#harambee

[mercerharlan]

Harambee neighborhood of Milwaukee

July 2022

[mundanelifeinflorida]

Feb 25

Test … Test … Test…

Houston, haben wir Kontakt?

Hurraaa, wir sind online… 😁🎉

Harambee-Festival

Hi,

Damit ist es geschafft. Der Blog ist angefangen, der Tag hat sich schon dem Ende geneigt, es ist bereits Sonntag, gestern um ca. halb zehn habe ich ernsthaft angefangen, am ersten Blogeintrag zu arbeiten, hab die Website erstellt, die Farbpalette gemischt, das Titelbild aus den Urlaubsbildern gesucht undundund. Dass ich eig vor hatte bis um spätestens elf fertig zu sein, ist nicht der Rede wert 🥲Insgesamt kommt es mir dennoch zeitlich gesehen ziemlich kurzzeitig vor zwischen der Idee, selbst einen Blog zu schreiben und der Umsetzung. Vor allem meine liebe Freundin Anna, die schon seit Jahren Reiseblogs auf ihrer Website veröffentlicht, hat mich dazu motiviert auf Tumblr einzusteigen. Ich bin gespannt, noch viele weitere Features im Laufe der Zeit rauszufinden. Lorenda, eine Freundin, führt seit Beginn hier ein Videotagebuch in ihrer Story auf Snapchat 📔📱Die Ideen fand ich beide nicht schlecht. Es ist einfach unglaublich praktisch, allen Interessierten, Freunden und Verwandten gleichzeitig denselben Informationszugang zu ermöglichen, ohne wen zu enttäuschen, dass wieder einmal die Audio wochenlang unbeantwortet bleibt 🙉Sorry an alle Betroffenen da draußen, ich bitte euch von Hasskommentaren in der Hinsicht abzusehen und gelobe Besserung. Der Blog ist kein Ersatz für noch ausstehende Antworten 🫶🏽☺️ Um noch ein Ereignis des Tages wiederzugeben, und den Blog auch inhaltlich einzuweihen, eine kurze, nicht allzu ausgedehnte (den es ist wie gesagt schon spät) Geschichte vom Harambee-Festival in Tallahassee, Hauptstadt von Florida 🎨🙌🏽🌍🎶 Dabei handelt es sich um ein jährlich wiederkehrendes, von der Stadt und der FAMU in Kooperation organisiertes, eintägiges Angebot, einfach mal die afrikanische Kultur auszuprobieren. Dazu zählen Stände, an denen es Seifen, Perlenketten, Malereien, Tatoos, authentische Kleidung, Glücksbringer, Instrumente, Haushaltswaren für Küche und Bad und vieles mehr zu erwerben gibt. Zahlreiche Foodtrucks mit eher amerikanischem, weil sehr fettig und fleischlastig, aussehendem Essen trieben einem die Gerüche in die Nase 👃 Es war so heiß, dass man nur mit einem Smoothie aus der Tiefkühltruhe überleben konnte (im Februar nachmittags!) ☀️ Aber das absolute Highlight war das Konzert in der einsetzenden Kühle der Dämmerung, bei der die Kinder ihren großen Auftritt hatten und einfach Figuren wie FlikFlak, Brücke und Spagate munter miteinander kombiniert hatten 🤸🏾‍♀️Wer ihnen das beigebracht hat, habe ich mich gefragt…? Die Kleidung der Musikant:innen hat die Atmosphäre definitiv einzigartig gemacht. Oder warst du schon mal auf einem Konzert mit afrikanischen Vibes auf der Bühne? Mit gängigen Hits wie Stand by Me oder Hey Ya! wurde es ein abgerundetes Erlebnis! 🎶🎸Jetzt habe ich doch noch ganz schön lange geschrieben… danke, dass du es bis hierhin durchgelesen hast. Ich hoffe, ich konnte dich durch den ersten Eindruck von meinem Blog überzeugen, wieder vorbeizuschauen. Bei Fragen, Feedback, Grüßen, Anregungen, Wünschen oder Verbesserungsideen kannst du gerne einen Kommentar hinterlassen. Ich freue mich über alle Hinweise und versuche so gut wie möglich darauf einzugehen. Der Blog ist in erster Linie gedacht, die zahlreichen Erlebnisse festzuhalten, die so im Auslandssemester alle passieren, plus gleichzeitig auch ein lebendiges Bild vom Studenten-Leben in Florida wiederzugeben. Ich möchte gerne so kulturelle Einblicke nahe bringen, zu generellen Themen anregen und alle Lesenden unterhalten. Hab noch einen schönen Tag und bis bald 👋🏽

