What is the best way to discover socialist organizations in my local area in the US? After looking around the only active group seems to be a DSA chapter. I don’t have anything against them, but I thought there would be more of other active groups as well.
I too ran into this when I first started actually thinking of joining groups. DSA was an easy one to find out, but I did have to actually sign-up for what I thought was the one closest to me (it was named two different areas depending on which page I was on). Which was mildly frustrating. I thought they would more specifically get with me after joining the national org. Even after I started sending my monthly donations to the chapter, I didn’t get any on-boarding stuff for around 4 months. And the person that reached out didn’t get back to me when I did reply (which to be fair was at least a week) asking if I really should be setup with one closer but smaller. I will eventually reach out again.
But I kind of got spoiled when I signed up for the Socialist Rifle Association around the same time. After like a month or two I was sent info about making my account on our national forums. After doing the “Hello” introductions post that the forum bot that was showing me how the site worked. I was pretty quickly noted for my state, and added to that part. Which then lead to my closest chapter reaching out directly and setup on-boarding. Was very simple and easy.
I would start by seeing about some of the more nation wide ones. See if they have maps or lists showing where they have active chapters. Or if you don’t mind saying which state you are in, maybe someone here might happen to know of some. Also might be able to get information as to what they are about. Aside from the DSA and SRA, I know that Socialist Alternative is active in a number of states. If you live near a college or university, there might be some smaller groups on-campus.
I will say that the SRA isn’t about being a political party nor a militia, and isn’t specifically tied to a particular version of leftist (like ML, MLM, anarchist, etc.) outside of being anti-capitalist. It is more about learning and teaching gun safety and inspiring more leftists to not just think of guns as a right-wing thing. We believe that the left should be armed and know how to defend if needed. Some chapters either have, or are working to getting certs to teach concealed carry classes. There are also community efforts, but that really depends on the individual chapter. My chapter has adopted a street in a often ignored part of one of the cites we live in. We have also handed out PPE and other supplies during Covid. We have also started coordinating with some other local orgs to raise funds for the Carolina Abortion Fund. But I have also heard that folks that joined other chapters have had less than active efforts or other standard annoyances that can happen when joining a chapter for any org. Our national level org has also been making dumb choices for use of funds that were based on the higher than normal influx of people joining during 2020 and 2021. But it seems that real efforts are being voted on and started to fix that. There are also other big-tent and more specific leaning leftist gun groups.
Thanks! I will look into the SRA as I already own guns and want to improve skills and meet other like-minded gun owners. One of the other things that I found surprising was that CPUSA has a bunch of google trackers on their site and at the same time want my info. I don’t need big tech knowing that I signed up for more info from them.
That’s awesome to hear (the part about looking into SRA and not the Google tracking)! The left needs to break away from letting the false left (libs/centrists that are too often called “the left”) choose to remove our ability to arm and defend ourselves. They just default to the defeatist attitude of “you really think you can just take on the military?!? lol, I think not!”. Which is what they mockingly say about the right’s fetishization of guns. Which I tend to respond with more practical examples that they can more easily understand. Unfortunately 2020 and the overall rise in hate based attacks from the right and their avid supporters with badges is one such example. More of my open-minded liberal friends do see how self-defense might be a real need with all that. The mass-shooting stuff is really what keeps them more in the “anti-gun” crowd. Which is understandable, but just banning guns isn’t the actual fix to the majority of the reasons such actions happen. It just makes it easier to ignore them and act like nothing is wrong.
I do sometimes like to point out that armed leftists have actually taken on our military and won (wasn’t easy and did cost many lives of course), like Vietnam is still one of the best. Many firm libs are under the misunderstanding that the only “valid” form of change is non-violent and just voting “blue no matter who”. Which the non-violent part is very important to always try first, but violence is very much valid if the non-violent attempts are ignored or only paid lip-service without actions. The right has been allowed to claim guns as their thing, and libs want to be on whatever the opposite side of them. So if the right wants guns to be legal and easy to get, the libs want to see them banned and hard as hell to get. They can fuck right off with banning some guns because they are “scary” and therefore “not needed for anything other than killing”. I don’t make my life about pushing for a shooting war, as the point isn’t to win by those means. We will only truly win by ending the money over people system, and that means education and winning over people in ways that actually help. But I am damn sure not gonna allow my ability to fight back if shit does happen be taken away.
I hope that if you do join the SRA that your local chapter is as supportive and amazing as mine has been. And they might just be a great place to learn about other groups/orgs near you. I only really learned about and got motivated to volunteer with clinic escorting because we had a couple of people already doing it. And while my insomnia makes it frustratingly hard to go out as much as I feel that I should. It is such and amazing boost of joy to know that by just doing such a simple task I am helping part of my community. The leftists (us and some random others) that show up are known for being ready to help and not afraid to stand firm if fucked with. lol
Just signed up for a yearly membership to the SRA!
Nice!
That is awesome to hear!! Make sure to keep an eye out for an email inviting you to the forums. When you get that and make your account, do the introduction thing (the welcome bot should lead you there or you can jump to it). Make sure to say which state you are in, or I would imagine that you could look up which chapter is closest to you and send a DM or email to them directly. After that it is in their hands for arranging on-boarding. Feel free to DM me here if you need any information or whatever. I may not have the specific answers, but I can float them with people in my chapter to see if they do. Solidarity!
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