So I was thinking of starting a socialist club at my uni...

So I was thinking of starting a socialist club at my uni, since the only active left-leaning groups are a local Maoist group everybody hates (they make cringeworthy attempts at advertising themselves and are sectarian as fuck, if you don't tow their line you're out on your ass) and the youth wing of my country's socdem party. There are also some ethnicity related groups (black student union, etc.) but they obviously have limited appeal and are a magnet for idpol. What I had in mind was a sort of general place for leftist discussion and organization without sectarian connotations that is welcoming to socialists of all stripes. Also one that is a little less extreme and dogmatic in rhetoric so as to not scare off the normies.

Does anybody have any experience with campus political organization? What are some good ways to go about it?

Other urls found in this thread:

redguardsla.org/post/138701365009/red-guards-austin-a-year-summation-of-the-life
theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/19/los-angeles-la-gentrification-resistance-boyle-heights
m.youtube.com/watch?v=smgXSUv4Oz8
marxiststudent.com/
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

There's a serious risk that the consequence of this is that the Maoists and SJWs will crawl out of their echo chambers and try to fuck up with your group.

In that case I'll just start circulating pictures of myself looking sad with the caption "[name of my group] was a mistake" around campus.

I think if you're starting you should start as a study group btw. A closed study group. Study a lot, download *a lot* of material, find some good reading guides online and when you know enough about bourgeois economics, Marxism, the history of Socialist groups, the sociology of elites and so on. Then you find some like-minded people interested in learning those as well and you teach them. Circulate material among yourselves, grow together into similar conclusions, etc. Once you're matured into a cohesive, theoretically equipped group, you open up and become a proper organization.

Anything else would just be a waste of time if your university is anything like mine. Students are dumbasses, they don't like to sit down and listen, and every dude is always trying to parrot clichês in order to get laid. You need to have, right from the get go, enough people with enough common ground among themselves to be able to set a tone.

Shameless self bump.

How many people would you consider enough? I already have about 4 or 5 people who I know would be interested and share many of my views. At what point do you think can we be considered big enough to open up?

Bump. Help this nigga out.

What country/uni if you don't mind? I want to see if I'm familiar with said Maoist group

Canada, they're a group called the Revolutionary Student Movement. They have chapters across Ontario and Quebec mostly.

ahh yeah I'm familiar with them, they're associated with the PCR-RCP, right?

Yeah. Idk how other chapters are, but the one where I live is definitely not to my liking.

They're ideologically very close to me. I've had limited interaction with them though cause I live in the US

It must be hard being a Maoist in a country where you're represented by Chairman Bob and Jason Unrhue.

In a related situation here.
At my Uni there are literally zero left leaning clubs (unless you include the black student union, which wouldn't give me information about meetings… I'm white). The Democrat club on campus collapsed last year because all the members quit after a debate with the Republican club for some reason.
Should I play the "slick entryist," beginning a new Democrat club in which I work towards appealing to the disenfranchised S█████ supporters and generally shit on Hillary? As time goes on the name could morph into "Democratic Socialist," before evolving into a full-blown Socialist club.

This is my wishful thinking. Either that or I could try to make a Socialist club flatout.

Do it. Maybe recruit a comrade with you. Handling 100000000 libs in a single club sounds suicide inducing.

I live in Miami

no organization for me, rip

let's not pretend the average maoist is any better

Lol it's a small uni so it would only be 10000 liberals. And yeah I've already found 2 guys that'd be interested. Feeling confident, I know I shouldn't be too proud for convincing dumb people but I have had people say, "I'd follow you in a revolution." Idk just makes you feel all giddy and fuzzy inside to hear something like that

In the west maybe, the ones that participate in guerrilla warfare are hardasses even if you disagree with them. The JRA and RAF were badass too.

Go for the socialist club flat out. S█████ has removed quite a bit of stigma from the word socialist, so it won't be as hard as it used to be. The good thing about universities is that there are large concentrations of potentially socially conscious and politically interested people. You should put out pamphlets/posters outside of poli-sci, sociology, philosophy etc. classes, send out feelers to groups like the black student union (maybe invite them to remember the socialist roots of the civil rights movement, or introduce them to prominent post-colonial socialists like Mao or Ho Chi Minh). Even in the most hostile environment, universities are typically fertile ground to find new comrades.

heh. rigggggggggghhhhhhttt…

I imagine this will probably be the course of action I take. I'll have to check with some professors I know in the sociology department to see if they'd give me some support in the form of mentioning the clubs existence (there's a new prof coming onto campus next semester who was the leader of some "radical animal rights" group).

Misworded that, it had only happened once. Besides, the fuzzy feeling passed and my insides feel empty again :^)

Try to find some left leaning professors to help you out as well.

I'm trying to establish a socialist group on campus as well, and know of left leaning professors, along with one who says she is a marxist. One has already helped with spreading info to his class.

