#workers councils

[oceanicmarxist]

1929 cover of Bezbozhnik u Stanka, the magazine of the League of Militant Atheists in the U.S.S.R. Cover depicts industrial workers tipping Jesus into a garbage disposal while another smashes a church bell with a big hammer.

[troonpolitikon]

Solidarity -- As We See It

[russia-libertaire]

The Soviets

'The workers, naturally enough, were the first to react to Bloody Sunday. Abandoning any hope of support from church or tsar, they turned for advice and organizational support to the opposition, especially to the socialists. The Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries were slow to respond: their leaders were still in emigration, cut off from their potential constituents and preoccupied by heated polemics with one another. Local activists did what they could to improvise meetings, protests, and strikes, and gradually their contact with the workers improved and assumed more organized forms. The result was a new type of workers' association, the Soviet (Council) of Workers' Deputies. First set up in the textile town of Ivanovo-Voznesensk to coordinate a general strike, the soviets were usually elected by the workers of the major enterprises in any given town, at the rate of one deputy for every 500 or so workers. They would meet in a large building, or even in the open air, where not only deputies but also their electors could attend and contribute to discussions. This was a close approach to direct democracy, since, at least in principle, any deputy could be recalled at any time if he failed to satisfy his constituents and be replaced by someone else. The members of each soviet elected an executive committee to deal with day-to-day business and to negotiate with employers, municipality, and police: often they would choose professional people, seeing them as more skillful spokesmen than they themselves could be. Through the executive committees the socialist activists gained influence over the soviets and sometimes directly organized them. The soviets were the best forum for radical intellectuals and workers to cooperate with each other at a time of political crisis. For the workers, they took a familiar form: their general meetings resembled overgrown and disorderly village assemblies, in which everyone tried to speak and mass enthusiasm welled up. On the other hand, the executive committees supplied the element of conscious policy and organization. The soviets' greatest moment came in St. Petersburg in October 1905, when they organized a general strike which disrupted normal production and communications not only in the capital city but over much of the empire. This was the decisive blow which compelled the tsar to grant the October Manifesto, promising civil liberties and an elected legislative assembly.'

Russia and the Russians, by Geoffrey Hosking

[oceanicmarxist]

the luigi mangione thing has melted people's brains. this kind of nihilistic, individual terror isn't productive and it's what disillusioned liberals do when they feel as if they're the Main Character and that real politics (organising a mass movement) is beneath them.

mangione's assassination has no 'increased class consciousness' (as people are saying), it isn't class consciousness to think shooting ceos is okay/funny. this stuff undermines class consciousness by misleading people into thinking that the system can be destroyed by shooting all the 'bad guys'.

You should be trying to organise healthcare workers and agitating against the private healthcare system, not posting about how Luigi Mangione is a hunk or whatever dumb shit leftoids are doing these days.

Marxism long ago disclosed the underlying kinship between liberalism and anarcho-terrorism. Both liberalism and terrorism repudiate reliance upon the independent and revolutionary organisation and activity of the working masses which is the essence of Marxist politics. Liberalism looks to “progressive, peace-loving” politicians among the capitalist ruling circles to lead the way to the solution of the problems of society. Erstwhile liberals turned terrorist, though thoroughly disillusioned with the old methods, are nevertheless still contemptuous of the masses and rely upon conspiracy and dynamite to do the job. Terrorism is petty-bourgeois liberalism temporarily gone berserk. Both are equally injurious to the promotion of a genuinely proletarian revolutionary movement.

^ Ernest Mandel, 'Marxism or Neo-Anarchist Terrorism?'

[dr-jingles]

The council vs King being a big guy

[archivlibrarianist]

Library workers at American University in Washington, D.C. has created this LibGuide of trusted repositories that still hold now-deleted government data. The site also has links to advocacy groups and ways that regular people can help.

[polytropic-liar]

hey hi sorry don't mind me, I need to get this VERY SILLY au out of my head so I can go back to actually watching da meng gui li in peace

A tiny wrinkle had appeared in the middle of Zhuo Yichen's forehead as he read the draft. Wen Xiao was choosing to take that as a good sign. "Huh," he said, softly. The wrinkle deepened. Clearly, she had stunned him with her eloquence.

Finally, he handed the tablet back to her. "Well?" she prompted after a moment.

"I think. Um. It certainly has a strong point of view. But I think maybe the sections about what you want Pei Sijing to do with you are a little inappropriate."

"It's the Rainbow Club!" Wen Xiao objected. "I think people will find it relatable."

"I didn't say it wasn't relatable. I just said that maybe it isn't appropriate to say during your speech announcing your candidacy for Presidency of the club that you want the Secretary to 'put a little bell on you and pet you like a cat.'"

"That's homophobic actually," Wen Xiao informed him, and went back to designing her campaign pins. She needed to nail the branding, because Li Lun had just debuted his campaign slogan, and if he won they were going to be stuck with the extremely stupid tagline 'Fags of Fortune' all year long.

