Socialists & Rural Workers: A How to Guide
How the Left should reach out to and fight for rural working class people
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The information and steps in this piece should NOT be attempted by anyone who hasn’t spent a part of their life living in or working with rural workers & communities. That, or, has not spent a part of their life living in, organizing in, or working with high crime areas. If attempted with a group as intended, one of the people involved needs to have experience in this kind of community and must guide the others of the group.
Introduction:
The following information in this piece can be acknowledged and applied in and outside rural communities. It is just largely effective in rural communities.
The Left, specifically Socialists & Communists, for much of American history have been deeply involved in rural worker’s lives. Sadly, with the fall of the Communist movement, and rise of “New Left” and radical-liberal groups and beliefs, the rural communities have become abandoned and a vacuum which the far-right has flooded into. This was the goal of the far-right and establishment; to systemically & culturally undermine the revolutionary movement from reaching workers in areas the government abandoned, while leaving the frustrations to be poisoned by the far-right who are as much an enemy of the workers as the system itself. It is no mistake that the “New Left” is poisoned by the same liberalism, as liberals attack rural workers for being backwards and unworthy of aid or assistance, arguing they need to be “civilized,” the same language of the colonizing, imperialist system.
Thus, because of this, it is clear the only way the rural communities can be reached by revolutionary beliefs and activists, is it must be headed by the Marxist-Leninists and revolutionary socialists; and not the “Leftist” whose values are in line with radical liberalism.
-Why Rural Workers NEED to be Approached & Fought for:
Let it be fully understood, any argument or attempt to dissuade reaching out to rural workers is arguing from the perspective of the far-right and the establishment. The rural workers are no different in their class relation to the city workers; just like city workers need to be fought for, so do rural workers. We should not tolerate arguments shared by the government and fascists to keep our movement from aiding those in need.
Even if the fascists wasn’t involved in rural communities and keeping the Left from reaching into them, it still would not change the fundamental fact that rural workers can not be abandoned if a revolutionary movement aims to win liberation. Every Socialist revolution that was successful, was successful with both the active participation of city and rural workers, and the active sabotage of soldiers who launched mutiny against the military.
60 million Americans live in rural communities, that is around 19% of the US population (2024). Despite being smaller than the working class community in the cities & outskirts, rural communities are vital to survival; since much of the food, natural resources, manufacturing and supply chains come from and/or runs through these communities. Sacrificing the rural communities is on par with betraying the revolution as a whole and cutting off the life-lines of successful revolution.
Additionally, the rural communities show a rich history of revolutionary sentiment and extreme suffering under capitalism. Even today, conditions in rural communities have rural workers highly aware of their class struggle, but lack guidance on how to fight for their class. These communities have been abandoned by the government and worthwhile job opportunities, honestly they never really was even offered it to begin with.
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-The history of:
The Battle of Blair Mountain: 10,000 West Virginia coal miners march in protest of perilous work conditions, unpleasant housing and low wages, among other grievances. One of the largest civil uprisings in US history. The coal miners began to unionize against the authority of the coal company & county; which lead to deputized townspeople, armed businessmen, both local & federal law enforcement, and the US Army showing up to oppose and gun down the coal miners. Around 50-100 coal miners was killed in this fight.
The Populist Party: the populist movement of the 1890’s with the Populist Party was especially important for rural workers as the Populist Party was formed by farmers and laborers to fight economic hardships of rural communities.
Farm Labor Organizing Committee: FLOC was formed in 1967 to improve the working conditions of Midwest farm laborers.
Farmworkers’ Rights Movement: Led by Cesar Chavez & Dolores Huerta, this movement aimed to improve the rights & conditions of agricultural workers in the US.
Eugene Debs: Debs, a popular socialist leader born in small town Terre Haute, Indiana, argued and organized for both urban and rural workers in the US. A man involved with both the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Socialist Party USA (SPUSA) and ran for president 5 times in his life, he is a well known American socialist with a history that shows dedication to workers in all communities.
Not to mention the incredibly long history of labor unions in the US, and labor union busting by the US and companies, which much of dealt with rural workers and industrial workers.
This rich history is exactly why rural workers need to be fought for.
