In July 2019, a couple dozen social movement organizers from four different cities launched the Spring Socialist Network and Spring Magazine. Over the last five years, Spring has grown from a tiny organization with an upstart socialist publication to a slightly larger organization with active branches in five cities and a robust publication.
The last five years have allowed us to work as organized socialists and put theory into practice. We have learned a lot about how to organize effectively and the importance of having clear ideas to advance our socialist politics.
Taking the lead from movements
From uprisings and revolutions in Algeria, Sudan, Haiti, Chile, Lebanon, Iraq, and Colombia to a renewed climate movement which saw millions take to the streets, 2019 was a year of profound upheaval across the globe. For those of us committed to building an alternative to the capitalist system which pushes racism, war and climate chaos, it was clear that we need organizations capable of advancing the political fight for a different world. Our name, Spring, was inspired by both these flourishing movements and the Arab Spring of 2011.
Drawing on our experiences of being active in campaigns like the Fight for $15 and Fairness, the climate movement, tenants rights organizing and the trade union movement, the socialists who launched Spring understood that our power to change the world comes working with others, what we call socialism from below. Workers and the oppressed have to be at the centre of remaking the world and that informed Spring’s politics.
While we were happy to see the left make advances in elections, our understanding of history tells us that is no substitute for the power of an active, aware, and engaged working class. This is why we aim to build networks of activists in unions who can act independently to advance their class interests and create the conditions for their unions to move to the left.
Some of those involved with starting Spring had previously been involved in another socialist organization with this outlook, the International Socialists. Differences over strategies and tactics about how to organize and use the publication lead us to strike a different path.
With Spring we wanted to build a socialist organization that was connected and informed by the broader movements and campaigns it was rooted in and reflecting that in an activist publication across various mediums. We didn’t want our journalism to be commenting from the sidelines and hiving ourselves off from actually existing campaigns and struggles. That would be a sure fire way to impoverish both our practice and theory. Instead, we wanted to build an activist journalism that was based on militant journalists and journalist militants.
A revolutionary socialist tradition
The Spring Socialist Network is a revolutionary socialist organization that wants to completely upend the capitalist and settler-colonial system. To do this requires working class power and that can’t be built without forefronting the struggle against racism and all oppressions. We aim to draw on the best ideas of the revolutionary socialist tradition and aim to apply them to existing struggles at hand. We want to both learn from this tradition and add to it.
One of the first priorities of Spring was to launch Spring Magazine – our online news publication and social media. We recognized the centrality of having a vibrant socialist publication that could help build the movements we are a part of and build an audience of people attracted to our ideas. The process of producing articles and social media is the process of organizing ourselves. We draw inspiration from the works of Lenin and Hossam El Hamalawy and their theories on effective socialist strategy for using the publication as a collective organizer.
The first event we ever organized as Spring was an introduction to the Communist Manifesto. This was followed by an educational about the life and ideas of Métis socialist Howard Adams. Building on relationships we had created via our publication’s coverage of the Sudanese revolution, we were also fortunate to co-host an amazing event with Kandaka in White about the Sudanese revolution in the fall of 2019. Hundreds turned out for the panel discussion and musical concert by the Sudanese hip-hop artist Ayman Mao. Sarah Hegazi, who had just recently joined Spring, was one of the panelists at the event and spoke about the revolution and counter-revolution in Egypt. We learned immensely from Sarah’s first-hand revolutionary experience.
As a small organization we were still finding our way. In the fall and winter of 2019 we participated in the climate strike, Wet’suwet’en rail blockades, the No War in Iran rallies, navigated the faultlines of a federal election, and remained active in the fight for decent work and paid sick days.
Navigating the pandemic
The onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020 plunged the world into a crisis. A healthcare crisis was coupled with a severe economic downturn. People’s experiences of this acute phase of the crisis were shaped along racial and class lines. The profound uncertainty of the crisis created openings for the left and right. Like all organizations, how we organized was radically transformed overnight.
We rapidly shifted to hosting weekly (and then bi-weekly) organizing meetings on Zoom. There was a thirst to connect with like minded socialist to assess and figure out how to respond to the crisis. Online meetings helped to increase our geographic reach and as an organization we were able to forge new relationships with people across the Canadian state.
As an organization we were growing and rooted in fights for migrant rights and paid sick days. When there was a big upturn in the struggle for Black lives in the wake of George Flyod’s murder in the Spring of 2020, we were there helping to amplify the movement’s calls to defund the police. Over the next year we continued to organize, contributing to movements demanding paid sick days in BC, Ontario and Nova Scotia and fighting for Palestinian liberation in response to the attacks on Sheik Jarrah.
