Thanks for subscribing to /c/[email protected] ! Now that we’ve grown (and are growing) so quickly, I’ve had some calls to discuss what this community is for!
What we stand for
As the sidebar says, Work Reform aims to increase the share of rewards reaped by the workers (as opposed to capitalists - be it shareholders or owners), and make work more equitable. We do NOT aim to abolish labor altogether - I personally don’t think that’s a viable societal system. There is no known system in human history where majority of the population can subsist without doing anything in return.
What we need to do
I see a few things necessary to reform the current economic system - let’s call it Awareness, Advocacy and Action:
- Awareness means getting people to realise that the corporate propaganda they’re hearing isn’t the whole truth.
- Advocacy means going out and telling people to join the cause, form a local union, etc.
- Action means taking organized action - writing to politicians, organising dialogues and strikes, etc.
What this space can be used for
In short, all of the above!
- To raise Awareness, you can post anything that talks about the issue of wage disparity. That means venting about scummy practices, that means posting news that counters corporate propaganda, and that means posting memes and screenshots of relevant tweets.
- To engage in Advocacy, you can post news about organised action taking place elsewhere that we can celebrate or contribute to.
- To take Action, you can start a local chapter of your union, organize/engage in online campaigns, etc. This space can be used to help gather people for that purpose.
I personally think the most important thing now is to get more people to rally behind the cause (which means Action and Advocacy). But some of you have really good ideas on taking Action. So feel free to use this space for that purpose.
As it grows, we can discuss how best to use this community as well, so the rules may evolve over time.
Ok I see my misunderstanding here. In that case, let me offer an explanation for why you should be more radical.
There’s a reason that the banks and ruling class were worried about antiwork. It’s not a coincidence that this came out and then not long after a coordinated attack between the billionaire media forces and wreckers in the community to heighten the drama happened alongside the creation of a space (by yet more financial bros) to coopt the split they created and deradicalise the movement.
The negotiating position of “workreform” is weak. They are very sophisticated at stringing workers along with reasons that workreform can’t happen, and it leaves workers in a weak position begging for change.
The negotiating position of “antiwork” on the other hand? It had no intent to negotiate. It terrified the ruling class because it showed a position that was essentially “we will abolish you”. It scared them because they knew that if such a movement continued they would be forced to make changes happen, or face the reality of that abolishment.
The fear here is significantly important. A movement that strikes fear into the opposition drives them to change, a movement that does not is unlikely to see much success beyond individual victories - and they like that.
Consider another scenario - which of these messages do you find to be more effective rhetoric for the urbanist movement? /r/fuckcars or /r/automotivereform ?
That’s a fair point, but antiwork as a brand is effectively a laughing stock now. Anybody who wants to discredit the movement now and in future will simply point to the Fox News interview. If the conspiracy theories were true, the false flag operation worked.
My original point still stands - the antiwork sub is a mix of people with different goals. That’s not sustainable. fuckcars as a movement is more homogenous, so it works.
Yeah I’m not suggesting antiwork can be rehabilitated. It can’t. Spinning off of /r/fuckcars into a “fuck work” direction could work, particularly because “fuck work” doesn’t have to mean abolishment of work, it works better than the original antiwork messaging for the average person while retaining its edginess. It can also more inclusively unite black and red aspects of the left, one of the major reasons antiwork collapsed was its anarchist team getting sectarian and kicking communists out of the subreddit. Kicking the people most invested in educating people leftwards out of a space effectively causes a space to move rightwards. They tried to U-turn on that when the crisis hit, and we tried to help, but there were so many forces pushing and pulling in different directions by that point as well as a completely contaminated modteam with several liberal powermods added by reddit, and on top of that reddit were clearly helping the takeover happen as they wouldn’t take action against obvious manipulation occurring. It all spun into a very losing battle.
On the plus side sectarianism across the site pretty much stopped afterwards, it only continued in spaces like 196 where the vast majority are liberals or socdems (and children) rather than actual leftists. Everywhere else on the site it ended and basically every mod team joined one server together to agree on anti-sectarianism needing to be a key pillar. So I guess that’s a positive.
I like the cut of your jib.