Perhaps your area is a dry spot when it comes to radical organizing. Or maybe there are plenty of leftist groups in your area, but their politics don’t quite align with your own. If you find that regularly meeting up with like-minded individuals is not much of a possibility, don’t feel at a loss––you should see this as an opportunity to start up your own group.

A lot of the tactics for finding like-minded people can also be used for drawing them together, but you’ll be using the platforms in slightly different ways. Here are some tips for starting your own organization:

1. Draw up a plan.

   Before you jump in and start trying to recruit people for your group, it would be helpful to articulate the ideas you have in mind. Create a pamphlet articulating the transformations that you fight for, assemble a list of readings you would like to discuss over the next few weeks with a group, or construct a mission statement for your organization. Whatever you’d like to do, just put it down on paper or on the web, and make it compelling. You can then rely on this information when trying to get people interested.

2. Again, start at school.

   If you find that there aren’t any radical clubs at your school, start one. Most schools require a minimum amount of prospective members in order for a group to become officially recognized (AKA chartered), so gather up some friends and classmates and begin fulfilling your school’s requirements.

   Some schools won’t be friendly if you’re a leftist group, and they may insidiously undermine your efforts. The bureaucracy in charge of approving my campus-based organization’s application for chartership has repeatedly rejected it for insignificant reasons that are normally overlooked for other student clubs.

   In some cases, you could also be the target of overt action. In 2013 the school administration at CUNY City College, one of our sister schools, shut down without notice a student center that has historically been used for radical organizing. All of the students’ and groups’ belongings were seized, and a number of students and activists who later moved to take back the center were suspended from school or arrested.

   

   CUNY students protesting the school admin's practices and policies. Photo credit David McGlynn; revolutionarystudents.wordpress.com.

   Organizing can be dangerous, so be mindful of this before trying to start up a group at school. If you find that your campus administration is hostile to your ideas, you can still meet up with your associates on or off campus without becoming a chartered organization. You can also use this to your advantage by publicizing the unjust treatment you’ve faced in an effort to recruit people to your side and organize resistance.

3. Attend workers’ strikes and activities.

   If class struggle is a central aspect of your politics, there’s no better way of starting up a group than attending workers’ strikes and rallies. You can move with the workers to start organizing other rallies and protests, supporting other strikes throughout your area, doing readings, or even translating pamphlets to other languages so that they can be easily disseminated amongst immigrant workers. Organizing workers’ strikes is also a possibility, but this is an entirely different animal that cannot be adequately addressed within the purview of this book.

4. Use social media and existing groups.

   Again, social media can be used to your advantage here. Post to radical Facebook discussion groups or your area’s reddit page, or start a Meetup group for the organization or activity you’d like to create. Ask your friends and colleagues if they’d be interested in attending, or ask them if they know of anyone who would be. Publicize your idea through Twitter by tagging users that you think would be interested.

   You can also attend the meetings of groups with whom you don’t completely see eye-to-eye to see if anyone else shares your politics and would like to begin a split-off group. Be discreet: you don’t want to start a fight (unless that’s your thing).

Once you have a small group set up, you can start broadening your membership and participating in direct action, which we’ll tackle next.

Amanda Fox-Rouch (Hunter College)

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Perhaps you know your way around quite a few revolutionary texts and you’re good at putting them into practice in small ways, but now you’d like to find a space where you can discuss them critically and start putting them into collective practice. Obviously, you’ll need to find other people who are already doing this. But radical groups aren’t exactly commonplace, so finding them is a bit different than locating other information.

How nice it is to discuss world-changing ideas.

Here are some tips for linking up with like-minded people in your area:

1. Start at school.

   Finding other radicals is relatively easy to do if you’re a college student. Colleges and universities have historically been hubs of leftist activity. Search your school’s website to locate radical clubs––most schools dedicate entire sections of their websites to student organizations. If you’re not a student, you may still be able to attend group meetings at local schools as a campus guest.

2. Find radical bookstores.

   Most radical bookstores regularly host events that pertain to traditions spanning the spectrum of leftist politics. Even if this isn’t the case with your local radical bookstore, you’re still bound to find like-minded individuals there who you can talk to and begin organizing with. Bluestockings is a New York City bookstore that sells tons of radical texts and also serves as a hub of activity. They host events every single night, including group readings, poetry slams, meetings for radical educators, and so much more. The organization of the bookstore itself is also radical––it’s collectively owned and is run by volunteers.

