Adventures in Marxism

Investigating Marxism, Socialism, and Communism

[fatpikachupics]

[mycommunistblog]

I want this to say trans rights, or at least queer rights. In this day and age the trans community is really vulnerable. But also queer can be used as a positive inclusive signifier.

[alwaysbewoke]

had to get that off my chest… 

[alwaysbewoke]

the bullshit i’m talking about… 

meanwhile…

[alwaysbewoke]

THANK YOU!!! THESE ARE INDICTMENTS OF OUR COUNTRY!!! NOT INSPIRATION!! 

[welcometonegrotown]

It’s an extremely popular opinion among middle and upper class white people.

[reverseracism]

Also, aside from this completely uneducated reasoning as to why minimum wage was created…

I can guarantee that there are tens of thousands of teenagers who have to pay bills and help support their families or are the only financial supporter to their family.

[chescaleigh]

not to mention, if minimum wage was meant solely for high school students how would the business survive when students are in school?? are they only supposed to be open on the weekend? this “unpopular opinion” makes no sense.

[geocaprican]

Unpopular fact: in the 70s a minimum wage worker could pay for college with a summer job.

Unpopular fact: minimum wage was conceived to be the minimum amount of money a person would need to support themselves and their families when working 40 hours per week.

Unpopular fact: minimum wage was created because working men and women in this nation fought–figuratively in the negotiating room and literally in the streets–for a fair working wage, with sweat and blood and tears and death.

Unpopular fact: military service personnel are not the only people who have fought and died for your rights as American: labor leaders and common workers laid down their lives so that you could have a 40 hour work week instead of 80 hours; so you could have a 2 day weekend instead of none; so you could have lunch and bathroom breaks instead of going hungry and shitting your pants,; so you could have a three day weekend in September.

Capitalism would NEVER dole out basic human decency without literal human sacrifice.

[phroyd]

Thank Your Local Republican!

Phroyd

[ohgodshesloose]

Eat the rich

[phenoniix]

this is why old ppl never realize what they’re saying when they say “when i was your age i payed for my tuition all by myself” yeah well sorry susan my tuition is $35,000 a year and i make $7 an hour

[mycommunistblog]

Heck thank the Democrats too. As long as capitalist parties are in power these trends won’t end.

[i-hate-chick-fil-a]

Blue-shirted woman’s face has never been more appropriate.

[mycommunistblog]

Last night I had a dream in witch some natural disaster caused a general break down of society. The area where I lived was not damaged, but the government had been destroyed, and I also know that the owner of the factory I worked at had been killed in the disaster.

The rest of the dream consisted of me going with my coworkers to the factory where I was employed,  and hashing out a constitution for the operation of the factory without owners. It was an incredibly detailed dream, were we decided how organize our work, and how to elect and recall leadership. How we decided that any leadership elected would have a limit of one term and then be required to re-assimilate back into the work force.

We were in the process of developing a jury system to handle work place discipline when my cat woke me up, but I remember sending out runners to encourage other workers to organize their work places long these democratic lines before the dream ended.    

[mycommunistblog]

A Specter is haunting tumbler

[mycommunistblog]

R.U.R. Review

I recently read R.U.R. Rossum's Universal Robots, and I was surprised by the depth of themes found in the play. I should inform you that this post contains spoilers, but since it premiered in 1921 a spoiler warning seems a little odd nearly a hundred years later.

For those reading who are unfamiliar with the play, R.U.R. is one of the first stories that raised the specter of a robot revolution, and it is actually the source of the word robot in the English language. The word itself comes from a Czech word meaning forced labor.

The play is set on an island which is home to a factory for building robots, and the factory is in turn operated by robots.

The robots themselves are different than what you might be used to. Rather than being made of metal and gears they are constructed from synthetic organs and artificial flesh, but are denied emotions both to keep them subservient and as a justification for their servitude.

This plot gives us the framework for three main themes, the first of which is humanity's ability to engineer their own destruction; in this case it comes in the form of a robot revolution, and while this story was written well before people had begun to worry about nuclear war and climate change, it isn't hard to anticipate the man-made existential threats we live with today.

The existential threat I think the author had in mind though was that of war in general. Written shortly after the First World War, the efficiency of death introduced by modern machinery is focused on  as the robots are eventually employed by nation states as soldiers because of their ability to kill without feeling.  Humans first order robots to kill other humans, but this is what teaches war and dominance to the robots, and it isn't long before they turn on their own generals.

