884
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
884 points (100.0% liked)
Lefty Memes
4391 readers
401 users here now
An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of the "ML" influence of instances like lemmy.ml and lemmygrad. This is a place for undogmatic shitposting and memes from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.
Serious posts, news, and discussion go in c/Socialism.
If you are new to socialism, you can ask questions and find resources over on c/Socialism101.
Please don't forget to help keep this community clean by reporting rule violations, updooting good contributions and downdooting those of low-quality!
Rules
0. Only post socialist memes
That refers to funny image macros and means that generally videos and screenshots are not allowed. Exceptions include explicitly humorous and short videos, as well as (social media) screenshots depicting a funny situation, joke, or joke picture relating to socialist movements, theory, societal issues, or political opponents. Examples would be the classic case of humorous Tumblr or Twitter posts/threads. (and no, agitprop text does not count as a meme)
1. Socialist Unity in the form of mutual respect and good faith interactions is enforced here
Try to keep an open mind, other schools of thought may offer points of view and analyses you haven't considered yet. Also: This is not a place for the Idealism vs. Materialism or rather Anarchism vs. Marxism debate(s), for that please visit c/AnarchismVsMarxism.
2. Anti-Imperialism means recognizing capitalist states like Russia and China as such
That means condemning (their) imperialism, even if it is of the "anti-USA" flavor.
3. No liberalism, (right-wing) revisionism or reactionaries.
That includes so called: Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, Dengism, Market Socialism, Patriotic Socialism, National Bolshevism, Anarcho-Capitalism etc. . Anti-Socialist people and content have no place here, as well as the variety of "Marxist"-"Leninists" seen on lemmygrad and more specifically GenZedong (actual ML's are welcome as long as they agree to the rules and don't just copy paste/larp about stuff from a hundred years ago).
4. No Bigotry.
The only dangerous minority is the rich.
5. Don't demonize previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
We must constructively learn from their mistakes, while acknowledging their achievements and recognizing when they have strayed away from socialist principles.
(if you are reading the rules to apply for modding this community, mention "Mantic Minotaur" when answering question 2)
6. Don't idolize/glorify previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
Notable achievements in all spheres of society were made by various socialist/people's/democratic republics around the world. Mistakes, however, were made as well: bureaucratic castes of parasitic elites - as well as reactionary cults of personality - were established, many things were mismanaged and prejudice and bigotry sometimes replaced internationalism and progressiveness.
- Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Queerphobia
- Ableism
- Classism
- Rape or assault
- Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations
- Fascism
- (National) chauvinism
- Orientalism
- Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)
- Zionism
- Religious fundamentalism of any kind
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
I appreciate unions, but I often feel like this website gets out of touch with them.
Many jobs simply do not lend themselves to having a union. They’re too niche, the employees are scattered around, there’s no willing union representation, etc. “These guys should just join a Union!! And if they have to - by golly, form one themselves!” Always comes off to me like such a reductive take on how complex a lot of working/employment systems are, and where unions can and cannot benefit.
It often pushes up on just being idealogical grandstanding rather than legitimately listening and understanding case by case problems in employment
That's why the IWW was formed, they'll literally build you a union.
https://www.iww.org/membership/
If anybody wants help navigating this send me a PM. We can setup an email chain, or encrypted comms, or whatever you need.
If you're a Pinkerton/Securitas/Strike Breaker feel free to contact me as well, I'm always happy to direct scabs to where they can happily fuck themselves.
I remember trying to do this when I still worked at jimmy John's, cause I'm not exactly a charismatic individual and I have no leadership skills to form a union... 🥲 They never replied to my email
I never understood how this was supposed to work. My job isn't a "union shop" so I have to quit? There's no way in hell this factory in Trumpville NY is going to get behind the idea of unionizing.
That's cause you're not going going form an "union". You are going to form a "The True Patriots" or "The Fighters of Freedom" or "Drain the Swamp: Company Edition" or whatever conservative jargon that gets buy in.
It's a weird circumstance that this organization does everything an union does.
I like this idea! "Hey guys sign here so we can create the Anti-Woke Group! We just have to have meetings that discuss business and nothing woke, that's how we win against woke!"
"Don't you all think it's woke that we can't get insurance? or a pension? I don't know about you but I think it's pretty DEI that the boss is making all this money and we're down here busting our balls doing all work. Sounds like me the boss is living off the welfare that our labor provides."
No, in my understanding you basically convince as many co-workers as possible to join the union together. Ideally the majority, but essentially you just need enough that they can't fire and replace you all overnight... Which means, it has to be enough that the rest of the staff can't cover for the union members for a few weeks or months without drastically slowing things down
You could probably reach out to a relevant union rep to get more info- there're legal processes to help with this, like protected voting if enough people want to join a union or not, that probably varies by where you live and I only know the basics
Alright. Help me navigate it. I sign up for them and then what? Their website looks more like it’s for networking, but I give them $22 and now what?
