What in the hell …

I don’t like ideology critique. I generally find it underwhelming, and suspect there’s a lingering idealism at work there, of the sort that implicitly holds to one or more of the following: “X idea in the mind of Y means Z act will follow”,”Changing Z circumstance requires instilling W idea in the mind of Y”, and “Instilling W idea in the mind requires U discursive act (defined as the exchange of the propositional contents of sentences)”. None of that strikes me as very compelling, and it also can easily imply a sort of “one road to revolution only” kind of attitude (and, more importantly, that road is not mine!) and a “people are dupes” kind of attitude. The combination of these two is part of why there seems to be an overlap (though by no means an identity) between the populations of self-important asshole intellectual bullies and Marxists. (more…)

That’s a question a lot of Americans are facing today, as a post by Edie demonstrates. (more…)

A hot shop is when the shit has hit the fan at work and everyone sees very cleary and very suddenly how fucked up the place is. A hot shop is not necessarily good thing. It is certainly as much of a problem for organizing as it is an opportunity. (more…)

I’ve been working with someone recently who wants to organize their workplace. (more…)

Here’s what I thought it was: when you work at your job and management makes you do work off the clock, uncompensated. (more…)

If you want to organize your workplace, that is. (more…)

Jodi wrote a piece posted at hers and at Long Sunday on Zizek and the concept of solidarity. In it she poses the idea that the paradigmatic “relation between political friends is that of solidarity.” (more…)

No, not another IWW thing or whatever. It’s a proper name. (more…)