Knowing like minded faculty is huge in getting known in my opinion. So see what you can do there.

You know what, that's a really fair point

I was thinking of all the Western liberals who come to Maoism because they just want to exalt the developing world and care more about self-determination than anti-capitalism

Sweet, I know some professors know about me.
How many "comrades" have you found? This might be an issue for me, because iirc you need a certain number of people interested in the club in order to form it. And one of my friends isn't interested in the club because he thinks it'd be useless, which doesn't help…

Taking a course on international communism as well

The professor also teaches a section on Stalin's biography, which I'd fucking love to take, but it isn't available to grads

I did some research, and she did her dissertation on the early USSR. I'm nearly certain she's a communist.

Wondering if she could be useful outside of the classroom

does dissertation on ussr
still supports communist state marxism

fucking drop her fast comrade

Are you taking any social sciences? I found a number of fellow lefties by speaking up in my poli-sci classes and paying attention to which people who shared my views. Then I'd just strike up a conversation with them later and now I've got a few people I'd call comrades. Also I had the good luck to room with a lefty my first year.

are maoists becoming even worse that trots?

do these stupid fucking canadian communists realize how inconsequential they are? Seriously you are wasting your time with these micro groups

Haha I'm expecting she's a bit of a tankie, but I can live with that. In some regards I'm very conservative as a commie, because I believe the creation of ethical state socialism is more important than facilitating the transition to communism

Maoists in the West have traditionally been a lot worse than Trotskyists, I think. Generally less academic or well-read, pretty liberal, cosplay elements.

Despite the memes, Trotskyists tend to be not so sectarian. I've never met somebody who called themselves a Trot before calling themselves a Marxist or a socialist. Maoists are generally Maoists first.

I'm pretty devoted to non-sectarianism, so the fact that they're Maoists isn't what bothers me. What bothers me is that they are total asshats whenever they try to do anything. Case in point, a couple of years ago they physically attacked a bunch of students from the business and policing programs. Nobody is going to come over to your side if you pull shit like that.

Also their attempts at public relations and recruitment are cringeworthy. I was briefly a member of their group and I handed out some pamphlets that were literally just like three solid pages of text wall of rambling rhetoric, making all kinds of references to Marxist concepts and ideas that the average person would have basically no understanding of. They basically stand on street corners and say shit like "excuse me sir, are you interested in waging bloody protracted people's war against the bourgeois oppressor?"

I exaggerate, but not by much.

I'm actually new to leftism. I was a B████ supporter who independently ran a school club to register students and get them to the polls. I'm lucky that I moved further left, mainly thanks to leftypol to be honest.

Most comrades I found are all from the group I had, but are willing to move further left.

I found the marxist professor speaking out against our porky administration during a faculty senate meeting. I'd recommend attending faculty meetings that are available to students. I've met a lot of leftist professors that way.

Try to run the club independent from the university. My college is bureaucratic about these things, so I just organize without being a registered club.

Yeah, I'm taking classes "Social change" and "Social theories." I took soc101 last semester, but it was a small class and no one seemed too interested in the course (besides the fucking feminist).
Funny you mention roommates, I ended up with a room to myself my first semester because my roommate left. Heard later on that he was telling people that he "had to get out of there," that I was an "anarchist drug addict."
We smoked weed once. Btw might I ask, what's your major?

I'm doing a double major in political science and history.

...

Yeah, the RCPUSA is a pretty major embarrassment. Don't even get me started on Unruhe (the entire third worldist branch of Maoism is awful, plus a primarily first world phenomenon.)

I can't speak on the actions of Canadian Maoists, but the US groups I'm connected to have been pretty damn successful organizing. They put a lot of focus on community service for one thing.

redguardsla.org/post/138701365009/red-guards-austin-a-year-summation-of-the-life
theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/19/los-angeles-la-gentrification-resistance-boyle-heights
(this article is a bit out of date, things have developed well since then)

To clarify, I'm not associated with these groups and I don't do any work with them (there aren't any groups anywhere near me), I'm just friends with a lot of people who do.

Why is it always the Maoists that end up being complete fucking freaks?

Hey I got two flyers like that when I was down in Philly, both from Maoist groups

Wonder why that is?

m.youtube.com/watch?v=smgXSUv4Oz8

marxiststudent.com/

In the UK, the MSF help run and organize socialist societies in universities across the country. Contact them with questions, and consider affiliating for more support and to be part of the network.

What if I'm not in the UK?

They can probably still give you advice, they might know of similar organizations in other countries etc. You don't lose anything by contacting them with some questions. Where are you based?

Canada, Northern Ontario specifically.

I don't know of anything like the MSF there personally, but you should definitely contact them and ask them. You could even be instrumental in setting up a sister section in Canada. At the very least they can give you some tips I reckon