Are communities of care a possible site of struggle?
Submitted by Operaista on Jan 2 2013 02:00
Raising the question of whether intentional communities of care can be a site of struggle, rather than just a place of support.
I have personal experiences in creating and expanding communities of care, street medicing, radical mental health, as an herbalist initially trained through an informal apprenticeship, and in radical clinics.
Thanksgiving and telling the full history
Submitted by Operaista on Nov 23 2012 00:47
When we attempt to tell a history from the bottom up of Thanksgiving, we need to remember to tell the whole thing.
As a revolutionary who lives in New England and was born and raised in Massachusetts, I feel a particular obligation to help propagate a counter-narrative to the hegemonic one about Thanksgiving.
Negative and positive visions, full communism, and boats
Submitted by Operaista on Jul 13 2012 01:56
A piece on future visions of communism and whether 'blueprints' are beneficial.
I was struck by a thought of "wow, there's more to this running joke we've got going then I or anyone else originally intended" while reading a bit of Harry Cleaver's Reading Capital Politically last evening. I've been making an in-depth study of it, as, like every other Marxist under the sun, in between reading other things, I'm re-reading Capital, Vol 1. So, the relevant quote (on p.
The dialectic of exploitation and repression, forms of self-organization, and the avoidance of vulgar workerism
Submitted by Operaista on Jun 16 2012 03:46
Gayge Operaista writes about some of the strengths and weaknesses of anarchist political organizations, the IWW and solidarity networks in the U.S.
INTRODUCTION: WHAT DO WE SEEK TO ACHIEVE IN THE NEAR-TERM?
Bathrooms
Submitted by Recomposition on Apr 23 2012 00:16
Our series on sleep continues with a piece by Gayge Operaista discussing divisions and oppression within the working class.
I wake up with a start, and do my usual “where the hell am I?” look around. When you’ve been couch and guest room surfing for months, because you moved back across the country and still haven’t found steady work, it’s a reasonable “why am I awake?” question, especially when there’s no urgency to get up out of bed.
Commentary on "Toward a Pro-Revolutionary Strategy Targeting Patriarchy"
Submitted by Operaista on Apr 9 2012 08:18
Some additional commentary and explanations of 'Toward A Pro-Revolutionary Strategy Targeting Patriarchy'.
Some comrades have had some questions on Toward a Pro-Revolutionary Strategy Targeting Patriarchy, and I wrote pretty extensively in response, so, I thought I would compile my responses into another post to explain what I was getting at.
Toward a Pro-Revolutionary Strategy Targeting Patriarchy
Submitted by Operaista on Apr 9 2012 08:02
Gayge Operaista lays out a conception of gender as a vital weak link of capital worth attacking.
One idea I have been focused on recently is "what would our praxis look like if we took the form of patriarchy prevalent under capitalism seriously: the division of labor and devaluation/invisibilization of reproductive labor; the excess of repression, domination, and exclusion targeted at women, queers, trans, and gender non-conforming people; and the division of labor into a productive and repro
Conversation on general strikes
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Mar 24 2012 02:53
This is part of a discussion on Facebook that started off some questions on the topic of general strikes. I thought the conversation was interesting, so decided to turn into a blog post.
2011 was the year 'general strike' reentered the vocaboulary of American social movements. Wisconsin planted the seed, Oakland attempted to pull one off and now large segments of the Occupy movement are organizing for a May 1st general strike. But what is a general strike? What have they looked like in American history? What about in other places?
A critique of anti-assimilation - Gayge Operaista
Submitted by Operaista on Nov 16 2011 07:59
In this piece, Gayge Operaista critiques how anti-assimilation politics of many radical queer tendencies ignores class struggle, and recasts queer liberation in terms of the class struggle, countering the worst excess of identity politics with an introduction to models of class struggle.
A really big, important concept in radical queer thought and struggle is Anti-Assimilation, which, at its most basic, is "we don't want to elevate our position in the social order by becoming as much like the straights as possible"; clearly, there are a wide variety of possible positions that could be described as anti-assimilationist by that decision - from the communist position of "abolish the
The Oakland general strike, the days before, the days after
Submitted by Operaista on Nov 7 2011 02:00
Gayge Operaista's account of the 2011 Oakland general strike, the fallout within the occupy movement and what direction things may go from here.
What follows is my personal account of the events that led up to the Oakland General Strike of the 2nd of November, 2011. This takes the form of much personal narrative mixed with analysis, while I'm still analyzing and thinking through the events, and while the longer term effects are unknown, to get these experiences in writing while they are still fresh.
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