union that will further the cause of socialism and it might be the only type of union there is in the coming years.