I’ve been dabbling in the past year and a half with getting into orgs, which haven’t been that hard since I live in a big city, but I still had trouble staying consistent with it or feeling like I have any actual impact.
I went through orgs dealing with asylum seekers, unions for part-time workers, food security, fun local events that raise money for the aforementioned food security project, and now I landed in an org dealing with helping low-wage workers getting benefits that their employers stole from them. Most of them are refugees, some are Palestinians, which does feel somewhat impactful, but it’s still a minority.
These were all great orgs with moral people, but the catch is that I can’t be passive with it like in my work. There aren’t really any managers that are responsible for finding me work at these orgs, because they’re busy with their own work. There are no Bullshit Jobs there. I need to ask around and find work myself.
This is exhausting, especially while juggling a 9-5 and a couple of hobbies, and while I’m fully aware of the capitalistic scam of keeping us busy working instead of organizing, I’m yet still frustrated with it. Anyone feeling the same? I hope it’ll get more impactful as my life gets more stable, and I have an overall optimistic feeling about this, but non the less the helplessness I feel right now is real :(
Similar situation here. For me instead of a 9-5 keeping me busy, it’s my state of health being a constant obstacle in daily life. Most organizations have no set way for new members to get familiar, making it even harder for me to find my bearings. Let alone physically ever attending meetings etc.
Online I tried to get in touch to help with leftist media, but I was politely rejected after being upfront about my physical limitations.
Praxis for me now is just talking to friends who are left leaning, and continuing to educate myself. I just have little energy to do anything else, and it is frustrating.
This is such a pain point. How come my current employer, which has 0 positive (and negative) impact on the world, has enough resources to have a proper onboarding process while my other orgs don’t? Guys I think something is rotten with the current economical structure
You know, I think talking shit online is nothing to scoff at. We have a whole org here called Mahazkim which is dedicated to spamming social media with pro-palestinian stances (ignore words like “progressive” and “liberal” on their site; they carry a different meaning here). If it sounds interesting to you, I can try finding something similar for you in your area. I have a friend that works in this org so I can launch a message and she’ll prolly figure something out.