#Capitalism#Communism#Communalism#Municipalism#Bookchin: "What then links Bookchin and Lordon? The same ambition to put an end to capitalism, the same concern to think about institutions and power (both insurmountable), the same desire to formulate a global positive proposal, the same rejection of ‘lifestyle’ radicalisms, the same return to the well-known alternative posed by Engels and then Rosa Luxemburg – socialism or barbarism. To which should be added (whatever the philosopher Pierre Charbonnier may say about it, claiming that the climate question ‘disgusts’ Lordon) the ecological issue, now essential to the former economist and, of course, central to the pioneer of political ecology that was Bookchin’s. ‘The reality,’ wrote Lordon in 2018, ‘is that to act with the urgency that would prevent us all from burning up, we’re going to have to go over the bodies of some guys. They have devoted their money, their power and ultimately the meaning of their entire existence to the very game that is destroying the planet. And as they won’t let go of the business of their lives on their own, we’re going to have to make them let go.’ Against the capitalist destruction of human and non-human existence, Lordon invites us to collectively grasp an idea. A clear-cut idea, as we all know: communism. ‘It’s a race against time, because the planet only gives us a limited amount of time. At a time when its limits – meaning anthropocidal thresholds – are being blithely crossed one after the other, the race has only one goal: the collective acquisition of the idea before it’s too late.’ Hence the implacable struggle against consensual, media-driven, cultural, aesthetic and bourgeois modalities of ecology. Half a century earlier, Bookchin had already used the term ‘environmentalism’ to castigate the inconsistency of ecologists who were anxious to combat pollution and the ravaging of nature while dismissing the remedy for these evils: revolution." https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/destroying-capitalism-lordon-and-bookchin-a-cross-examination
Popular Opinion in Totalitarian Regimes: Fascism, Nazism, Communism by Paul Corner
Fascism, Nazism, and Communism dominated the history of much of the twentieth century, yet comparatively little attention has focused on popular reactions to the regimes that sprang from these ideologies.
Finding out there's a not insignificant amount of people think that a #15MinuteCity means creating little isolated island prisons is a whole new level of human idiocy that I wasn't expecting to ruin my day today.
Alright fuckers listen up. 15 minute cities are simply a city designed around the basic fucking principles of #urbanplanning and having actual walkable streets so that wherever you are in the city, or wherever your neighborhood is, you have all the basics necessities you need to go about your day within a 15 minute trip. This isn't isolated to singular neighborhoods or "zones". It's an interconnected network accross the entire city, in any place you are, in the city as a whole.
This isn't some new agenda, or just about #ClimateChange or the #environment, it's about designing our cities around human needs and #Community. It's how we used to have our cities before cars took over. If you need to go further, or prefer to go further, you can easily do so by #walking#publictransit or #biking. It's just going to take longer than 15 minutes. That's it. Shocking I know.
Why are people like this? Just take the train you fuckwits.
Poverty is a result of oppressive systems like capitalism. We should be fighting to dismantle those systems instead of blaming and punishing the poor. #communism#capitalism#anarchism#socialism#poverty
Today in Labor History March 1, 1921: Anarchist and leftwing communist soldiers and sailors rose up against the Russian Bolsheviks in the Kronstadt uprising. The rebellion, which lasted until March 16, was the last major revolt against the Bolsheviks. It began when they sent delegates to Petrograd in solidarity with strikes going on in that city, and demanded the restoration of civil rights for workers, economic and political freedom for workers and peasants, including free speech, and that soviet councils include anarchists and left socialists. The Bolshevik forces, directed by Trotsky, killed over 1,000 Kronstadt rebels in battle, and executed another 2,100 in the aftermath. As many as 1,400 government troops died in their attempt to quash the rebellion.
Today in Labor History March 1, 1871: The victorious Prussian Army paraded through Paris after the Siege of Paris. Three weeks later, on March 18, radical soldiers from the French National Guard seized control of the city and established the Paris Commune. The workers controlled the city for two months. They abolished child labor and gave workers the right to seize businesses abandoned by the owners. They also dismantled the police and established their own self-policing. The French army quashed the commune beginning on May 21 with the Bloody Week. During that time, they slaughtered up to 20,000 people and arrested over 43,000.
All work and no caffeine, cigarettes, or alcohol, makes me a dull woman. The sheer number of substances we collectively have to shove into our bodies to feel alive as we slave away under capitalism would be incredible, if it wasn't so sad.
