Happy #InternationalWorkersDay! Especially in these times when we could probably use a new workers international as a spiritual successor of the first.
It suddenly occurred to me that pretension, is a fascist value. That the ostentatious show of wealth is an inherent part of fascist ideology. Because the wealthy and those that aspire to it will always support the system that allows them to be part of the privileged class. And what's the good of being in the correct class if there is not discrimination and reprisals against the others #class#economy#communism#anarchism #capitalism
COMMUNISM IS FREE TIME FOR ALL and nothing more. Any political regime or mode of production that does not have as the ultimate goal of society the reduction of working hours in tandem with the satisfaction of basic human needs cannot be considered truly free. That is the the permanent goal, not something you try and just because you fail once, or10 times, you have to give it up. You have to try 500000, 10000000000, ∞ times. Otherwise, there will be absolutely nothing to distinguish human beings from wild animals.
#Marxism#Communism#FreeTime#Freedom: "Marxism is about leisure, not labour. The only good reason for being a socialist, apart from annoying people you don’t like, is that you don’t like to work. For Oscar Wilde, who was closer in this respect to Marx than to Morris, communism was the condition in which we would lie around all day in various interesting postures of jouissance, dressed in loose crimson garments, reciting Homer to one another and sipping absinthe. And that was just the working day.
There are problems with this vision, as there are with any ethics. Are all your powers to be realised? What about that obsessive desire to beat up Tony Blair? Or should one realise only those impulses that spring from the authentic core of the self? But by what criteria do we judge this? What if my self-realisation clashes with yours? And why should all-round expression beat devoting oneself to a single cause, like Alexei Navalny or Emma Raducanu? Do human capabilities really grow malevolent only by being alienated, lopsided or repressed? And what if we’re half in love with the powers that alienate and repress us, installed as they are inside the human subject rather than purely external to it?
Hegel and Marx have an answer of a kind to the problem of clashing self-fulfilments, which goes like this: realise only those capabilities which allow others to do the same. Marx’s name for this reciprocal self-realisation is ‘communism’."
Today is 87 years since Antonio Gramsci died at the hands of the Italian Fascists.
Gramsci, a founder and leader of the Italian Communist Party, was imprisoned by Mussolini’s regime in 1926. During his imprisonment he wrote extensively about history, politics and society.
His work on the role of culture, ideology, and the consent rulers obtain from those they rule has been influential in understanding how groups gain and maintain power.
"And it's eerily similar to the double standards enjoyed by the apparatchiks back in the Soviet Union."
Yes, absolutely.
And there is yet another similarity: the #fascist movement in #Italy with its #BlackShirts came into existence b/c the #Italian landed gentry and industrialists were afraid of losing their property to the plebs, like their #Russian counterparts in the #OctoberRevolution of 1918.
"It is certain that the coming Revolution — like in that respect to the Revolution of 1848 — will burst upon us in the middle of a great industrial crisis. Things have been seething for half a century now, and can only go from bad to worse. Everything tends that way — new nations entering the, lists of international trade and fighting for possession of the world’s markets, wars, taxes ever increasing."
Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread #communism#socialism#anarchism#libertarianism
"Everywhere you will find that the wealth of the wealthy springs from the poverty of the poor."
Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread #communism#socialism#anarchism#libertarianism
"But a free society, regaining possession of the common inheritance, must seek, in free groups and free federations of groups, a new organization, in harmony with the new economic phase of history."
Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread #communism#socialism#anarchism#libertarianism
"It is not difficult, indeed, to see the absurdity of naming a few men and saying to them, “Make laws regulating all our spheres of activity, although not one of you knows anything about
them!” "
Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread #communism#socialism#anarchism#libertarianism
I always find there’s an interesting parallel to be made between #christianism and #communism .
Does the fact that the inquisition and fascist contemporary evangelical churches exist make the teachings of sharing, non-violence, love and forgiveness wrong ?
