the greates obstacle to organizing the working class is wage labor itself. people need to work long hours to survive, they come home late, are physically & mentally exhausted, need to take care of their kids, leaving them with little time to reflect on the system which runs them
they are coerced into spending their savings on stuff they don't really need, the system rewards them for being selfish, they are alienated from their social nature - cooperating with others towards a common goal.
wage labor is the mode of survival, people are kept from doing or saying anything which threatens their chances of getting or not losing a job. reflection & activism require time, energy, & resources; steal those from people and you ensure their obedience
any activist effort must therefore deal with this impediment by necessity. diverting resources from a system built on profit towards social causes is hampered from the outset
one way is to build alternative structures participating in the economy to secure some revenue & jobs for the cause. although that's very hard to do, the information age has crucially shifted some of the core premises of the old economy. we need to take advantage of those
another unfortunate condition of the system is that there is significant inequality within the working class itself. people better off, who can afford more leisure time, are bribed into maintaining their privilege even though they themselves are exploited
the assumption is that activism will happen organically if misery is sufficiently great. that's why it's mostly people oppressed the most who usually start with strikes, protests, grassroots organizing, etc, people of color, low-wage workers, and so on
but we can't rely on this if we want to be successful. we need to organize at all times, even if there's no immediate threat such as this crisis. especially if you are among the more privileged, you need to spend your extra time & resources in solidarity with the less privileged
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this "lifelong democrat" has been vote shaming leftists for not wanting to vote/withhold their vote for biden, ridiculed the idea to push ppl in power for M4a, and is now defending ben dixon smearing julian assange. how do people like this get to be members of DSA?
i see ben dixon likes to smear people instead of listening to their arguments. did you know he also led a smear campaign against julian assange 3 years ago?
here is an article by @caitoz addressing all smears against julian assange. bookmark it bc you'll come across "leftists" who like to attack assange more often than not unfortunately rcreader.com/commentary/deb…
smearing is one of the oldest tricks in the book. pls read this part where @caitoz explains why smearing is so effective. always be aware of this to not fall for it. whether it's assange or jimmy dore, smear artists know what they're doing
obama saying to trevor noah that it's hard to be ethical because you inherit wars and he can't revert the decision to go into iraq. dude you took the US from 2 wars to 7, wtf are you talking about
but he talks so smoothly and he's so charming, so it's all okay😍🌊