[meccaakagrimo]

❤♥💚 Maiya lighting the candle that represents Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. #Day6 #HabariGani #Kuumba #Creativity #HappyKwanzaa #Heritage #NguzuSaba #SevenPrinciples #Kiara #MishumaaSaba #Mkeka #Muhindi #KikombeChaUmoja #Karamu #Zawadi #Harambee #1966 Kwanzaa ye iwe na Heri #Africa #RedBlackGreen #RBG #Identity #TeamMarcelin #M_Generation #TeamKwanzaa2017 #ReunionFaitLaForce 🌽🌽🌽🌽 (at Broward County, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm2a7kjrhGx/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[hermetichermethermes]

By the spirit of Harambe I grant your wish

gang I need your help I have a phrase I really want to catch on and it’s calling any secret or invisible struggle you have a “fight with a gorilla” like the onion article. if they can have cinnamon roll catch on this can too. “yeah she told me about it, I had no idea, sounds like a real fight with a gorilla” “sorry man I can’t come I’ve really been fighting the gorilla lately” do you see the vision

[euginemicah]

Stars coach Engin Firat quits over salary row

AM Live AM Live is NTV’s morning current affairs show that sets the agenda for the day with insightful panels every weekday. north_east Business Redefined Business Redefined is Kenya’s premier thought leadership platform for unpacking matters regarding economic and finance policy as well demystifying complex developments in the region’s capital markets. north_east Comedies A collection of…

[cherrymerrymuffin]

Mystery Fair & Hunt 4 .Princess Stuff. von .Princess Stuff. Über Flickr: Mystery Fair & Hunt! Eventlocation: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Imperial%20Ar/101/124/13 Infos: harambeehunts.blogspot.com/p/mystery-fair-hunt-lms-prizes... There are so many Cute Huntitems to find & so much Stores with so many FREE GIFTs! xoxo Catherine <3

[thekitmanuk]

Kenya 2024-25 Kits Unveiled

International football kit news as the new Kenya 2024-25 kits have been unveiled. Kenya 2024-25 Home Shirt The new 2024-25 Kenya home jersey is red with a tonal lion graphic pattern one left side of the front. The collar is white with red trim whilst the cuffs are white with red and black trim. On the left breast is the Kenya Football Federation badge. Kenya 2024-25 Home Goalkeeper…

[thevoidstaredback]

How To Balance (+guests) as more things that live in my head

Dick: 🎶PTSD... Anxiety... Crippling Depression, there is no question, please just kill me! Let me be with Harambee. I feel like shit every day! I'm asking you nicely, do it by drowning, under the sea!🎶

Tim: 🎶 I've no more fucks to give, my fucks have all run out! I tried to go fuck shopping, but there's no fucks on the shelf!🎶

Brucie Wayne, laying it on thick: 🎶My name is Karen! My hair is shiny. My teeth are perfect. My skirt is tiny. It barely covers my perky hiney. My name is Karen, I might not be smart! That's it.🎶

Bruce: So... who broke it? ... I'm not mad. I just want to know.

Alfred: I did. I broke-

Bruce: No, no you didn't. Tim?

Tim: Don't look at me. Look at Danny.

Danny: What? I didn't break it.

Tim: Huh. That's weird. How'd you even know it was broken?

Danny: Because it's sitting right in front of us and it's broken.

Tim: Suspicious.

Babs: If it matters - probably not - but Dick was the last one to use it.

Dick: Liar! I don't even drink that crap!

Babs: Oh, really? Then what were you doing by the coffee cart earlier?

