The End of History: A Grassroots Quest

[TheInnerMoon]

The year is 1992. The past fifteen years or so have seen some massive political changes sweep across the world, setting the stage for a new epoch in capitalist history.

The great period of change arguably started back in the 1970s, when a long period of 'stagflation' brought an end to the post-war Keynesian social compact. The old mode of class compromise was swept away in favor of what many are calling 'neoliberalism', a diffuse set of ideologies focused on privatizing public assets, disciplining organized labor, and facilitating the free flow of goods and capital.

So far, this new wave of neoliberal politics has been a massive success, at least by its own metrics. Its crowning jewel is the ongoing liberalization of the Chinese economy–although the recent crackdown at Tiananmen Square has cast that development into doubt.

In the meantime, the old Soviet model of the central command economy has proven itself thoroughly decrepit, with Brezhnevian involution giving way to the desperate reforms of Gorbachev. Unfortunately, these efforts ultimately proved futile, and the constituent states of the Soviet Union have now decided to go their own way. Whatever fate will befall them remains to be seen, although recent events in nearby Yugoslavia don't inspire much optimism.

And what of the United States, the unrivaled hegemon of this new world order? Well, certain public intellectuals have taken its geopolitical triumph to signify an absolute End of History, with democratic capitalism being the final form of society itself. Of course, even within the US itself, there are those who would dispute this hubristic claim. Either they consider 'democratic capitalism' to be a theoretical oxymoron, or they see enough real injustice in their daily lives to vanquish any belief in 'the System' as such. Often, it's both.

In this quest, you will give voice to these people, as they confront the capitalist-imperialist beast from within its tumultuous belly. Whatever their strategy, though, this will not be an easy fight, especially in this age of liberal triumphalism. But still, if there is any change to be had in this world, it must start at the grassroots. And that's where you are.

Please present your organization proposal in the following format:

• Name
• Locale (please confine it to a specific city or county within the US, or write in 'distributed' if this is one of those rare early internet orgs)
• Aims and strategies (what does the org want, and how does it think this can be achieved)
• Optional: affiliated organizations

Real-life organizations, or those which have a particularly plausible founding in terms of the locale and/or the people involved, will be given preference.

After a sufficient amount of proposals have been presented, a voting round will commence, where the top 5 proposals by preferential voting will become the starting organizations.

 

[TheInnerMoon]

Hi everyone, and welcome to what will already be my fourth quest on this forum. By my own admission, I am quite enamored with the format, and starting new stories often feels more exciting than continuing existing ones. Rest assured that my other quests (Uncommon Wealth, Xenopoiesis, and Dark Learning) will still continue. As I've mentioned before, each of these appeal to a different niche of my intersecting interests, and I mostly write by whatever strikes my fancy on a given day. That also means that the present quest might update somewhat sporadically, especially since I expect it to require more outright research than my other works.

As you can probably tell, this quest is very much inspired by The American Experiment, a wonderful riot quest about fomenting revolution in the Gilded Age US. This is to some extent a parallel history to its suppositions, set about a century hence in a New Gilded Age of neoliberalism. One of my intentions is to make this period seem as alien as it ought to be, even if it's one that many of us have lived through. Now that we're finally coming out of some of the neoliberal epoch into something scarier, I thought it a good moment to point out the ultimate fragility of its self-satisfied rule. Neoliberalism only lasted so long because it convinced us all that There Was No alternative, and because it spent so much of its capacities on disarming any suggestion to the country. By setting out the present alternate history scenario (one which you will partly make yourself, but one which is also guided by my thesis that History is Stranger than Fiction), I hope to make you more optimistic about our actual future, or at least more interested in taking action against our bankrupt overlords.

A caveat upfront: given the infinite granularity of history, I can't be sure that anything I present in the following is even remotely plausible. Given the inherently narrative nature of the alternate history genre, I'm not even sure that it should be. Still, I want to at least impart a sense of verisimilitude, and this implies certain restrictions. Unlike The American Experiment, I don't expect any kind of Revolution to break out in the first ten (or even twenty) turns of this quest, if it happens at all. This quest is about the hard work of building lasting movements for change, something which many of us struggle with in real life. This is not to say that large historical changes aren't achievable here; we'll just have to see where the chips fall when they do.

Also, given the aforementioned burden of historical research, much of which is so recent as to be within the realm of journalism rather than academic history, I expect that the writing of this quest could be frustratingly slow-paced. What could help it speed up, and could moreover break up the monotony of my writing, are your various contributions in the forms of omakes. All are welcome, though not all will be declared canon. I may also defer to your historical expertise, if that's something you'd volunteer for. I don't have the time or the attention span to work out every alternate House or Senate election, for instance, at least not beyond the basic political balance. If that's something you want to focus on, go right ahead.