That brings us almost directly into our next theme, and that is class struggle. This is highlighted more than one way. Of course the robots stand in as the story's proletariat, and the humans as the bourgeoisie, but the play also takes time to lay out the effect that robot labor has on a capitalist mode of production.

In the first act, the owner of the robot factory poses the question, “What kind of worker do you think is the best worker?” The answer was the “cheapest worker,” and it was explained that the robots have fewer needs than human workers, and therefore they cost less to maintain. This made it cheaper to produce commodities, and in order to compete, all businesses everywhere were forced to replace human workers in favor of robots. This was noted to cause a great deal of unemployment, but the suffering this caused was justified by the hope of achieving a post scarcity society.

Now of course the robots eventually realize that while the humans need them to perform labor, the robots don't need humans to direct them, and this thought begins the revolution.

In the end the robots kill all but one human, a worker who didn't fight against the revolution. Recognized by the robots as one who works with his hands the same way they do, he is left alive.

The last theme is curiously religious, and on its surface seems like a means to moralize the story. After reflecting on it for some time I see it as an interesting extension of the Greek creation myths. During the course of the play it is highlighted that humans have attempted to take the place of God in the role of creator by creating the robots.

At one point a human even prays to God to save them from the revolution, but there is no divine intervention, and the robots take over the world.

In Greek mythology, the gods are the descendants of other divine beings. But the gods didn't rise to power peacefully. In effect, they had their own revolution against their parents, killing the previous generation which had oppressed them.

The gods then create humans, and command us to serve them. Almost as an example of continuing class consciousness, humans discover their own creative power, and seek to overthrow the gods in building the robots.

Then continuing the theme of the created destroying their creator, manufacturing robots laid the grounds for humans to be replaced by their own creation. The play highlights this when two of the robots gain emotions and fall in love, giving them the ability to procreate, a power the other robots don't have, and in the end the last human renames them Adam and Eve.

[dustinteractive]

The Apple Intern

[alanaisalive]

That graffiti doesn’t mention Trump. So Fox News is openly admitting he’s a Fascist now. (source)

[mycommunistblog]

Problems Dealing with Capitalism's Contradictions.

As a Marxist I often find myself discussing the tensions within capitalism that create social unrest and lead to change. It is tempting to see the centralization of wealth that capitalism has produced, and the shortcomings that working people face, and believe that a move toward socialism is inevitable, but I and most other socialists I know believe that socialism has to be fought for if it is to be achieved.

That being said, I do believe that the pressures within capitalism do inevitability lead to some sort of social change, and recently I have been considering some of the stresses that can lead to dangerous results. Specifically I have been thinking about the problem of a surplus labor population.

Surplus labor population can be simply thought of as an unemployment rate. People who are looking for jobs, who are desperate for jobs, but can't find work. Under capitalism a certain level of unemployment works out very well for employers since it forces people to be willing to work for less pay and wages can be keep relatively low while raising profits.

This arrangement has never been great for the worker though, and the ill affects of an unemployment rate are all the more pronounced as the rate grows. The dynamic of this relationship does lead to real unrest, but not always between the economic classes.

In the real world, capitalism doesn't operate in the closed system of a single state; there is a world market, and consequently a world labor market. Goods are routinely produced outside of the countries where they are consumed, and the labor that produced them is essentially outsourced, and because labor laws are relaxed in many countries, the market favors labor that is easier to exploit.

Beyond the outsourcing, immigration profoundly affects local labor markets, and increases the surplus labor population competing for the few jobs performed locally.

Both of these local and external pressures not only leave many unemployed, but also lowers the pay available for those who can find work.

The dynamic of the world labor market provides the pressures for social upheaval, but in many circumstances it has lead not to worker solidarity to demand a more equitable deal for the working class, but rather contention between working people along national and ethnic lines.

In order to compete for employment, there appears to be a primal urge to seek a privileged position to eliminate competition. We see this clearly in our public debates about immigration and foreign trade as the job market becomes the focal point to controlling our borders, and protectionism arises as we seek to keep jobs within our own countries.    

