How to do a revolution

Many leftists seem to have this idea that there will be one glorious moment, a flash in the pan, where we have a Revolution, and the old system is overturned so that we can construct a new system in its place. Some believe we can't do anything but wait, study, and "raise consciousness" until, then, while others try to take useful, but limited, action of some kind in the meantime, like fighting back against fascism or various other forms of activism.

The problem with this idea is that, as flawed as our current system is, many people depend on it, often desperately and intimately and very legitimately, with no clear way to do without it. Yes these needs served by the system could be provided-for in other ways; if that weren't possible, then overturning the system would be wrong. However, the presence of the system, providing for those needs, and often explicitly shutting out and excluding other means of providing for them, as well as propagandizing us against even thinking of still other means, have ensured that those new systems we envision are not in place, and our muscles for constructing them are atrophied.

Thus, if the system were to be overturned overnight in some glorious Revolution, there would not be celebration in the streets, there would not be bacchanals in honor of the revolutionaries. There would be chaos and destitution, the weeping and nashing of teeth, the wearing of sackcloth and ashes, even as the glorious Marxist-Leninist-Maoists scolded those mourning for mourning an exploitative system.

What can we do, then? This system must be overturned – or, at least, we must struggle toward that end – so how do we avoid this outcome?

The key is to build our own system in the interstices of the old one. Each of us must go out and try to create some part of the system we would like to see, according to our expertise – if you're a doctor, practice medicine for your friends outside the traditional healthcare system, inasmuch as you can; if you're a programmer like me, build systems for your friends to use that exist outside the software-industrial complex; if you're an academic, steal the papers and ideas you're exposed to and make them available for others, give impromptu classes; no matter who you are, take part in making and distributing food and resources if you can, however you can; take part in skill-shares; call each other instead of the police and mediate your own disputes; protect each other – perhaps institute a rotating duty of protection for group events; in short: do what you can, according to your skills and abilities, to provide for those immediately around you, an alternative to the system. Don't just "organize" for activism or to fight fascists. Organize to actually provide useful services. Organize to fill potholes!¹

The next step is to slowly grow whatever practice or service or community event you've started so it can serve more people, and so that more people can get involved and help. Do this according to whatever ideas about organization you have – I'm not here to talk about that component of it. But the important part is to to do it. Don't focus on growth at all costs; make sure to maintain the original spirit, purpose, and values of the thing; don't let legibility, acceptability, and so on corrupt what it is; and don't let it grow beyond whatever its natural size is. But let it grow. And when it reaches the point past which you don't think it should grow anymore, try to encourage the creation of similar systems, the following of similar practices, in other places far and wide, on the basis of your practical experience. Maybe, if you can afford it, travel, and plant those seeds yourself. Then network those growing trees together, so that they can aid each other in times of need.

Remember, the point is to provide things people need. Not to grow for its own sake. Not to "do leftism" – so it shouldn't even be overtly ideological, or overtly targetted at leftists, or anything like that, and it should especially not exist purely in political domains, to fight political battles – but to do something people need done.

If we do this, then if the system is ever toppled, we'll be ready: we'll have built things that actually have a shot of taking over from the old system and providing for people. There will be horrible growing pains to be sure – shortages, bad organization, unprepaired networks, what have you – but at least there will be something there. More, we'll have practiced, grown experienced, actually learned how to be adults and do the things we wanted take over from the system, instead of just demanding them be done, but not learning how to do them. Even better, we'll have had time to experiment with all the different ideas and ideologies around organizing, and figured out which ones work and which don't, which are more successful, and which aren't.

In fact, if we do this right, there may not even be a need for us to initiate a "Revolution" against the system. In my ideal vision of a "revolution" against the system, we just continue building our alternatives, providing for more and more people, and in the process purchasing investment and buy-in from them in our ideas and in our systems and networks and organization, building good will and loyalty with them, until finally our alternative systems threaten the system as it exists enough – as the Black Panthers did – that the system descends upon us to throttle us. And maybe, hopefully, we'll be strong and numerous and self-sufficient enough to resist, and have enough love and good will and investment, from all the people we help, that we'll be able to make it a public relations disaster for the powers that be to grind us beneath their heel, and they'll be forced to withdraw and let us live our new, free lives in peace.

And hey, if the revolution doesn't work out? At least we helped some people.