Everyday Acitvism

Here's a possibly useful topic that will spawn probably a total of 50 or so replies.
We often say to each other "educate, agitate, and organize", but I've never seen a thread for the topic, so here it is.

My situation in particular canadafag fyi

How do I get people on board with communist ideas?
How do I into workplace entryism?
Maybe I can't, but maybe you can. Let's discuss.

...

Slowly egging our friends and co-workers left is probably the most effective thing we can do.

Well, yeah. I'm just wondering how to go about doing so.

talk about how the boss is in his confortable condition while you have to work your ass to earn a wage, talk about workplace democracy without mentioning the words socialism or communism

watch richard wolff videos and subtly explain how most of economics problems we face today are inherent to capitalism and can't be changed unless you change the system.

talk about how the elections are a fucking joke, shit on both candidates to let people realize voting is useless.

Try not to antagonize your boss without knowing their ideology. Some business owners think capitalism is bullshit too.

It's best to appeal to reason inasmuch as you can. Figure out the strongest principles which people hold, and if possible try to reason that capitalist ideology is logically inconsistent with them. Possibly discuss the system of wage labor and how it needlessly deprives people of time for more important or fulfilling activities, especially if they feel most of the work they're doing is worthless. Most workers either think their work isn't socially useful or they have checked out mentally at their job.

Try to argue that people in positions of high power don't care about them, and instead are interested in perpetuation of their own power and extending their dominion over as much as they can. The natural consequences of capitalism (see ), the very strong connection between government, large businesses, and investors, and the effects of laws many of them support are excellent evidence for this. You won't get anywhere if these people aren't seen as a threat. Even better if you can paint them as evil.

One easy thing for most people will be to point out that they are at the mercy of the bourgeoisie and are kept primarily as tools. If automation advances far enough to render them obsolete under uncontrolled capitalism, they will be deprived of the capacity to acquire the means of living through wage labor, and only the kindness of the bourgeoisie would stop them from literally starving to death.

Convince people of a reasonable and appealing path to a better world. Try to let them figure it out for themselves. They may not conclude communism is the right choice, but hopefully will realize that capitalism as practiced has to go.

Whatever you do, avoid marxist terminology.
If you come out and hit them with shit like bourgeoisie, proletariate or false conciousness people are going disengage right there.

Sometimes it can help if you make your arguments through self-interest rather than making moral arguments - this distances you somewhat from typical liberal rhetoric and can work even on conservatives.

i don't know if it is a good idea to actually come out and say the word "union" but i worked at a unionized place and a non unionized one.
so some pretty obvious stuff comes up:

unionized guys working there after 10 years or w/e - $19/hr, guaranteed 40/hrs a week.
non-unionized - wage goes up when min wage goes up.
unionized - manager can't talk to you like shit
nonunionized -managers are dicks


so i'd always drop things like - 'well fuck, at my unionized job they won't ever talk like that' after a manager yells at some workers
- user's gf just got $5k in backpay when the union sued x company for wrongful dismissal
-yeah my benefits paid for 80percent of these glasses, i hadnt had a new pair in years


imo when you start talking about 'capitalism' it reifies it, it makes it seem so big a structure, and so powerful most workers will only despair. if you can get the workers to seize a tiny bit of power, and they get a taste, maybe you can go from there.

This isn't Holla Forums, people don't post meaningless shit like that here.

Also OP, I don't know much about labor so I can't help you there, my realm is more the college activists side of things.

Building upon
Try to replace these words with something else. Even if they are a little inaccurate, it still gets the point across.

Bourgeoisie = rich people
Proletariat = working class
base = socio-economic status
etc etc.

It's pretty fucking cringey hearing some teenage dweeb talk about bourgeois and proletariat. It's pretty much secret club talk as terms like "average person" and "the elite" actually strike a chord in today's society. It's the difference between someone being interested in what you're saying and relating to you and them thinking you're a pretentious French showoff.

Russell Brand is pretty good at talking like a human being, if there's anything our youtubers can learn from him it's how to sound like an actual person who exists.