First you email them and let then know your industry, where your work is located and ask them if there are any local reps. Don't pay dues until you contact the local rep.
They said there wernt any reps nearby. I don’t live in a major metro area. What now?
I cannot imagine being a Pinkerton, an organization that has never been on the right side of history.
It does answer that question of how the Supervillains get their henchmen. Someone will always sign up to be a part of an organization like that.
Behind the bastards just did a really good episode on them.
I just listened to the BtB: How Conservatism Won today. He breaks it all down and shows us how we got to where we are. Laid out in a nice chronological, easy to digest order connecting dot to dot; it's very enlightening.
I highly recommend it to everyone interested in what's happening in America right now. Robert Evans is a gem, the definition of an actual journalist, and the kind of people The Left in America needs.
Thank you for the reminder about BtB. I need to listen to those instead of random YouTube hobby stuff.
I have noticed YouTube has started to steer me into right wing spaces. I use it to watch fix-it guides, guitar videos, and video game reviews. Somehow the video two away is some Red Pill, incel, right wing bullshit. I bet they are paying a pretty penny to steer people their way.
The founder of the Pinkertons barely cheated death so many times that it all but proves time travel exists, and it's being used in the same way that every other groundbreaking technology is: to make the rich richer.
There's a concept where I'm from of an employee committee, which is just an assembly of the workers in a particular workplace and a valid actor in collective bargaining. I've been a part of one to negotiate specific policies.
Still a collective bargaining agent, though. Whether or not it fits the US's specific legal categorization of a union, engaging in collective negotiations with employers in an organized manner is fairly universally applicable and positive. "Unions just don't fit this kind of work" sounds a heck of a lot like an excuse to avoid having collective bargaining altogether.
I’m not, I’m saying an individual is indulging themselves by simply hand-waiving any employment related problem as “just start collective bargaining and your problems are solved!!!”
Well, if they're handwaving and not organizing, then yeah. If they're actually organizing, then no.
In almost all circumstances, being organized for bargaining is going to be better than not being organized for bargaining. That holds whether you're hand-waving your problems before getting organized or not.
…. You understand that those are two different people, right? The person hand-waving how easy starting a union is and how easily beneficial it can be is not the same person as the worker who has to do the thing lol
Ah, gotcha. Well, my point stands. Unless your hypothetical hand-waver is unemployed or already in an union, I suppose.
I'm not American, so I don't know how hard it is to unionize in the US. Over here there are massive unions with country-wide presence that typically can set up where needed, as well as segment-specific unions. I'm pretty sure you can either start a new one with a handful of people or just... you know, call a preexisting one and sign up. I've heard about companies in the US having way more restrictive steps, having to agree company-wide to unionize and stuff like that. That's... not how we do it.
It’s very hard here, especially depending on your circumstances - and even when a union is formed they’re often unable to really… get any meaningful progress. Depending on your particular employment, it’s effectively impossible - and it gets harder the poorer you are.
It’s why it’s sometimes frustrating to hear Americans tell other Americans (often less well off than they are) to “just form a Union!”. The leftist version of “pull yourself up by the bootstraps”
Yeeeeah, see, there you lose me.
You can organize, unionized or not, and it seems like organization is a gateway to unionization, regardless of how hard that may be. And it is a fact that organization and collective bargaining will help and is a key path to improvements, so even if it's hard, it's still the way to go.
And hey, ultimately the goal is to keep electing pro-unionization leaders so it becomes easier to it's more feasible. But you don't stop doing it or recommending it just because it's harder there.
spoiler
asdfasdfsadfasfasdfspoiler
asdfasdfsadfasfasdfPrecisely so. It can be grating to see Lemmy, a site full almost exclusively of well-paid computer programmers - preach “just unionize!” With the same oily lips as conservatives who tell millions to “just pull yourself up by the bootstraps!”.
In both cases it’s “talking down” to the end worker, pitching an ‘easy’, one sentence solution to all of their ills without any consideration for the vast amount of effort required in reality.
spoiler
asdfasdfsadfasfasdfAbsolutely. It’s really good to hear your perspective on the matter, because yeah - that shit is brutal and SAG-AFTRA was a ‘good outcome’. Many - especially those without the benefit of millions and millions of dollars, celebrity backers, and mass public support, do not have good outcomes.
If you’re interested in this kind of thing, “Germinal” by Zola is what I find to be the best depiction of a real strike. Because it has genuinely good intentions, but it’s also fucking terrible, and essentially everyone involved ends up worse for wear after it’s done.
spoiler
asdfasdfsadfasfasdf