Revfleft Exile Blues

Communist of some of kind. Melbourne, Australia. My blog is mostly quotes, shitposts and humour. Occasionally you might find some serious conversation, although I am afraid that tumblr is not exactly the correct medium for that.

[proletarianprogramme-blog]

Leninism, in its codified form as an ideology (in the pejorative sense) developed years after Lenin’s death is garbage - and this is what Marxist Leninists refer to as Leninism. They don’t mean What is to be done? or State and Revolution, or really much of anything else - and they sure as fuck don’t mean one of the most important development Lenin actually emphasised - revolutionary defeatism - since in general Marxist Leninists very very rarely call for the transformation of a civil or imperialist war into a class war. They pick a side of some despot butcher of the working class because they want to pretend their shit is Realpolitik. Defend Assad, Defend Iran, Defend the Kims. It’s delusional, anti-marxist, and absurd.  I think the Bolsheviks were great, heaps to learn - even if it isn’t super applicable since compromising with peasantry is not exactly uh… relevant for most of us today. But “Lenin-ism” is either horrifyingly bad - or just a weird way for people to identify themselves as “I think we need a party, and it won’t be a party of the whole class because that is impossible” and it’s like… what makes you think that is specific or even the main aspect of Lenin? 

[sovaesth]

A stunning shot of the october revolution, i.e red october

[postirony]

it’s gonna happen

[historicaltimes]

The Barmaley Fountain in 1942, photographed by Emmanuil Evzerikhin during the Battle of Stalingrad

via reddit

[proletarianprogramme-blog]

Whatever important activity will need to be done in communism, it will not be the feverish anarchic destructive absurdity of capitalism. Even then, most immediate concerns to reverse the impacts of climate change and so on will likely just be done during international working class rule and command over the economy. Communism isn’t immediate. Bordiga basically argues that further development of the M.o.P. is actually an indication that we haven’t moved to socialism at all. My view is that a relatively short DotP will have to be established and likely be in command of largely-still-capitalist economics brought under democratic control of the working class. The process of abolishing capitalist social relations, as well as he redeployment of the forces at our disposal to eradicate poverty, spread technology and infrastructure across the world, etc etc. will probably need to be part of this brief non-socialist period

[shituationist]

W/r/t climate change, a democratically planned economy would probably pretty immediately result in a drop in manufacturing output and thus also a drop in energy demand, which is actually the only thing that has a chance of stopping climate change to begin with. Insofar as it means a lower standard of living in material terms, I don’t think that’s that big of a deal. It’s pretty well acknowledged now that greater material wealth isn’t linearly associated with greater happiness, and I’d argue that the people who actually have to produce all the commodities that supposedly make us happier as consumers are pretty god damn miserable themselves. I don’t think it’s commodities that make us happy, I think it’s the real experience of autonomy, and that can only be provided by socialism and democracy.

I’m not entirely sure what capitalism under the democratic control of workers would look like, but maybe that just refers to markets with cooperative rather than capitalist firms? I dunno what Bordiga refers to by socialism half the time.

[proletarianprogramme-blog]

capitalism with control of workers would be similar to NEP. I think we probably will have a period where a ‘high-tech NEP’ is the way things are operating. Agree with the rest of what you say regarding the scaling back of manufacturing. A seriously planned economy would also abolish hundreds of thousands of pointless jobs over night since they would become superfluous. So my OP which is an addendum to that ‘era of rest’ post I made a while ago, and your comments here definitely interlock when it comes to the question of what socialism might ‘be like’ ie. compared to the amount of activity - both pointless and productive - under capitalism, socialism even in the early years will be restful as fuck 

[edwad]

[shituationist]

There probably isn’t a more false dichotomy than “individualism vs collectivism”.

