Question: How can we win workers who gravitate towards reactionary movements in response to declining economic security?

A proposed strategy to winning over workers of a reactionary demographic may include a working combination of statistical evidence disproving the benefits of a reactionary approach, ideally presented in a visual manner, a clear description of the benefits of leftist and especially socialist policies as pertain to the general working class, and evidence which further demonstrates the exclusive benefits of the reactionary approach as belonging to the upper classes.

Workers belonging to the reactionary demographic are likely to believe that policies such as government intervention and increased taxation are undesirable, and while general leftist policies are not perfect by any means it may be demonstrated that increased government intervention in business is scarcely detrimental to the working class. Instead the assurance of the worker being paid a living wage for every hour of their work, of overtime pay, of medical coverage and of an increased probability for unionization may be emphasized. The notion that increased taxation for business owners, especially those who own large businesses, may be expounded upon. Furthermore, education about the details of taxation for small business owners and methods for reducing the overall amount of taxation may be provided.

Many reactionaries worry about increased immigration and the dissolution of this concern can be a matter of providing evidence that their way of life is not threatened and doesn’t have to change for the worse in accordance with the presence of immigrants, which can in fact help an economy to grow and create more job opportunities by necessity. What a working class family does in their home and community is their business and left-leaning social reforms are not attempting to deny them of that right, but simply to better the economic situation for all working class people.

Where these arguments are met with opposition to the concept of socialism it is beneficial to communicate the concepts of socialism without necessarily utilizing socialist terminology. Where such opposition is strictly adamant it may be suggested to reformist workers that perhaps they simply aren’t intelligent enough to research these ideas for themselves, or are too lazy to make the effort to form their own opinions. While such a proposal will likely be met with some hostility it will also help to cause in them, out of their own psychological anger and guilt, a desire to prove us wrong, and their research into leftist and socialist concepts will serve to plant and propagate new ideas in their minds which may ultimately help to win them over.

Reactionaries are very fearful people who exist in a mental framework often consisting of conservative traditions which are not to their benefit, as concerns the working class. The demographic in question will often feel a sense of guilt about going against what they perceive to be the accepted way of their parents and grandparents. Overcoming these matters by use of cleverly calculated psychological tactics is something that should be at the forefront of all that we present to them. In order to make use of such strategies we must know the reactionary working demographic thoroughly and formulate our strategies accordingly.