For the ~20% who don't know how to start, there's a very straightforward way to get involved effectively.

1) Think of a political issue that impacts you or that you care about: union organizing, environmentalism, minority rights, etc etc.
2) Google "[ISSUE] organization in [YOUR CITY]" or search on social media like instagram with similar queries.
3) Collect the results in a list
4) For each organization, go on their website and social media accounts and list the organizations they are connected to, for example through doing projects together, or resharing content on social media. Add these other organizations to the list.
5) Start shortening the list by removing the organizations who are not interested in volunteers, those that don't really feel aligned with your values, those with confusing information or no clear explanation on how to get involved. Get to a list of max 3 orgs.
6) Check when their next open event is, sign up and show up.

That's how you start.


#orgschool

Kafka, you would have loved Meta Business interface

Another ~10% said there's nothing going on where they live. That's possible, yet unlikely. Let's assume there's actually nothing, what options does the internet offer for impactful political organizing?

Many national or international organizations and movements often employ digital systems for organizing and can benefit from online volunteers with no specific experience or skill.

One common example are systems to handle 1-on-1s, onboarding, training, outreach, or phone banking. Every serious organization has an infrastructure to engage people directly, either to grow their ranks, convince them to vote or take a specific action. These are in part automated through tools like ActionNetwork, but often involve an army of volunteers spending their evenings on the phone or in a call.

Contributing remotely becomes very easy, as long as you have a decent internet connection.

Like for the previous advice, start by googling. This time though, focus on bigger organizations with a national or international scope. Usually they offer weekly or monthly onboarding calls for newcomers like you. If they don't, it's a sign they have no active commitment to grow their ranks and probably will have no space for you anyway. During the onboarding call, be proactive in sharing you would like to contribute remotely and ask if there are specific roles you can take.


#orgschool

You might not like it, but this is how theory is made

We out here, stridulating off key

Nature is healing

Intermezzo Musicale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr9HXteXT2s

Me: Good morning everypup! ^^ welcome to our daily engineering standup UwU

My boss: Lola are you joining us today from some kind of.. cage? And is that a collar you're wearing?

Me: It's my kennel! Lets talk Q3 updates.

Something very confusing for new people is the difference between "activist" and "organizers", which are often mixed up by external observers for a variety of reasons. Nonetheless, they constitute two very different approaches to political impact.

There's no single definitive way to draw the line that distinguishes the two, but let's try to get an intuition.

Activist = focused on action, as the name implies
Organizer = focused on systems, services, and large-scale relationships

Activist = concerned with the public sphere, culture, opinions, and expression
Organizer = focused on material gains, capacity-building, construction of power

Activist = unstable exponential short-term growth
Organizer = stable linear long-term growth

Activist = impact on the individuals (change of opinions, awareness, Overton window)
Organizer = impact on power structures (institutions, productive systems, laws, dual power)

No approach is better than the other: they are different and complementary tools for different problems. Failure happens when you use the wrong tool for the job: if you call a strike as an activist, it's unlikely you will have any impact. If you want to change social norms around a certain issue with an organizer mindset, it will take you decades.

When you approach an organization, it is important to contextualize which approach they follow, either intentionally or by imitation. Make sure it fits what you want to do and that the approach makes sense for the change they want to create.

#orgschool

"Colpirne 100 per educarne 1" è sicuramente una strategia inefficiente, ma vuoi mettere quanto è più divertente? E poi quell'1 superstite si comporterà da dio