Same for existence of gulags or state repression in USSR vs the possibility of a classless society not designed on exploitation and profits.
@santiago
True #communism is fundamentally different from the authoritarian regimes that have claimed to be #communist in the past. There's a huge difference between state #socialism, which often leads to oppression and authoritarianism, and libertarian communism, which advocates for a classless, stateless society based on voluntary cooperation and mutual aid.
@peterg75@santiago
I've heard the human nature argument against #communism countless times, and it's simply not true. Human nature is not inherently selfish or greedy; these traits are often exacerbated by societal structures that promote competition and individualism. In fact, throughout history, humans have demonstrated a capacity for cooperation, solidarity, and mutual aid, which are central to the ideals of communism. The notion that people are inherently self-serving ignores the...
@peterg75@santiago #Communist societies in the past only having been primitive and isolated doesn't invalidate #communism. The failures of past attempts at communism can largely be attributed to external pressures, such as imperialist intervention and isolation, not inherent flaws in communist principles themselves. Additionally, many of these societies were born out of revolutions in predominantly agrarian and underdeveloped contexts, facing immense challenges in transitioning to a...
@Blinxeto@peterg75@Legit_Spaghetti@santiago
Well, #communism doesn't go against human nature. It aligns with our innate desire for cooperation, equality, and solidarity, which have been suppressed by #capitalist systems that prioritize profit and competition.
@peterg75@santiago@sashin@Legit_Spaghetti
I stopped reading after it classified communism as having a state-planned economy, showing that the person who wrote this article doesn't know what communism is. True #communism is stateless and classless, with decentralized control and voluntary association among workers. The misconception of communism as state-planned arises from the historical distortion by authoritarian regimes claiming to represent it.
@peterg75@santiago@sashin@Legit_Spaghetti
Not only does communism not require a government, it's incompatible with any government. #Communism, at its core, advocates for the abolition of hierarchical structures, including government, to achieve true freedom and equality. Any attempt to impose a centralized authority in the name of communism betrays its fundamental principles.
@santiago@peterg75@sashin@Legit_Spaghetti
An immediate abolition of the state is a far more effective method of achieving #communism than using state socialism. By bypassing state #socialism and directly implementing decentralized, cooperative structures, we can avoid the pitfalls of authoritarianism and accelerate the transition to a stateless, classless society.
Why would you want #communism in Latin America ? Haven’t you seen how it ended in Russia ?
Nope, we saw how it ended in Latin America with almost everyone who pushed for it getting locked up, tortured and murdered with 🇺🇸 support before being able to actually try it. So still want to try it, our way.
"But, if plenty for all is to become a reality, this immense capital — cities, houses, pastures,
arable lands, factories, highways, and education — must cease to be regarded as private property, for the monopolist to dispose of at his pleasure."
— Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread #communism#communist#capitalism#capitalist#socialism#socialist#workers
ℹ Over the next decade, about 300 million people currently aged 50 to 60, are set to leave #China's workforce. This is their largest age group, about the size of the #US population
In #China today, nearly a quarter of the population are 65 or older, and an increasing number of working-age adults are leaving heavy #industry in search of better jobs in bigger cities ⏩
We cry shame on the #feudal baron who forbade the #peasant to turn a clod of #earth unless he surrendered to his #lord a fourth of his crop. We call those the barbarous times. But if the forms have changed, the relations have remained the same, and the #worker is #forced, under the name of free contract, to accept feudal obligations. For, turn where he will, he can find no better conditions. Everything has become private property, and he must accept, or die of #hunger. #communism#peterkropotkin
Throughout history, elements of #socialism, such as communal ownership of land and socialized organization of production, have been successfully practiced in village communities and medieval cities. Failures in realizing #communism were often due to external factors like government intervention and the challenges of combining agricultural and industrial societies. Despite these challenges, history shows humanity's ongoing endeavor to achieve some form of #communist organization.