[selchielesbian]

[sovietcop]

basically anyone who really shames people for buying their kids shoes or for buying themselves a manicure while poor doesnt understand poverty

poor people often have a lot of disposable income, more than you think, cause they live on cash

they often do not have any means of transforming that cash into assets or into longterm wealth

so yes i had a lot of toys and nice things as a poor kid because you can buy toys at the dollar store too

and like you can pay a lady 10 dollars in cash to do your nails professionally

but you really cannot scrimp, at least not anymore (maybe decades ago you could) to buy yourself a house or to invest in stocks or other things that guarantee financial protection

poor people are liquid- thats why they may have material goods including nice cell phones but they broke ass will always be broke 

hell, even banks and financiers EXPLOIT the liquidity of poor people; cash advance places in the hood and the proven empirical facts that cash deposits from banks in low-income neighborhood go towards major investments and are used as liquid assets by big businesses

keeping poor people in cash and banks in poor neighborhoods are major transfers of wealth in this economy

so please spare me your policing of some lady who decided to get some shoes

[kiriamaya]

Always reblog

[hoodoodyke]

It’s back

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/business/economy/changed-life-of-the-poor-squeak-by-and-buy-a-lot.html

[borderlinearity-deactivated2018]

I remember explaining to a really good [ex] friend how poor my family actually was and instead of listening to me he brought up the fact that we had gaming systems, decent things, etc ignoring the fact that these things are not what is keeping us in poverty. It rubbed me wrong then and rubs me wrong now and I’m glad other people get it

[dagwolf]

good to see this old one back. thanks.

[ultroid2068]

[quoms]

it’s implicit in mainstream conceptions of nationalism/national liberation that a nation can attain the fullest expression of its freedom as a nation without ‘interference’ from anyone else, i.e. in an ethnically, linguistically, and culturally homogeneous state. like that’s the ideal venue for free expression, cultural flowering, etc.

Keep reading

[furtho]

Lady Wulfrun’s photograph of a partially demolished office block, Wolverhampton (via here)

[iandsharman]

Labour’s manifesto condensed into a single graphic. Truly transformative. A better Britain is possible!

[casanova-lives]

Corbyn is going to make Lenin look like a fucking conservative.

[cathkaesque]

[ultroid2068]

yeah, gotta do something with those 10000 xtra cops

[proletarianprogramme-blog]

[thedesigndome]

New Contemporary Sand Castles by Calvin Seibert

Artist Calvin Seibert, also known as Box Builder, constructs architectural sand structures, which are famous for their modern and sleek design. 

Keep reading

[impermanent-marker]

a lot of people here are posting about syrian politics while knowing literally nothing at all about syria except what they read in a couple articles and posts…

i think leftists in the west need to recognize that we don’t need to have a well-formulated opinion on all foreign politics right off the bat. having talked recently to a lot of arab leftist friends about politics in their home countries, i realize more and more how narrow-sighted most ‘analyses’ on this website are when it comes to the arab world, and how little i know aside from a few key issues.

draw certain lines against imperialism and intervention, for sure, but don’t act like you understand the complexities of middle east politics when you clearly don’t. same goes for any region in the world you don’t have direct experience of or knowledge of. it’s okay to not have an opinion for a while, no need arguing about shit you have no effect on for the sake of being the best internet leftist. wait and learn for a while first before putting forth your claims.

[proletarianprogramme-blog]

I think socialists really need to realise we don’t, and probably can’t have a well fleshed out immediate position in world politics when it comes to bloodbaths between various capitalist forces, proxy wars between imperialist powers etc. We don’t have someone to ‘support’ most of the time, except the international proletariat. Our solution to wars remains the same as it has always been: establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat internationally. So who is there to support? Free Syrians who tell Al Quaeda to fuck off, and Syrian government soldiers who frag their officers and mutiny. We have no common cause with any capitalist forces. Maybe that is dogmatic - but considering that what 'critical support’ we give has zero (0) material impact in the world, we can actually afford to 'hold the line’ and articulate the position that has been the Best One basically since 1914.

[proletarianprogramme-blog]

Stolen from Facebook 

[studyingbrains]

A Harm Reduction Guide to Safer Drug Use

drugsand.me is an educational website that teaches about the existing harm reduction methods for drug users. We do not promote drug use, but we do encourage you to be safe if you are thinking of taking any kind of drug. This website was inspired by the thousands of deaths that occur in the UK due to the lack of correct drug education.

An example of the site’s interactive feature, allowing users to investigate the risks when mixing different drugs:

All the information on the site is sourced from peer-reviewed academic publications, the advice they offer - on cocaine, MDMA, alcohol, cannabis, and now ketamine and LSD - is certainly a cut above the anecdotal information you may receive from peers. 

Have a look around: Drugsand.me