For now, I await your organization proposals. Good luck!

 

[TheInnerMoon]

Ah, and lest I forget, I was also very much inspired by The American Decay, itself a spinoff off The American Experiment set in 2008, and by two alternate history timelines focused on Perot's Reform Party and the US Green Party respectively. Both of them are more electoral in orientation than I'd like to be here, but at least they show how slowly or how quickly a political system like that of the US can change.

Finally, if you want to have another place to comment on this quest (or any of my other ones), I have a dedicated channel in the Wordsmiths Discord server.

 

[TheInnerMoon]

Okay, with nine options in, vote for whatever orgs you want to start out with. Vote is by preference, so there's no limit on the amount of organizations you can vote for. Submissions will remain open throughout the quest, and will be added by further votes as organizations fail, merge, or as the limit is expanded.

[] Twin Cities: For The People!
[] The Knights of the Lambda Calculus
[] Black Panther Movement (Milwaukee)
[] The New October Movement
[] The Pittsburgh Labor Club
[] Queer Nation
[] The Love Foundation
[] The Institute for Social Ecology
[] The New Party

 

[TheInnerMoon]

In what is to follow, the turns will be run according to my patented SCIOR system, a derivation of the FRACaS system I've been using for Uncommon Wealth. SCIOR is Latin for "I am known", and you will use it to make yourselves known through the power of your grassroots movements. It consists of five primary attributes:

1. SIZE simply stands for the size of your organization. I'm mostly counting full-time contributors, and not just anyone who happens to show up at one of your protests. The number itself is a rough estimation on a logarithmic scale, so level 1 means you have about a dozen people at your disposal, level 2 means several hundred, level 3 is a few thousand, and so on.
2. CAPITAL is similar to size, but describes the money at your disposal. It's once again measured logarithmically; I assume that your orgs can bring at least a few hundred bucks together, so level 2 is pretty much the minimum.
3. INITIATIVE concerns the amount of actions you can put in a plan per turn. The type of actions you can perform are moderated by your Size and Capital, naturally. Some actions will require multiple successful rolls; these can either be stretched out over time, or you can commit multiple dice to them.
4. ORGANIZATION determines how many more dice will be rolled than the total amount in your plan, and thus how many of the lowest dice will be subtracted after rolling. So say you had an initiative of 3, and an organization of 2. This means that 5 dice will be rolled (3+2), and the lowest two will be taken away. Organization can potentially hit 0, in which case you're an ineffective movement that's failing as much as it's succeeding. A negative organization score means game over for your org.
5. RESPONSIVENESS, finally, is a feature you won't control directly, but which will still prove vital to your efforts. It stands for the amount of spontaneous actions you'll be able to take in response to stuff happening in the world. Like, say a major protest wave is unleashed, then your org will only be able to participate if there is a sufficient amount of Responsiveness. If there are multiple opportunities to choose between, I might either make my own call based on an estimation of your org, roll randomly for it, or ask you to make the choice yourself. It'll depend. Importantly, Organization also applies to responsiveness, since even spontaneous responses benefit from a well-run organizational apparatus. I might introduce a malus to that, though, should you become implausibly good at responding to sudden events.

That's how the turns will work! If you have any questions, let me know. The first turn should go live soon.

 

[TheInnerMoon]

Turn 1: 1992

General actions

Suggest an action: At any time, you may propose an action for whatever organization you've chosen to plan for. Presuming your suggestion is not too implausible altogether, I will tell you what will be necessary for the action to succeed, and you can keep it as part of your plan.


Make a zine (Capital 2 required): This is the golden age of zines, small self-published works with a decidedly radical slant. No matter what kind of org you are in this day and age, you'll be sure to put out a zine at one point or another. The question is, what will we focus on in ours?

• Subject: [write-in]

Found a local newspaper: Although a bit more complicated to produce than a mere zine, simple newspapers are still a staple of the radical milieu. Even if you're not some latter-day Trot, they're well worth publishing, if only to train an internal cadre of journalists. Plus, if you write your own news, there'll at least be one publication you know to be reliable.

• Frequency of publication: weekly (Capital 3 required), daily (Capital 4 required)

Create a magazine: A magazine is really just a fancier, more elaborate zine, with a selection of finely crafted themed articles. This can be the first step to gaining national renown and prestige, and can bring it a useful bit of funds as well.

