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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • The linked documentary offers a strong critique of the reformist attempts from local Chileans who were there on the ground (starting at around one hour in). I can only offer my own criticisms as a non-Chilean looking in from the outside.

    Historically liberal reform either kicks the can of capitalism’s problems down the road (FDR in the 1930’s), or fails to even kick the can due to so much corporate capture of the government, that it actually accelerates a turn toward right-wing authoritarianism.

    In the case of Chile, the latter case seems to be happening. The proposed progressive constitution to replace Pinochet’s constitution likely failed due to the deep corporate pockets available to right-wing institutions, who are able to effectively trick under-educated citizens into voting against their own interests through massive propaganda campaigns (the same thing happened in the US thanks to Fox news, hence why they are now in a power struggle against literal fascists).

    The right-wing then mobilized to create a new right-wing pro corporate constitution, which was only narrowly avoided despite their propaganda efforts.

    The new leftist president Gabriel Boric, as most leftist politicians do after reaching political office, began to become more moderate, all the while congress, who are corporate captured, continued to vote down his reformist taxation policies. It’s a classic tactic of letting the left spin their wheels and burnout in congress/parliament for years to stall direct action. All the while regular people continue to suffer under capital, and become more and more enchanted by the easy solutions fascists can offer.

    History has generally shown that the olive branch of reform is a tool used by the elites and capital to quell a growing movement to overthrow them. It’s their last option before using more brutal authoritarian control to maintain their grasp on power.


  • The most effective non-violent action we can take is to organize a General Strike.

    The country would be brought to its knees if suddenly deprived of profit and labor. That tactic was extremely effective in Chile in 2019, and had they not fallen for the trick of liberal reform, they would’ve had a successful revolution on their hands with virtually no bloodshed.

    If you aren’t in a union (or even if you are, it’s worth dual-carding), please consider joining the IWW to unionize your workplace (bonus: you’ll get higher wages, better benefits, and more time off if you succeed!) to strengthen a general strike if we manage to enact one, as most unions have a strike fund that can supplement your income during a general strike to make it more financially bearable (you should also save as much money as you can reasonably do, so it can also be used to keep yourself afloat during a strike).

    And for our international friends, you should join one as well, as fascism is gaining momentum globally. If your country isn’t listed below, just contact the IWW directly in the link above, and they’ll help you set up a new local branch.

    • 🇦🇷 Argentina: FORA
    • 🇦🇺 Australia: ASF-IWA
    • 🇧🇷 Brazil: FOB
    • 🇧🇬 Bulgaria: ARS, CITUB
    • 🇩🇪 Germany: FAU
    • 🇬🇷 Greece: ESE
    • 🇮🇹 Italy: USI
    • 🇳🇱 🇧🇪 Netherlands & Belgium: Vriji Bond
    • 🇪🇸 Spain: CNT
    • 🇸🇪 Sweden: SAC
    • 🇬🇧 United Kingdom: UVW


  • The IWW has 8,000 members? How long has it been around?

    It was founded in 1905, and at one time had 150,000 members. Its membership was gutted by extreme persecution during the red scare, and the Taft-Hartley act essentially outlawed their (very successful) tactics. Historically, the AFL-CIO raided members during those persecutions to swell their own ranks.

    The IWW’s membership has been steadily growing in recent years as their tactics become needed once more, especially now that the NLRB has been captured and is effectively union hostile. Traditional unions are very much reliant on a friendly NLRB to function and thrive, and are not generally well equipped tactically to fight back against the current regime. We’ll need to call upon those old tactics to survive this period, and hopefully to give unions their teeth back, as they are currently quite a moderate group content with marginal gains that often barely keep up with inflation.

    There’s a lot of merit in joining the IWW to help build it up back to its former glory, as it’s the only union in the US that is at its core is working toward abolishing capitalism, instead of becoming content making it slightly more bearable.

    How do we get those fuckers to strike?

    The UAW was planning a general strike for May 1st 2028, but that was before Trump was elected, and when they likely thought we had more time.









  • The most effective non-violent action we can take is to organize a General Strike.

    The country would be brought to its knees if suddenly deprived of profit and labor. That tactic was extremely effective in Chile in 2019, and had they not fallen for the trick of liberal reform, they would’ve had a successful revolution on their hands with virtually no bloodshed.

    If you aren’t in a union (or even if you are, it’s worth dual-carding), please consider joining the IWW to unionize your workplace (bonus: you’ll get higher wages, better benefits, and more time off if you succeed!) to strengthen a general strike if we manage to enact one, as most unions have a strike fund that can supplement your income during a general strike to make it more financially bearable (you should also save as much money as you can reasonably do, so it can also be used to keep yourself afloat during a strike).

    And for our international friends, you should join one as well, as fascism is gaining momentum globally. If your country isn’t listed below, just contact the IWW directly in the link above.

    • 🇦🇷 Argentina: FORA
    • 🇦🇺 Australia: ASF-IWA
    • 🇧🇷 Brazil: FOB
    • 🇧🇬 Bulgaria: ARS, CITUB
    • 🇩🇪 Germany: FAU
    • 🇬🇷 Greece: ESE
    • 🇮🇹 Italy: USI
    • 🇳🇱 🇧🇪 Netherlands & Belgium: Vriji Bond
    • 🇪🇸 Spain: CNT
    • 🇸🇪 Sweden: SAC
    • 🇬🇧 United Kingdom: UVW




  • There’s a 3rd type of socialism that was more rarely spoken of in the 60’s and 70’s, because it didn’t have the drawbacks of centralized soviet style communism and therefor was more difficult to demonize: Anarchism. This ideology was successfully implemented for a few years in parts of Spain during their civil war, and its success in creating a non-hierarchical decentralized and free society even attracted George Orwell to visit it, and join their cause to fight for what they were building.

    It was eventually crushed by both fascists and communists, as both sides were terrified of that concept spreading. If we’re able to implement it again someday, possibly in a spot where it would be much harder to crush militarily, then it would be a genie impossible to put back in the bottle, as it would be so self-evident in how superior of a way of life it provides to everyone, without the downsides of a centralized dictator.






  • Ah, gotcha, so when my neighbor’s house needs to be redone because he rewired it himself, I’m on the hook for that.

    I already mentioned that a community could collectively decide to continue to enforce building codes.

    Too bad I have to stand by and let a couple of transient drug addicts cook meth in the house next door again

    There would be much less incentive to create drugs for profit in a world without money.

    Not saying there wouldn’t be drugs or addicts, but it’s extremely likely the scale of the problem would be fairly drastically reduced, as many people turn to becoming drug addicts due to becoming homeless as a way to find some way to cope with the extreme stress and trauma of the situation. Without money, there would be no reason for China to continue to sell fentenyl and other drugs to the cartels to be shipped into the US, and the same for Cocaine from South America. That would leave only what could be reasonably produced at home, which would likely take the form of weed.

    If, on the chance that someone did start producing meth in a community that has collectively agreed to not allow for that, they could potentially be ejected from the community.

    Sure thing. That’s totally going to happen. … it fall apart into vague handwaving about how everyone will be all helpful sunshine and smiles, which we know for a fact, people aren’t that at any level of their being.

    It seems that you believe people are only motivated by money, status, or power. But we have examples of societies that were able to implement an Anarchist way of existence, such as Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War, which abolished money, the state, and was able to thrive as federated communities. George Orwell went there, and spoke of how excellent that mode of society was, to the point that he fought in the war and took a bullet in the neck for it.

    Except it wouldn’t be their home. Someone else built it

    They could have built it themselves, too.