Dick: I use the wooden stirrers to push back my cuticles; everyone knows that, Barbra!

Alfred: Ok, ok! Let’s not fight! I broke it, let me pay for it, Bruce!

Bruce: No! Who broke it??!

Danny: Bruce... Selina's been awfully quiet.

Selina: REALLY??

Bruce: Yeah! Really.

Selina: Oh, my God!

Bruce: ...

Bruce: I broke it. It burned my hand, so I punched it. I predict ten minutes from now they'll be at each other's throats with war paint on their faces and a pig head on a stick. Good. It was getting a little chummy around here.

Babs: 🎶I 👏 am ready 👏 for a 👏 nap!🎶

Dick: 🎶 I did it, I did. I jumped, I stepped, right off that cliff without a parachute. I looked over the edge and saw the view of something I could never do. And no part of me knew how, but the moment came and it had to be now, so, I did it, I did. I jumped, I stepped, right off that cliff without a parachute.🎶

Dick: Hey, you guys wanna go get some d-e-s-s-e-r-t?

Tim: Yeah, dude, I need me a t-r-e-a-t

Danny: What'chu guys talkin' about?

Babs: Yeah, why'd you guys just spell des-

Dick: No, no, no, no! Shut up!

Tim: Shh!

Dick: Shut up! Don't say it

Babs: Uh, why?

Tim: Oh, god, how do we tell you this?

Dick: Danny..can't spell

Danny: :)

Babs: ...what?

Tim: He can't spell, so when we talk about something he wants, we spell it out loud so that way he doesn't get too excited

Babs: He's a hero, and he can't handle hearing the word 'treat'?

Danny: Treat?

Dick: No treat!

Danny: Treat?!

Dick: No treat!

Danny: Treat?!?

Dick: No treat!

Danny: Aw...

Babs: Okay, what is happening?

Dick: We told you! He gets excited when he hears the word t-r-e-a-t!

Danny: What'chu talkin' about?

Dick: Taxes.

Danny: Aw, shucks

Babs: So, what, you guys just treat him like a toddler?

Danny: Treat?

Tim: No treat!

Danny: Treat?!

Tim: No treat!!

Danny: Treat?!?

Tim: No treat!!!

Danny: Aw.....

Tim: Dude, you gotta spell if you're talking about f-o-o-d!

Babs: Okay, so, are we getting an s..n-a-c-k?

Danny: Snack?!

Tim: Oh, c'mon!

Dick: Dude, really?

Babs: Come on, I spelled it!

Tim: He knows how to spell 'snack'!

Babs: So he can spell 'snack', but he can't spell 'treat'?!

Danny: Treat?

Babs: No treat!!

Danny: Treat?!

Babs: No treat!!!

Danny: Treat?!?

Babs: No treat!!!!

Danny: God damn it!

Dick: Okay, he's getting fussy; it's time for an n-a-p

Danny: Yeah.. :D

Babs: What does n-a-p spell?

Danny: Party

Dick: LOOK! I'm a teenage girl, I'd rather be anywhere than here! I'm all about long sullen silences, followed by mean comments, followed by more silence! So what's it gonna be: long sullen silence or mean comment? Go on, take your pick.

Tim: ...You got me in a box here.

Dick: AH-HAA!

Dick/Bruce: 🎶Cut my life into pieces!🎶

Danny/Tim: 🎶This is my chocolate bar!🎶

Danny, upon first glance of Wayne Manor: This house is a fucking Nightmare.

Dick: It's Muffin Time!

Danny: Actually, it's 12:30

Dick: Somebody kill me!

Danny: I can't believe giraffes exist but unicorns don't. What's more believable? A house with a horn or a leopard moose camel with a 40 foot neck?

Tim: That's why I switched to caffeine patches. You can stay awake for days with no side effects

Danny: ...

Tim: AHHHH!!!

Danny: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, 🎶Jason Derulo🎶

Child!Dick: ...What if I fall?

Mary Grayson: Oh, but what if you fly?

Danny: No capes! *slap*

Danny: Behold! The spee-i-der

Danny: Objection! Nu uh

Bruce: The fuck you mean 'nu uh'?!

