How'd you end up on libcom?

Just passed the 7 year mark on this dump. How'd you end up here?

Submitted by Choccy on December 11, 2011

Just realised I first posted on here exactly seven years and two days ago, back when it was ENRAGER.NET.

Having dabbled in animal rights, big tent anti-capitalism and green politics for a few years I'd got more interested in class struggle when my shitty little part-time student job became my shitty fucking fulltime job after finishing uni and joining the real world.

I got linked to it by that dickhead Revol68 ;) Within two months a bunch of the admins came to Belfast and stayed with us. They have largely managed to stop calling him 'Belfast' because he is not from there.

I've met a shitload of decent comrades and friends through this site, as well as one or two people I'd happily stamp a gulag admission form for.

Aside from all the interesting debates and texts I've read, I have wasted A LOT of THE MAN'S time on this site, so for that alone, thanks libcom.

Comments

Choccy

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Choccy on December 11, 2011

I've made sure to try and use existing tags. Thanks guys!

Rob Ray

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Rob Ray on December 11, 2011

Eight years five weeks, lightweight :P. Personally I checked it out because I'd been working with Steven and Jim at Freedom just before they jumped ship to start on it.

Stayed because the standard of debate was marginally less aggravating/repetitive than Urban75 and in the main dealt with issues I actually gave a shit about in ways that made me think (even if that thought was sometimes "stop trolling you wee bastard you're smarter than that"). Generally feel it's still the only project of its kind which is likely to last long enough at a high enough quality to be worth the input.

Caiman del Barrio

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Caiman del Barrio on December 11, 2011

xwswChoccyxser you missed out the part about xxxHARDxxxtxCxxORExxx.

Choccy

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Choccy on December 11, 2011

Oh yeah
AND I WAS KING OF STRAIGHTEDGE

Fall Back

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Fall Back on December 11, 2011

Rob Ray

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Rob Ray on December 11, 2011

Jesus making 4chan memes political, that was a bad time.

jonthom

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by jonthom on December 11, 2011

Came across it around six years ago or so, a while after finding and taking an interest in anarchism in general (prior to that I'd been a sort of generic left type); been reading it on and off ever since, more so in the last few years due to a shift in my own politics more towards the class struggle side of things (as oppose to the summit, DSEi, climate camp, let's-have-a-ruck-in-London side of things). Read the forums a lot more than I post and have generally found to be an incredibly useful resource both for myself and as somewhere to point people to when asked questions about what anarchists (and other libertarian communists) have to say on things. In particular, around things like occupy and the Arab spring, it's been helpful as a news resource providing views other than the mainstream media and the trots.

Steven.

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on December 13, 2011

Well, I helped start it so I can't really answer this, but would be interested in other people's answers…

snipfool

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by snipfool on December 14, 2011

Can't remember exactly how I first found this place, but pretty sure it was through googling for articles on some subject or other, sometime around the march in March. I remember thinking libcom probably stood for liberal community! Back when I had a pretty narrow/distorted view of the political spectrum, hadn't a clue what that red and black star symbolised and hadn't yet looked through the site properly.

Juan Conatz

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Juan Conatz on December 14, 2011

Knew of it through some anarchist/libertarian communist groups on Myspace, most of which I don't think exist anymore. Finally joined in April of 2008, but was quickly scared off by the atmosphere and the near whole migration of North Americans over to Anarchist Black Cat. Pretty much just lurked for a year, and then slowly became more interested in contributing to the library, which is still the primary thing I do on here. Also, ABC pretty much died, outside of the private/internal forums, which started to interest me less as my interest in platformism and political organization started to decline. Started posting more when I got a phone with internet on it and was able to read the library on breaks at work. Also, unemployment caused me to spend more time putting stuff in the library to avoid losing my mind from boredom and then of course, the whole Wisconsin situation got me posting and updating here a lot.

petey

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by petey on December 14, 2011

bush done my brain in, i returned to the politics of my 20s, started reading radical press again, found ICC press, they invited readers to follow their interventions on a board called libcom, so i did. (they also invited readers to follow their interventions on a board called urban75, which seems odd now.)

mikail firtinaci

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by mikail firtinaci on December 15, 2011

I was translating dauve-antagonism texts to turkish, then publishing them with another friend. Nobody was reading them - except some anarchist friends who usually thought I was crazy (they still do but to a lesser extent :lol: )... All our efforts to disseminate left-communist ideas seemed fruitless for a while.

Then one of my anarchist comrades -who now turned into a political&economic liberal- told me that there was a guy from Ankara writing with the nickname Devrim in this forum and who was a left-communist. I then joined. I have parted my ways with Devrim long ago, but libcom was a great discovery and saved me many times from my deadly isolation and boredom...

the button

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by the button on December 15, 2011

Been on here 7½ years on & off, registering in pre-libcom days. I registered because a policeman asked me to recruit more PhD students to SolFed.

martinh

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by martinh on December 15, 2011

well you've succeeded beyond your wildest dreams Button. I believe we are approaching double figures.*

I joined pre-libcom. Can't remember why any more. Have found it very useful and exasperating at times.

Regards

Martin

* though not necessarily in base 10.

the button

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by the button on December 15, 2011

It's certainly made me reflect on my politics, which I've had with varying degrees of conviction since I was about 14. In particular, enrager/libcom has changed the way I think about unions, and has reassured me that the reason I've always thought symbolic protests/demos etc are shit is not because I'm just a grumpy bastard.

Harrison

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Harrison on December 15, 2011

i think i found it just through googling about council communism. signed up when i was reading a thread that i really wanted to post on. it's also been a sort of learning curve for me.... helping to iron out the bad bits of my politics; i've said some pretty crappy things on here that i'm glad i said over the internet rather than real life.

petey

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by petey on December 15, 2011

the button

enrager/libcom has changed the way I think about unions

yes i've re-evaluated unions b/c of the posting here, though i haven't gone anti-union totally

Mike Harman

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Mike Harman on December 15, 2011

I think I was searching for anarchism in the UK, found the ayn site, then via that found enrager.net. Would've been 2002/3-ish so that's a shocking 9 years now.

Steven.

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on December 15, 2011

Mike Harman

I think I was searching for anarchism in the UK, found the ayn site, then via that found enrager.net. Would've been 2002/3-ish so that's a shocking 9 years now.

yeah, you originally posted on the AYN forums, which then ended up on enrager. Time flies!

sabot

12 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by sabot on December 15, 2011

I was bored one day and started looking up the differences between political ideologies on Wikipedia (don't ask me why). Clicked on "libertarian socialism" and it had a link to libcom.