[oceanicmarxist]

"calling off revolution"?

maybe we came from different universes, but i don't recall there being a point in early 1917 where the revolution that hadn't even happened yet was "called off".

by the women's march on international women's day on march 8th (feb 23rd O.S), there had already been at least five days of protests and strikes (first from the workers at the putilov factory).

will agree that people understate the role of the women's march, but to say that everybody had given up until those women marched is just inaccurate, the women joined up with other protestors to form a larger bloc which would eventually force the tsar to abdicate.

in case you forgot, Stalin purged, browbeat, murdered, and exiled most of those "bolshiveks" when

you can make a statement on IWWD without turning it into a sterile, sectarian screed.

Happy birthday to the bolshiveks, menshiveks, SR's, social democrats and liberals being fucking cowards and calling off revolution, only to be shamed into action by the women of St. Petersburg who came out in force in the streets on March 8th, International Women's day.

They went from factory to factory, throwing rocks and heckling the passivity of the union men that had rolled over in the face of the Tsar, and the next day they too came out into the streets in a show of solidarity with their sisters and siblings.

International Women's day marks the start of the 1917 revolution. Within days, the liberal Duke Lavrov called off the soldiers, and a short time later the Tsar himself abdicated the Russian throne.

the bolshiveks (especially under Stalin) would slowly begin to push the importance of this day under the rug, as they betrayed the decades of work that Russian feminists had been doing both within and outside of their ranks. Upon it's founding (under great pressure from radical feminists), the USSR was the first country in Europe to legalize abortion, only to revoke that right within a matter of years under the command of Stalin.

People have a tendency to forget the Febuary revolution, saying that it matters little since the bolshiveks end up winning in the end - but it behooves us, regardless of our political tendencies to remember the bravery of the women of St. Petersburg, slowly left out of our historical accounts in favor of those that ironically never could have won without them.

So, to working women everywhere: remember the power in your hands. You have the power to topple empires.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

If it happened once, it can happen again.

Happy International Women's day.

[mothsakura]

oh?? new ancient ocs???

[themistas]

incredibly specific i guess. but work setting sastiel is obviously castiel as that one coworker who does his job meticulously, seriously, properly, and continously gets screwed over by upper management (he never gets peace when he is done), who always takes it silently, nods and accepts it. and sam as the guy nearby who's part of the union watching it all unfold, giving a replay to the entire union office whenever a new screw-over happens -- sighing when castiel once again refuses to speak up when he suggests he does

[oceanicmarxist]

People calling for a general strike/mass strike in 2024 are genuinely delusional. The unions aren't militant enough to do a general strike. You would need to break the AFL-CIO bureaucracy with rank and file militants. This takes decades. Signing a petition doesn't make strikes happen. You can't just declare these things apropos of nothing.

If you want arms embargoes etc - you need to organise workers in key industries.

FREE PALESTINE MOVEMENT FAILED

What Hasnt Worked

•Calling Congress members

•Calling Senator

•Signing online petitions

•Attending marches, protests & rallies

•Sharing, resharing, commenting posts online

•None of the above has led to an official arms embargo or permanent ceasefire agreement.

The Ongoing Genocidal Issue

•Per Lancet, 200k Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israel in the genocide since last October including over 40k children.

•Over 20k Palestinian children are missing with many of the missing children being trafficked into sex trafficking rings.

•Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians remain buried under tons of rubble which will take years to clear.

•Forced starvation & famine perpetrated by Israel continues in Palestine with millions of Palestinians at risk of dying of starvation.

•Winter has arrived in Palestine & Palestinian civilians — including infants — are freezing to death in tents without electricity, heat and some are even without blankets in single digit temperatures.

•Multiple Palestinian infants — some only days old — have died of heart attacks due to the constant, severe, relentless, maniacal bombing by Israel.

•There are images & videos of injured, wounded & dying Palestinian civilians being devoured alive by dogs & cats who are themselves being starved by the genocidal Israeli occupational forces.

•The last functioning hospital in North Gaza — Kamal Adwan Hospital — was besieged by Israel two days ago.

•The doctors & patients at Kamal Adwan Hospital were forcibly evacuated — including critically ill patients on oxygen support & nebulizers.

•The patients at Kamal Adwan Hospital were told they would be evacuated to another hospital via ambulance.

•There have not been reports yet of what happened to the doctors at Kamal Adwan Hospital but the Director of the hospital has been detained.

•Israel did this to another Palestinian hospital only a few months ago — Al-Shifa Hospital.

•It is clear that the IOF will follow the same playbook with Kamal Adwan Hospital — the doctors will be detained, arrested, abused, & tortured — then some of the doctors will be killed & the remaining doctors will be released.

•The infants at Al-Shifa Hospital were left behind by the IOF and there were subsequent videos & images of the deceased infants decomposing corpses.

•It is obvious the same fate awaits the now forcibly evacuated doctors & patients from Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Effective Activism?

•What is effective beyond current BDS (Boycott Divest Sanctions) strategy targeting Chevron, AXA, Siemens, etc. — which has not yet worked?

•As Israels genocide continues unabated, unimpeded & continuously funded by & with weapons provided by the United States.

•Over a year into the onslaught, Israel continues to expand its genocidal aggression to include Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) — North Gaza, South Gaza, Rafah, West Bank, East Jerusalem; Lebanon; Syria; Yemen & Iran.