• Frequency of publication: quarterly (Capital 4 required), monthly (Capital 5 required)

Promote your organization: People should know about your organization if they're going to join it. But if you know your members, and know where more of them might be found, recruitment can be a piece of cake. Actually getting your members to do good work, however, is another matter entirely.

• In the streets
• At protests
• On the internet
• Other: [write-in]

Organize a protest: How will the people know of your cause if you don't show up in the streets? There's always plenty to protest about, and there's always a chance that your manifestation will make the ruling class a little less complacent. The latter can also be bad for you, though.

• Cause: [write-in]
• Protest strategy: [write-in]

Fundraising Campaign: At the present time, money is what makes the world go round. Unfortunately, this means you won't be able to do anything without it. By fundraising for a specific initiative, though, you can overcome your chronic penury and make headway on something that might otherwise be beyond your means.

• Cause: [write-in]
• Method of fundraising: [write-in]

Organize Local Communities: The whole point of a grassroots organization is to bring ordinary people together, and to use your collective power towards liberatory ends. Thus, instead of confining yourself to a core of ideologically correct cadres, you need to step out into the wider worlds, and make sure that the powerless masses of this neoliberal hellscape can find power in their mere assembly.

• Neighborhoods: The simplest form of community organization consists of various neighborhood initiatives, such as beautification schemes, neighborhood watches, or local cookouts. While some of these programs sound rather bourgeois/middle class/white, perhaps we can put a liberatory spin on them. Or find some new activity that suits us more. (requires two successful rolls) (specify neighborhood)
• Tenants: Tenant organization used to be a bigger thing a few decades ago, and housing has only gotten more precarious since then. It's time to revive the tenants union as part of our fight against parasitic capital! (requires three successful rolls) (specify city/state)
• Workers: The noblest and most ancient kind of community organization focuses on the working class as such, recognizing our power as the stewards of social production. By threatening to withhold our labor, and using the union form to make our collectivity felt, great changes are possible. (requires four successful rolls) (specify type of workers)

Support a Political Campaign: Icky as it may be, electoral politics can still make a marginal difference in specific political situations. And with several new third parties rising from the ground up, there might even be a chance of breaking the party duopoly, at least on a local level.

• Specify position and candidate
• Type of support: volunteering/campaign donations/other

Reach out to other organizations: As mass movements, our strength is fundamentally found in numbers. Or, more accurately, in a network of sympathetic community members. While physical proximity is often useful, even distant organizations can lend us important cultural, intellectual, and even financial resources. But to create the benefits of such a radical social ecosystem, we do need to reach out to our fellows first.

• Specify the organization(s) you're attempting to affiliate yourselves with

The Knights of the Lambda Calculus

Size: 1
Capital: 2
Initiative: 2
Organization: 1
Responsiveness: 0

Spoiler: List of Actions

Start a Reading Group: You're going to be lousy theorists if you don't know what you're talking about. By first reading into the milieu you're trying to be a part of, you might be able to make some useful contributions to it. And what is a rhizome anyway?

Build a website: There's this new kind of internet architecture called the World Wide Web, and it's apparently pretty useful. Although most of the initial 'websites' have been the work of academic institutions, your club of futurists shouldn't be left out. This could be the next big thing on the information superhighway!

Develop a piece of open source software: Cultural theorizing is all well and good, but the Open Source Future is not going to build itself. By developing some useful pieces of software yourself, and freely distributing them to the masses, you can catalyze the culture you're trying to create.

• Purpose/Design: [write-in]

The New October Movement

Size: 1
Capital: 2
Initiative: 1
Organization: 1
Responsiveness: 1

Spoiler: List of Actions

Organize a Black Bloc: This novel protesting strategy, originating in the German Autonomist movement, protects the identity of radical anti-fascist protestors through the use of all-black clothing. Since this strategy broadly fits within our ideology, and contributes to our safety from retaliation, we might as well take it up.

Start a Reading Group: As our synthesis of Maoist and Anarchist ideology is yet ill-defined, we would do well to set up a basic reading group on the matter. By taking up the major texts of each tradition, we can see if and how they can be made to accord with one another.

Recruit from the RCP: Many of our initial members were formerly part of the so-called Revolutionary Communist Party. They left this organization because they saw it for what it was: a homophobic political cult run by the renegade Bob Avakian. Since we know many of the people who are still caught up in that org, and suspect that at least some of them hold the same doubts that we did, it may be worth reaching out. May the NOM become what the RCP was supposed to be!

