It's no surprise that geeks, nerds, and gamers have a pipeline that leads them to the far right. I want to know if the reverse is true because I'm an angry gamer who ended up here on the left.

On a national level, a concrete example of socialist cooperation is the establishment of the Tiangong space station, established by [the People’s Republic of] China in 2021.

About that amazing accomplishment, Joshua Hanks describes in a WW article entitled “Workers power on display as Chinese astronauts arrive at Tiangong space station”: “Crews of three will rotate on missions lasting six months, and the station will be open to other countries. Seventeen countries have officially confirmed their participation, and astronauts from several countries are now learning Chinese. Astronauts from the European Space Agency have already trained on a mock Shenzhou spacecraft and could participate in future missions to Tiangong.”

Hanks continues: “Russia may pursue its own space station but is cooperating with China on other projects, including constructing a groundbreaking lunar base, which could host its first cosmonauts and taikonauts by 2030.” (workers.org/2021/06/57128/)

This rapid spurt of growth can be seen as well in other countries that are socialist or working toward socialism after a revolution changed those holding state power. These include [the Republics of] Cuba, Nicaragua, [the Bolivarian Republic of] Venezuela and [the Socialist Republic of] Vietnam, among others, despite continued interference by their [neo]imperialist oppressors to beat them out at all costs.

It may be that this increased rate of growth and development based in a socialist orientation may even win out in the competitive race in space. Given the Chinese approach to developing helium-3 for inexpensive clean energy on Earth, Mayes stresses: “It is clear that a ‘Chinese dominant space frontier’ is, in fact, a future everyone should want. If our planet is to survive the climate disaster, it is imperative for the [neo]imperialists to lose the race to the moon.’

Explaining [the People’s Republic of] China’s intentions, Mayes writes: “Far from seeking to profit, China’s approach to international energy production is geared to protecting the planet. As [Carlos Martinez] explains when discussing China’s ‘green energy’ solution in his abundantly researched book [“The East is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century”], socialist China’s international humanitarian policies are aimed at saving the globe from climate catastrophe.”

In other words, mature international competition and cooperation must triumph over an immature [neo]imperialist orientation aimed at maximizing profits over providing for human needs.

communism is always the answer...

Sup fellas.

I'm a Spanish guy who, for the past decade, has been getting increasingly radicalized. I've been mostly so far interested in reading because I wanted to have a solid theoretical background and learn more about the Ws and Ls of communism, from a theoretical and a historical perspective, and while I'm still very much into reading socialist literature, I want to take the step to organizing and activism locally. I was just wondering if anyone here has any resources for any Communist/Socialist/Marxist organisation in Spain or with presence in multiple western-european countries that anyone can recommend me to contact.

Thanks a bunch!

Hi there folks,

While trying to learn about communism, I'm having problems finding literature that provides and example life under Communism. What I do find is propaganda either against or for it, involving unrealistic and bombastic content that is clearly not rooted in reality.

I'm not looking for historical content because I'm just trying to figure out what a life that the group is striving for would be like.

Thanks for your time!

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2742219

Check out the article below:

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WASHINGTON—On the morning of June 5, a coalition of D.C. labor union locals led a picket action in front of the John A. Wilson Building on Pennsylvania Ave, which houses Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office and the D.C. Council. The picket action was one of the first labor-led demonstrations in the country featuring a coalition of unions fighting for a ceasefire resolution at a municipal level.

The coalition featured leaders and rank-and-file members from the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), SAG-AFTRA & Sister Guild Members for Ceasefire, IWW DMV Education Workers Organizing Committee, UAW, American Postal Workers Union (APWU), AFA-CWA, SEIU Local 500, ATU Local 689, and the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees.

The demonstration follows nearly eight months of Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza and countless efforts by the D.C. for Ceasefire Now Coalition to get a councilmember to introduce a ceasefire resolution on the local level to join the over 100 municipalities across the United States that have already passed them.

To date, leaders of local labor unions like the National Nurses United, SAG-AFTRA, and CLUW have all participated in actions in an individual capacity, including press conferences, mass meetings, and disruptions of council proceedings but this marked the first official action by their unions. This is a major advance for the unions in the area on the ceasefire issue.

“As a union that stands for equality, social justice, human and labor rights, APWU members have been shocked and saddened by the tragic and ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine,” APWU President Mark Dimondstein said.

“A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Gaza and worsening by the day. As a District resident and a labor leader, I join this urgent call on the D.C. Council to pass a ceasefire resolution now.”

“Rank-and-file workers and union activists have been in the streets of DC for months demanding a permanent ceasefire and self-determination for the Palestinian people,” Metro D.C. CLUW President Chelsea Bland said.

“It is past time for the D.C. Council to heed the call from residents, workers, and visitors of the District and be on the right side of history. With each passing day, we are watching absolute terror being rained down upon the people of Gaza. The Metro D.C. Chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women calls on the D.C. Council to pass a ceasefire resolution now.”

Leaders of Wednesday’s effort vowed to continue pressuring the D.C. Council and to involve the labor movement on a more consistent basis, potentially leading to a multi-day or weekly picket in front of the Wilson Building.

