This group piece is cross-posted from a special group collective piece begun and posted by the wonderful UnaSpenser, an Anti-Capitalist Meetup administrator at TOP. The introduction and first contributor portion are by UnaSpenser. After her leading portion are the contributions of other Anti-Capitalist Meetup group administrators who were able to participate. We hope you will join us if this is your cup of tea every Sunday night at 6 pm Eastern Time.

It is important for groups to revisit the reason they exist, that is, their mission and the principles of operation or conduct which we believe support that mission. Sometimes we need to be reminded. Other times we need to reconsider or refine. We haven’t done this since the founding of the Anti-Capitalist Meetup group, so some of us thought it was time. A group of us will be writing here our own sense of the mission (what purpose it serves) and some of the principles we can live by to support that mission. We encourage others to post a comment in the form of :

For me, USERNAME, the Anti-Capitalist Meetup serves to MISSION STATEMENT. I find that this mission is more likely to succeed when we adhere to the following principles: LIST
In your mission statement you may state it as why you come here and read the diaries, or why you participate in the comment section. Or you may state it as what you have come to understand the mission to be through reading and participating. Principles may be a little more challenging for people to delineate. What are they? Per Dictionary.com:

1. an accepted or professed rule of action or conduct
2. a fundamental, primary, or general law or truth from which others are derived
3. a fundamental doctrine or tenet; a distinctive ruling opinion:
4. principles, a personal or specific basis of conduct or management
5. guiding sense of the requirements and obligations of right conduct
6. an adopted rule or method for application in action
7. a rule or law exemplified in natural phenomena, the construction or operation of a machine, the working of a system, or the like.

From UnaSpenser:

Mission: For me, the Anti-Capitalist Meetup serves as a place for people with a wide variety of radical leftist views to offer thoughtful critiques of capitalism and discuss alternative possibilities for social organization. It’s a place to build solidarity and a common platform for ending the many forms of oppression that are the result of of capitalism, imperialism, hyper-individualism, colonialism and the legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery and replacing that with a more just and sustainable way of being. To that end, finding a way to build a unified front is more important than debating the finer points of our disagreements. I find that it is important to establish a desired human ethic as a foundation from which to discuss what isn’t working in our capitalist world, as well as, the guiding principles for what we’d like to generate in it’s stead. The principles I’d like to see humans living by are the same ones I’d like us to model here in the Anti-capitalist Meetup.

Principles:

Justice is more important than fairness.
Discuss ideas, disagree with ideas, challenge ideas, not the person expressing those ideas.
State concerns about ideas, actions or systems by noting how they don’t serve a social need or do harm.
Offer suggestions for different ideas/actions/systems which meet the intention of the original idea whilst also serving a social need and avoiding harm.
Cooperation
Non-coercion - (I find this one is challenging for people to fully grasp the ways in which coercion is normalized on our social interactions. This is a topic I’d like to see discussed further.)
Respect
Patience
Conflict for the sake of creative, cooperative resolution which serves the group, not battle for who is right
Assume the best and inquire with an ear toward that assumption being correct
Engage conflict for the sake of pushing yourself and for doing self-assessment, not to influence or impact others.

From NY Brit Expat:

For me, the Anti-Capitalist Meetup provides a forum for comrades from different political perspectives on the hard left to come together to discuss and clarify our understanding of the capitalist economic system and bourgeois democracy and to find points upon which we can develop alternative economic, social and political alternatives to the system. For me, the purpose of this is to understand tactical and strategic issues that we can develop to assist with political practice and to work together to fight for both reform and building revolutionary consciousness.

We come from different political traditions on the hard left which have not necessarily worked cooperatively together since the end of the 1st international when first the Anarchists split off and then to the end of the Second International in which revolutionary Marxists and Social democrats split. We need to be able to find a manner of working in which we treat comrades that hold different positions in a comradely and non-sectarian manner.

We will disagree on tactics and strategy, on interpretations of history and lessons learned, we will disagree on what we envisage socialism to be, and we will disagree on how to get there. However, how we relate to those disagreements in a comradely manner where we recognise that disagreement should not lead to personal attack and disparagement is essential.

In all three movements of Social Democracy, Marxism, and Anarchism, there are differences internal to each strand and differences in approach between different strands of the hard left. Invariably, historical enmity and theoretical and practical differences have led (and lead) to sectarianism which leads to impediments in working together on actions and goals that we do share. This then leads to us fighting each other rather than the class enemies and the system that we oppose. We may never agree on a post-capitalist scenario, but we can certainly come together to discuss and develop anti-capitalist work together.

The existence of such a group on a democratic party web-page serves an important role not only for the members of the group. On the one hand, we provide a safe space for comrades of the left to be able to articulate and debate theory, current events, actions. This is incredibly important for the development of our movements. On the other hand, we provide alternative perspectives that simply would not exist on a site. As such, we provide discussions and analyses of current events, the general movement, and ideas that actually can demonstrate that the current economic, social and political system is neither the only system nor immutable.

