Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Be militant, NOT stubborn! (Erik) by X.

Militancy is a disciplined commitment TO A GOAL. It involves determination, taking risks, making sacrifices, but only when doing so is necessary to achieve the goal. What is necessary is defined by real circumstances, and therefore the more we understand the circumstances the more we can understand what is necessary. So the more knowledge we have about organizing, strategy, and power building, the more militant we as revolutionaries can be.

The world is incredibly diverse, and there are unlimited situations with different specifics, and each one needs tactics that are relevant to those specifics. A militant revolutionary is constantly analyzing to see what has been effective, and reanalyzing as new evidence arises and as new circumstances arise.

Militancy is a willingness to use necessary tactics, as opposed to stubbornness and tradition which is a tendency to use particular tactics. For example there is a mistaken belief that people who engage in street fighting, black block protests, who refuse to engage in certain tactics labeled “reformist”, and who get arrested are very militant. These people may be militant, but only if they can explain how applying tactics the way they do is building a movement that can achieve its goals.

Stubborn people may have good intentions, but people are dying every day from the cogs of capitalism and organizers with good intentions are little consolation. The fact is that what is militant is not always dramatic or glamorous, in fact its usually not.

The interesting thing about understanding militancy like this is that interesting things can be militant. Phone-banking, recruiting members, maintaining a spreadsheet, preparing an agenda are some of the most militant things people can do in the movement. Slowing down to avoid burnout, when all you want to do is throw yourself into the cause can be militant. Mentoring others rather than doing work yourself is EXTREMELY militant. These are the things that keep the movement growing.

Dramatic confrontations with state power are sometimes necessary, but only a minute fraction of the time that must be spent building democratic dual power. So as it turns out, militancy doesn’t belong to a super-committed elite. Anyone can be militant, the truth is, not everyone wants to.

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