READ ME
If you are interested in what we on the left can do to improve our effectiveness, then RETHINK THE LEFT is for you.
Right now this site is just blogposts. Later some of the blogposts will be followed by a discussion in the form of a paired podcast and/or videocast.
The format is simple. I will highlight some key facts and insights on some issue from a source, usually a scholarly book or review of the book. I will then pose what amounts to the same general question to a guest or to myself to answer:
What do these insights and facts suggest about how we on the left can (a) THEORIZE and (b) PRACTICE differently to be more effective, on this issue and overall?
BETTER THEORIZING means two things: What is our ANALYSIS of the PROBLEMS and their CAUSES? What is our PROGRAMME of SOLUTIONS to both the problems and their underlying causes?
BETTER PRACTICE means two things: What is our STRATEGIC PLAN for PROACTIVELY building up the POPULAR POWER to be able to implement the solutions? What are some TACTICAL MEANS that organizers and organizations can deploy to realize the popular power and social change goals of the strategic plan?
Each post will highlight key facts and insights about the specific issue that are new and interesting. But the focus will usually be on answering the general questions above.
Why is Rethink[ing] the Left so important?
Because social media talk and fragmented protests that make a virtue out of the lack of shared problem analysis and solutions, and the lack of shared strategy and tactics, and the absence of unity and organization and leadership, are failing to win popular power and progressive change. War, Fascism and Depression are present realities for many, and rising threats for all.
The times are calling out for a reinvented economic, cultural, military and especially political Left that is able to go out to the people where they live and work to agitate, educate and organize. The masses of the people will change the world through their own organized actions. Our duty is to build a Left that can help them win. To do that, we need to Rethink the Left.
ABOUT US
I am a Canadian, a retired former Sociology professor. My social and political views crystallized out of my involvement in many different left-wing social and political movements of the 1960s and since. I have spent many decades doing my best to study and understand left-wing movements, and how they both fail and succeed. I created this site because it is the best way, at my age and stage, that I can make my modest contribution to rethinking and strengthening today’s left movements.
MY CURRENT POLITICS IN A PARAGRAPH (but I am rethinking my own views with every post)
Liberty, Equality, Democracy, Peace and Justice for All. Progressive movements everywhere share that core vision of an alternative.
How do we get these things? We need to put an end to systems of imperialism, racism, sexism and homophobia. We need to replace them with a post-capitalist system of some kind yet to be invented.
To make systemic changes, We the People need economic, cultural, military and political decision-making power in every institution in society — in the economy, social institutions and government. This site aims to stimulate debate among progressives about the way forward.
HOW YOU CAN COMMENT
To post a comment, go to the bottom of a post and put your cursor in the Comments white box (in some templates you have to click on Comments to open the comment field). Write your Comment. Click on Post Comment. The ‘Post a Comment’ screen comes up. There are three fields — Name, Email Address and Website Url. Only Name is required. Click on Comment as Guest and you are logged in, and your Comment will be posted. NOTE: If you want to see how your comment will display before posting it, click Preview. Then click on Edit to go back to the Comments box (where you can still edit what you wrote before posting). Post Comment.
If you want to advertise your website or email, you will have to type them into your comment. Note that clickable links are not supported in comments, but you can give your website url as text anyway.
If you want to comment on a specific comment, put your cursor in that posted comment, hover over the small icons and click on the right-most one, Reply.
To show you liked a posted comment, click on the second icon, Like.
To report a comment that is malicious or offensive, click on the first icon, Report.
To read the posted comments in a different order, click on the default Newest First and choose one of Oldest First, Most Liked, Least Liked.
HOW TO NAVIGATE THE SITE
You can scan the home page for the top ten or so most recent posts, pick one, click on Read More, read through, and make a Comment at the end. Clicking on Blog2 returns you to the home page.
Or you can click on Archive to scroll through all the posts on this site in chronological order. Click to open one, read through and make a Comment at the end. Click Blog2 to return to the home page, or Archive again.
Or click on Sites which takes you to a page with an annotated list of links to other progressive (or just useful) sites.
Click on Contact to email me to make suggestions for sites to add, or to flag problems with the site and to suggest improvements, or just to contact me personally.
Both Contact and Subscribe to Our Newsletter are reCAPTCHA protected, so click on ‘I am not a robot’ (you may or may not be asked to pick photos to prove it).
ON A SMARTPHONE, access the navigation links (ReadMe, Blog2, Archive, Contact, Sites) by clicking on the ‘hamburger’ menu (two horizontal lines). On your laptop, they are links in the header and footer.
HOW TO GET NOTIFICATIONS ABOUT NEW CONTENT:
(1) When you have made a comment and hit Post Comment (and then log in to Comment as Guest), you can click on Subscribe via email. You will be notified when someone else adds to the Comment thread (perhaps replying to you). NOTE: You can only Subscribe via email after logging in to Comment as Guest.
(2) Click on one of the social media icons to get notifications of new posts.
(3) Scroll to the bottom of the home page and SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER to get less frequent notifications, plus some other content, emailed to you.
OTHER STUFF
Clicking on Act Now at the upper right of the home page puts you on a site for a current progressive campaign. The default is the site for Progressive International. To win we need a Left that is pluralist but united and organized on two levels at all times, global and local. Progressive International is a global level place where people organizing at the local or single country level can meet and connect. If you know of other such places, please share. Note: You may have to click on the previous tab in your browser to get back to leftactivist.com and/or rethinktheleft.com.
NOTE: If you scroll down to the bottom part of the site you will find old blogposts and some that are notes for a book on the 1960s student movement in (English) Canada that I am working on. Go to SIXTIES STUDENTS: Read Me First and Comment on ‘Other Campuses’ for an explanation, and to comment, if you were in the student movement in Canada then. To read the other SIXTIES STUDENTS posts, click on Archive.
GUIDELINES FOR COMMENTS
Comments are expected to be written with a mind to contributing, in a non-sectarian way, to greater success for left movements and popular struggles for social justice. No abusive assertions or offensive language. No recruitment or marketing advocacy for a particular organization or individual or business product or miracle ideology (but it is fine to say good things about this or that organization or set of ideas). Do not make references to actions by individuals or organizations that could get them into trouble.
HOW TO SEARCH THE SITE
There are two ways to search the site. To be frank, neither will be of much use until there are a large number of blog posts on the site.
SEARCH FIELD Type in a (key)word or word string in the Search field at the bottom of the home page. It will bring up the links to posts that contain that word (string) plus some instances of the word(s) – but not all the instances. It is probably only useful to locate a very specific and uncommon reference, such as a title or proper name. Note that there are clickable Tag or Keyword links at the end of each post that I have assigned.
CATEGORY SEARCH When you are looking at the headline and lead for a blog post on the home page, you will see several clickable ‘category’ words just before Read More. The four categories refer to: (1) the main type of content (Theory/Goals, Strategy/Tactics, Practical Organizing); (2) the level of the analysis (Society, Organization, Individual); (3) the country or region that is the main factual basis (Canada, USA, Britain, Europe, Majority World, Many Places); and (4) the main Movement or Issue Area (e.g. Political Mvt, Anti-Racist, Green. General Left). This is mostly to give you an idea about the content of the post that you don’t already get from the headline and lead. If you click on a category, it will pull up links to all posts that have also been assigned that category.
SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Please read the posts and Comment frequently and thoughtfully. Debate with others through this process. Use Contact to send me sites and other information for the Sites page. And use your social media and other means to tell your friends and colleagues about leftactivist.com and/or rethinktheleft.com.