It is no mistake that the media, especially liberal institutions and propaganda, paint the rural communities as nothing but bigoted, hateful Klanmen and uneducated “hicks,” generalizing them all as “lost” and “unsalvageable.” It is also no surprised the “new left” which is a byproduct of the communists being mass attacked & largely removed from the left by the establishment, which is also a byproduct of liberalized “left” values taking over, has also largely adopted this backwards and generalizing position. There is as much if not more klansmen, racists and uneducated people in cities as there is in rural communities; this attempt to divide working class communities by making one seem smarter and higher value than the other is a tactic as old as civilization itself. The language and narrative of regarding rural workers in such a way is no different from colonialist language of dehumanizing a group to normalize lack of empathy or concern for our fellow workers. It is, by no mistake, an obvious division tactic by the wealthy & establishment.
Additionally, there is the Marxist-Leninist understanding of rural workers & “peasants.” Peasants referenced in Marxist-Leninist theory was largely from an agrarian society point of view, as all the top Leninist writers whose contributed to this literature lived under agrarian style societies. The same characteristics of the agrarian peasant is similar to the modern day rural workers & farmers, who can fall into petite-bourgeois or proletarian status depending on their relation to the land and labor. Much of the rural communities are proletariat, especially a much more exploited and impoverished segment of the proletariat. Which gives them a higher likelihood of revolutionary sentiments due to their conditions.
How to Approach Rural Workers & Their Communities:
The following steps will detail the way you should build community and organize within rural communities.
-Communal Bonding Before Political Discussion:
You need to understand that if you aren’t from that rural community, or any community you attempt to influence in general really, they aren’t going to trust you and it would be incompetent to think they should. If you come into their spaces immediately with political dialogue, you’re just going to anger many of them; because they’re going to see you as an outsider coming in trying to force your point of view into their lives for your own goals instead of building with them on their personal struggles.
You as a socialist serve them, not the other way around. If you can’t accept your role as a revolutionary to fight for others, then you aren’t a revolutionary - You’re an opportunist.
If you aren’t from that community, relocate there (or at least nearby) and begin building a bond there. I would recommend doing this with at least 2 or 3 people, which is why organizing is suppose to be done with a group/party. Allows more range of influence and increases safety.
No individualism. Like it or not, we understand in sociology that everyone judges and is biased immediately based on appearance.
The way you dress and act will either bring people towards you or drive them away. Absolutist individualism, such as dressing, talking or countering points in a way that push against the norm, is the easiest way to make people judge you before you even introduce yourself and make them double down against you.Do NOT immediately begin talking politics - if asked questions, keep it centered on class political points mainly dealing with common issues in the community, or at least from that angle. You want to build a bond with the community and be known by them before starting to shift political views. I would recommend living in and building bonds with the community for a total of 4 months before getting into more overt political discussions. I would also encourage talking about certain topics and avoiding others depending on bond with a person and their values. Organizing in a community that isn’t your original should be something you and your group should invest in before beginning it.
If discussions ever get heated, just remind that you want a civil discussion, that there is no need for anger between friends. De-escalation is necessary during political discussions, regardless if its with rural communities or city communities. Learn de-escalation methods and always center the discussion on common ground objectives if the discussion gets out of hand, treat the person you disagree as a close friend, as the objective is building strong and close bonds with them.
You need to understand - rural workers are, rightfully, deeply distrusting of outsiders due to past experiences. Rural communities have been subject to government or suburban city people coming in and saying “we’re here to help” and then steal from them, or criticize them and mock their way of life for being different or impoverished. You have to be able to integrate and feel part of their community and build trust with them, then politics can flow from there.
Be prepared to see poverty on a level unlike any other. The poverty of rural communities is comparable to many third world nations. What any other nation would call “slums” and lack of development or infrastructure, is an everyday reality of American rural communities.
Be prepared to see a substantial lack of police. Since these communities are often small towns and cities ranging anywhere from 50 to 5k people, police presence is often low and crime can often go unnoticed or under reported. Rural communities often deal with criminal behaviors on their own, which is also why rural people are often armed.
Represent an organization once you begin organizing and being political openly after establishing yourself. Organizing by yourself (in or outside rural communities) is functionally useless. What builds powerful movements is having organizations or places to direct people. Mass movement happens with powerful institutions to build that mass power, that dual power.
