how to recruit

i spent a number of years in a marxist organization

i have a number of proleftist critiques & contributions

you can read other posts along these topics under the postmarxist critique label

fig5a black panther brandishing their weapons

when young black males
approached the black panthers
asking to be armed

leadership would hand them books

but why were they approached to begin with?

one thing i always failed to understand
about insular marxist groups today
was focus on recruitment
& political education

to the exclusion of doing good

what the panthers understood
was that in order to make a name
they had to be recognized

so they would serve food
to schoolchildren
they would follow the cops
to make sure
the population was not being abused

they found needs
in the population they wanted
to recruit
filled them
not with the primary goal
of recruitment
but of service

radical service

breaking with the logic
of capitalism
in action not just propaganda
what anarchists call propaganda
of the deed
which is usually taken to mean violence
what should actually mean
integrity

instead

fig5b excuse me maam would you like some expensive union printed wrapping paper?

the insular marxist group
tries to distinguish itself with its published material
and sell it to people who couldnt
care less

ostensibly
recruiting the socalled politically
radicalized layers
of society

a lot of time is spent writing these papers
reading politcal material
organizing demonstrations
where hopefully these radicalized
layers will magically show up
looking for any answers

getting the same old answers

aside from flashpoints
such as occupy
one rarely sees new faces
at specifically political events

theyre doorknocking the converts

you dont prove the value of your politics
with polemics

you prove it in the
everyday
struggle

fig5c excuse me maam can i interest you in some communist goods and services?

do good
where there is evil

be radical
where there is convention

be collaborative
where there is competition

undermine the system where you are
fight
as the anarchists say
where you stand

the capitalists
who by the way
have the monopoly on goods and services
call this advertising
their power stems from the provisions
created by their economic system
& is perpetuated
in the consumer mind by advertising

you dont undermine the economic system
without building alternative sources
of goods and services
which by their collaborative manufacture
& provision
are superior in quality quantity
distribution community & satisfaction

the need for advertising
will erode along with the capitalist model
as it is supplanted by an increase
in communal manufacture

one service in the name of the downtrodden
is worth all the socialist papers
in the world

yours for the revolution
forbidden books