In our rapidly changing political, ecological and cultural landscape, people are routinely confronted with a choice: either fight back and get involved, or keep one’s head down and trudge along. For those who decide to fight back, balancing life and activism is a vitally important task.

Life, in all its spectacular diversity and difficulty, becomes that much more challenging when one is involved with political movements. After all, constant discussions and actions surrounding climate change, war and poverty can take its toll on the body and psyche. Yet, there are several steps people can take to remain engaged in a healthy and productive fashion.

Discipline

I became politically active after returning from war. For me, politics represented a new battlefield, a battlefield of ideas, ethics, morals and so on; my new weapons were books, pencils, microphones and keyboards. Yet, before long, I found that my military training and experience provided useful skills and lessons for my newfound passion: politics.

Without question, the majority of successful people, including activists and organizers, are also very disciplined people. Indeed, discipline is essential for those hoping to become, or remain, politically involved. However, discipline doesn’t start with a direct action, or protest, it starts in one’s day-to-day life: health, family, friends, work, leisure, etc.

For example, how can someone be politically active if they’re unhealthy? Of course, there are those who are unhealthy and simultaneously engage in political work, but the real question is: could their work be more effective if they were physically and emotionally healthier?

Surely it doesn’t make any sense for activists to be alcoholics, nor does it make sense for them to eat junk food or habitually gamble. Without question, people engaged in political work should attempt to live as healthy as humanly possible in order to maximize their potential and remain engaged in a protracted struggle.

To be clear, I’m not saying that people should dedicate their lives to eating kale or going to the gym seven days a week. That being said, eating healthy and working out requires a certain level of discipline: waking up, going to the gym, keeping a routine, going to the grocery store and cooking healthy meals can’t happen without properly managing one’s time and remaining disciplined. The healthier the activist, the more potent their work.

If people can learn how to manage their day-to-day lives in a more productive manner, it will become much easier to pass on organizing skills, knowledge, ideas and so forth. Undoubtedly, it’s vitally important to be able to give someone a task, or set of tasks, and know, without doubt, that these tasks will be completed on time and with high quality. Indeed, it’s not a coincidence that the political organizers I can count on, those who produce quality work, also manage their lives in a disciplined fashion.

Waking up on time, and going to sleep at a reasonable hour in order to be productive, is not a “square” thing to do, it’s the responsible thing to do for anyone hoping to organize, or aid, political movements. And it requires discipline: knowing when to party and relax, and knowing when to buckle-down and put in the hours is a key trait of successful people, organizations and movements.

Without doubt, the police are disciplined and organized, so is the military. The government and corporate sectors are disciplined and organized, and the same could be said of religious organizations. Yes, these entities and institutions make mistakes, but they largely get what they want, and that’s not because they’re disorganized, undisciplined or unable to manage their time.

My favorite comedian, Bill Hicks, used to say, “Conservatives are up at the crack of dawn ready to fuck the world while my left-wing friends wake up at noon with a hangover.” To put differently, our enemies are organized, disciplined and committed, are we?

Navigating Personal and Political Relationships

Developing and maintaining healthy and productive relationships is one of the most important tasks of an organizer — both personally, and professionally. To put differently, how can organizers effectively mobilize communities if their own personal relationships are in utter disarray? They can’t, and they won’t.

Over the years, I’ve regularly encountered organizers whose work was derailed by personal problems, particularly intimate relationships gone awry. Without question, it takes wisdom to effectively navigate relationships, to determine when they are useful, when they are not. Similarly, activists encounter the same struggles in their political work: which groups and individuals to work with, which to avoid?

Sure, some of those answers will come with experience. Yet, experience doesn’t necessarily mean that activists and organizers will work with useful groups or people. Here, I think it’s crucial for people to determine which political relationships and partnerships make strategic sense, and which do not. To be honest, understanding these nuances doesn’t require much work, just a bit of insight.

For instance, if my local antiwar group is looking to gain new members, or reach out to the broader non-activist community, does it make strategic sense for sectarian groups to pass out banal literature and espouse their dogmatic ideological beliefs? The answer, obviously, is a resounding no.

In reality, none of this is hypothetical. Back in 2013, when President Obama was seeking approval from the US Congress to bomb Syria, there were several antiwar protests in Chicago. Unfortunately, many of these events were organized by a local Maoist group, sectarian to the bone, and unwilling to criticize the Assad regime.

