The conditions¶

Accelerationism is reactionary and counterproductive. The conditions accelerate on their own: they don't need our help. Every step of the way, we need to be the people standing valiantly opposed to the violence of the regime under which we live. 🧵 https://t.co/La1haZtJm3 The belief that "things have to get bad enough for people to care" is rooted in the erasure of an extant class of people whose conditions already are "that bad" -- maybe because you don't see the extent of the ravages, or because you believe they have no revolutionary potential. I wouldn't accuse you of not caring about the ~20% of the population who are barely surviving. But empathy and charity only go so far. You're focusing your organizing on a "target audience" that is, in fact, surviving, even if it's tough and even getting tougher. That's not to erase the very real struggles of people who are not-quite-precarious. The people with some savings, but are watching them dwindle because they aren't keeping up with bills. The people who are getting treatment for chronic conditions, while racking up medical debt. The material strain on this "fine-unless-fired" subclass is very real, but it is characteristically different from "not-fine-at-all." The difference being whether or not revolution is literally life or death for them. No one will risk their life for a better deal on rent. They might risk it to avoid dying on the street -- IF they can come to believe that that "risk" isn't just a suicide mission for a futile cause.

That's where communist organizing comes in. Accelerationism posits that that beleaguered 20% is not where the revolution lays, and that instead, we have to wait and hope and even actively push for conditions to deteriorate to that point for the next highest quintile, or even for the one above that. The reasoning for this view covers a range of errors:

1) Dogmatic misapplication of Marxism to our immediate social context: "We need the Industrial Proletariat™️ to lead the revolution!" In the US, this describes less than 10% of the population, most of whom are VERY stable. 2) Misunderstanding of the mechanics of revolution: "We can't win unless we have the majority on our side!" You don't need to -- and in fact CAN'T -- start a revolution with 51% support. You don't need 40%, or even 20%. You build support by doing. I can expand on this point in more detail later, but the broad strokes are: with a relatively small, but well-organized force, you can begin a feedback loop of growing support ➡️ greater material impact ➡️ meeting state repression ➡️ bystanders becoming revolutionaries ➡️ repeat. 3) Belief that, since revolutionary organizing takes time and resources, it can't start with people who have already have nothing. There are two flaws in this argument. The first is that the "nothing" they have is in the context of capitalism. This population has labor power... ... it has resourcefulness and several practical skills, and if you aren't bogged down by blind allegiance to bourgeois law, there are resources to be found all over the place. The other flaw is that, as conditions degrade, the population you bring on board will ALSO have little. 4) Chauvinism. Outright disdain for the types of people who occupy this class. The nationally oppressed, queer people, prostitutes, disabled people, and so on. It may be more or less overt, it might even disguise itself from those who hold it, but it MUST be rooted out. There are many more errors that lead people down this road, and it doesn't always specifically lead to accelerationism. It is much more common for it to manifest as reformism, economism, electoralism, and all too often "doomerism." People drop out before the movement even begins. They shift their horizon from the complete abolition of the old world to "Well, let's do whatever we can," or perhaps "Guess there's nothing else to do but look after me and mine."

(More realistically, their horizon never reached that farthest expanse in the first place.) If you DO want to make a difference, the answer is not to yearn for darker days. Begin the work now, organizing those whose days are already at their darkest. Build community support, organizational and ideological maturity, resources, plans, skills, agility... and hope. As people fall into precarity, your organization will already be there to catch them, because you invested your energy into building your capacity. And the more you catch, the more your capacity grows. People join movements that keep them alive.