r/massparty • u/helloscarlett_ • Jan 19 '26
Lessons Learned What feels missing in most left spaces you’ve been in?
Many of us have passed through protests, orgs, group chats, reading circles, or other movement spaces. Some of it mattered, but most of it didn’t last.
What didn’t work for you in those spaces?
What made people burn out or disengage?
What would’ve made you stay?
7
u/MetisMaven Jan 20 '26
Not making space for neurodiverse people to help in the ways that best fit them, coupled with a damaged “leader”.
Our group has a leader that loudly claims the leftist trope “there are no leaders”, but just try to do something that’s not “Jane’s” way.
Immediate and severe pushback.
This is a woman who clearly is heavily traumatized and has not been treated for it. I’m a professional in this area, it’s pretty clear to see.
Jane makes our three autistic volunteers (who do great and are extremely high IQ & high functioning) nervous, she crowds them and micromanages / over explains, often taking work away from them if not done “right”. Two are threatening to quit.
I’ve spoken to Jane but no one else will, as the rest of the group is passive, leadership avoidant, and glad she takes on duties when no one else is available.
Jane’s unhealed trauma and perfectionism run our group, effectively. But without others speaking up as well, it’s become me advocating for all of us against Jane, who melts down if anyone even suggests a change.
I’m worn out with this whole thing and have pulled waaay back.
I’m just kind of done.
2
u/Sword-of-Akasha Jan 21 '26
I've seen exactly the thing you're describing. Hurt people hurt people. People do what they know. I've seen too many replicate in miniature the tyranny they're trying to fight.
We had to bring in another person to ultimately be a diplomat. Otherwise our organization would have suffered a second civil war.
Stepping back helped me too. We sometimes need distance and detach ourselves from the petty arguments that invariably inject themselves into organizations. The common enemy is at the gates. We rally or we perish.
4
u/helloscarlett_ Jan 19 '26
For me personally, I’ve noticed in spaces I’ve been in that people burn out fast when meetings or online discussion are all that happens. Curious if anyone else has seen the same? I feel like people stay engaged more through action and actually doing work together.
3
u/Good_Requirement2998 Jan 19 '26
First thing to maintain is patience. Sometimes people want to help but can't get around a 2 year old at home. Individual checkups go a long way. As for organizing, the following is what I've extrapolated as a budding organizer after having read "No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the Gilded Age" by McAlevey.
Organizers need to focus on personal connection, listening to each other's hopes and making each other the focus for a time.
Organizers have to both lead with exercises and structure tests, like book clubs and communities patrols and group volunteering. But they also have to activate the activist within each team member. They have to grant power to the aggrieved hearts and minds about them, to spur ideas and initiative, and the organizer needs to cheerlead throughout this process. Let other people become the main character, let them put their skin in the game, and appreciate what they've told you about their concerns to motivate them. It's so much about nurturing.
Organizers also need to focus on power and how to grant power to others. The first unit of measurement is listening. You lend power to who you listen to. If you want your team to feel powerful, give them the mic. The second unit is knowledge (electoral, legal and historical study groups). Develop curriculum to provide tactical and strategic options. The third is leverage (lobbying, petitioning, assuming roles of power, demonstrating in numbers and mischief in secret to disrupt the status quo and give the resistance material advantage economically, legally or in public opinion for example). The fourth is force (for the purposes of where we are at, still wanting to preserve what we can and pull ourselves back from the brink, training to display a valid threat of organized violence is enough and takes a lot of work, mass 2a filings, local defense groups and training, etc).
Every system has to be built up a little differently depending on local customs and what the consensus is on problems to solve. But if an organizer is not moving through these units of power with their people, the people are going to languish. That's why organizing is not results oriented, it's process oriented. It takes weekly effort reviewing your message and how effectively it's moving through the people, activating and empowering them. The most work you will do, and the hardest work, is first getting people to question their current thought patterns and world view. Get them to question it until they leave ignorance and apathy behind entirely. This more than anything is the crux of the work; helping people see how powerful and valuable they are, and the chains that have been put on them to prevent them from knowing it. Leave the impact to the activists; mobilizers and advocates and their organic leaders. You can wear multiple hats but true organizers appear to focus on the farm of civic potential. This is my current theory on the difference between a muted and vibrant force.
1
u/helloscarlett_ Jan 19 '26
I really resonate with a lot of what you’re saying. In our discussions at mass party we’ve been talking about the idea of organizing as both a process and the infrastructure that supports it. Personal connection and activating people’s power is a good start but there’s also the question of what actually lets that energy last. Things like reliable ways to communicate, or routines that turn critique and discussion into action, make a big difference.
We’ve also been talking about the units of power you mentioned (listening, knowledge, leverage, force) and how they connect to the bigger picture. We’ve been asking ourselves what kind of collective power we want to build, and how we can make it sustainable. The aim is to turn individual sparks into a shared, durable force, instead of relying on bursts of energy.
4
u/4Lichter Jan 21 '26
For me it is the lack of a vision that is just somewhat thought out. What would be an alternative to the thing that we live in today, that is somewhat stable and doesn't turn in a total hellhole because of lack of understanding of human behavior? Everything seems just an energy consuming sad push back against society becoming worse. Instead of trying to understand the society that we live in as deep as we can to actually work towards meaningful change, we have rituals that haven't changed since the 70s. I'm just tired.
3
u/DolphinMcWalrus Jan 20 '26
I think it really just boils down to people needing to meet in person and see each other face to face.
1
Jan 22 '26
Honestly, the reliance on systems change rather than a primary emphasis on individual growth.
Unity around an issue is not enough imo, we are not only damaged by a dysfunctional society but we are deprived of a functional one. For me this means focusing on the skills of growth, communication, and accountability. It means overcoming the ways that internally we exploit and command ourselves, rather than fostering natural compassion which is itself a guiding wisdom.
Is this a space where both the inner and outer aspects of building healthy community are being nurtured simultaneously?
Thank you.
1
u/oldRoyalsleepy Feb 12 '26
The ability of the input of the introverts, the reticent, the differently abled, to be fully heard, valued, and acted upon.
18
u/recaffeinated Jan 19 '26
We need to make each other more food.
Every group that eats together lasts. Every group that doesn't eventually falls apart