The Black Panther Movement (Milwaukee)

Size: 2
Capital: 4
Initiative: 3
Organization: 2
Responsiveness:2

Assets and Activities:

• Anti-drug Patrols
• The Panther Spirit (Local Newspaper)
• Michael McGee

Spoiler: List of Actions

Assist the greater movement

• In Indianapolis: To show the enthusiasm of the Black community in Indianapolis, local activist Mmoja Ajaba has collected over 4000 signatures. McGee's personal blessing could give a further boost to that organizing potential.
• In Dallas: Aaron Michaels has been running a radical radio show in Dallas for a few years, and now he stands ready to answer McGee's "call to arms", though perhaps in a more militant way than we had intended. It is Texas, after all.
• Elsewhere (write-in): Plenty of Black communities throughout the country are eager to revive the Panther Spirit. We need only reach out to them.

Local Mutual Aid: Defending your community also means taking care of them. The original Black Panthers knew this; their own mutual aid efforts were never just idle charity, but part of a larger strategy of Black Power. To build this power ourselves, we need to look into the immediate needs of Milwaukee's Black population, and then take care of them as best we can.

Invite BPP speakers: Many old Black Panthers–the ones that weren't felled by government repression–have recently been writing new biographies, both of themselves and of the wider movement. By inviting them to speak at our own venues, we can drive the community towards further action, and learn from the lived experience of these Black revolutionaries.

Queer Nation

Size: 2
Capital: 3
Initiative: 1
Organization: 1
Responsiveness: 2

Assets and Activities:

• "Nights Out"

Spoiler: List of Actions

Provide Security at Queer Gigs: You're not a community if you can't get together, and you can't get together if the bigots are trying to stop you. By ensuring some measure of physical security at queer events and gatherings, you can prevent the immediate coercions which come with social marginalization. From there, the cultural battle can be waged.

Queer History Project: A big component of marginalization is the cultivation of ignorance, to make it seem like 'your kind' is a historical abnormality, or an abomination to nature. Radical education can be the antidote to this, at least among the marginalized themselves. By working towards the preservation and promotion of queer history, we will make sure that our dear predecessors are not forgotten.

The Institute for Social Ecology

Size: 2
Capital: 4
Initiative: 2(+1 Bookchin Die)
Organization: 2
Responsiveness: 1

Assets and Activities:

• Summer School
• Harbinger (Magazine)
• Murray Bookchin

Spoiler: List of Actions

Refound the Burlington Greens: Back in the late 1980s, the ISE tried to assemble a group of social ecological activists for their attempt at grassroots electoral organizing. It didn't work out too well, and the initiative is long dead now. But maybe we can give it another try? An entryist strategy in the local Green or Progressive parties seems plausible, at least. These organizations always need more warm bodies, and we can bring some ideological heft to their vague liberal leftism.

• Specify the focus of your electoral approach

Expand the Summer School: The main purpose of the ISE is to provide radical education in the areas of politics, ecology, and the wider social sciences. Much of this work is done over the summer, when groups of eager students will come together for a few days to learn what Social Ecology might mean for their lives, as well as the world at large. By expanding this summer school, including its promotion at various nearby academic institutions, we can enrich our perspective even further.

• Optional: describe the expanded courses

The Bookchin Die (mandatory): Say, what's Murray been working on?

• Write in what Murray Bookchin's been writing this year

 

[TheInnerMoon]

This also seems like the right time to introduce this quest's omake policy. Again, I'm taking major inspiration from The American Experiment here, where one omake per group per turn can be used to either boost a roll or slightly change the history of the world. In this quest, the omake policy will be slightly different; once you write one, regardless of whether it is canonized or not, you may request a pre-emptive reroll for one of the organizations' actions. As usual, the highest roll will be counted. For these first few turns, I will also allow you to outright write in one of the spontaneous Responsiveness actions, though these do need to be canonized to count. That said, feel free to write as many omakes as you want, since they might all be canon, it's just that only one of them will provide a bonus to your respective orgs per turn.

 

[mcclay]

Omake for NOM:

CW: PERIOD HOMOPHOBIA AND TRANSPHOBIA INCLUDING SLURS

Claire took a long drag from her cigarette, letting the smoke flow out through the screen mesh of her Seattle apartment's window. Outside rain beat down hard on the streets, dark grey clouds wrapping the city in an oppressive embrace. The early spring rains were nice in that they were usually followed by a few days of sunshine, but in the heart of them things could seem down right dreary.

The phone sat menacingly above her, a symbol of what she was supposed to be doing. At the last meeting of the New October Movement, held in Max's apartment near the docks, she had been one of the people who had volunteered to call some of their old compatriots in the RCP. It wasn't really a job any one wanted to do, it was likely that everyone who had left Chairman Bob's cult was considered a 'revisionist enemy of the people' by the rest of the org, but it had to be done. There were good organizers still stuck within Akavin's grasp, people whose talents were wasted working for him. People who didn't think queer folks were degenerates, not really.

