I agree that we could use some more firm answers/plans to point to when the inevitable question from others “But how will X be done?”. We are confused with idealists by basically everyone that sees us as “meaning well but don’t know how ‘the real world’ works’”. Many of them are just cynical defeatists that have just accepted that this is just how the world is. Maybe they have just let down too many times given how extra both current majority parties are with the never ending platitudes. The Dems/liberals have been the worst offenders in my lifetime (I am 35y/o). They can’t seem to stop themselves from trying to “feel” like they care (thoughts, prayers, careful wording about being “the party of healthcare/women/LGBTQIA+/etc”). But when it is time to do anything other than say nice things, it all goes away or they just place “bipartisan-ness” over fighting. We were promised much better healthcare access with the gutted Romney/Obama-care stuff. But while there were some parts that were a good step, it all just benefited all the private insurance carriers and costs many regular people more. So the masses are just so used to parties that have lost any meaning to regular people and only have nice speeches for them. But the ones with money get what they want regardless of which party is in charge.

Having plans that can be pointed to as to what would be basically ready to go if/when a real anti-capitalist leftist party is given the chance would be good. But we also need to be getting known to our local communities as being ready to get our hands dirty helping out with whatever is needed. They need to see that we are serious about being an actual option and change more minds regarding what actually socialism/communism is and isn’t. Based on how our media outlets and various conservative/liberal politicians has basically beat it into people that socialism/communism = evil/bad/hating freedom. We are really needing to educate even pretty well educated people. And having plans can help along with this education. We also can’t let our enemies keep controlling our narratives by responding to their bad faith attacks/“gotcha” moments. Maybe some plans could be started if some of the current leftist parties were to come together and find important issues to agree on. Like a new Internationale, but specific to our struggle in the US (though I am willing to accept that this is maybe too idealistic as written). We need to start somewhere and need to build solidarity if we want to begin to go onto dethrone the current system and its many outlets.

Off-hand I am not aware of any proof of this. Do you have any sources or other communication apps that can be used? Basically all chats get called this, and based on all the Snowden stuff alone it is possible. But again the SRA isn’t trying to be anything other than a non-profit pro-gun and gun education org. We all try to keep that in-mind and if anyone that slips into anything even mildly “fedposting” gets quickly reminded of this in constructive ways. Also to my knowledge the org doesn’t allow members/chapters to officially attend protests. Members are free to attend them, just not with anything SRA on them if they go. Which makes for a super low priority honeypot-wise compared to stuff like the old version of the Black Panthers (which was a real political party with real demands and seen as a real threat to racist white folks).

Like [@seahorse@midwest.social said, the SRA is a broad anti-capitalist left org. So both on the national boards and within a chapter you might be seeing a random mix of Black Bloc and Red Bloc and the various subsets of both. However it is also not trying to be a political party or a militia. So just keep that part in-mind if you do sign-up. Also I can’t speak towards any chapters other than the one I am a member of. So how it has been for me might not be a 1:1 for the chapter closest to you. As membership being active or not can change things. You might even find that the one closest to you has reading circles/clubs that focus more on Marxist theory to get involved with.

The primary things that the SRA is concerned about is helping comrades on the left learn and teach safety and proper handling of guns. To be a place where folks that are often times harassed by the right-wing gun owners can safely interact. The right has for too long been “the gun folks”, and it isn’t helped that basically the default for most libs has been “the right-wing are crazy gun nuts and bad, so therefore guns and gun owners are bad”. For me I have hated that anytime I bring up being a gun owner with someone I don’t know well (or wasn’t aware I have them) there is utter shock. They may know me enough to be friendly, but then have a mild panic that I am like a secret conservative or something. Often then being confused as to why I think various kinds of guns should be kept legal given mass shootings.

The SRA has been a great starting point for helping me grow as a leftist and is (along with many other leftist gun groups and even some liberals) putting in efforts to “arm the left” by not just allowing the NRA and other right-wingers to have the monopoly on guns and gun rights. You also might be able to learn about other groups via SRA comrades that are more specifically Marxist. It also might be worth seeing which chapter is closest to you and reaching out to them to see if they are down to being asked questions you might have.

I don’t personally know enough about the John Brown Gun Club, but I think they are more about active community defense. So they might be a better option for learning more militia-ish stuff. They are at least another group that is large enough to be in multiple states.

I am happy to hear that you did join and have been on-boarded! Your first paragraph sums up how things have been in my own experience. The org being a broad spectrum of the anti-capitalist left (imo) makes it a good place to meet and respectfully interact with comrades and learn more stuff you might not otherwise have.

My chapter primarily uses Signal for our primary communications and working groups. Though we have used Discord for chapter meetings (we have also used other options to see how well they handle video and audio). The real annoyance with Signal is that it can’t do sub-chats/rooms like Discord or Slack. You can only “pin” like four group chats to the top. So as more working groups are made it becomes a “which chats should be pinned” issue.

This was an informative read given I don’t know enough about the CPUSA. One thing that always frustrates me (though I do very much understand why) is when folks resign/quit an org when they see it changing in a bad way. It just means that the reformists/revisionists have even less resistance to making sure their goals happen. Again, I understand that leaving might be the only functional option at the time. And I know there are plenty of rational reasons for each person (that are both public and personal) to choose this option. So I don’t mean any disrespect. Just always feels like it is kind of what their opponents would want to happen. I hope that we do see the CPUSA stop going the failed path (which they aren’t the only party that needs to) of trying to work with the Democratic Party. We have seen even amongst the Dems how little they care for making deals and following through on them (aside from the ones made with their rich members/supporters and the corps ran by said members/supporters). We continue to see their outright hostility towards the more left of centre members, while tripping over themselves to be seen working with the Republicans. Even if there is very popular outcry for them to stop doing this. The party should be firmly against being in support of any of the capitalist parties candidates. And should be doing everything possible to both support and inspire the working and poor masses. As it stands they (and really all other anti-capitalist parties/orgs) should be going real hard into winning over so many of the disenfranchised that are done with the Dems. We are seeing so many perfect moments and examples of the outright failures of the Dems and the very real rise of the fascist Christian right-wing. It is too perfect a time to be wasting it by “deal making” with the enemies of the people.