Suggested Actions

Action #1: Mass Strike

•Suggestion: A general strike in the United States where 3.5% of the working population or 11 million Americans strike.

•Action Item: Sign the general strike card:

https://generalstrikeus.com/strikecard?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYrjr4EPUbi7STRSXWejtl9t9axeG70svJcfMCLULy-4OvrHdOWS3EKUBk_aem_0wjAyUoBvXmGBEUR8rVtrA

Action #2: Suing US Government for Genocide

•Suggestion: US citizens in all 50 states follow Californias lead & file lawsuits against their respective state governments for providing “Israeli military aid to support the genocide in Gaza” which violated the constitutional rights of their constituents by using their taxes “for the unlawful purpose of complicity in genocide.”

•Action Item: Read the lawsuit below, track its progress & determine if you can file a similar lawsuit in your home state.

COURT: N.D. Cal.

TRACK DOCKET: No. 3:24-cv-09213 (Bloomberg Law subscription)

Where does pro-Palestine movement go from here?

•We have all been doing the same exact things for over a year with exactly zero results & extremely minimal “wins”(Maersk, cities divesting their bonds, etc.) — but no official arms embargo & no permanent ceasefire agreement.

•Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been slaughtered, starved, literally scared to death via heart attack due to relentless bombing, shot at point blank range in the heart, head & stomach including children & infants, burned alive in tents, buried alive in mass graves, tortured in detention centers.

•Children & infants butchered, women murdered, men slaughtered, disabled & elderly civilians ran over by tanks…

•It isnt enough to share & reshare images & videos of the genocide, tweet your support for Palestine, call your Congress members & Senators, sign online petitions, attend rallies marches protests & die-ins — we have all been doing exactly this day in & day out for over a year yet there is STILL no official arms embargo & no permanent ceasefire agreement.

At a Year Plus — Whats Next?

•Along with continuing BDS (boycott divest sanction) efforts as they have been proven to work in the past against the apartheid government in South Africa in the 80s & 90s —

•Along with signing the strike card & striking if you economically & financially can —

•Along with researching the possibility of filing a lawsuit against your elected state officials in your individual state for voting for funding for Israel which violates our constitutional rights as United States constituents as it is using our tax payer dollars “for the unlawful purpose of complicity in genocide��� —

Dont Just Reshare Videos — Think

•Lets also ask ourselves what else we can do in this moment beyond just resharing videos on Instagram & Twitter.

•We need to do everything in our power to bring about an official arms embargo & permanent ceasefire agreement.

What Can We Do?

•Share this post. Comment this post with your own ideas. Tag pro-Pali accounts in the comments.

No Complacency During Genocide

•Palestinian civilians continue to be burned alive, buried alive, shot at point blank range in the head heart & stomach, tortured, traumatized, starved to death, repeatedly forcibly evacuated, relentlessly bombed, endlessly humiliated, threatened, intimidated, coerced, gaslit, imprisoned, subjugated, repressed, cut into pieces, dismembered & literally devoured alive by starved dogs & cats.

•We cant allow ourselves to fall into a complacent repetitive lull of “watch reshare retweet wash rinse repeat”.

•What can we do to actually bring about an official arms embargo & permanent ceasefire agreement?

•We have “raised awareness” online, marched, protested, rallied, died in & birddogged — it hasnt worked.

•We need to do more.

•Comment. Share. Think!

•🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸 🍉🍉🍉❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

[oceanicmarxist]

Soviet Cybernetics scientists. Viktor Glushkov first from the right. 1970s I think?

[sampilled]

How was the Taylor Swift concert?

It was absolutely amazing!!!

It was so fun and usually I hate that stuff like this is in daylight(it only started to get dark when she started the midnights set) but it was actually great cuz she could see out in the crowd and she noticed people getting engaged (two girls. Rise up swiftbians) and congratulated them and it was sooooo cute

Her tour also broke records in Scotland!!!! Most attended music show ever!!!!!

[oceanicmarxist]

There's no such thing as an "anarchist revolution" or an "ML revolution". Revolutions never start out as explicitly communist. None of these sect labels mean anything in 2024 anyway.

One thing I think is weird about a lot of leftists is how like… entrenched we often are in our particular branch of leftism. I consider myself an anarchist, but like… I’ll be honest, I wouldn't be mad at an ML revolution. Why would I?

Like anything left of socdems basically I’m like “sure, sounds better than this”

And like the only thing that gives me pause in that position is when online MLs are like “execute the anarchists”

[rotten-downer]

A little doodle based off a part of an rp I'm doing with a friend where Audrey showed up dressed as a council worker and just threatened everyone with a bomb she made.

[bigbihatemachine]

Mum: I don't understand why the council would treat you, a disabled person, so poorly!

Me: well yeah it's disgusting but their reasoning is none of this is support needs so I can go off my meds, that's not their problem, never leave the house, etc etc, none of these count as support needs-

Mum: stop! This is too upsetting to hear!

Me, who is currently living it as and as a direct result of my mother making me homeless: sure it def is upsetting