But that didn't make picking up the phone and dialing the first of the list of numbers on the sheet of paper in front of her any easier. Claire could smell the bacon her girlfriend was frying up in the kitchen and wished she could spend the afternoon gossiping with her around the kitchen table. But she needed to do this. So she pulled out her pager and sent a quick message to the first name on the list.

'Hey, its Claire. Just wanna talk.'

A few minutes passed, long enough that Claire was prepared to either give up or send another message, before the phone on the wall started to ring. She closed her eyes for a long second before picking up the reciever.

"Claire?" She heard Alex's voice. She had worked with him down in San Fran. He was a good organizer, they'd gotten a tenant union up and running in an apartment complex a few blocks over from the Tenderloin back in '87.

"Hey, whats up. Just wanted to check on how things were going." She said, starting the conversation off calmly. The pitch could come later.

"Oh, uh, going great. Got some interest after the Supreme Court case. A couple of kids from Berkley. Really motivated."

"Thats great. You guys been doing some good work."

A long pause. "Yeah, you know, passing out a lot of flyers, showing up at protests. Hey, I don't really know if I should be talking to you. If any one in the Central Committee found out my ass would be grass."

Claire rolled her eyes. "Really? Passing out flyers? Showing up at protests and yelling for revolution? I'm sure thats something really worth sucking up to Akavin over. Jesus Alex, listen to yourself speak."

He sputtered angrily over the phone. "Its good work! We're laying the ground work for the Revolution! Not running off to fucking Seattle to cavort with fucking anarchists and degenerates!"

"Really Alex, degenerates? Sam and I busted our asses off for five years in the RCP doing what you damn well know is good fucking work. You all didn't seem to have any problems with what we were doing until we started dating and Bob decided that was a problem." She pauses and sighs. "Man I know you don't buy into all that New Synthesis crap. The cult shit. The fucking Chairman Bob music records. How much actual, useful organizing have you gotten done in the past year, huh?"

Another long pause. "Fucking nada." She can hear him grind out the response through his teeth. "Zippo. At least when you folks were down here we'd be able to get some shit done. One of the college kids stopped responding to my calls yesterday after we held a struggle session against degeneracy. Think they were a tranny. Doesn't matter, he was smart and motivated and now his ass is gone." His voice was tired and frustrated, the faux fire from before gone.

"Thats because Chairman Bob couldn't synthesize his way out of a paper bag. Look, I know that you've put in a lot of work with the RCP and that we're doing some experimental new shit up here, but it has to be better than things in the Bay. The anarchists are eating the more tradtional communist orgs lunch because they're not freaks about gay folks and they actually get shit done."

He didn't respond so Claire took a deep breath and gave him the pitch. "I know you've got roots in San Fran but I think you'd be able to do way better work up here. We're starting to make some real inroads with the local organizers and oppressed classes. I don't fully buy into Jane's whole Maoist Anarchism shit, but I'm willing to give it a try because what we were doing before isn't work." She stops to catch her breath. "Just...give us a try. At least get out of the RCP. You're wasted in there."

A second passes. Then five. Ten. Thirty. A whole minute. Shes afraid hes going to hang up before she hears him sigh. "I'll think about it. I'm not saying that just to bullshit you, I really will. Its a lot, you know."

She nods eagerly. "Nah I get that. Just give it some thought. If you do decide to come up give me a beep. I'm staying in an old hospital turned apartment complex and while its kinda tight its pretty cheap." A thought pops into her mind. "And give me the number of that kid that left if you have it. I think he'd be a lot happier up here."

Not all the calls were that easy. She got called a lot awful names over the course of those two hours. But every so often someone would sigh and listen and really think on it. And a few of those people would eventually make their way up north.

 

[TheInnerMoon]

Humble Beginnings (1992 Initiative Results)

Black Panther Party (Milwaukee)

Working with the Ajabus, a significant BPP chapter has been set up in Indianapolis. Its degree of organization and activity rivals your own, and they have already started planning armed marches and public pressure campaigns. What's more, the success of both chapters has inspired the Black community of Dallas to follow your lead, with local radio personality Aaron Michaels pledging himself to the revolutionary struggle. Most importantly, McGee has started more in-depth discussions with the members of all three chapters, inviting them to a national "Black Power Summit" to be held next year. This would also be the perfect opportunity to commit yourself to a formal united organization, though this comes with its own challenges regarding strategy and leadership. (Critical Success! Indianapolis and Dallas chapters founded. Black Power Summit planned for 1993)