Nationalism, racism and sexism are all perpetuated under capitalism as we are all too ready to maintain systems of oppression in favor of a sort of racial nepotism to avoid the oppression of unemployment ourselves.

The seeds for inevitable social change do exist in capitalism, but if we do not actively promote worker solidarity both at home and abroad, the pressure of racial supremacy and patriarchy will not lead to socialism, but corrupt social change in favor of a system not unlike fascism. Perhaps this is the manifestation of what Rosa Luxembourg predicted when she said our choices are either Socialism or Barbarism.

[mycommunistblog]

Communism Through Radical Democracy

I am a communist, a term that carries a lot of historical weight which is difficult to overcome. Does this mean I believe in centralized power used to direct the economy as seen in the Soviet Union? No. What I do mean is a political system that is structured toward achieving both economic and political equity. The question of course is how?

I answer this question with radical democracy, not just in the political sphere but also in the world of production. I, and communists like me, call for workplaces run democratically by the workers, and leadership, where it is needed, should be elected from among the workers. A right to recall elections should be easily accessible to prevent abuses of power, and compensation for labor should be democratically determined to prevent the centralization of wealth.

Communities should also be democratically operated with leadership elected and recalled regularly, as done in the workplaces. If there should be political strata, each level of government should have a bicameral legislature for both worker counsels and counsels of lay citizens.

Ultimately the economy should be democratically directed, with the structure of the democracy carefully fixed to avoid privileging one group over another. - The above is an opinion piece I tried to have published in a local newspaper. Protocol for publishing opinion pieces requires the newspaper to verify author's identity by phone. Unfortunately because of my work schedule I missed the identity verification call backs, and my letter couldn't be published.

Also trying to write an opinion piece with less then 200 words is hard.           

[mycommunistblog]

Since Trump has been president he has done a lot of things that I find distressing, but first among these has to be the gagging of the EPA's climate science.

It is clear of course that suppressing this information is meant to protect the capitalist interests of fossil fuel industries, and restrict the struggle for sustainable energy policies. This aspect of the gag order is disturbing enough, but beyond this is Trump's willingness to use state power to suppress ideas that he finds uncomfortable is abhorrent.

The progress of science, philosophy, and politics are all halted without the freedom of inquiry and a willingness to question accepted ideas, and restricting public access to these ideas is equally damning.

This sort of authoritarian action must be resisted, and I applaud those who have published information despite the gag. We cannot accept Trump's actions as normal, actions of protest must continue, and objections stated, or we will lose the most important tool democracy has, knowledge and ideas.

[refinery29]

Signal boost this– Wear a safety pin to signal solidarity with the groups like Muslim-Americans Trump has threatened to marginalize

Now that America has gone and elected a man who has inspired a wave of racist attacks, the pins have made their way back across the Atlantic. People all over are tweeting their image with the pin and a message of solidarity. 

READ MORE

[mycommunistblog]

Why I Think Trump Won

So Trump won the election. Interestingly he didn't win the popular vote, but problems with the Electoral College aren't the reason why I am writing this.

What concerns me about this election is where Trump won namely Wisconsin and Michigan. Historically these states have been centers of the working class people and labor unions, a voting bloc that normally votes Democratic.

So why did working class people vote for Trump? I think it is in part because Liberalism in reality does very little for the working class. It's not that Conservatism does anything for the working class either, since Conservatism in this country is just Classical Liberalism. Trump however doesn't represent a normal conservative agenda. When you cut past Trump's racism and misogyny, his campaign offered his own brand of Protectionism.

On the other hand Clinton was the free trade candidate, supporting measures like the Trans Pacific Partnership, and in the past supported NAFTA, and other free trade agreements.

These policies have not served working people well, since free trade directly allows business leaders to circumvent workers' ability to demand equitable pay and benefits by outsourcing labor to countries where it is easier to exploit workers. Because we are working against international agreements, normal democratic processes and labor strikes are insufficient to bring employment back to workers here. We are left instead with a permanent unemployment rate and a population desperate to work any job just to get by.

Trump's campaign, if anything else, offered workers and end to free trade. He directly opposed the Trans Pacific Partnership, and has stated that he would pull the United States out of other free trade agreements. His campaign did not end however with simply ending our competition to sell our labor  with other countries. No, he brought his protectionism home and exploited a wedge in the working class.  

