One of the most cherised shibboleths on the hard left is activists must focus on building an international working class movement that will somehow create major change in the future.
Yet it’s a self-defeating strategy that has never been effective.
1) The hard left has said this since at least the 1930s. Yet despite all the organizing, a working class movement has yet to appear. Maybe the theory is wrong. Just saying.
2) Focusing on building something in the future means activists aren’t focused on organizing in the present. Purity politics complicates this. God forbid ideology be compromised, even if it means getting stuff done now.
3) The working class they want to organize, esp. in the US, is mostly hostile to leftie ideologies. Yes, it is. And that’s not going to change.
4) Building a mass movement for the future implies the organizers will be in charge and know what is best for everyone. The unwashed masses only need to be convinced of the ideologies by the vanguard, then Glorious Worker’s Revolution!
5) And what exactly is the working class? In Marx’s day, it was clear. Workers in the factories. Owners of factories. That’s not valid now.
Is a self-employed building contractor who makes $200k not working class because he owns his means of production? How about a MD employed by a hospital who doesn’t own the means of production?
6) Instead, ask people what issues people are concerned about now. Organize on those issues. Get them involved in leadership then get out of the way and let them run it. This is a way more effective way to organize.