Closer to home, the community aid efforts have received the brunt of your attention. This has helped to extend much further than you'd initially intended; beyond working with local mosques and churches to set up food kitchens, you've also been stocking several pantries with food and toiletries, and organized a kind of 'meals on wheels' service for the elderly and the disabled. To keep any of these initiatives from devolving into mere charity, you make sure to emphasize their communal aspect, treating them as an opportunity to build local ties and discuss local grievances. There's also an educational aspect to them; not only are your most knowledgeable members on hand to guide impromptu discussions, but you've also equipped the kitchens and pantries with a healthy supply of revolutionary literature, to be taken out as part of an informal library network. Overall, the basis of your community work is solid. Now to push further. (Double Success! Local Mutual Aid established, with many opportunities for expansion)

Knights of the Lambda Calculus

Given the eccentric nature of your members, it makes sense that the focus of your reading group would be equally bizarre. You're all about the thrill of reading weird, transformative theory, even if some of it is outright impenetrable.

For the initial readings, you try to avoid the heavy duty French guys like Debord and Deleuze, and instead focus on secondary sources like Sadie Plant's new book on Situationism. The point of that, in turn, is to get acquainted with the origins of all this cool "cyborg theory", as set out by people like Donna Haraway or the VNS Matrix collective.

Not everyone is on board with this strong feminist focus, though; most of you are still guys who study at MIT. And so, the reading group soon spreads its attention across three broad areas.

Besides the cyberfeminist stuff, the other two are aimed at investigating the political potential of the burgeoning internet. One answer to this is more about the technology and organization, and so quickly settles on reading the classics of cybernetics, or systems science. Even if the Soviets couldn't build an economy using computers, the Chileans seemingly got a lot closer.

The other approach, then, is social and cultural in orientation. The true strength of the internet is that it makes the sharing of information almost free and frictionless. Could that be the beginning of a kind of 'open source society'? To even comprehend the ethics of such a radically altered society, you're going back to the great anarchist theorists like Benjamin Tucker and Peter Kropotkin, people who seemed to share your love of free association.

What you have so far lacked in focus, you are making up for in enthusiasm. And now that you know what you're interested in, perhaps you can try writing some of this stuff yourself. (KLC Reading Group established. Minor interest generated; you are now a third of the way towards Size Level 2)

(Guest update by @silverpower )

Setting up a website, ftpd and mail bouncer turns out to be pretty trivial. Simply write a bombastic and spooky manifesto with help from your friends in 21/24, format it in the new SGML format that Tim Berners-Lee made, drop it in the right folder, and you're done. Then run "httpd ~/httpd.conf && ftpd ~/ftpd.conf && listserv ~/listserv.cfg &" in your sysadmin friend's account and leave the terminal session up. Congratulations, the Knights of the Lambda Calculus now has a presence on the information superhighway.

This lasts for two hours and thirteen minutes, when your terminal session times out from a broken pipe. Heading to the lab in your dorm only confirms your fear - somebody restarted that workstation. This happens every time somebody decides to hog a terminal for running their fluid dynamics sim or whatever; what made you think you were immune? After several more tries go about as smoothly, the Knights resolve to get their own computer.

Unfortunately, few if any of the computers you own are suitable. Some do run Unix, but not in a way that helps you. One bright spark tries running Xenix on his personal 386, but quickly finds that NCSA wasn't joking about "you must have a working ANSI C compiler", something that Microsoft and later Santa Cruz Operation never quite figured out until recently. Supposedly SCO Open Desktop will have everything you need when 2.0 drops, for a mere $2495 for the Server edition. BSDi sends out two closed betas then gets sued by USL. Fortunately, both Linux and 386BSD (which has been promised for a year now in Dr. Dobb's Journal) are coming along nicely.

Ultimately, over the summer, several of the Knights manage to assemble a 386 clone system and install 386BSD 0.1 with some of the patchkits, and connect it to Internet. In the future, this will likely be the earliest open post-4.4 BSD system on Internet, but for now you're just glad it's done, even if it's just hosting a bunch of manifestos, reading group notes and a FAQ page about 386BSD on the WWW. This isn't a forever solution, since it relies on people keeping it connected in their dorm room, but it'll suffice until your reading group manages to find hosting elsewhere.
(The KLC is now on the World Wide Web; you will accumulate popularity over time)

The Institute for Social Ecology

The expansion of the Summer School has had mixed results. While many local students seemed enthusiastic about your new history courses, you ultimately had few signups, with even your normal courses still just coasting along on their established audience. While you believe they will ultimately prove a valuable part of the curriculum, especially as you gain experience in teaching them, the effort spent on them this year has partly gone to waste, and has distracted from any thought of 'virtual' education. Anything like that's been left to the people working on our general online efforts. (ISE curriculum expanded)

