Submitted by existential1 in Anarchism
I've gotten the idea that many here are against platformists...I'm wondering what the general stance is on social insertion, which seems to be something platformists believe in as a means to influence the non-anarchists.
An_Old_Big_Tree wrote (edited )
edited:
I'm not sure what social insertion is, in reality, for platformists. I've met platformists before and in practice they seemed generally to be the in-groupy basic conservatives I had hoped they weren't. Anyway, exceptions exist everywhere.
What I have done recently probably looks a little bit like what a good version of social insertion might look like.
Where I am, there aren't anarchists. So if I want to collaborate with people, I usually go and look for the most radical events happening and start helping out (because I want them to grow and succeed). I look for the most radical people with the most interesting politics while I'm there, and with a bit of time opportunities will arise for me to chat with them. Usually we'll understand quite quickly if we are walking in the same directions. I'm not dishonest with them about it.
If I'm lucky, I'll come out of those events with a friend or two. Over time we'll be in reading groups together, doing basic illegal stuff together, building on each other's projects in various ways, and ultimately working towards bigger projects with other people.
Which is to say, I think it depends on your context.
I've also lived in towns with infoshops and towns with many anarchists, and they each came with their own ways of doing anarchist things. I think in general I'd like to do both work with only anarchists and also work to make more anarchists at any time. Not because I want to build a critical mass, but because I like anarchists and friends!