Just wondering if anything good is happening somewhere. Maybe some local organizing wins? Would be nice to see something positive happening.
The Zionist entity has lost hundreds of thousands of settlers since Oct 7, most of whom are never coming back. This is the worst thing that could possibly happen to Zionism outside of “from the the river to the sea” actually happening. Which is not off the table rn, btw.
You have to get inside the minds of the Zionists to understand why. For years, they have been obsessed with birth rates and attracting the right kinds of immigrants. There’s a reason why the Zionist entity treats losers from Brooklyn like a DI school treats a 5 star recruit. They’re basically “we’ll give you a house, a spouse, whatever you want just come here”.
So… why? The answer is that the Arab population of “israel” and in the occupied territories is growing faster than the Jewish population of Israel. The Zionists think - as racist fascists are wont to do - that if they are “outbred” then eventually they will be conquered.
They are obsessed with this. It’s the real reason they have semen extraction units. They put years of hard work into getting the Jewish population as high as possible and in a relative moment, all that work was washed away (and then some). Not to mention, their efforts of recruiting settlers in the future have no doubt been destroyed. No one is going to want to move there now. No one will be coming, and lots more will be leaving.
This, along with the major military losses, have weakened the Zionist entity tremendously. I wouldn’t say fatally weakened yet but that is where it’s trending.
It’s really hard to live under the delusion at this point that Israel is making Jews safer, either domestically or abroad.
Again, ladies, the Jewish lineage runs through the mother - just DM me.
Can't do local organizing wins for opsec reasons but they do exist!
There's good news internationally despite the ethnic cleansing. We are seeing the birthing pains of the downfall of empire. Countries increasingly feel comfortable rejecting the US' projects, SocDems are doing okay in LatAm again, Burkina Faso and its neighbors are giving France the boot, China is pushing ahead relentlessly, Russia is not just surviving, but is actually doing better under a sanctions regime...
Despite the fact that we are still a small minority, there are more cool lefties in the US than there have been in 50 years. More cool ancoms, more cool communists, even the occasional cool DemSoc. Previously this space was dominated by NATO leftists that told you the best way to be communist was too shout, "neither Washington nor Moscow", hand out incomprehensible zines, and be extremely condescending while also wrong about most things. We have a real foundation to build from now and a population of younger people that we can radicalize when we put in the effort and let them call us libs so they can do their own cool projects.
Hey, genuine question here. Why include Russia in this? They are, to my understanding, a capitalist oligarch hellscape. Where queer folk are criminalized and hunted from public life. A different imperial power currently engaged in killing folk. Why is Russia doing good a good thing at all? Just in the fact its showing a country can exist outside the NATO sphere at all? Is it in any way support of Russian policies?
Once again, none of the above is intended to be read as aggressive or trick questions. They are just what's on my mind.
A lot of us have extremely extremely critical support for Russia for exactly one reason - Russia weakens US hegemony, and weakening US hegemony creates more spaces where revolutionary politics can be nurtured and grown. It's not support for Russia, it's support for the role Russia plays in breaking the US's death grip on the world. I don't think there's anyone here who wouldn't cheer if Putin "fell off a balcony" tomorrow. Russia is, as you said, a ruthlessly capitalist country just like America is, but America is too foolish and brutal to have accepted Russia in to the fold back in the 2000s, so now the war between the two nations is serving to bleed capitalism at a time when it is very vulnerable.
What we're hoping for is a Multi-polar world; A world where US hegemony is broken and countries can realistically align themselves against US interests without being utterly destroyed. That wouldn't be any kind of guarantee that Socialism could flourish and begin a new period of revolutions, but it gives us much better odds than a world where the US can reach almost anywhere to crush communist and anarchist movements that begin to gain power.