And to your surprise, the online team actually does really well. As more and more people get access to the internet, through whatever networks and ISPs they may be using, the audience grows steadily less niche. That said, the nerds and activists who currently populate the BBS forums, IRC chats, and mailing lists of the Net are already fairly sympathetic to your message. As such, you use these discussion spaces to spark a specific interest in Social Ecology as a doctrine, offering to mail out books and course materials to whomever wants to learn more about it. You also do a bit of online pamphleteering by fax, though this nets you a pretty high telephone bill after a while. Some of the techies on your team have also started to hear whispers about this cool new network called the World Wide Web. Maybe that's worth looking into? (Major Success! The ISE has gained a bit of online popularity, expanding your range of influence. You can also try to build a website now)

While Murray has by no means given up on libertarian municipalism, the recent disappointment that was the Burlington Greens has led him to refocus. He feels like he should return to the well of leftist history, and see if there are any past forms or strategies that he has yet overlooked. And while Anarchist Catalonia is an enduring object of interest in this context, there are perhaps other histories which even Bookchin has overlooked. But what would they be? (Made a moderate degree of progress on Bookchin's next publication) (30% complete)

Queer Nation

The attempt to provide physical security at queer events provokes a storm of misinformation in local media. Before long, rumors of "f*ggots with assault rifles" fill the pages of every conservative outlet. (The rumors aren't true, obviously: the worst weapons you actually carry are baseball bats.) As the local far-right skinheads come looking for a fight, and police repression grows heavier than usual, you are forced to actually cancel several meetups. Your ongoing "Nights Out" campaign has also been put on hold. In spite of these setbacks, your urge to 'bash back' has only grown stronger.
(Major failure. "Nights Out" removed)

The New October Movement

After a rough start consisting of several tense conversations, you begin to pull some of your comrades in the RCP out of their cultish stupor. You attack their complacent radicalism from two angles; first, by appealing to the friendship that was broken upon your departure from Avakian's clique, and secondly, by pointing out how little their outfit has gotten done over the years. In doing so, you are forced to come to grips with the insularity of the communist subculture. For too long, you have treated everyone else in your milieu as a potential or actual counterrevolutionary. In that regard, Chairman Bob's ranting about cultural degeneracy was just the tip of an intolerant iceberg.

In order to get anything done in the world, you argue to your erstwhile comrades, you must be willing to bear the deviations of the masses. From a pedagogical perspective, the mass line can't just be an excuse to lecture the oppressed on what Marx or Mao prescribed. Instead, it must become a collective, co-creative critique, where the grievances of the many are refined and directed. But to even begin this work, the party organization should be an open and welcoming place. And Avakian has alienated far too many people for the RCP to be a viable organization. Thus, there is the New October Movement.

Your pitch proves surprisingly effective, at least with those who don't avoid you immediately. Thanks to your efforts, a few dozen more people have quit the RCP, and some are even moving to the Pacific Northwest in order to join the NOM. With the base membership secured, you can now move on to greater initiatives.
(RCP recruitment successful. The NOM is now halfway to Size Level 2)

 

[mcclay]

Omake for QN:

CW: PERIOD HOMOPHOBIA, VIOLENCE

Music blared out of the door of the dingy basement bar, loud screaming punk rock that filled ones bones to the brim with nervous energy. He nodded his head to the music as he leaned up against the brick wall, knuckles rapping against the rough brick to the vague screaming of a tune being played. Normally he'd be in the bar, right in the middle of the pit after downing a few cheap beers. But not tonight. Tonight Mark had a job to do, one which he was happy to fulfill.

This punk bar was friendly to the gay scene, a real safe place for fags and dykes of all kinds and shapes. They'd been getting some heat from a group of skin heads from that shitty Irish bar a few blocks over. Threats to beat the shit out of everyone there, waved switch blades, nazis shouting about burning the place down. Standard fash stuff, a bunch of tweakers mad that they were losing the war over punk. Usually it was just posturing, but it got people scared. And a gay guy had gotten jumped and kicked so hard some of his ribs broke while walking home a few nights ago. So Mark and some folks he knew in QN that lived near the bar had gotten together to provide a bit of security. At least keep the bigots from being able to jump people a few steps outside the door of the place.

Jackson, a big black guy and Mark's current buddy for this watch, came down the stairs to the basement entrance with a lit cig in hand. "We might have some trouble up top. Same car's been circling the block for the last fifteen minutes. Every so often it stops right in front of here. Caught a glimpse of the driver, looks like one of the skinheads that hangs out at O'Milligans."