Working class is too much of a simplification. You need to include the unemployed and precariously employed or you risk starting with a confusing and unhelpful concept.

if you drop "socio-economic status" (SES if you;re doing you're undergrad btw) in a wal-mart break room you will 'professor' or 'nerd' or 'weird guy' the rest of your time working there lol.


op lives in canada and a lot of 'new' workers won't even consider themselves as working class, they tend to think of that as guys in steel mills.

working out a proper argot for this kind of thng would be a really worthwhile programme tho

i promise you the word 'precarious' or term 'precariously employed' is still way too much, believe it or not.

precarious should be something like "our schedules always suck" or "they won't give us enough hours week to week. i work 22 one week and fucking 4 the next! how am i supposed to live on that!"

I work at mcdonalds buddy. It works just fine when I use it.

I think wal-mart goes out of their way to hire idiots though.

mcdonalds is different and the younger ppl there probably don't want to look ignorant or are sstill in highschool.

warehouse and stocking jobs are a totally differnt group of proles

I've never had a problem blatantly calling myself a socialist/communist to anyone. I get in drunken political discussions with strangers in bars all the time and most people are completely open to talking about it. I rarely meet staunch capitalist but maybe I just hang out in the right places…

This. Be out and proud and unashamed. Hiding what you believe in is for stormfags - our philosophy isn't downright reprehensible like that, so we have no need to emulate them and be sneaky and skulk like cockroaches.

"The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power."

That's a nice quote, but what are you getting at?

They can't help it, they just don't know better because they have been spoon-fed capitalism since birth. A couple of them are socdem's which is better than nothing, but I know they will never embrace communism.
They are just followers, not leaders. I'm sure that if they were born in a communist society they would be full communism.

They'll never change if everyone stays silent about communism.

I've got a few liberals into communism, don't give up on them.

I have talked to them about it a couple of times, but they stop listening as soon as you get to even basic socialism.
They are too caught up in identity politics. They all point at the same guy as the source of their problems (highlights are Jews, the Poor, Democrats, and the Bankers), but refuse to accept the only logical solution to their proposed problems.

Are the liberals you converted very nationalist?
I'm in a conservative area, and nationalism seems to be half of the problem, I haven't found a good way to convince them that nationalism is flawed by nature.

im getting at you can't be proud and be yourself if quotes like that are how you express yourself and really want ot make change on the shop floor

if you read every post on Holla Forums and substitute what they call 'jew' instead the word 'capitalist' or 'capitalist structures' they really wouldn't be that bad of marxists

Well they were leaning more towards apathetic/anarkiddie so, I don't know. I've been trying showing anarchism as being a better nationalism because of its decentralized nature, to Holla Forumsfags recently but it's been eh.

Nigger, that's some quote from an academic work. Do you think every leftist goes around talking like that all the time when they aren't writing theory? Alternatively, do you think that heady theoretical works should be written at a 5th-grade reading level so that uneducated laymen and borderline-retarded stormfags can access and process them?


Except if you think that you've entirely missed the point of Marxism and the Marxist critique of capital. The idea isn't that the bourgeoisie or fictional capital is responsible for everything bad that happens, it's an examination of how the system itself and the institutions within it (the value form, wage labour, private property) perpetuate outcomes that work against the interests of everyone, bourgy and prole alike, although some are shafted harder in the short-term than others. There's no real moral content to it because Marxism is not about coming up with moral ideas but rather figuring out how society works from a materialist perspective.

ho damn. Glad to see my thread didn't die. Good replies 'yall. Let's stir shit up discretely.

How can I become a college activist?

I have a job and can also do stuff at work as well before any of you start judging me

I just want to make some friends and maybe get gf too

Does your college have a club? Join it or start one if you have to. Also nice quads.

Remember that you really ought to be committed to the movement if you want to be an activist. Getting involved is probably a bad idea if you're only doing it for friends and gf.

Also, why would we judge college students?

Didn't want people thinking I was some sort of trust-fund lifestylist or something, I dunno.

The only club my college has is the College Democrats, which I joined because of the "slick entryism" meme. Turns out they don't really do much.

But how the hell do I start a club? Do I just put up flyers and ask if people want to talk about politics?

And honestly getting involved is the only thing that appeals to me anymore.Having friends and a gf would just be a nice bonus.