[space-station-nursery]

◜🕯️𓂃 Happy Kwanzaa! ‧ 🌽◞

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

Early Habari Gani to my lovely African American followers! [this post is a day early] I hope each day brings you the best wishes and a joyful and prosperous new year! As a celebrant of Kwanzaa, id love to teach you guys about it too!

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

★﹒┊How did Kwanzaa form? ⁔⁔

In 1965, a white police officer pulled over two African American men in Watts, Los Angeles, sparking protest from the community. The crowd grew, leading to six days of rioting and violence, resulting in 34 deaths and over a thousand injuries, now known as the Watts Rebellion. Educator and activist Maulanga Karenga wanted to rebuild neighborhoods affected by the Watts Rebellion and encourage pride amongst the people instead! As part of his plan, he created Kwanzaa in 1966 to empower African Americans to rediscover and honor their African roots. It is assumed that kwanzaa was celebrated on the African continent but to a lesser degree

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

★﹒┊What does Kwanzaa mean? ⁔⁔

Kwanzaa, meaning "first fruits" in Swahili, celebrates the harvest season, and promotes honoring the 7 principles: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

★﹒┊How is it celebrated? ⁔⁔

⧼ 🏺 ⧽ Decorations

During Kwanzaa, African heritage symbols are displayed in homes, starting with a mkeka (muh-KAY-kuh) , a traditional woven mat representing traditions like sharing and faith. The mat features meaningful items like a basket filled with fruits and vegetables to represent harvest, corn for each child within your family, and a unity cup called kikombe cha umoja (kee-KOHM-bee cha oo-MOH-jah).

⧼ 🕯️ ⧽ Candles

A big part of celebrating Kwanzaa is marked by the lighting of a new candle each night. An adult pours water or juice from the unity cup onto the ground [to remember family ancestors], which is then passed to each family member while they chant harambee (Swahili for "let’s pull together" and pronounced hah-RAHM-beh) seven times while they sip from the cup. The kinara (kee-NAH-ruh) holds seven candles: one black, three red, and three green, representing unity, the past, and the future. Celebrants light a special candle each day, reflecting on the other six principles of Kwanzaa, and on the first night, celebrants light the black unity candle.

⧼ 🍍 ⧽ Food

Throughout the days of Kwanzaa, there are many celebratory dishes that can be made! Often times, the dishes are made from recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation which regularly are rooted in african culture like peanut soup or shrimp gumbo, topped off with tasty desserts like fried bananas, sweet potato pie, and coconut sweets. The big celebration is on December 31, when family and friends gather for a feast called karamu (kuh-RAH-moo), where we play music, dance, and singing. The last day is quieter, with people focusing on their future success and personal growth.

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

★﹒┊Kwanzaa Fun ⁔⁔

Before finishing up, i would like to give you guys some Kwanzaa themed worksheets !

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

18+ blogs // DD!LG, AB!DL and variants [even "SFW"] // 27 and older // DNI

Fact OTD: Kwanzaa has spread from the U.S. to other areas of the world, and is celebrated among African-Canadians, for example.

[mercerharlan]

Harambee neighborhood of Milwaukee

November 2018

[meccaakagrimo]

❤️🖤💚 Habari Gani !? Happy Kwanzaa - Umoja (oo-moh-jah) ~ Unity ~ To strive for and maintain unity in the Family, Community, Nation and Race. #Day1 #HabariGani #Umoja #Unity #HappyKwanzaa #Culture #Heritage #Tradition #NguzuSaba #SevenPrinciples #Kiara #MishumaaSaba #Mkeka #Muhindi #KikombeChaUmoja #Karamu #Zawadi #Harambee #1966 Kwanzaa ye iwe na heri #Africa #RedBlackGreen #RBG #TeamMarcelin #M_Generation #ReunionFaitLaForce #TeamKwanzaa2016 #TeamKwanzaa2017 #TeamKwanzaa2018 #TeamKwanzaa2019 #TeamKwanzaa2022 🌽🌽🌽🌽 (at Broward County, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/CmpUGHGOqHH/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[readyforevolution]

JOMO KENYATTA

Jomo Kenyatta, a pivotal figure in Kenya's history, is renowned as the father of the nation and played a crucial role in the country's struggle for independence from British colonial rule. His life and legacy offer a complex and multifaceted view of Kenya's journey towards self-determination.

