this post was submitted on 31 May 2026
38 points (100.0% liked)
askchapo
23273 readers
115 users here now
Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
Rules:
-
Posts must ask a question.
-
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
-
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
-
Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yeah theyre often nice people. The hatred for RCP is less of the individuals than of their organisation, many of the members of my org are former RCPers themselves
The big issue is their general strike chant may strike a chord in the moment at rallies, but they often refuse to participate in the more boring work to create those rallies, preferring to promote their own (primarily book club / educational) events
When they do participate they tend to derail. E.g. at my uni we tried to start a bds committee, got the uni to disclose their investments and had a townhall to discuss which ones we should centre the campaign on, which groups and faculty, to reach out to, how to go about promoting the campaign, next steps, etc. The rcpers kept raising their hand and running straight to general strike, skipping straight from "education" past "agitation" and "organisation" and right to the second highest level of escalation
Its very frustrating, bc in a 2 hour meeting (already stretching peoples patience) they tend to spend 30 minutes talking about radical actions instead of building the movement at hand towards those actions
I had a lot of fun with some of them that day after the rally, the people are great.
But yeah. They showed up, set up a table off on their own, tried to sell newspapers (but that one is basically Free Space on "Trotskyists being lame AF" bingo, because I don't think there's such a thing as a Trot who isn't trying to sell you a newspaper), gave a speech out of sync with the general tone of the rally, and then, as the rally broke up, they held an open meeting right there in the park, which lasted their customary two hours, and one guy spent the entirety of their customary portion for talking about action plans discussing their goddamn newspaper! I mean, it was a nice day outside, and a Trot meeting was less boring than going home and sitting on my couch watching trash TV or doomscrolling on my phone, but still, two hours of complete disconnect from reality. I'd never been in a room full of commies IRL before, but even I know these guys make Lenin look like a centrist in terms of the Overton Window. Which, y'know, it was nice for me, to not feel like a total whack job for a little while, but like, I'm aware I'm an extreme leftist and that people who say exactly what I'm thinking half the time are gonna come off that way to the vast majority of people around us.
Look, they're neat people, and I think in not very leftist areas, like mine, a lot of people who aren't really Trots might throw in with them because they're the party that exists, and those are probably the ones I enjoyed talking to that day. But yeah, an organisation that doesn't understand the material conditions on the ground and can't effectively organize anything without piggybacking off others and engaging in tailism... is probably the thing on the left that infuriates me the most.
ⓘ This user is suspected of being a bear. Please report any suspawcious behaviour.