The real problem is how the fuck do we turn these democratic socialist movements into revolutionary ones when the moment calls for it?
That’s not really possible, these are completely different organizations that are structured in a different way. A peaceful political movement can live on a good speaker, a few dozen planners, a few thousand people engaged enough to post flyers, and a mass of people who show up for marches, rallies, and votes and then go home. An armed movement needs groups of 5-10 people who are willing to die for each other, and leaders they trust enough that they’re willing to follow their lead into situations where that’s a real possibility. You can’t form those squads out of people who show up with a couple friends to a march and then go home.
I think the best route is for a demsoc org to focus on building spaces and events where people can build friendships, co-host some of those with a more serious sister org, and let people funnel into the sister org as they become comfortable. When shit hits the fan, the demsoc org will crumble, but the revolutionary org will already be bigger than it would’ve been otherwise. (And a bunch of fence sitters will have a clear path forward.)
This sister org style is good but I don’t see why the armed sister org can’t be a wing of the original org, especially in countries where it is legal to have those arms.
That’s not really possible, these are completely different organizations that are structured in a different way. A peaceful political movement can live on a good speaker, a few dozen planners, a few thousand people engaged enough to post flyers, and a mass of people who show up for marches, rallies, and votes and then go home. An armed movement needs groups of 5-10 people who are willing to die for each other, and leaders they trust enough that they’re willing to follow their lead into situations where that’s a real possibility. You can’t form those squads out of people who show up with a couple friends to a march and then go home.
I think the best route is for a demsoc org to focus on building spaces and events where people can build friendships, co-host some of those with a more serious sister org, and let people funnel into the sister org as they become comfortable. When shit hits the fan, the demsoc org will crumble, but the revolutionary org will already be bigger than it would’ve been otherwise. (And a bunch of fence sitters will have a clear path forward.)
This sister org style is good but I don’t see why the armed sister org can’t be a wing of the original org, especially in countries where it is legal to have those arms.