3. Use social media intelligently.

   In this case, social media is your best friend. Scour Facebook for radical groups that discuss ideas that you are interested in. If there are some posters in your area who you vibe with, suggest linking up or ask if they know of any groups that would welcome your participation. You can also search Facebook specifically for radical organizations in your area. Meetup.com may be used for the same purpose.

It’s nice to engage with texts and ideas in the coziness of isolation, but it’s even better to link up with people and begin putting your ideas into practice.

If there isn’t a radical group in your area, why not start one? We’ll discuss this next.

Amanda Fox-Rouch (Hunter College)

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So you want to get started right away, making changes and rumbling the earth. That’s great. We all do! But then reality sets in: you have to sell some of your precious time for money––time that could be spent organizing, researching, and working towards your radical goals. This is an especially difficult task for someone who, like me, abhors the very economy they are forced to contribute to.

Audre Lorde’s essay “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” describes, in beautiful language, this desire to continue experiencing the joy that we derive from pursuing our passions:

“For once we begin to feel deeply all the aspects of our lives, we begin to demand from ourselves and from our life-pursuits that they feel in accordance with that joy which we know ourselves to be capable of. … And this is a grave responsibility, projected from within each of us, not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy, the conventionally expected, nor the merely safe.”

At the end of this passage, Lorde charges us with the responsibility of refusing to settle for anything that’s merely conventional or safe. This is a great goal to aspire to, but some of our pursuits will inevitably suck the joy and passion out of us (namely, those pursuits which are required to pay the bills.)

Audre Lorde, in her own words: "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet."

Unless you have a job that allows you to be an activist for a living, you have two options: you can choose to live a double life of sorts, keeping your personal life, your work life, and your life as an activist separate; or you can merge all of these spheres and allow them to influence one another.

The latter path is much more fulfilling, and it’s capable of keeping you on track when the going gets tough. If you choose this path, you’ll have a support group everywhere you go. By bringing the joy and fulfillment that you experience from engaging with your passions into every other aspect of your life, you’ll transform your conventional experiences into extraordinary ones.

Let your passion influence all areas of your life, even in the simplest of ways. Becoming the person you wish to become, despite all of the obstacles that exist in our society––recall chapter two––is radical in itself. You set an example for others, and  you change the world in the process.

If you feel overwhelmed by your fast-paced life with its unending list of commitments, remind yourself of your passions, and let this push you through. When you’re in transit, read a book or listen to a podcast relating to your interests in order to ground yourself.

Talk to your coworkers and peers about your interests. Let your passion shine through, and your enthusiasm will become contagious for those whose receptivity to your message is there, but latent.

I got my first job as a teenager working at a local ice cream shop. At the time, I was just beginning to get into the issue of income inequality. I talked to my coworkers about the ideas I was reading about and listened to what they had to say. Most of them found that they thought along the same lines as me, and we had a number of  interesting conversations while dishing out exorbitantly-priced sundaes and contributing our precious labor time to an economy that we had no faith in.

Having my friends and coworkers tell me that they began investigating the issues we discussed convinced me that I was on the right path, and I’ve continued to allow my radical interests to intersect with other aspects of my life.

As a student, I allow my radical thought to influence my schoolwork. I’m able to twist most any essay prompt into something I can answer with ideas grounded in critical theory. As a writing tutor, I create conversations with my students aimed at helping them engage with their readings more deeply, tease out the connections between the ideas and their own lives, and become truly interested in what they’re writing.

Scribble ideas into your notebook while you’re waiting in line at the store. Read things relating to your interests during downtime at work. Talk to the people around you about your interests, and invite them to look at the work that you do. Become active in the union at your job, or try to create a union if your workplace doesn’t have one already (as long as organizing wouldn’t get you fired.) Bringing your radical ideas and tendencies into every aspect of your life will help propel you forward and keep you feeling fulfilled during your more monotonous experiences.

Of course, the most powerful thing you can do is to devote a chunk of your free time to pursuits that advance your goals and resonate with your values. This is bound to infuse you with energy and passion that will spill over into the less sexy aspects of your life. We’ll discuss this next.

Amanda Fox-Rouch (Hunter College)

Follow the Campus Clipper on Twitter and Like us on Facebook!

Interested in more deals for students? Sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter to get the latest in student discounts and promotions  and follow our Tumblr and Pinterest. For savings on-the-go, download our printable coupon e-book!