Mark nodded and stood up, languidly stretching as he did. His hand comes down to the baseball bat he had stashed next to the stairwell's trashcan. Hidden enough that it wouldn't spook people but still easy to grab. "We could lay some bait? I go up, you and Milly and Leo jump em when they try and jump me."

"We wanna get that aggressive?" Jackson asked snuffing out his cig on the brick wall. "Might get ugly, and a bit of a stretch to call it self defense if we go out looking for trouble."

Mark snorted. "Its that or hope we can catch them in the act. 'Sides, skinheads will be too embarrassed about getting their ass beat by a faggot to go running to the cops."

"I'm more worried about them running to their friends, we don't really wanna start a fucking war. Shit'll get ugly real quick."

Mark was about to respond when the sound of a commotion started up the stairs. Shouting and the clattering of someone getting pushed into a trash can. Mark looked at Jackson and shrugged. "Looks like we might not have to throw the first punch after all. Let's go."

The two of them bounded up the stairs, emerging into a standard New York side alley. Grimy, filled with trashcans and garbage that didn't quite make the leap. The skittering of a few rats away from the action. A group of four men were surrounding a younger guy, standard wife beater and shitty jeans skinhead types. The kid they had cornered had gotten his battle jacket partially ripped off as they pushed him up against the wall. Already his face was bruised and a line of blood was trickling out of his nose. "Fucking degen." One of them spat at him as they threw another punch.

Mark brought the baseball bat down upon the man's head with a hard CRACK. Instantly he stumbled to the side, discombobulated from the heavy blow. Jackson only stopped to send a quick beep to their back up before he bodily grabbed one of the fash by the shoulder and threw him against the opposite wall. "More fucking fags!" One of them screamed before turning, fists raised. Quickly a fight broke out.

Flailing fists and legs. Baseball bat swinging out at anyone stupid enough to get close. A tooth flew from a meth degraded mouth, blood following it in an arc. Mark grinned from his hit only to get smashed in the jaw by one he didn't quite see. Numbers weren't on their side, even with how big Jackson was and Mark having a bat. One pulled out a switchblade even as Jackson laid into the bigot he had smashed up against the wall. Just as he was advancing on the big man he was smashed in the head by a thrown glass bottle, stumbling back as he yowled in pain. Their back up had arrived, Milly and Leo descending on the bigots with bats of their own.

The fight turning against them, the skinheads broke and ran. Screaming slurs and curses they stumbled out of the alleyway, hands covering heads as blows were rained down upon them. They made it to their beat up old car, which then received the full anger of the QN squad as the three with bats smashed headlights and windows and side mirrors. By the time they peeled out it looked like the car had picked a fight with a moose, busted up and mirrors cracked and shattered.

"Yeaaaaaaah! Get fucked assholes!" Mark yelled out, pumping his arms as the fash retreated. He was burning with elation, big grin on his face and adreline protecting him from really feeling all the hits they had taken.

"Sent those fuckers back to O'Mulligans." Leo agreed, spitting out a bit of blood. "Yo, is that kid OK?"

Jackson had gone back to check on the kid, helping him up and handing him some tissue to clean up the blood. "He'll be fine once he gets some drinks into him," he patted the kid on the back, "right?"

"Yeah man, I'll be good." He shakily replied, still unsteady. "Thanks, I'd been fucked if you guys weren't here."

"Don't worry about it man." Milly said as they headed back into the stair well. "Just doing our job."

As the young punk headed into the bar Jackson scowled. "I'm gonna call Donna about getting some more Nation folks down here tonight. They might come back to try and pick off loners to salvage their pride. And even if they don't do that shit tonight they're gonna want to get revenge on this place somehow."

"Let those fucks come. We'll kick their ass again and again!" Mark said, giving a few testing swings with his bat.

"Yeah, until one of them stabs you." Leo said dryly. "Or tosses a molotov down here."

"Cops are on the take but I think burning this place down during operating hours would be a bit too far, even for NYPD." Milly said before frowning. "We do need more manpower though. God, maybe someone should start coming strapped."

"Won't that put more of a target on our backs?" Jackson said. "Cops aren't gonna take kindly to queers walking around with guns."

"Maybe, but its something to think about." Milly shrugged. "I'll bring it up at the next meeting."

"In the mean time let's get some drinks. This machine kills fascists but it also runs on beer." Mark joked.

This was generally agreeable to the group so they went into the bar to celebrate a job well done, even if more complications lay overhead.