-The Liberal Way is Self-Destructive:
Rural communities, as a majority, HATE liberals and liberal institutions. This is because of the smug, self-righteous and hateful attitudes many liberals have towards rural people and communities. Regarding them as “uneducated” or “violent racists” or “hicks and rednecks” and so on. Every stereotype of rural people is the 24/7 point of view liberals operate from.
Any behavior or element of this smug, self-righteousness will immediately turn the community against you as word will spread like a wild fire since these communities are small and everyone knows everyone. This is why first impressions are of high tantamount.
Any prejudice or bias you may have of rural people and their communities, purge it before going into their spaces, as even the slightest hint of it, will make them second guess your reasons for being there. You have to have a solid “poker face” and ability to plan and influence based on longevity.
-Be Armed:
Since I mentioned that rural communities lack police and crime is often higher and under reported or addressed, being armed is necessary.
Be armed, be trained in firearm self-defense and hand-to-hand combat. Reactionaries exist everywhere. The suburbs are not the only place where Nazis exist, despite that’s where a large portion of them are. Due to lack of police, rural communities have become breeding grounds for criminal activities involving multiple notorious city gangs, the Klan, Nazis and so on.
-Do Not Go Out At Night:
Rural communities are dangerous at night as many predatory animals hunts at night for any potential prey. To a bobcat or bear, there is nothing different in their eyes between you and a deer. Don’t let that “top of the food chain” ego get to you.
Besides from animals, as I said, many rural communities have become grounds that gangs, Klan members and Nazis operate in due to lack of police. Night time is hours of operation where they will be moving supplies, or even targeting people.
Even if the community isn’t a sundown town, some criminal elements might still act on their own volition despite it being widely disliked or enforced against by local authorities.
I’d Recommend The Following Guide to Study & Build off of:
Belong to an organization, pick a few comrades who will take part in this objective.
Location a town/city within the rural parts of your state/country. Do reconnaissance and study the location in depth for a total of 3 weeks to 2 months. If necessary, visit and get some visuals of how this town/city operates and its dominant groups or beliefs.
Plan and create a bank account to pool funds (arguably 10k or more) for moving into and staying in the town for a while, search for employment there to keeps stable funds coming in while operating in this town. Employment will also help dispel any suspicion that you are an outsider.
Move into the town/city into a home/rental you picked based on convenience to everything and affordability.
Begin attending bars, libraries, community center meetings, any social gathering that can make you a familiar face and friendly resident. Even a local job can help with this, as it means your involvement with coworkers and customers will build you a reputation.
Discuss with people there on common interests; sports, cars, hunting, etc. Don’t immediately jump into politics until they bring it up, keep discussion vague but worker or history focused. Reply normally, not as if you was talking to fellow communists or being “preachy” about socialism/communism.
Study and find out the organizations within the region. Both organizations you can radicalize, like unions or worker focused community groups, and organizations to avoid or defend against, like the Klan or Nazi groups.
Run reconnaissance on different businesses, union groups, and other areas you may be able to reach out to and join, influence their workers, etc.
Once you’ve established yourself in the community, built a positive reputation with most of the town/city, you can begin being more open with your political values. Start slow, begin strongly focusing on working class solidarity and left-wing populist messages against the state and wealthy. Once people you influence begin aligning more and more with you, you can begin being more openly socialist. Use Socialist history and geopolitics as examples in showing the fight of the socialist movement for the working class masses.
Organizing with an Organization as an Objective:
I stressed earlier to do this effort with an organization, I can’t stress this enough.
Once you have influenced the community towards these socialist/communist values, you need to direct them towards an organization in order to keep building up the duel power in the country, to which their community will play a part.
Every person you convince to socialist or communist politics, they’ll be interested in getting more involved. You need to direct them to the organization you are with that’s involved in this work on building workers power. Once they join, you can begin building a club in this area, which can act as defenders for people’s needs in the community.
Once a club for this town/city reaches 10-15 members, begin planning and building structures. Programs that can provide needs for people. Such as tenant unions, food programs, construction programs, union representatives, consulting, firearms classes, financial advisers, etc.
Remember: Individualism will never build power, we must build as a collective.
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