Zizek explores many different ideologies that crop up around the topic of ecological disaster.
I don't agree with everything he says. I'm sharing this nevertheless, because it made me think if the reason for my objections is due to the text hitting too close to home.
Today in Labor History February 28, 1933: Erich Mühsam, was arrested and blamed for the Reichstag fire. He was sent to the Oranienberg concentration camp, where he was tortured and murdered. Mühsam was an anarchist, poet and playwright who condemned Nazism and satirized Hitler. In the wake of the fire, President von Hindenburg issued the Reichstag Fire Decree, suspending civil liberties, and launching a "ruthless confrontation" with the Communists, making the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany.
Today in Labor History February 27, 1902: John Steinbeck was born on this date in Salinas, California. He wrote numerous novels from the perspective of farmers and working-class people, including “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Tortilla Flats” “Of Mice and Men,” “Cannery Row,” and “East of Eden.” In 1935, he joined the communist League of American Writers. He faced contempt charges for refusing to cooperate with HUAC. The FBI and the IRS harassed him throughout his career. Yet he wrote glowingly about U.S. troops during the Vietnam War. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962 and the Pulitzer in 1939.
Today in Labor History February 25, 1941: The outlawed Communist Party of the Netherlands initiated a General Strike in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam in protest of the persecution of Dutch Jews. It started one day after a pogrom in Amsterdam. 300,000 people participated. It was the first public protest against the Nazis in Europe. The Nazis brutally suppressed the strike, ending it after three days.
Today in Labor History February 24, 1917: The Petrograd bread riot that started yesterday (March 8 on Western calendars) turned into a revolution. Soldiers refused to fire on demonstrators and turned on their officers. Then they stormed the arsenal and liberated 20,000 automatic pistols, torched the police stations and emptied the prisons.
Today in Labor History February 23, 1882: B. Traven was born on this date in Poznan, Poland. Traven’s real name was probably Ret Marut. He was active in the Bavarian uprising and the Bavarian Soviet Republic of 1919. When the German state quashed the Republic and started arresting and executing activists, he fled to Mexico, where he began writing novels. Traven was a brilliant satirist and wrote novels sympathetic to workers and peasants, including the “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” “The Death Ship,” “The White Rose,” as well as his Jungle Series of novel depicting the plight of Indigenous campesinos in Mexico.
Today in Labor History February 21, 1919: Kurt Eisner, a socialist activist in the Bavarian revolution and president of the Republic of Councils, was assassinated by extremists in Munich. The Central Council of the Republic declared a General Strike and state of siege in response, leading to the Bavarian Soviet Republic in April 1919. The republic was run through workers’ councils. The reactionary Freikorps paramilitary, along with elements of the German Army, quashed the republic in May. Many of those involved in the overthrow of the Bavarian Soviet Republic went on to become members of the Nazi Party.
Today in Labor History February 21, 1848: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the “Communist Manifesto,” in Brussels, just as the Revolutions of 1848 began to erupt across Europe. After the French overthrew their monarchy, revolutions broke out in Germany, Italy and Austria. When the Prussian democratic parliament collapsed, and the king imposed new counter-revolutionary measures, Marx moved to Paris, then London, where he and his family lived in poverty while he continued to publish. He wrote his most important work there, “Das Kapital.”
"From each according to their ability, to each according to their need". In a system built off of this expression, individuals would contribute to society based on their capabilities, whether through work, skills, or effort, without coercion or hierarchy, and resources would be distributed based on the necessities of individuals, ensuring everyone's basic needs are met.
From Peter Kropotkin, who coined the term 'anarchocommunism'
"Besides, this principle of treating others as one wishes to be treated oneself, what is it but the very same principle as equality, the fundamental principle of Anarchism? And how can anyone consider himself to be an Anarchist, unless he practices it?"
Is there any merit to framing conflicts of the recent past in ideological terms?
For example, the events leading up to WWII could be described as #fascism vs #communism, until you learn about the economic and military pacts Bolsheviks made with Hitler and Mussolini.
Sure, Brownshirts were fighting communists on the streets of Berlin, but once each side captured their own state, differences were set aside for the greater project of making their respective nations stronger.
Similarly, the Cold War was supposedly about capitalism vs communism, until you learn about China embracing Kissinger and the Sino-Soviet split.
It feels like nationalism is the singular dominant ideology of the XX and XXI century and all other ideologies are incidental and need to align themselves with the ultimate goal of "how to make our country strong".