I’ve been a communist for quite a while now, but it really seems that my “activism” has solely been focused on arguing with people online. I’ve attended one public meeting organized by a local pro-Palestinian organisation, that’s it.
A big portion of the reason for that is most likely me being lazy, but I feel that’s not the whole story here. You see here in Estonia, a nation the size of a small city anywhere else in the world, there are zero outlets for real left wing activism (besides the pro-Palestinian organisation I mentioned before).
I’ve made this kind of post before, i failed to find a satisfying answer. Nearly all of them required a pre-existing foundation onto which something could be built — that does not exist here. Decades of neoliberal indoctrination, nationalist posturing and the hollowing out of whatever was left of the old communist parties have led here.
The attitude has drastically shifted to the right, people openly talk about the Russian minority being a problem needing to be dealt with. Everything is couched in euphemisms, of course. But the message is understood. After all, imagine the alternative! “Little green men”, as they like to call them, creating a fifth column inside the nation. How horrible!
I’ll reiterate the title — what do I do? As much as I’d love to just create the vanguard party, that is not realistic. If that were feasible, then the world revolution would have already been completed. A party needs mass backing, it cannot simply be 1 or 2 people deciding to soap box. A party also cannot just be created, it needs to form. It is an organic growth, something that responds to it’s environment and adapts to it. You cannot plant a flower seed in infertile soil, in the wrong season, and then expect it to miraculously blossom that night. If it is necessary to branch out from the level of a book club, then that will be done. If the situation proves a vanguard necessary, and the prerequisite organisation is there, only then is the formation of a vanguard even to be considered.
On that note, where do I begin then? I do not even know where to find like-minded individuals, such spaces simply do not exist.
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The pro Palestine group might be a good place to start. You could start a reading group, staring with books on Palestine, then colonialism and imperialism, then some socialist theory.
It also helps that (I think) two of the resistance groups are communist/socialist. So it would be worthwhile for OP to study those groups and their contribution to the struggle now and in the past. Everyone knows Hamas (seeing how basically all media paints them as the whole of Palestinian revolution) and should be made more aware of really all of them. Might at least be good starting point and better show how shared efforts are needed to fight imperialism.
Even a social club and reading group would be something, as it is an organization that can griw, adopt positions, hold lines, and mobilize when events call you to action. It can also act as a group that eventually splits to form a party (or if you are very effective, becomes a party).
So you can start just that small: regular social events (picnics, meeting at a beer hall, etc) and regular reading group sessions. It can start with just a handful of people and grow from there. This will also organically teach everyone involved some organizing skills if you rotate responsibilities like booking venues, leading discussions, handling disagreements and conflicts, evaluating and explaining political materials.
The nice thing about starting there is that you don’t need to call yourself the vanguard party if that feels LARPy. You don’t have to take yourselves too seriously, it is literally a social club and reading group. But you may find that you can and want to build something more active and serious with a subset of comrades from such an organization.
if i were you i would make more contacts with people at the pro palestinian organisation, and join them probably. a communist vanguard party is not the only way to organise.
do delivery drivers not exist in estonia or are they happy? there is journalism, but that’s like whatever and needs some affinity for talking to people
surely there is 0.1% of commies somewhere.
Haven’t met any commies in person, though I’ve interacted with a few online