With the D.C. primary election season ending with a majority of pro-ceasefire candidates winning their races and the budget period ending on June 12, the Council now has a mandate from the D.C. community to finally speak out on this issue after several months of ignoring and being dismissive of their constituency.

Last week, I found a used book in a store, called "what the Soviet worker receives besides their salary" (or something like that, translated it literally from my language). It's a short, 40-pages pamphlet written in 1959 by the then Soviet Minister of Finance, A. Zveriev.

On a section regarding housing, the pamphlet claims: "The workers and employees of the USSR pay insignificant rent compared to that paid by workers in capitalist countries. If in the latter, the rent expenditure absorbs 25 to 30% of the family budget, in the USSR, the rent including communal services doesn't rise, on average, above 4 to 5% of the family budget".

Leaving aside how much they paid in the USSR for rent, I want to dedicate a moment to examine this 25-30% expenditure of the family budget in rent in developed capitalist countries. I looked up the data for my western-european, developed country, and for the bottom 50% of families by budget, the housing expenditure actually ranges from 45% to 35% of the family budget in 2023 (latest data available).

Let's forget about the fact that family budgets can't be compared from 1959 to now because nowadays there are more workers per household as a consequence of the mass-incorporation of women in the workplace and young adults staying with their parents because of housing prices. Even if we forget about that, after 65 years of technological and scientific progress, in which the population of western capitalist countries has actually stabilized, the prices of housing as a percentage of family budgets have risen by about 50%, compared to the numbers given in an anticapitalist pamphlet written by a literal Soviet finance minister.

There is no reason for this other than the commodification of a HUMAN RIGHT such as housing. If Cuba and the USSR solved housing for everyone 50+ years ago, there's no actual, physical or economical problem preventing us from doing so. It's purely a desired consequence of our current system.

Biden has done more to undermine the US empire in the last 8 months than Trump did in 4 years. Biden is exposing the contradictions of US empire in a way that Trump could never.

If Trump was president, then the mainstream narrative would be that the genocide in Gaza was simply because of Trump and Bibi's leadership. And you know what? Given how past presidents were able to rein in Israel when polite society started sympathizing with Palestinians, it would be believable. Instead, we get to see front and center, how a man that's been at the top echelons of us foreign policy for decades approves and supports genocide. This is the establishment's genocidal war.

In other words, Trump is perceived as an aberration, even when hes just continuing the same US foreign policy that weve been doing for decades. Moving the embassy to Jerusalem is still framed as entirely Trump's decision, even though he was just enacting a policy that Biden voted for in the 90s. And of course Biden did nothing to reverse that move, or even try to extract concessions to move peace talks forward.

Biden is damaging the "international rules-based order" in a way that would make Dick Cheney blush. Bush at least tried to put a veneer of international law on the criminal invasion of Iraq. But it appears the US and Israel are ready to burn the UN to the ground in order to carry out this genocide. Trump would be doing the same exact thing, except he would also serve as a scape goat for the liberal order (just get trump out of office, and we can go back to rule-following)

Don't get me wrong, they're both excellent accelerationist candidates. The world is watching two senile, hateful, egotistical vile men fight for control of the empire as the world burns.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2667069

Sneaky Biden.

Also, subscribe to this person, trying to help 'em out.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4651235

Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism by Robert Chapman is what I'll be exploring.

Anyone want to read along with me?

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4534411

The Spectre of Communism is haunting the internet

https://www.mlreadinghub.org/study-materials/reading-list

I wanna self-study a bunch, with the goal of having an idea of how to organize better.

Is this a good reading list?

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2492720

The five books from the image that I got are:

In the Shadow of Liberty: The Invisible History of Immigrant Detention in the United States by Ana Raquel Minian

Third Worlds Within: Multiethnic Movements and Transnational Solidarity by Daniel Widener, Vijay Prashad (Foreword)

The States of the Earth: An Ecological and Racial History of Secularization by Mohamed Amer Meziane, Jonathan Adjemian (Translator)

Ron Carey and the Teamsters: How a UPS Driver Became the Greatest Union Reformer of the 20th Century by Putting Members First by Ken Reiman

Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism by Robert Chapman

These five books sit atop by vinyl record-player or gramophone or whatever you call it nowadays (I think people just say record-player). The very last one is the one I want to read the most, Empire of Normality. The third one, The States of the Earth, seems very interesting to me and I think everyone else should read it. The first two seemed like no-brainers to someone like me and the fourth one is just 'cause like labor unions and Monthly Review (I always read Monthly Review and Science & Society, the last two Marxist academic journals still standing).

Currently reading:

Das Kapital by Karl Marx

An Ideological History of the CPC by Huang Yibing (translated into English from Chinese)

A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin

Das Kapital is what I'm reading for the second time. I plan to finish it this time. The second book is apart of a trilogy of books called An Ideological History of the CPC (Volumes 1 - 3), each written by a separate author, and translated from Chinese into English. It costs about $170 for the entire trilogy box-set, but you'll frequently see it on sale on Amazon.com. A Dance with Dragons is the fifth book in the series A Song of Ice and Fire, right after the fourth book A Feast of Crows (which the bad TV show Game of Thrones is very loosely based off of).

And that's about all I'm reading and all of which I will read. The rest I may get from my local library (everyone should patronize their local library; they're currently being attacked by evangelicals, TERFs, and MAGAts).