>Join a union
>Hear people constantly complaining that the current union leadership is super corrupt, it's all just the same ten guys making all the decisions in secret and nobody else in the union ever gets to know what's going on
>Go to the monthly union meetings that are completely open to all 1200 union members
>The only attendees are the same ten guys every month, giving detailed reports about everything that's going on
Yeah, there's a surprising amount of people who just...don't interact with the union they are in at all. At all. And then complain when shit gets voted in they didn't want.
Maybe get involved. Show up to shit. Just a thought.
This is also true of the Democratic Party btw. People are always complaining about what "The Democrats" should do, or aren't doing etc etc.
but like literally in my early 20s I started going to my local party's meetings regularly and with-in a few months they were like "hey you want to be on the committee to re-write our by-laws?" yes, yes I do thank you. "hey you want to get elected to be one of our representatives to the meetings of the state party?" why yes thank you so I got to go and debate the budget of a swing state Democratic Party.
I had to move for work not that much after that but like people I know from that have been delegates to the DNC, have elected officials come to their homes for events. Literally there's a middle aged lady I know who when Hillary Clinton decided to run for President, Hillary started with a small tour on a van, she called it her Scooby Van, and her first stop in New Hampshire, with its "first in the nation" primary was to a bakery in my home town and the person she sat with at what was her first or second official campaign stop of her run for President is a lady I know who isn't some super secret Democratic overlord or anything but a local lady who volunteers a lot.
Just the other day I got invited to meet my Senator (again) tomorrow I'm going to meet my state's governor (again) because I volunteer, if I wanted I could likely get to be a delegate to the DNC
so many organizations are open doors that people just refuse to push and then are big mad it didn't read their minds and do what you think.
I live in a town of 960 people, and four years ago I ran for an open seat on the Library Board; within three months I was chairing the board because the lady who was the chair had been doing it for 14 years and she wanted a break. Someone also threw my name in the ring to be on the school board; another candidate won the seat that time.
In my first three years on the library board, we
a) lost a librarian to a car accident,
b) hired an interim librarian,
c) hired a permanent librarian,
c) wrote an anti-censorship policy,
d) balanced the library budget three years running,
d) started a Friends of the Library group,
e) organized our social media campaign,
f) joined the statewide electronic catalog, and
g) quadrupled our library membership.
So when I ran for library board for my second term, I got voted in with 100% of the votes cast... and I also won an open seat on the school board as a write-in candidate with 19 votes; and I lost an election to the Select Board (our 'mayoral' system is a 3-person board) by just 38 votes out of 450 cast.
So now I'm solving library problems on the one hand, and solving school board problems on the other hand. It's an education in educational policy and finance — federal and state aid programs, local policy on athletics and sports and core education vs arts funding, union negotiations, and more. If I ever decide to run for select board again, I'm going to be much better informed and prepared to understand the issues. Meanwhile...
Just yesterday, I drove through a town of 65,000 people. There was a group of people on a street corner holding up "pro labor" signs and "free Palestine" signs and "anti-war" signs, and "Jill Stein for President" (mind you, this is March 2025 -- there isn't a presidential election until 2028!) and "The Green Party wants your vote!" signs. There were maybe ten of these folks?
So when I got home, I went to their city's "Boards and Commissions" website. They have 19 vacant seats on various committees and boards and commissions, including two (the Wetlands Commission [wouldn't that be a Green Party issue??], and the Diversity Commission) that don't have enough members right now to hold meetings under state quorum rules. And there are 85 people on other commissions and boards that are up for re-election this year, and more than half of them don't want to keep running for these seats; they'd welcome a challenger.
In other words, the local community is STARVING for people to fill local government responsibilities.
Why are these people out here holding up signs for a woman to run for president in three years, when there are 104 seats in their own community government that are up election this year? Demonstrate to someone, somebody, anybody that you want to help solve community-level problems, and that you know what you're doing... and there's no holding you back.
This is why I’m so irritated by posts about how “the Democratic Party is shutting out progressives!!” Like — have you tried going to events? Volunteering your time? Fucking talking to people?
I’ve been on my HOA board and lemme tell you, it’s a thankless task. Yeah, there are assholes who want to fine their neighbors for having the wrong color of curtains, but there are also people who just want to take care of issues in our community. And JESUS the residents automatically hated us. Yelled, threatened physical harm, tried to sue us…but none of them wanted to actually join the board. It’s open to everyone! But no one else wanted to do it. They just wanted to rage against the machine, not do anything helpful.
To be fair, the single best thing a HOA can do is dissolve itself.
Please explain how a condo complex, where we all live in the same building that requires upkeep such as the roof, would make these kinds of repairs without the agreement of an HOA.
I joined the board specifically because the balcony decks were rotting. It was a huge issue that affected the entire building: being as we were all in the same building with the same exterior cladding, we couldn’t all just individually pay to fix our own balconies, it was a systemic issue of the entire building. It required that we get one huge loan, managed by the HOA, then take off the exterior cladding not just for that side of the building but three sides. Once we did so we realized that the original construction company hadn’t put in waterproofing…….IN OREGON.
Please do explain how we should or could have handled without the framework of an HOA.
And like, this is such a perfect example of people condemning a community organization that is open to everyone!
I see people on here declaring that HOAs are universally racist or have problematic histories and I’m like, “Yeah, so do unions!” The union movement in the U.S. was literally started because white workers didn’t like Black workers sharing the same benefits as them!
That doesn’t mean these community-based organizations aren’t open to change and open to your fucking participation!
If you don’t like how your union is run, PARTICIPATE.
If you don’t like how your HOA is run, PARTICIPATE.
If you don’t like how your HOA is run, PARTICIPATE.
Saying that the best thing a local, community organization can do is dissolve makes you sound like a libertarian. I thought this was the communist website, guys, come the fuck on.
As someone who spent the last two years organizing a public sector union, please for the love of god get involved. I’m not even joking. We had people angry at us for not being able to something when nobody had ever talked about it with us. Or people who opposed a union because they didn’t like the contracts agreed to in a different county. Which, again, could all have been resolved and avoided if people actually got involved and stopped just expecting things to happen for them.
I need y'all to understand that the HOA is absolutely the best place to get started for learning how to Get People Out of Office, that actually everyone fucking hates but is terrified of crossing.
(That person is usually a 70+ year old person who has Nothing Better To Do With Their Time and They Are Petty AF. Community apathy and fear is their Greatest Friend.
Does anyone really care that you haven't mowed your lawn yet? Not really. But That Person has Nothing But Time and Bylaws on their side because no one shows up.
Go to your HOA meeting.)
