Impper posted:
those are great points angel, and i think i agree with you on every single point - i've long recognized that the left isn't doing nearly enough to replace state functions and be a presence in the working classes' lives, though here is where i think something of an interesting problem presents itself:

how do leftist groups perform this without access to capital? i realize it's been done before, but this seems to be one of the very fundamental challenges, and please excuse me for my ignorance on this issue. for example though: i often tell frustrated leftists who also have a problem with groups like the ISO that they would be better off joining a church group, since they often profess to me that they "just want to make a difference in people's lives," and though this can be a good thing, it's also never quite satisfactory, as to be honest it seems that it would be better to do the same thing except with a revolutionary leftist group, to act as a church group would.

but couldn't it be that leftists often have no access to capital? churches have networks of donors and often serve dominant ideologies, so they have a great amount of resources on which to draw; however, leftist groups must rely on the labor of their activists, and also probably at some point to rely on the very groups which they're serving. i just see it as sort of a fundamental disadvantage, which could be part of the reason why leftists very rarely make serious efforts to win the communities

I think it requires a great deal of planning. The resources exist out there to successfully pull it off. For members, it does imply that there are dues to be paid. These dues would then go into the initial set-up. When you really think about it, a lot of things can be established for relatively cheap. You only need a few doctors to take time in a weekend to set-up a basic health clinic every so often, you gather donations of clothes and such to distribute clothes, you take donations of food and distribute food. This would all involve working in the community, there is no real alternative, links must be established between religious groups and charities and whatever structure actually runs said programs for an organization. Studying certain laws also helps, homeschooling is relatively simple, so it isn't entirely difficult to set-up some sort of homeschool system off of the dues you gather from members.

The idea is to establish an independent structure, but for start-up, it would require a group that is dedicated and willing to make personal sacrifices to pull it off. There are those in the world who could and would come to the assistance of such groups, and contacts should be established with them. After the departure WD Fard Muhammad, the Nation under the Honourable Elijah Muhammad existed because Elijah was willing to make sacrifices, to travel from city to city establishing cadre in each major area and having people do the same. Anyone who was around then will say the years between 1934 and 1950 were some of the toughest for the cadre, but people made sacrifices, were frugal and it was common way before How to Eat to Live, for Nation cadre to live on a single meal a day, and dues were collected from each registered citizen. According to one account by Elijah's son Wallace, the biggest holiday (Saviour's Day) was celebrated by feasting on apples.

This is largely why many reformers or revolutionaries regardless of their actual ideology, from Lenin to al-Banna, all saw the necessity of a vanguard group who would be willing to make it their life mission. After enough work and sacrifice, it does pay off, and people will start to notice. Right-Wing organizations help basically no-one, but they long ago also learned the value of political jiu-jitsu. Even if the media covers you with hatred, at least they cover you, and that can be used to your advantage. As membership increases, so does the possibilities for growth and for self-reliance and forming a nation-within-a-nation. Hezbollah largely pulled it off in Lebanon, and for a prolonged period of time before the 1975-1979 split, the NOI had pulled it off in the United States. They had grocery stores, stocked with food grown on NOI farms, delivered to stores by Nation members in Nation-owned Trucks, if you were a parent, your kid could go to school in one of the Muhammad Universities of Islam. The message was further spread by having a National newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, which members worked hard to push and as such, the newspaper had a circulation in the millions. To this day, both major successors to the original NOI have some remnants of such, though their ideologies have radically diverged from each other.

Any organization would have to see the success of such as a potential possibility for themselves.