Comrade

This book has helped me articulate a few things I’d experienced before. For one, the sense of joy of being seen as a comrade. I distinctly remember being in a very large online seminar on labour organizing when one of the Indian workers casually addressed everyone else as comrades, creating a unity where before I’d only felt the detachment of yet-another-zoom-call.

It also reminded me of when someone I’d just met said they were quite excited about knowing me now because they so rarely encounter “peers”. I understand now that the it was comradeship that happened in that moment – meeting someone else who is also trying to change the world the way you are, and whom you recognize as being on your side, and who is ready to judge you and be judged by you about the value of your activities in pursuit of that goal.

I know a good number of people who are politically active, but only very few who I think would tell me that what I’m doing is pointless, and who would accept my telling them that their pet political project is misguided. These, I understand now, are my comrades.

I also liked the distinction between ally & comrade, with an ally being an identity you pursue ultimately on your own, and comrade being an identity that can only be ascribed by someone else.

For political movements, the notion that to be a comrade is to place the party above the self, and that joy comes from knowing that one is only a part of a bigger thing, and not ultimately necessary for it, would be a helpful one. I think framing making oneself superfluous as not just a way of preventing burnout but as a source of pleasure might aid in building more resilient organisations.