Early Life and Education

Jomo Kenyatta was born in the early 1890s in British East Africa, now Kenya. Originally named Kamau Ngengi, he belonged to the Kikuyu ethnic group. His early life in the Kikuyuland gave him deep insights into the customs and traditions of his people, which later influenced his political views and actions.

Kenyatta's education began in mission schools, where he was exposed to Western education and Christianity. His thirst for knowledge led him to travel to England in 1929. There, he studied at the London School of Economics and interacted with various anti-colonial activists. This period was crucial in shaping his political ideologies.

Political Awakening and Mau Mau Uprising

Kenyatta's political journey was deeply rooted in his desire to fight for the rights of the indigenous people against colonial exploitation. After returning to Kenya, he became actively involved in the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA), advocating for the return of land taken by the British.

The 1950s marked a critical phase in Kenyatta's life with the Mau Mau uprising, a violent struggle against British colonial rule. Kenyatta's exact role in the uprising has been a subject of debate. While some believe he was a central figure, others view him as a moderate who sought to distance himself from the violence.

Road to Independence and Presidency

In 1963, Kenya achieved independence, and Kenyatta became its first Prime Minister and later its first President in 1964. His presidency was characterized by efforts to unite the diverse ethnic groups under the motto "Harambee," meaning "pulling together." Kenyatta's leadership focused on nation-building, economic development, and maintaining a balance between preserving African traditions and embracing modernity.

Legacy and Controversies

Kenyatta's legacy is a blend of revered nation-building efforts and criticisms over authoritarian tendencies. His land reform policies and promotion of education are widely lauded, but his regime also faced accusations of corruption, nepotism, and suppression of opposition.

Additional Readings:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jomo_Kenyatta

2. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/jomo-kenyatta-light-of-kenya-mohamed-amin-foundation/dwVRKZUHM-vnAg?hl=en

[euginemicah]

Harambee Sacco caught up in land fraud dispute

Harambee Sacco caught up in land fraud dispute The Atmosphere and Land Court docket has cancelled the title deeds of two plots of land in Nairobi after it emerged that the acquisition of the property was fraudulently facilitated by officers of Harambee Co-operative Financial savings and Credit score Society Restricted. Justice Lucy Mbugua cancelled the title deed issued to Delicate Metal…

[cherrymerrymuffin]

Wandering Souls Hunt4 [.Princess Stuff.] von .Princess Stuff. Über Flickr: All infos here: harambeehunts.blogspot.com/p/wandering-souls-hunt4-hintsp... Ps: Don´t forget my New Store Location: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Souled%20Out/134/75/2502 Happy Hunting<3 xoxo Cat <3

[dailyanarchistposts]

Chapter 3. Economy

What about building and organizing large, spread-out infrastructure?

Many Western history books assert that centralized government arose out of the need to build and maintain large infrastructure projects, especially irrigation. However, this assertion is based on the assumption that societies need to grow, and that they cannot choose to limit their scale to avoid centralization — an assumption that has been discredited many times over. And while large-scale irrigation projects do require some amount of coordination, centralization is only one form of coordination.

In India and East Africa, local societies built massive irrigation networks that were managed without government or centralization. In the Taita Hills region of what is now Kenya, people created complex irrigation systems that lasted hundreds of years, often until colonial agricultural practices ended them. Households shared day-to-day maintenance, each responsible for the closest section of the irrigation infrastructure, which was common property. Another custom brought people together periodically for major repairs: known as “harambee labor,” it was a form of collective, socially motivated work, similar to traditions in many other decentralized societies. The people of the Taita Hills ensured fair use through a number of social arrangements passed on by tradition, which determined how much water each household could take; those who violated these practices faced sanctions from the rest of the community.