Tired of your leftist movement being undermined by divisive identity politics? Are you sick of the most important economic issues being shrouded by wedge issues every election?

Take the Dialectical Materialist Pill and join the Student Socialist Club!

Learn about Marxian economics, worker cooperatives, how markets work, and more. Let's build a movement to empower the 99%!

Typically there are informal and formally recognized clubs. To get formal recognition, you usually have to show you have some degree of support and need to have a professor oversee you (in a sense, they're basically a trustee and don't have to be involved in any great capacity). You'll also have to draft a charter and other governing documents. The student government usually oversees clubs. If you want to know more about how to do it contacting them is probably your best bet.

Real clubs are usually provided with some money for upkeep, and you should get your own room. If the club isn't particularly popular, you may get a really shitty meeting space, but at least you will have one. Clubs at my school required a president, vp, secretary, and treasurer, but seeing as this is a socialist club it may be amusing to see if you can work out an alternative.

The first priority would be to do as says, and try to find enough interested people. Flyers are an excellent idea, as is talking, though it may take a long time to find people. Possibly attend college democrats and see if any members are really looking for something else, you may find people like yourself, but be careful if you do this (never do this after you formally start your club). If you can get around 5-10 other people who really care, you might be able to get it formally recognized assuming administration and the student government won't hate your guts.

Depending on the campus, you may have to instate certain rules which prevent the club from becoming an idpol torture chamber. This isn't to say you shouldn't participate in civil rights or anti-racist activism, but do make sure the focus of the club remains on fighting the greatest danger (i.e. capitalism at present and for the forseeable future). Try not to get labeled a brocialist if possible. I'm not entirely sure how to do all this, and it probably won't help your popularity with the student government.

Personally, I wouldn't even care if you were a trust-fund lifestylist. The movement needs all the sincere supporters it can possibly get.

Not the other guy, but the only anticap group at my uni is literally all about idpol and advocated for safe spaces and other garbage. Only other political group was some cuckservative crap.
Could be cool to start a ""proper"" gommie club but I'm still slightly spooked about capitalism so not too sure if I have the guts.

Also a dumb question - what is lifestyleism? Sort of newfriend here, I've lurked the last couple of months but still can't fully into the lingo.
(Captcha: CNT awe)

Not a Stalincuck, just forgot to remove my shitposting flag

I have no idea what it really means (ask he knows). I assumed he was talking about people who never have to work, being supported by a trust fund, and end up getting attached to the cause anyway and have it become their way of life. I understand not wanting it if they're doing it solely as a fashion statemet, but if they're sincere I'm OK with them.

What are you scared of?

I guess lifestylism refer to "ethical consumption", "living outside the system" and so on, as opposed to direct subversion?

Well, posting in the activism thread would be the first step to fixing that, so I still welcome them.

Well perhaps it's not the right term, but lifestylism originally was an anarchist term meant to refer to those anarchists who didn't really do much to advance the class struggle and were basically in it to be an edgy rebel.

I was listening to the It's going down podcast. They were interviewing the couple that organized Burgerville employees in Oregon.

I thought their strategy on how to keep snitches from telling your boss about you wanting to form a union before you can get any organization off the ground was really interesting.

They said you have to really form strong personal relationships with a core group. Learn all about their lives, listen to their problems, help when you can ect, then with that core group lay down the foundation on a union.

Once that's done THEN you go public, since you have some momentum and ground work completed already it's way harder for your boss' spies to fuck it up.

That's what I'm doing right now, talking to as many people in my neighborhood as I can. Learning about as much as I can about them and trying to get closer to the one's I think might be commrades. Hoping to float the idea of turning the apartment complex we all live in into a co-op in the near future.

What industry would said co-op be in?

Thank you user, I will try my best

Although I literally have no friends in college so I have no idea how I'd go about starting a club

I admire your courage. Good luck.

Not an industry. We'd cooperatively own the apartments we live in now. I've heard it can be done I'm looking up how now

Three years later and he's posting openly on facebook about Marxism. It's so fucking kek.

Good work, comrade.

How can I go about attracting people sympathetic to leftism without being swamped by Democrats?

Well you have got to go vegan.

Animals are the proletariat of planet Earth.