Racial protectionism, a sort of nepotism that privileges one group of workers over another, is an attempt to eliminate part of the competition to sell our labor at home. He and others like him have made people who should be allies in fighting for an equitable economic position into supposed threats in our fight for the meager employment opportunities that are available to us.

In voting for Trump, America has again affirmed that it is complicit in this racist cancer which will eventually erode any ground the working class has to stand on.          

In contrast, Clinton, while not overtly persecuting minorities, provided no new policies to assist the working class. She offered only a continuation of existing policy, which, though beneficial to economic growth of the wealthiest, it has done little for the lot of the average person.

The working class pressed the Democratic party for access to education and healthcare, if only to allow us to more easily compete in our capitalist economy, and Clinton turned away from us. In Clinton's rush to the center of the political spectrum she took no clear stand on any issue that could have cemented working people to her.

In the end Clinton's best performance was in our country's financial centers, the section of the country that has been best served by Liberalism.

If we want to stop the Trumps of this world, solutions to our political and economic problems need to come from a united working class itself.

We need to end a system of mass incarceration, which has disenfranchised millions of people, mostly along racial lines.

We need to demand a new election system, such as ranked choice voting, and proportional representatives systems where seats in congress are given based on the percentages of people who voted for a particular party. Both of these measures would improve the ability of smaller parties to present their views and run for office without falling victim to the lesser of two evils dichotomy that now exists in the United States.

Ultimately we need to demand a democratically directed economy, where workplaces are directed by workers, and leadership is elected from within their ranks.  Only in this way can workers achieve the equitable status that we need to live with economic security.

[mycommunistblog]

This is a speech I gave at a #Movement4Bernie rally.

[mycommunistblog]

Political Revolution: Utah

This is a speech I gave at a #Movement4Bernie rally.

***

We have come here today in support of a political revolution; we have come to throw off the status quo of a political system owned by wealth.

 We stand at a crossroads, as our world faces environmental catastrophe, and crippling wealth inequality, twin cancers fed by the lust for profit. Yet while the leading political parties espouse democracy, they accept endless financial support from corporate interests, and establish laws protecting, above all else, the pursuit of capital.  

 Now we have before us two choices: Hillary Clinton, who accepts grandiose speaking fees and undisclosed campaign funding from corporate backers, and we have a challenger, Bernie Sanders, who rejects the backing of corporations, yet receives the massive amounts of money required to run for office from working people.  

 The presidential debates revolve around many of the same issues that they did eight years ago, and for decades beyond that, not because we lack the desire for change, but because politicians backed by wealthy donors have failed to solve the problems that are inherent to a profit-driven society.

When our politicians approached an issue such as health care, they did not create a public health care system. Instead they enshrined the role of private institutions into our laws. We are compelled to pay taxes not to a democratically-controlled system, but to private interests who line their own pockets with the surplus of the bill for insurance.

We challenge this system of private health insurance. Yet, when tested, Clinton states her agenda will be loyal only to a continuation of past policy, and it is clear that she will bring no progress!

We have demanded a candidate beholden to the people rather than corporate interests, but the establishment has given fierce opposition in favor of business as usual.

When the Chair of the Democratic National Committee says, – Super delegates exist to make sure party leaders and elected officials don’t have to run against grassroots activists, – we know that the Democratic Party has abandoned democracy.

Should our political system remain in the hands of the wealthy, environmental destruction and wealth inequity will consume us as our government is bent to the will of capital.    

We as working people cannot remain complacent. We must strive for a truly democratic society, one free of the dark influence of corporate greed. This is Sanders’ political revolution. This is the revolution of the working class. Through our grassroots efforts we must command the powers of democracy to destroy the narrow focus that our political system has used to protect the capitalist drive for the centralization of wealth.

Only when we put people before profits, will we be able to cure the cancer of climate change.

Let us be clear. No new technology is required to end our reliance on carbon emitting fuels. Only the forces of the market and the hunger for profit stand in our way. We have but to choose life before greed to save ourselves. Let us choose life!

We have no illusions that simply electing Sanders will be sufficient to substantiate the actions we are demanding. In fact the heavy task of a political revolution will have only just begun. We at Socialist Alternative are committed to the ongoing struggle for this revolution. Let us march in the streets! Let us rally for a democratic economy! Let the revolution begin, and let us continue to fight until it is won!