When the British colonized the region, they assumed they knew better than the locals and set up a new irrigation system — geared, of course, to cash crop production — based on their engineering expertise and mechanical power. During the drought of the 1960s, the British system failed spectacularly and many locals returned to the indigenous irrigation system to feed themselves. According to one ethnologist, “East African irrigation works seem to have been more extensive and better managed during the precolonial era.”[48]

During the Spanish Civil War, workers in occupied factories coordinated an entire wartime economy. Anarchist organizations that had been instrumental in bringing about the revolution, namely the CNT labor union, often provided the foundations for the new society. Especially in the industrial city of Barcelona, the CNT lent the structure for running a worker-controlled economy — a task for which it had been preparing years in advance. Each factory organized itself with its own chosen technical and administrative workers; factories in the same industry in every locality organized into the Local Federation of their particular industry; all the Local Federations of a locality organized themselves into a Local Economic Council “in which all the centers of production and services were represented”; and the local Federations and Councils organized into parallel National Federations of Industry and National Economic Federations.[49]

The Barcelona congress of all Catalan collectives, on August 28, 1937, provides an example of their coordinating activities and decisions. The collectivized shoe factories needed 2 million pesetas credit. Because of a shortage of leather, they had to cut down on hours, though they still paid all their workers full time salaries. The Economic Council studied the situation, and reported that there was no surplus of shoes. The congress agreed to grant credit to purchase leather and to modernize the factories in order to lower the prices of the shoes. Later, the Economic Council outlined plans to build an aluminum factory, which was necessary for the war effort. They had located available materials, secured the cooperation of chemists, engineers, and technicians, and decided to raise the money through the collectives. The congress also decided to mitigate urban unemployment by working out a plan with agricultural workers to bring new areas into cultivation with the help of unemployed workers from the cities.

In Valencia, the CNT organized the orange industry, with 270 committees in different towns and villages for growing, purchasing, packing, and exporting; in the process, they got rid of several thousand middlemen. In Laredo, the fishing industry was collectivized — workers expropriated the ships, cut out the middlemen who took all the profit, and used those profits to improve the ships and other equipment or to pay themselves. Catalunya’s textile industry employed 250,000 workers in scores of factories. During collectivization, they got rid of high-paid directors, increased their wages by 15%, reduced their hours from 60 to 40 hours per week, bought new machinery, and elected management committees.

In Catalunya, libertarian workers showed impressive results in maintaining the complex infrastructure of the industrial society they had taken over. The workers who had always been responsible for these jobs proved themselves capable of carrying on and even improving their work in the absence of bosses. “Without waiting for orders from anyone, the workers restored normal telephone service within three days [after heavy street fighting ended]... Once this crucial emergency work was finished a general membership meeting of telephone workers decided to collectivize the telephone system.”[50] The workers voted to raise the salaries of the lowest paid members. The gas, water, and electricity services were also collectivized. The collective managing water lowered rates by 50% and was still able to contribute large amounts of money to the anti-fascist militia committee. The railway workers collectivized the railroads, and where technicians in the railroads had fled, experienced workers were chosen as replacements. The replacements proved adequate despite their lack of formal schooling, because they had learned through the experience of working together with the technicians to maintain the lines.

Municipal transportation workers in Barcelona — 6,500 out of 7,000 of whom were members of the CNT — saved considerable money by kicking out the overpaid directors and other unnecessary managers. They then reduced their hours to 40 per week, raised their wages between 60% (for the lowest income bracket) and 10% (for the highest income bracket), and helped out the entire population by lowering fares and giving free rides to schoolchildren and wounded militia members. They repaired damaged equipment and streets, cleared barricades, got the transportation system running again just five days after fighting ceased in Barcelona, and deployed a fleet of 700 trolleys — up from the 600 on the streets before the revolution — repainted red and black. As for their organization:

the various trades coordinated and organized their work into one industrial union of all the transport workers. Each section was administered by an engineer designated by the union and a worker delegated by the general membership. The delegations of the various sections coordinated operations in a given area. While the sections met separately to conduct their own specific operations, decisions affecting the workers in general were made at general membership meetings.

