Lousy Femme

okay

2. Paying attention to what you’re doing ; changing and completing tasks

3. Ability to direct your focus ; ability to process what you’re doing

4. Understanding & expressing emotions in healthy ways

5. y’know that thing where you put something down and it’s Gone Now? That’s an example of this. Things sticking in your short-term memory, you being able to remember them.

What I want to do is offer some texts that I, personally, have found really valuable in forming my leftist politics. I’ve also prioritised texts that are brief articles, rather than book-length. It’s best to get a feel for things, a general familiarity with concepts, before approaching anything longer. There are good and bad things in all of these, but on the whole, I think they’re useful reads. Click on the titles to get links.

The Principles of Communism is a short article by Friedrich Engels, who was Karl Marx’s best friend and frequent collaborator. It’s the best introductory text to a Marxist analysis of capitalism and what we should do. It’s short, and explains what capitalism is, what capitalists and workers are, and what a communist movement will need to achieve. 

Class Society and the State is a chapter from a longer book called The State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin. I think it stands up pretty well on its own. Here, Lenin lays out a clear understanding of what a state is, and the function that a state plays in societies (like our own) which feature class division. He argues (to give a very brief summary of a complex point) that a state is a mechanism used by one class to exert its power over other classes. We therefore should smash the state of the capitalist class, and establish a state of the working class.

On Practice is a short lecture by Mao Zedong. Written in the midst of the against the Japanese occupation of China, he explains the interrelation of theory and practice. Less theoretical than The Principles of Communism, it is directly concerned with the actual things that we, as enemies of capitalism, should go out and do.

It’s A Class Struggle Goddamnit! is a speech by Fred Hampton, chairman of the Chicago branch of the Black Panther Party. Hampton argues that class struggle is the only method to bring about Black liberation in America, against identitarian politics which might argue for cultural practices. Instead, Hampton repeatedly reminds us that only revolution, and working class power, can give us what we need to survive.

The Tyranny of Structurelessness is an essay by Jo Freeman about the women’s movement of the 60s and 70s. Freeman argues that how our political movements are organised is a vital part of winning. For some forms of political work, like education and consciousness-raising exercises, an unstructured organisation can function relatively fine. However, for large-scale mobilisation and active struggle, the informal hierarchies formed in any casual social group quickly cause massive dysfunction. Freeman argues that for serious political movements, a formal decisionmaking structures is vital to accountable, responsible, revolutionary politics. This essay is really useful for thinking about how we can structure our organisations.

This variant of the Goldentail / Bastard Moray is known as the Banana Eel due to its colouration and markings resembling a ripe banana.

banana eel: [bites scientist]

So let’s say you’re in the same boat I am (this is a running theme, have you noticed?) and you’ve just got, like, SO MUCH STUFF that HAS to get done YESTERDAY or you will DIE (or fail/get fired/mope). Everything needs to be done yesterday, you’re sick, and for whatever reason you are focusing on the least important stuff first. What to do!

Take a deep breath, because this is a boot camp in prioritization.

Make a 3 by 4 grid. Make it pretty big. The line above your top row goes like this: Due YESTERDAY - due TOMORROW - due LATER. Along the side, write: Takes 5 min - Takes 30 min - Takes hours - Takes DAYS.

Divide ALL your tasks into one of these squares, based on how much work you still have to do. A thank you note for a present you received two weeks ago? That takes 5 minutes and was due YESTERDAY. Put it in that square. A five page paper that’s due tomorrow? That takes an hour/hours, place it appropriately. Tomorrow’s speech you just need to rehearse? Half an hour, due TOMORROW. Do the same for ALL of your tasks

Your priority goes like this:

5 minutes due YESTERDAY

5 minutes due TOMORROW

Half-hour due YESTERDAY

Half-hour due TOMORROW

Hours due YESTERDAY

Hours due TOMORROW

5 minutes due LATER

Half-hour due LATER

Hours due LATER

DAYS due YESTERDAY

DAYS due TOMORROW

DAYS due LATER

At this point you just go down the list in each section. If something feels especially urgent, for whatever reason - a certain professor is hounding you, you’re especially worried about that speech, whatever - you can bump that up to the top of the entire list. However, going through the list like this is what I find most efficient.

Some people do like to save the 5 minute tasks for kind of a break between longer-running tasks. If that’s what you want to try, go for it! You’re the one studying here.

So that’s how to prioritize. Now, how to actually do shit? That’s where the 20/10 method comes in. It’s simple: do stuff like a stuff-doing FIEND for 20 minutes, then take a ten minute break and do whatever you want. Repeat ad infinitum. It’s how I’ve gotten through my to do list, concussed and everything.

I’m not sure if this would be doable or sustainable over a long time, but it sounds worth trying. 

Girls supporting Girls. 

—

from “Queer Rage and James Flint in Black Sails” 

Anonymous Contributor | It’s Going Down | March 21st 2018

The post South Bend, IN: Ursula K. Le Guin Reading Group appeared first on It’s Going Down.

Announcement for a readying group in Indiana. This is a chance to discuss stories and novels by Ursula K. Le Guin, who passed away earlier this year. The New York Times said she “brought literary depth and a tough-minded feminist sensibility to science fiction and fantasy.” At our first meeting, in April, we’ll discuss the […]

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This week, the Office for National Statistics has added ready-made mashed potato to the UK’s official shopping basket, which it uses to measure inflation, and people are up in arms. Who buys a pre-chopped onion that costs three times as much as a whole one? How lazy do you have to be to choose a frozen omelette over a couple of eggs?

These kinds of convenience foods are an easy target. But for the 13.3 million people in Britain with disabilities – and those living with arthritis, chronic illness, recovering from injury or surgery, or undergoing cancer treatment – convenience foods aren’t just convenient: they are a lifeline.

This is an issue close to my heart. I’m a professional cook, but I also have a chronic pain condition, and there are occasions when I can’t even hold a knife. In times like those, I’m never going to opt for the impenetrable whole butternut squash over one that has already been diced for me.

Acting like the crows won’t snatch cigarettes outta people’s mouths.

I’ll upload this to libcom as soon as I can but for now this will have to suffice.

“When Trump made office it put the fear back into the idea of it all. These kids were feeling fear for the first time and had never been touched. Why? Because we worked so hard to make sure they were never touched.”

This is Lynn Koval. She’s owned a gay bar in Biloxi, Mississippi for over twenty years.

“They think deaf people aren’t supposed dance or hear the music.”