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!
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)
0.5 [Provisional Rule] Use alt text or image descriptions to allow greater accessibility
We require alternative text (from now referred to as "alt text") to be added to all posts/comments containing media, such as images, animated GIFs, videos, audio files, and custom emojis.
EDIT: For files you share in the comments, a simple summary should be enough if they’re too complex.
We are committed to social equity and to reducing barriers of entry, including (digital) communication and culture. It takes each of us only a few moments to make a whole world of content (more) accessible to a bunch of folks.
When alt text is absent, a reminder will be issued. If you don't add the missing alt text within 48 hours, the post will be removed. No hard feelings.
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.
Let's just all team up together, pool our issues and grievances as a group, and then have one person represent us to the compamy presenting our issues as some sort of united front. You know, so we could increase our bargaining power as some sort of collective.
We're geniuses. No one has ever thought of this before.
I've found a lot of people are legitimately more interested when you sell stuff this way because terms like "union" or "socialism" have been heavily stigmatized "for some reason"
Instead of getting vaccinated, you're micro dosing the virus!
A homeopathic virus dose perhaps.
“This water has a memory of the virus and will protect you. Just hold this crystal on the injection site as the sunsets for three days”
Don't forget to recharge the crystal in the moonlight each night!
I like @[email protected] 's idea. Yours sounds dumb and threatens my money. Gimme some pearls to clutch!
"Give" you pearls? That's socialism!
I work in big tech, and you would be amazed at how many people will openly decry pure acts of malice against employees - laying off the day before their stocks vest, removing remote working, gaslighting, etc, but who will also openly decry forming a union.
Funny enough, even highly educated people have some weird notions about what a union would do for them. They think it'll make the workforce weaker, will reduce their salary significantly, and will promote laziness and job losses throughout their teams, with absolutely zero evidence to back it up.
What these people are doing is literally paying for the benefits of a union, without the actual union aspect, and with very little power on their side. All a union needs to be is:
That's it, and all for a small fee every month/year.
I never understood the "promote laziness" thing. A union wouldn't be able to protect a worker that can't meet the requirements of the job.
If anything, either management isn't providing adequate training, or management needs to make better job descriptions.
Because union lawyers are on the side of the employee and thier job is to make sure the dismissal was for cause and procedure was followed. It's the same mentality that leads to people saying defense attorneys enable criminals. Like no, they're there to ensure your rights and check the power of the state.
never understood the "promote laziness" thing. A union wouldn't be able to protect a worker that can't meet the requirements of the job.
Overachievers get told to stop being better than the lower-quality workers in poorly run unions because "it makes Bob look and feel bad when you do twice the work he can in a day"
It's not a great reason but if you experience it once it leaves one hell of a sour taste in your mouth, especially since poorly run unions also usually aren't doing good at protecting workers
Also when people in the trades work extra hard and extra fast, it's usually at the expense of their bodies, equipment, safety, and other factors. Just because one dude is sprinting back and forth between the parts window and the shop floor doesn't mean he should be. Management doesn't care though, and they say 'see how Jim finished 3 work orders today? You all need to do that'
Jim gets mad because he is destroying his body to work faster, and others aren't, everyone else is mad because now the managers think Jim's behavior should be standard.
All the 'fast' mechanics I worked with were always doing dumb shit, like standing too far up on ladders because a taller one wasn't available, loosening harnesses to get into tighter spots instead of working with a teammate, or carrying two way to heavy items instead of making two trips. Yes all this stuff gets jobs done quicker but at what cost.
So the union tells Jim to slow down, because he isn't getting paid more for breaking his back, and his behavior will just shift to the new normal, meaning he will have to work even harder to be an 'overachiver'. Jim construes this as compensating for lazy employees, get propagandized by the xompany and dismantles the union.
Six months later Jim falls off a ladder and can no longer work in that field. Meanwhile everyone else is still held to Jim's 'good work ethic' standard. More injuries, more injuries, more mistakes, employees start to see problems with the company, they form a union, the cycle continues.
That was my experience in aviation at least.
And yet in this very comment thread there's someone complaining about their union "protecting the old guard" who are "lazy".
I am fully in support of doing the bare minimum, as long as you're not making anyone else's job harder. The only time you "should" be doing more than the minimum is when it's your own personal company, or it's work that actually betters society beyond making money.
Overachievers should be told to stop doing more than they're paid to do lol. I get it, though. I get bored at work and often spend time building tools and things for myself to work smarter.
The company knows what I'm capable of doing, and are well aware that if they want more from me they could consider rotating me into a better team.
What we need is to promote being given what we need to live without having to become corporate slaves
I'm in construction. The Union absolutely protects the old guard, and some of them are the laziest fucks you've ever seen. Guys will work at a snails pace and grieve any and every attempt to train or discipline.
I'm not in the Union, I'm generally in favor of it but there's absolutely very poor performers being protected.
Even just attempting to form a union results in better benefits.
The residents at my hospital started discussing forming a union and they even got some signatures and what not. Word got out to the dean and now we have
Obviously they are still planning to unionize but I'm finishing my residency so I won't get to see it.
Unless it’s a Walmart. They will fire all the employees involved, and if it gained enough traction close the entire store.
Being in an industry where everyone is unionized is great, the most important being that whenever there is a work issue you know exactly who to talk to for help.
Having unions should really become the norm for most industries.
Turns out that "human resources" sees humans as a resource to be used, instead of as people
My mom's employer calls the department "human capital".
Somehow, being more open about it makes it feel even worse.
I joined a union, but aside for legal help, they’re probably not ever gonna be of other help in my case. I work for a big international company (~5000 worldwide) and there’s only about 10 of us in the uk. Collective bargaining is going to get us nothing but fired. That’s assuming I can convince my 9 colleagues to do so, which is less than likely. In general I think it’s tough to get anything out of a union in international companies.
Yes, they're far from perfect, but I think it's the only way to start something that matters
Also the other user seems to be in the UK which I believe already has stronger worker protections and better access to healthcare than the US; two major things a union in America would push for.
Depends what you do at your international company, because they can't really move anything like production or operations very easily and still expect tax benefits, but if they can move your job overseas where the cost of living is considerably less so employees make less money, they'll do it in an instant whether your in a union or not.
Fucking better than the situation I'm running full tilt from:
Company is based in one State in the U.S. ALL their regular employees are unionized in that State. They accrue vacation time faster, get paid more, etc etc than us, who work in a different State and who do the same work. Even their mental healthcare is different, with the company supplying mental health support and help and funds. We get a number which directs us to the healthcare we pay for through the company. Thaaanks.
I'm normally not this blunt a person though: "Lol fuck you guys. Byyye." is basically my response once I found out.
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 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.
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?
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.
There is a balance that needs to be struck. Back when we were peak union in the UK in the 70s their leaders would hold the country to randsom. They'd tell politicians that they want them gone and would instigate bi-weekly blackouts until they got what they wanted. Every household was well stocked with candles and wood logs due to the number of orchestrated blackouts.
The pendulum has swung too far in the other direction in recent years. Now professions with strong unions like train drivers are among the only people who have had their wages keep up with inflation over the past 10 years.
Some jobs don't lend themselves to having unions but they are the minority. Even software developers probably should have unions these days - if people don't want to be part of one they can always work as a contractor instead.