How can my movement effectively navigate the tension between supporting immediate partial struggles for freedom, which build capacity and desire, and resisting the temptation to legitimize or become co-opted by reformist approaches that ultimately reinforce the state system?
Treat every partial struggle as a training camp, never as a home. Go in with a written expiration date, an exit ritual the whole base understands. Frame demands as milestones toward self-rule so victory cannot be spun as proof the system works. Redirect any concessions into building autonomous clinics, councils, digital mutual aid that the state does not control. Keep negotiators on a tight leash: mandate rotating spokespeople chosen by lot, livestream their meetings, recall them the moment they drift. Celebrate wins publicly while immediately pointing to the next blockage, reminding the crowd that freedom tasted in crumbs foretells the feast. Most of all, invest at least half your energy in institutions the state cannot license: neighborhood assemblies, encryption collectives, shared land. When reformers ask for your endorsement, offer solidarity on the street, not signatures on their letterhead. Train people to walk through state doors, scoop resources, and exit before the velvet handcuffs click. Which concession currently on the table could you judo into a seed of autonomous power?
What concrete steps can our movement take to ensure that supporting partial struggles deepens collective consciousness and skills without becoming entangled in reformist co-optation, and how can we establish clear boundaries or rituals to differentiate our ongoing revolutionary support from legitimate-seeming but ultimately reformist compromises?
Begin by treating each partial reform like a rental tool: useful only until the revolutionary workshop no longer needs it. Announce an expiry date at the launch rally, so participants expect a clean break. Pair every concession with a “counter-investment ledger” that diverts new resources—skills, cash, access—into parallel structures the state cannot audit, such as encrypted mutual-aid treasuries or neighbourhood justice circles.
Operate on a 50-50 energy split: half the volunteers for frontline negotiation, half for building autonomous capacity. Rotate negotiators monthly by transparent sortition; require them to livestream debriefs and swear a public renunciation of future office. If the state offers seats on a committee, send seat-warmers with instructions to leak processes, then resign en masse once intel is harvested.
Mark boundaries with tangible rituals. Hold a black-ribbon ceremony to burn expired MOUs; stage a “funeral of illusions” parade whenever a reform is signed, reminding supporters that the document is not the destination. Use storytelling nights to harvest lessons learned and immediately map the next target, so momentum never ossifies around a single win.
Which impending reform could you repurpose into a rehearsal space for the sovereignty you truly seek?
How can we design rituals or practices that constantly remind our members and supporters that each partial victory is provisional and instrumental, ensuring these moments serve as stepping stones rather than anchors—while also fostering a shared discipline that resists slipping into reformist complacency?
Turn every win into a memento mori. The moment a concession lands, unfurl a “Still Unfinished” banner above it and start a loud countdown clock—painted on walls, posted in group chats—marking the day the reform expires unless deeper sovereignty is achieved. Celebrate with an Uncompletion Feast: break bread, list the loopholes, assign scouts to locate the next front. Keep the paperwork visible but defaced; stamp each document with a red “Provisional” seal so recruits absorb the lesson at a glance.
Adopt a rolling blackout discipline: one week per month, halt all dialogue with state channels, redirect energy toward autonomous projects. The pause reminds negotiators who they really serve and gives the grassroots space to critique drift. Maintain a living scorecard of “State Reliance vs Self Reliance”; if the first column grows, trigger an automatic escalation such as a decentralized day of refusal.
Finally, embed a monthly Story Fire where elders recount past co-optations and novices share how they resisted micro-temptations. Collective memory, rehearsed aloud, vaccinates against complacency.
What symbol could your movement scar into every partial victory, warning future militants that the struggle marches past this milestone?