Our focus on using the publication as an organizing tool was helpful. It allowed us to respond rapidly to swifty changing events, disseminate the best ideas and strategy across a large geographic area and to build an audience of people who were attracted to our ideas and provide a pathway to activity. We published hundreds of articles and our social media presence increased dramatically.
During this period we were also able to host a number of events and panel discussions on issues such as the global health crisis, universal basic income, the housing crisis, the Tamil liberation struggle, Palestinian liberation struggle, the 10 year anniversary of the Egyptian revolution, the Indian farmers’ protest, and the Sudanese revolution.
Through all of this we learned many lessons from the movements we were a part of and we consistently evaluated our strategy and tactics. As our membership and level of activity increased we evolved our infrastructure. We had two conventions a year, full-time staff, launched a BIPOC leadership program for members, started the Sarah Hegazi international solidarity fund – which helped translate a number of articles into Arabic and launched a labour caucus for comrades active in the trade union movement.
Building locally
In the summer of 2022 we began the process of getting back to building local branches. Organizing online had benefits – the ability to expand geographical reach and ease of access – but it also had drawbacks. Building locally and forging relationships were easier and more fruitful via in-person meetings. While we continue to do some online meetings and events – we have five local branches of Spring – Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Hamilton and Halifax – that organize meetings, reading groups, material makings, postering and socials.
The last number of years has seen an uptick in labour struggles as workers are facing a cost of living crisis. Different locals have been able to orient to labour fights in their community and a number of Spring members themselves have been on strike. The 2022 education workers strike was notable as it forced the Ford government to reverse course on anti-worker legislation. Spring members were proud to play a part in building the Justice for Workers solidarity campaign in the lead up to that strike. Our members across Ontario helped to put up posters, go out petitioning and leafleting, make shareables, organize phone banks, built rallies and pushed their unions to stand up to Ford. Our members in Nova Scotia helped to build the links with education workers who were fighting in that province. That strike showed the real power of workers and how an effective solidarity campaign can transform mass consciousness. We used the publication to help spread those lessons from the strike.
In 2023, we organized our first ever conference in Toronto called Red October. This conference featured 12 different sessions about socialist theory, strategy and history. We had over 200 people attend. This event not only attracted a new audience, it also helped build the confidence and capacity of our own members who worked tirelessly to pull off the event. We also made new connections with people that could plug into our existing areas of work, such as ourlabour caucus and local branches.
Since October, organizing solidarity with Palestine has been a top priority of our membership. Our members have been part of the broader movement fighting to advance Palestine on every front – from helping to organizing Palestine solidarity groups in their neighbourhoods, to advancing the cause of Palestine in their unions. Our approach to this organizing – like our other organizing – is not to build our own campaigns or take over groups but to work alongside others in broader based campaigns and organizations. This stems from our understanding of leadership. In every struggle leadership emerges. Too often this can take the form of top down leadership, where people give marching orders and tell people what to think. Other times the very notion of leadership is denied, which simply has the effect of making leadership unaccountable and undemocratic.
For us, as revolutionary socialists leadership, is about being a companion in struggle, sharing in victories and defeats. It is about building the leadership of others and helping to open pathways for others to engage in struggle, to deepen their ideas, and develop their leadership. This is in essence what some call a rank and file strategy. We organize from the bottom up in the hopes of creating a mass of confident and combative activists that can act independently and organize where they are to give others the confidence and ability to act too.
We don’t see ourselves as separate from the movements we are part of, we strive to be engaged and accountable. Inside and outside the trade union movement we deploy a rank and file strategy. We want to both learn from and to bring our politics to the movements in order to help advance the struggle.
Towards a socialist future
Our organization exists to advance revolutionary socialist politics in order to make the world a better place for all. We aim to draw on the best ideas of the revolutionary socialist tradition and add in our own experience to advance the struggle. These theories are tested and sharpened in the real world. Engaging in this theoretical informed activity doesn’t mean we will get everything right, but expresses a commitment to try and learn from all struggles we are part of – whether they are big or small, successful or not.
Capitalism has lurched from crisis to crisis over the last number of years. War, climate chaos, degraded public services and economic inequality have been the norms. This is creating a clear polarization, some look to the right for answers – blaming migrants, cutting social programs and denying climate change. Others have been pulled to movements for workers’ rights, racial justice, Palestinian solidarity.
To change the world requires mass movements, but it will also require socialists who are organized, who work together democratically, and who have clear socialist ideas about how we can make social change. At Spring we hope we can do our part in building an organization of socialists who can contribute to this urgent task.
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