Principles:

Mutual Respect and comradely behaviour; criticise politically, not the person.
Recognise that we come from different traditions and put forward criticisms without demanding that comrades adopt your point of view. Winning an argument in an aggressive manner is not necessarily a positive outcome. Many comrades do not like aggressive behaviour and will simply opt out of the discussion. This form of argument actually undermines discussion and impacts learning from each other. Many comrades are not used to this form of behaviour and will simply shut down. It shifts discussion to a more bullying rather than comradely form.
We learn from each other and given the various traditions we have to be able to understand that not everyone has the theoretical, historical and practical knowledge to participate; people need to feel safe to contribute. So we need to create a safe space which UnaSpencer addressed in detail above.
While we recognise differences among ourselves politically, that does not mean that everything goes. Racism, sexism/misogyny, homophobia and transphobia and xenophobia are not acceptable in our group and you will be hide-rated for doing so by the group admin. However, since red-baiting is quite common in the US in political discourse (and many people are not even aware of doing it) we will call it out in blogs for the purposes of education of those doing so. Continual red-baiting trolling will be warned, clarified and if necessary further action will be taken by admin.

From Annieli:

All sounds good above, my only addition would be that DK does tolerate ACM for which I am grateful since the DK mission is mainly “more and better Democrats” (as in the Democratic Party of the US).

We do not violate the site rules on third/alternative party advocacy but often we get close to the line if only because the rich history of the US Democratic Party and its affiliates has had extreme left elements as well as sometimes tolerating (sadly and unintentionally) RWNJs. I try to avoid crossing that line if only because as a registered Democrat and technically a trade unionist, I do take the Democratic Party of the US seriously in the absence of any real US alternative in my lifetime.

This to me is ACM’s mission:

“we provide a safe space for comrades of the left to be able to articulate and debate theory, current events, actions.”

History may prove me wrong if certain forces of fascism finally win the electoral day. At that moment I will automatically be a member of a popular front anti-fascist movement.

From Galtisalie:

I like what my comrades have written above very much. Most important to me is that this group provides a readily accessible and loving virtual place for the radical anti-capitalist democratic left and sincere searchers to meet once a week in the belly of the capitalist beast. Once we get here, we can do and accomplish a lot that may not be measurable.

For instance, we can learn from each other and encourage each other. This may include taking the risk of sharing not only theory and practice education but also our unvarnished hopes and dreams for our world, which raises issues of trust. No one likes it when others are disparaging of their hopes and dreams.

My ultimate goal as a socialist is morally sound but seemingly unrealistic (at least under capitalist conditions): liberty, justice, and peace for all people everywhere regardless of legal fictions such as nation states and borders. I want these things for myself, so how can I not in good conscience want them for you and future generations? While I expect capitalist triumphalists to troll and attack me when I voice this “grandiose” dream, and to red bait regarding the supposed lack of a credible socialist alternative, if I did not hope that this group will contribute in some small way to the work toward that goal I wouldn't be involved.

Others in the group may have other ultimate goals and certainly will have other ways of articulating their goals and other ideas for how to work for them. I am multi-tendency and feel a lot of respect for the three tendencies NYBritExpat identified, although I, like others, often do not accept others’ definitions. (For example, I embrace a radical form of “democratic socialism” that borrows from all three tendencies and others and does not accept contemporary “social democracy” to be adequate much less definitive.)

I hope that we can acknowledge past failures and present challenges without becoming callous, impatient, or unforgiving with each other. Critique should not be cold-hearted even though it must be rational. Our journeys as anti-capitalists are often tough and lonely, and we have and will make mistakes, including in this group. I love this imperfect group, in part because it is a small breach in that loneliness.

Living in the Deep South, this group was the first place in my life where I could be called and call others comrade. Anything that detracts from our tender comradeship usually to me signals that we need to look for a loving way to rise above our differences for the good of the loving revolution our world needs. We must live it if we are to have it, which is a prefiguration concept that I like. Solidarity is difficult to have sometimes, but it is ultimately all “we” have. Solidarity, tender comrades!

From MrJayTee:

I like with everything I’ve read so far and I thank you all for your work, your ideas, and your comradeship. Since I have no substantive disagreement on the larger operating principles, I would like specifically to address handling our occasional monomaniacs and inevitable trolls (Venezuela, anyone?).

To me, ACM is a weekly home where comrades of good will can spend time together imagining a greater world and talking and thinking about how it can be made real. This doesn’t mean we can, or should, demand isolation or reject contrary opinions, but we also have a right and a responsibility to preserve an atmosphere were serious but freewheeling hard leftist perspectives have their well-deserved chance to breathe.

I propose a unified response to the red-baiters and ignorant spammers who feel they must lecture us, creatively redirecting them with with Marx quotes, recipes, pictures of Rosa, etc. Shut them down and leave them out.

While I love the idea of attracting people of good will who don’t share all or even most of our views, this is not group therapy. I feel no duty at all to try to bring out their bright side, engage them creatively, or undertake any pretense of orthopedic Marxism. I want to spend my time and energy talking about hard leftism and saving the world.

I also note that some members and frequent participants can get into an ideological rut, where the same issues and complaints become the substance of their contribution, often lecturing the group on the superiority of their particular stream, or its claims to historic injury. I find this tiresome and melodramatic, and I’d like to see limits placed on this, too. We are here to understand, educate, and explore, not to use the group as a personal stage.

Having said all that, I never doubt the values and commitment most of us bring to the group. I love our little house in the woods and I want to keep it reasonable tidy so that members and guests both can be a part of our world. Ultimately I think we do more good for ourselves and others both.