Right now, the primary actors pushing circumstances towards multi-polarity are Russia, China, Iran, India, Brazil, and a few others. Russia is a capitalist state, and our enemy. China is weird and complicated and sometimes does good things, sometimes does bad things, often does nothing at times when something really needs to be done and they're the only ones who can. Iran, obviously, is no friend to communists despite being an occasional ally due to shared interests, as in the Levant. India is totally fucked, with Hindutva fascists in control and things getting worse, but they're still part of the equation. And Brazil is doing it's thing with Lula and Bolsonaro, and it seems like everything is up in the air, there. But they've got the economic juice to be very important.
This is hard-core, cold-blooded realpolitik that is entirely about goals instead of ideals. It's doing what we can with the situation that exists, acknowledging that this is very much not what we want. And, of course, everyone here is mostly an observer to the horror, doing what we can at the local level where we can actually operate while we wait to see what happens with the struggle between the great powers.
If you'd like to know more you can go ask in the News Mega. The folks who hang out there are terminally online politics junkies and can explain better than I can. Just make it very clear that you're asking in good faith and will seriously engage with the answers you're given, whether you agree with them or not. We get a ton of bad-faith trolling, so people can be touchy about it.
That was an incredibly thought out and eye opening viewpoint. Compared to what I'm used to on Reddit anyways. Thank you.
The main point is that it's an example of the US and international capital losing power. Russia's ruling class wanted to be part of the international capitalist ruling class but were excluded, with that exclusion turned up to 11 after the invasion of Ukraine.
Almost by accident, Russia is now forced to adapt through domestic industry and alternative trading partnerships (and skirt sanctions because Europe isn't really going without their fossil fuels). And it's working. This demonstrates the extent to which multipolarity is emerging and viable, though it is still the early stages.
Re: Russia being capitalist and reactionary: of course that is the reality. What do you then do with that information? It describes nearly every country in different forms and degrees. The downfall of empire will happen through capitalist states and states in a transition that still, of course, have significant problems. If it weren't for Russian influence in the ME it would be 100% Saudi Arabias by now, for example, and Palestinians would only be a diaspora. Oppressed peoples do not have the luxury of perfect allies or even "good" allies, they will take whatever they can get and the more they can get the better.
Thank you for the thought out reply. Very good at explaining the point. Especially compared to reddit. I'm new and still sussing out the culture here. I was worried i could possibly catch a ban for asking as well lol.
Of course! Always happy to have a chat, ask and answer questions, agree and disagree, and so on. Please feel free to share any thoughts you have even if they're critical.
You won't have to worry about bans so long as you're here in good faith and don't make the space itself unsafe with things like racism or homophobia or transphobia. The main site has a rule thing somewhere and each comm has some rules posted if you want to feel extra confident.
In Minneapolis Lakota activists in coalition with other Minnesota activist groups managed to legally wrest control of a contaminated depot near the Little Earth community. Instead of demolishing it to make a polluting city facility it will be converted in community use buildings and an urban farm.
mRNA vaccine technology has made incredible advancements in just a few years.
when covid happened i had a hope of a new golden age of vaccine development/appreciation as people remember they exist. I thought it was possible that money would be found all around the world to contribute to the general project.
Since then there have been approvals for vaccines against malaria and ebola. Both too long in the works faced with delays because the victims are not valued. (racism)
what else is going on?
ProleWiki is growing and doing really cool stuff these days so that's good news I think
I'm finally addressing my problems instead of drinking about them. Finally trying to be nice to myself after an entire lifetime of not doing that
When you gotta spend all day with someone it's good to stay friendly with them
It's funny now that you mention that. I always used that justification to try and keep on the good side of my coworkers, but never myself
I find myself sometimes thinking of my(past/future/criticism-receiving)self as a separate person because it reframes my treatment of that person. Sometimes I give the next guy a gift by cleaning shit up or otherwise preparing stuff to make his life easier, and thank the last one for his gift.
I have been doing that and it really helps! Self criticism becomes much more human and empathetic when I realize that I can accept the things that I find wrong in myself in other people
I know one of the big ones just Endorsed "uncommitted" in the primary.
And yeah, labor is doing better than it was a few years ago. Hard to share in that when trying to organize Starbucks near me fell apart.