The engineers and technicians, rather than comprising an elite group, were integrated with the manual workers. “The engineer, for example, could not undertake an important project without consulting the other workers, not only because responsibilities were to be shared but also because in practical problems the manual workers acquired practical experience which technicians often lacked.” Public transportation in Barcelona achieved greater self-sufficiency too: before the revolution, 2% of maintenance supplies were made by the private company, and the rest had to be purchased or imported. Within a year after socialization, 98% of repair supplies were made in socialized shops. “The union also provided free medical services, including clinics and home nursing care, for the workers and their families.”[51]

For better or worse, the Spanish revolutionaries also experimented with Peasant Banks, Labor Banks, and Councils of Credit and Exchange. The Levant Federation of Peasant Collectives started a bank organized by the Bank Workers Union to help farmers draw from a broad pool of social resources needed for certain infrastructure- or resource-intensive types of farming. The Central Labor Bank of Barcelona moved credit from more prosperous collectives to socially useful collectives in need. Cash transactions were kept to a minimum, and credit was transferred as credit. The Labor Bank also arranged foreign exchange, and importation and purchase of raw materials. Where possible, payment was made in commodities, not in cash. The bank was not a for-profit enterprise; it charged only 1% interest to defray expenses. Diego Abad de Santillan, the anarchist economist, said in 1936: “Credit will be a social function and not a private speculation or usury... Credit will be based on the economic possibilities of society and not on interests or profit... The Council of Credit and Exchange will be like a thermometer of the products and needs of the country.”[52] In this experiment, money functioned as a symbol of social support and not as a symbol of ownership — it signified resources being transferred between unions of producers rather than investments by speculators. Within a complex industrial economy such banks make exchange and production more efficient, though they also present the risk of centralization or the reemergence of capital as a social force. Furthermore, efficient production and exchange as a value should be viewed with suspicion, at the least, by people interested in liberation.

There are a number of methods that could prevent institutions such as labor banks from facilitating the return of capitalism, though unfortunately the onslaught of totalitarianism from both the fascists and Communists deprived Spanish anarchists of the chance to develop them. These might include rotating and mixing tasks to prevent the emergence of a new managing class, developing fragmented structures that cannot be controlled at a central or national level, promoting as much decentralization and simplicity as possible, and maintaining a firm tradition that common resources and instruments of social wealth are never for sale.

But as long as money is a central fact of human existence, myriad human activities are reduced to quantitative values and value can be massed as power, and thus alienated from the activity that created it: in other words, it can become capital. Naturally anarchists do not agree on how to strike a balance between practicality and perfection, or how deep to cut in order to root out capitalism, but studying all the possibilities, including those that might be doomed to failure or worse, can only help.

[sistahscifi]

We are in stock in the ever popular Black Sci-fi Short Stories!!!

The collection is published by @FlametreePublishing and edited by @tiarossedtor.

The collection features stories by:

• Wole Talabi wtalabi – The Regression Test

• James Beamon @writerbeamon – An Empty, Hollow Interview

• K. Tempest Bradford @ktempestbradford – Élan Vital

• Walidah Imarisha @walidahimarisha – Space Traitors

• Tara Campbell @thetreerevolution – The Orb

• Michelle F. Goddard – The Floating City of Pengimbang

• Harambee K. Grey-Sun – The New Colossuses

• Emmalia Harrington – Seven Thieves

• Patty Nicole Johnson – The Line of Demarcation

• Russell Nichols – e-race and Giant Steps

• Megan Pindling – You May Run On

• Sylvie Soul – Suffering Inside, But Still I Soar

• Lyle Stiles – The Pox Party

If you do not already own Black Sci-fi Short Stories, you can purchase it on our @facebookapp, @instagram, @shopify, @tiktok, @pinterest or @librofm stores. Link in bio: @sistahscifi | www.sistahscifi.com | https://sistahscifi.com/products/black-sci-fi-short-shorts

Better yet, you can check it out at your local #library! Today, we are highlighting @seattlepubliclibrary and @kingcountylibrary!

Reposted @ktempestbradford I have a story Black Sci-fi Short Stories alongside some AMAZING authors. Check out the table of contents. It's available anywhere good books are sold.