I’ve already touched on how radicals that refuse self-affiliation are perceived by their comrades: we’re assumed to be reactionaries, disorganized, people that weaken the movement, and of course often “not radical enough.” While it’s usually our RCP/WWP/SPART counterparts that enjoy partaking in this diagnosis on the whole, I’ve personally encountered more of this from self-procliamed anarchists, which is funny considering by their very nature they strive to be unassimilated in any particular “-ism” (other than anarchism, of course… which I think is where the true contradictions really manifest).

So I’ve drawn up some points about being a nomadic leftist, what we stand for, where the misconceptions lie, and how we are just as important in any social justice movement as any Leaderist or self-affiliating radical.

I’ll be adding more points as I think of them. I’ll also post any new points I get in comment form. But for now, let’s start with these:

1) We have chosen to be nomads because we have not yet found an “-ism” that fits our ideologies. Or maybe we just haven’t found one that accepts a few ideological differences within its own ranks.

2) We are not divisive by our very nature.  On the contrary, we have chosen to work towards unity beyond the confines of the usual sectarian brands of Leadersism and self-affiliation we have become so fatigued by.

3) We reject sectarianism in all its forms and believe no true movement of the masses be organized while simultaneously building up petty ideological walls to ensure it’s “our” brand of radicalism that will lead the masses into revolution/momentous social and political change. We believe that sectarian is ripe with harmful identity politics, and that the evolution of sectarianism will only result in more splits between organized groups until every single person has their own wall built up around them.

4) We are not reactionaries. We are not venturists. We are not confused, we are not overly-stubborn, uneducated, misinformed, and we do not lack legitimate ideologies or beliefs. We are passionate about what we believe and true to ourselves, whether or not any other human being ascribes to our beliefs 100%.

5) We love our ideological differences. We don’t only accept them, we embrace them. We discuss them. We are willing to change our ideas if, through intelligent discourse, we are convinced that an opposing idea better fits our mission. But we do not cut off association with those who believe differently than ourselves and do not become convinced of our conflicting points of view. We are not so stuck in our own set of ideals that we cannot see the other side of things; on the contrary, we believe hearing conflicting ideals is the only way to reach unity and struggle together to achieve our goals. We are aware most Party leaders (such as RCP Chairperson Bob Avakain) claim to ascribe to this belief, but we believe they have yet to prove it to us in a pro-active manner.

6) We do not spend “too much time talking” and “not enough time acting.” We believe our situation today requires immediate radical action, but we also value the time not spent in the streets for discussion, debate, and discovering new routes to reach more people and lead us in new directions.

7) We value the work Marxist-Leaderist groups such as the ISO, RCP, WWP, etc, and strive to build strong connections with them all. Similarly, we value all forms of anarchism, Marxism, radicalism, anti-racism, feminism, and any other -ism with similar goals as ours. We believe our differences lie not in the ends, but in the means of our movement building.

8 ) We are not “overly-PC.” Our goal is not to give every single ideological belief equal importance in our minds, but to be able to decide for ourselves with beliefs make the most since to us as individuals, which ones we choose to embody; therefore it is important to give each ideological belief equal thought before deciding for ourselves if it makes sense or not. We are not afraid to openly criticize those beliefs that we cannot personally embody.

9) We are not “trash talking” when we criticize your group. If we ever criticize your group’s political/ideological beliefs, our goal is to be constructive and help ourselves and others find truth, not to wage an ideological war against you.

10) We are not “spineless” if, through discussion and constructive debate, we reevaluate our beliefs and find we may have been wrong about a few things and change what we believe. In fact, most of us do this often, and we believe the Left would be much stronger and more united if we were all able to do this regularly.

11) Just because we are nomads does not mean we do not by definition identify with any particular -ism. We can be Marxists. We can be feminists. We can be anti-racists. We can be anarchists. We do not contradict ourselves by ascribing to any set of ideals. Our decisions to be nomads simply reflect a certain amount of ideological mobility within the traditional confines of these -isms.
E.G. Smith