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  • erik_houdini
    9·
    3 months ago

    What are your thoughts on organization dues with in potential vanguard parties? – how these dues might be limiting organizational abilities? Does the concept of dues from the proletariat, intrinsically against the mass line approach? I’m firm believer in the mass line approach wherein you need to be organizing the most disenfranchised members of the class society first. If you have to pay $100, $200 in dues every month to an organization is that not negatively impacting our ability to recruit members into an organization? If one can afford $100 a month in additional bills that puts you above a certain amount of people.

    Furthermore, doesn’t this method of funding just reproduce the same hierarchy as the systems we intend to dismantle? Many of these organizations have had the same leadership for a decade+, are we funding a vanguard party? – or a vanity effort to get a select group of people elected?

    Finally, the idea that the working class members should pay dues to the party, it almost seems like it should be the opposite. It seems like the party should be providing some kind of stipend to its members so that they can be more effectively organizing while reducing the struggles of capitalism. If you’re already struggling day-to-day with capitalism, and then you’re also asked to give another extra $100 on top of that, well now you suddenly have to go, well, do I give my money to the party or do I afford my dog food for the month? Is this counterintuitive to organizing the working class? What are your thoughts?

    • DankZedong A
      17·
      3 months ago

      Good question. Our party actually works this way. You can become a member for I think 20 euro a year. Then you can become an active member and join a local action group and you will pay something like 5 euro each month. Last, you can become a militant member. You can get education on marxisme through the party and some other extra’s.

      Militant members have to give up their pay slips to the party. They will calculate how much you are above the income cap they have set (around 1900 net). You have to give up an amount above that pay and give it to the party. You can choose yourself how much you want to give but I believe they’d actually prefer you give it all. The funding should go to the party and their efforts to organize. Our elected officials do this too. They get paid 11k a month but give most of it to the party to remain an average salary.

      Now, I have been thinking about this for a while too. They asked me to become a militant member because they saw potential in me. After a long thought I declined. My salary is above the line but I didn’t feel comfortable donating the extra money I make. I wouldn’t be able to justify it towards my gf and honestly not even towards myself either. I already do a lot of things for the party, from organizing actions to making new members to writing the party program. Life is expensive as it is. A little bit of extra financial security is giving me a lot of mental wellbeing causing me to be able to put in effort for the party.

      I think it’s a difficult balance. Our party never reached any position of power for decades. Only since 2019 we have been in Parliament for example. Getting elected in Parliament gave us a budget increase of several millions. Before that our funds had to come from members. Without funds it will be difficult to organize. That’s unfortunately the sad reality of today. I think you do need ways to get the people without the funds and get them to co-operate without paying membership fees. Preferably have the other, more affluent members pay for them.

      • erik_houdini
        6·
        3 months ago

        Very informative response, thank you. Gotta have cash to work towards abolishing cash I suppose.