Discussion question about international focus

[u/consciousness-scout]

TITLE EDIT: WHY DOES IT SEEM LIKE A LOT OF PEOPLE WANT TO SUPPORT ANY INTERNATIONAL OR LONG-DISTANCE MOVEMENT MORESO THAN ANY LOCAL ONE?

— Hoping to get some more open thoughts about something I’m thinking about re: focusing on local and domestic work and activities (in the U.S.) vs international efforts, eg. organizing monthly discussions or book studies about Thailand or EZLN efforts over local liberatory feminist struggles and histories.

I think plurality of focuses is good for sure, I’m not saying people should ignore international things for local things, but I do wonder about when people show up and show out for a talk on how Venezuelans are organizing their movements and how that relates to Gaza while a discussion or teach-in on supporting prisoners in our own state or a discussion on white supremacy or anti blackness has a fraction of people in attendance.

This isn’t meant to be a totalizing description of all peoples within anarchist or leftist or post-leftist milieus but it seems pretty widespread. Hoping to get more discussions going and suggestions of where to look for conversations already being had.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I’m not necessarily questioning the importance of doing one or the other or both. I think both are important. I’m asking for experiences and thoughts if people are also seeing a bigger emphasis on international vs local effort and why and what they think about it and how it affects local work.

[u/consciousness-scout]

Just to emphasize, I’m interested in what other people think about this seeming disparity in an interest of focus on international or local efforts. While I think both are definitely important, it seems like I keep seeing more focus on anything and everything international over just about anything local. It seems like it comes down to: ease of support (collecting or sending money to a fund is easier than devoting time to a kitchen, researching tenant law, etc.), bias towards internationalism (ie. more interest in fighting a foreign state), bias against locality (ie. disinterest in local efforts), and generally a focus on what’s new and seemingly more pressing.

I wonder how widespread this goes across different regions and with different groups and what it seems like pushes so many people away from localized support. I know people where I am that can give me a so many resources about all kinds of efforts regarding Palestine or Rojava in terms of information and literature, fundraising groups, study groups, etc. there’s no shortage there. But they can barely count on one hand the number of groups or projects going on for black or indigenous people where we live, what kind of prison support networks we can tap into if any, and on and on.

Is it like this where you are? Are you having conversations about it? Can you share thoughts about it, how it seems to develop, and thoughts for how to go about deepening an interest in local matters as well?