You helped organize a union for Starbucks (or at least tried to)?
You have my respect, comrade.
o7
That experience may have seemed pointless. I know the feeling of campaigning for a union push and failing. But I guarantee you learned more than think while doing it. You’re a better organizer than you were before. That’s good.
Union density is down and socialists are failing to gain workplace organizing skills and running their own projects with them. Instead they're either not getting the skills at all or they gain them but LARP about it, becoming staff at a liberal union and deluding themselves into believing that this is a particularly socialist thing to do.
There are exceptions to this, of course, but it's a tiny slice of an already small minority (socialists that actually organize > labor focused socialists > socialists that organize labor without getting paid for it > socialists that organize labor as part of their own projects).
Union density is not down; just the opposite.
And yes, you should join a liberal or a conservative union like the ones at the AFL-CIO, not just the IWW.
Edit: Too much focus on the IWW unions and not on other independent unions or AFL-CIO unions.
Nope union density is down https://jacobin.com/2024/01/strikes-union-density-labor-movement. This has been a trend for decades.
Joining a union as staff is not inherently a good thing to do and I would tell anyone thinking of doing it just because someone told them it's the socialist thing to do or part of "the movement" to reconsider. They are coopted by liberals and have NGO culture so unless you are ready to work 70-80 hour weeks for worse pay and have the entirety of your political organizing within it amount to getting shat on for not being all-in in Genocide Joe, get another job and you'll do more for our cause. When socialists make progress within the staff of unions it's because we already know how to organize and we create an outsized impact by getting together and forming caucuses ready for years-long strategic campaigns. You'll have to do that against opposition by not just liberals but also the Trots that will be in any large union because they have 100% bought the line that working for unions is the socialist thing to do.
We should be organizing our own unions.
Actually, union density has gone up and you're literally using Jacobin to back you up.
100% wrong. These are public stats from the government linked in the article. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm
Exactly, the government.
You're not thinking.
Many outlets have said that union rates have grown in their area.
The government is the only entity tracking union density for the US as a whole. When we talk about union density it's a government-tracked statistic of how many people are in unions. If you were referring to another source of such statistics with which I'm not familiar despite me organizing in space for years and following it closely, feel free to share it.
I'm sure union density has increased in certain locations but overall it has decreased.
The state of organized labor in the US is not actually looking good there are just some salient examples getting headlines. Those examples are atually pretty iffy if you familiarize yourself with them.I would never use US organized labor to give people an example of current wins. That's setting them up for disappointment and maybe even nihilism when the realities make themselves more obvious later.
For example, it is plausible that SBWU may never get a contract and will lose via slow attrition. Amazon warehouses are in a terrible state. It's really all up in the air and we should not expect big wins, particularly from SEIU's half-assery and ALU functioning mostly as a Chris Smalls fan club.
You can join both! Dual carding is a big thing in the IWW, I know quite a few people who EO for the IWW and organize their workplace with an AFL-CIO union.
Yeah, I know, I just think that we have to join AFL-CIO unions as well (or independent unions besides IWW).
Over-focusing on IWW would mean putting too much of our time and resources on, well, helping that union out and giving a communist voice.
I've seen how AFL-CIO unions can swing left if given a communist voice or personnel; we need to be everywhere, be ubiquitous, and not just prioritize one union albeit a large one like the IWW.
(But the IWW is great, don't get me wrong, and helping 'em out or growing their ranks is welcome, but like I said, we need to be everywhere.)
That's all I was saying.
I found a loving home for my big, vibrant rubber plant, that I can't take with me when I move soon.
The only good news for me are related to labor and political gains. Every other “positive news” is just someone saving a kitty from a tree or meemaw being able to afford surgery after her entire family sold their kidneys
It's kind of nice seeing actual government and community support in Japan after the Noto Peninsula earthquake. Compared to the dystopian disaster responses in the US, it's a little uplifting to know that not everyone has the rugged individualism brainworms.
A few local universities are going on strike for more pay. One already is striking, and the other might start next week
