Radical organizing seems pretty hyper-concentrated in cities, so I was wondering if anyone on here has experience organizing in rural areas? What unique challenges are there to it and how do you approach it?
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Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) (greenandblack@sunbeam.city)'s status on Tuesday, 10-Sep-2019 23:26:34 CEST 
Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em)
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▼ (torie@todon.nl)'s status on Tuesday, 10-Sep-2019 23:31:41 CEST
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@GreenandBlack harder to convince people in an isolated community that the social consequences of organizing are worth it. Idk how to address this but like not ignoring or downplaying the consequences that can come with going against your community can go along Way. I think theres a tendency to be like “it’ll be fine” but there’s a good chance it won’t be, depending on the cause.
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▼ (torie@todon.nl)'s status on Tuesday, 10-Sep-2019 23:32:54 CEST
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@GreenandBlack also radical organizing can be way more effective in rural areas cause the impact on local politics can be HUGE with way smaller numbers so like. That’s cool :)
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Puffinux (puffinuspuffinus@sunbeam.city)'s status on Tuesday, 10-Sep-2019 23:52:39 CEST 
Puffinux
@Torie @GreenandBlack
An oil company was going to start looking at drilling off the Welsh coast very recently, but then a number of Welsh XR groups began organising protests frantically (they had two weeks of notice), and got in touch with Greenpeace, and they managed to make the oil company pull out because of the threat they posed. They didn't ever actively protest, the noise around the potential drilling they created was enough. For more general meetings, I believe Wales has a high proportion of strong left wing folks, and people meet in others' houses and organise small scale protests and activities. It works well enough for them.Rain 🚱 repeated this. -
Lord Bowlich (lordbowlich@hackers.town)'s status on Wednesday, 11-Sep-2019 04:08:59 CEST
Lord Bowlich
@GreenandBlack Western Montana, mining, and timber towns in the western U.S. were once radical hotbeds.
That's changed in the last seventy years. Lot of mining and timber closed in the 90s with global trade agreements undercut them. Unions were blamed, and that propaganda has really taken hold in those communities along with... other less savory ideologies.
Then there's Edward Abbey and his entire cohort of readers out in the SW.
So there's pockets of people, but spread way to thin for effective organization outside of the tribal communities. Would be interested to see examples of anyone interested in rekindling it out here though.
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Shufei ✌🏼 (shufei@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 11-Sep-2019 06:45:33 CEST
Shufei ✌🏼
@GreenandBlack ...Yes. As Bowlich said, rural North America is telemediated now, highly propagandized. And not just white folks. Rural self sufficiency traditions (good) have curdled into reactionary capitalistic individualism (bad).
I can say that arguing from ideas as a blank slate or from the local language works much better. No one is going to read Marx. It’s just not on. But presenting collective strategies to fight exploitation with local meetings works. >
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Shufei ✌🏼 (shufei@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 11-Sep-2019 06:47:14 CEST
Shufei ✌🏼
@GreenandBlack It helps to find the well respected yokels who get around the community but don’t often protest things. Get a few of them to speak up, and it can thaw the ice for others. Suddenly campaigns can get launched. A major issue in rural places is that logistically you’ve a *much* diminished pool of daily drivers. The people who show up when the ire has cooled down will be left to carry any orgs forward, and they should know they will be nearly alone most of the time. >
Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) repeated this. -
Shufei ✌🏼 (shufei@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 11-Sep-2019 06:53:15 CEST
Shufei ✌🏼
@GreenandBlack Rural organizing requires being oblique. Coming in “looking lefty” isn’t a great idea. Reading elites as “city slickers” can work. Getting local institutions on one’s side, being mindful of not feeding petty rivalries, is tricky but important. That means, welfare office volunteer cliques, community centre cliques, the Grange, miners, churches. Say “amen”, pass the ammunition, and expect to be surprised to who will sign up for fighting the man with a canny bit of bluewashing.
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junø (juno@social.pixie.town)'s status on Wednesday, 11-Sep-2019 09:20:52 CEST 
junø
@GreenandBlack
i have tried, its harder to build networks, having events works somewhat but you become a target easily. its very different action forms and tactics because everyone knows you and many types of action are built around the assumption of anonymity in cities.Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) repeated this. -
slebby possum (glitterwitch@todon.nl)'s status on Wednesday, 11-Sep-2019 14:31:19 CEST 
slebby possum
@GreenandBlack I'm lucky to have a reasonably progressive Farmer's Union chapter, so that's a good starting point. otherwise just going to potlucks and doing mutual aid is pretty acceptable to most folks, tho they might not use that term. many of them know the good that unions can do but have just been beat down by the last few decades.
Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) repeated this. -
QueerAnarchism (queeranarchism@anarchism.space)'s status on Wednesday, 11-Sep-2019 21:35:59 CEST 
QueerAnarchism
Form of rural organizing I've seen:
- a group of friends that each invite their other friends when something is up
- all go to the only punk bar in a 50 mile radius
- formed sort of like a union: identifying potential sympathizers and having quiet conversations until they're big enough to go public
- the local injustice is so big that almost everyone is pissed offI haven't seen anonymous radical organizing, but it might well have been invisible to me because I wasn't in it.
Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) repeated this. -
Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) (greenandblack@sunbeam.city)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2019 15:11:25 CEST
Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em)
Thanks to everyone who responded so far, following on from this: What are some ways city-folk can build solidarity with rural movements? What does solidarity between urban and rural movements often look like?
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h (restioson@anarchism.space)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2019 15:21:00 CEST 
h
@GreenandBlack if they're relatively far from police presence, then it may be easier for prominent activists to be assassinated or killed.
Political assassinations of activists do happen in South Africa, but I'm not sure how correlated they are with rurality -- just a thought that it could happen that way. I think that some people involved in stopping mineral extraction in KZN or EC get death threats and maybe a few people got killed? I'll have to check up on that one though
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emsenn (garland and unionize) (emsenn@tenforward.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2019 15:32:18 CEST
emsenn (garland and unionize)
@GreenandBlack A concrete thing is... buy a bus. A big part of why unions in the American West were able to organize well is because they had bsues they would loan out to each other and be able to bring thousands of workers into a town of a couple thousand total.
Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) repeated this. -
Crime Bun 3000 (bunnyhearted@anarchism.space)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2019 15:35:03 CEST 
Crime Bun 3000
@GreenandBlack Sad I missed the original thread, though I'm new to trying to organize in rural communities, one thing I've already noticed is how different each community views it's history and in particular it's history with/of labour movements. So each place requires a local approach and a local focus lead by folks who, if not from there, live there and have made themselves a part of the community.
No organizing built from outside can compete with locals, and imo it won't last if you try.
Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) repeated this. -
Crime Bun 3000 (bunnyhearted@anarchism.space)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2019 15:35:42 CEST
Crime Bun 3000
@GreenandBlack
> Many of these communities embrace modern conservatism because it sells them the narrative of "returning to when things were good" (ie. when people could afford groceries), and there's an interestig paradox in how this is often marketed using the terminology of traditional labour movements - which built most of these communities and which haven't been forgotten.Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) repeated this. -
Crime Bun 3000 (bunnyhearted@anarchism.space)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2019 15:36:44 CEST
Crime Bun 3000
@GreenandBlack > So learning about the history of these communities and the labour movements in their pasts can be key to dispelling the reactionary narrative, and it can give you an "in" using the same stories and tools the right-wing politicians have already gotten them familiar with.
Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) repeated this. -
Crime Bun 3000 (bunnyhearted@anarchism.space)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2019 15:37:14 CEST
Crime Bun 3000
@GreenandBlack
> At the same time, these folks often have a strong sense of community and collective ethos - they may just not recognize it that way. So arguments for collectivism that recognize the collective work and community they are already doing/already have are powerful, and collective arguments using the language of individual benefit can make quick progress.Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) repeated this. -
Crime Bun 3000 (bunnyhearted@anarchism.space)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2019 15:37:59 CEST
Crime Bun 3000
@GreenandBlack
> So my advice to folks from urban centres, is to use active listening, learn about the specific community you are talking to, and work with those already taking action. Most of these communities would not still be here without folks working to keep them alive - find them, and let them lead. Your role is to educate and provide resources, it should rarely be to lead.Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) repeated this. -
Crime Bun 3000 (bunnyhearted@anarchism.space)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2019 15:40:03 CEST
Crime Bun 3000
@GreenandBlack > ALSO COOL RURAL ACAB BONUS:
Nobody except for the very very rich (and they all are hardly here) trust the fucking cops. Centring the police's role in maintaining capital and social inequity can be a quick way to find common ground. They likely already understand this, and they likely already hate them for it.
Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) repeated this. -
Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) (greenandblack@sunbeam.city)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2019 15:46:57 CEST
Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em)
@BunnyHearted thankyou so much for the response! :ancomheart: best of luck with your future endeavors, a mutual aid org sounds exciting :D
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Spectral Visions🌙👻🔮 (radioangel@sunbeam.city)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2019 16:11:41 CEST
Spectral Visions🌙👻🔮
@GreenandBlack One of the best types of support would be to help with protests. The only successful and semi-successful protests in rural areas happen when there are a lot of people. If it's just a few locals, they can always be ignored or arrested.
maloki 🍵 and Anarcha-Ecologist Catgirl (Em) repeated this.
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