I brought a friend to the event, someone who was new to activism. Eventually, she asked, “Why are some of these protestors holding pictures of Assad and waving Syrian flags?” Frustrated, I simply said, “Some of these people are nuts.” After a few minutes, I told her, “This is a good lesson as to which organizations you’ll want to work with in the future, and which organizations you should avoid.”

She looked at me, smiled, and responded by saying, “Well, that sorta sounds like ex-partners, partners and potential partners. You gotta know which ones to avoid, which ones make good friends, and which ones you enjoy spending time with!”

Battling the Culture of Fun

In our highly propagandized society, the concept of fun takes on a detrimental cultural function, as people are encouraged to forget about the world’s problems, hence their own problems, and party the night away.

A quick glance at any TV commercial, and it becomes very clear that fun is the message — it’s the end-all-be-all of our hedonistic consumer capitalist experience. Whether selling cars or jeans, the marketing and advertising professionals peddle the notion that life is a party, or as the pop-culture saying goes, “YOLO” (You Only Live Once).

Unfortunately, fragments of this ideology have been passed on to the activist community, for having a good time and enjoying one’s self often replaces meaningful actions, which will likely require sacrifice and commitment. To be clear, sacrifice and commitment are the antithesis of the Culture of Fun. Turns out, resisting and eventually replacing the world’s most powerful and oppressive institutions isn’t always a gas. However, we must be careful, as we don’t seek to prescribe depression. As it stands, plenty of activists and organizers are depressed and cynical.

That being said, I’ve learned over the years that many people are more than willing to show up to cultural events, art installations or house parties, but quite unwilling to perform menial tasks, such as phone calling, writing grants, knocking on doors, fundraising, developing strategy, regularly attending meetings, etc. This, by several accounts, is a major problem in the activist world.

All in all, I agree with Emma Goldman: I don’t want a revolution unless we can dance. On the other hand, in order to foment a revolution, people must perform tasks that aren’t fun, so they can eventually dance.

On a side note, with regard to the concept of fun, activists and organizers should mimic the mentality and behaviors of athletes, musicians or farmers, to name a few potential examples. These folks, at least those performing at a high level, put in the time, so they can eventually celebrate their accomplishments. That’s the model we should be using in the political world.

Like farmers, activists should have the discipline to complete their tasks while also being able to enjoy their work, knowing that they’re providing an essential service/function for society. Like an athlete, activists should know that a few extra hours of practice, or developing one’s skills, is the difference between victory and defeat. And like musicians, activists should understand that perfecting the art of politics is a lifelong, if not impossible task, yet more than worthwhile and fruitful in nature.

Preparing to Win

I bring up these issues not to complain or patronize activists, I pass on these reflections with love and admiration for those who dedicate themselves to political struggles for emancipation. In the end, I want our movements to be more vibrant and successful — to that end, I hope these reflections are useful.

Unfortunately, our movements rarely use terms like discipline or commitment, but I think we should, as those practices should be expected from people involved with political movements.

Additionally, many leftists have a hard time navigating groups who are unhelpful, as our movements are usually small and always seeking more support. Here, the ability to effectively navigate relationships is an important trait for organizers to possess. Lastly, it’s important for activists and organizers to reject the Culture of Fun, as that culture is not conducive to serious political movements.

Yes, we should encourage people to enjoy themselves while conducting political work, but people also need a reason to enjoy themselves, and you know what’s really fun? Winning.

Indeed, only through hard work, discipline and commitment can we move from hoping to win, to preparing to win.

Vincent Emanuele is a writer, activist and radio journalist who lives and works in the Rust Belt. He is a member of UAW Local 1981 and can be reached at vincent.emanuele333@gmail.com  

Vincent Emanuele

Vincent Emanuele is a combat veteran, writer, and activist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Vincent testified to U.S. Congress in 2008 about war crimes and atrocities after refusing a third deployment to Iraq with the United States Marine Corps. Since then, he has worked with a wide range of social movements, community organizations, and labor unions. His writings and interviews have been featured in ZNet, CounterPunch, Alternet, TruthOut, and Verso. Vincent is also a contributor to the anthology ‘Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America’s Misguided Wars’ (Metropolitan, 2022). He can be reached at vincent.emanuele333@gmail.com