socialist soap

ANTI-CAPITALIST AFFIRMATIONS

i am allowed to spend my time creating things, even if they are not beautiful.

there is no such thing as a "real job." all forms of work are real and valid.

there is nothing that i need to accomplish to be worthy. i am already worthy.

doing nothing is good for my soul.

i am not defined by what i produce.

my worth cannot be measured by my paycheck, my job title, or a list of professional or academic achievements.

i do not need to monetize my hobbies, it is enough to spend time doing something i love.

“Ah, baby, I want to buy this for you, it’s not like I can take the money with me when I go.” —My mom, when she bought me new clothes while I was between jobs.

“There’ll always be a job out there you can work, but we’d prefer you happy instead.” —Both my parents on jobs (“I can always get ya a job ditch diggin! They’ll always need ditch diggers. Hard work, but no college necessary. I can talk to the Hall.”—My proud, union dad, enthused, three seconds later.)

“It doesn’t matter what they do with the money after you give it to them. Drugs, beer, it doesn’t matter, maybe that’s what they need? How do you know?” —My dad on giving money to the homeless.

“Nah, we’ll never make any money, my husband has morals.” —My mom’s friend, fondly reflecting on the fact her lawyer husband isn’t working for a big money firm.

“Don’t worry! I’ve got this!” My equally poor friend buying me dinner when my debt card declined.

“I know we didn’t have furniture in the living room when you were growing up, but—ha!—remember Balloon Ball?” —My dad reflecting on the made up, mock-volleyball game we’d play in the open living room, using balloons. He had used electrical tape to make the court.

“I’m sorry we could never take you anywhere greater growing up,” —My mom, reflecting on our “stay-cations.” (“Why?” I asked, reflecting on all our trips to the park, zoo, public swimming pools, libraries, free theater, two dollar movie days, and her and my dad right there with me and my brothers.)

And I also remember how, especially under cover of darkness, cops became particularly nasty and brutal.

We protested to say Black Lives Matter,

People protested to Occupy Wall Street, the police brutally attacked them.

Water protectors protested at Standing Rock, police and the National Guard pepper sprayed them.

The police are attacking and killing unarmed protesters right now today at Cop City in Atlanta. So please let’s knock off the “imagine if people in the US protested like that” nonsense. Sometimes it feels like we stay protesting, like since before I was even ever born.

In addition to all the innocent and unarmed Black people they routinely murder, the police also did things like shoot protesters directly in the head with tear gas canisters, at point blank range. I remember police wilding out on students who were protesting at UC Davis campus to protest tuition hikes. I remember the police tear-gassing a young girl named Sarah Grossman. The cops gassed her in the face and she died from it. And the media even tried covering for the police by parroting their version of events that she had asthma.

I could continue…

But I do not begrudge the French protesters. Like, not at all. They are right to protest Macron’s callous neoliberal ass, and I hope they get what’s theirs. I hope they win. We are on the same side.

#Solidarity #PowerToThePeople ✊🏿

When they protest, it’s good and heroic, but when we do the very same thing, it’s condemned and vilified. What was it James Baldwin once told us?

Redefining the standard work week to be four days and total 32 hours would benefit hourly workers. Full time benefits would kick in at 32hrs per week, overtime pay would kick in after 32 hours in a week. Shitty big companies are still going to just barely undershedule employees to avoid giving benefits but if 32 hours of pay in the 4-day week world is equal to 40 hours now, then 31 hours in that world is going to be more than 39 hours now, so employees at those companies are still going to benefit in terms of pay and in terms of free time per week

Now there are more ways to split up 32 hours in a week than 40 hours so technically it can make work more unpredictable, but you still get more time off from work. And the reason some companies have multiple shifts in a day is because the business is open longer than work hours, but a lot of people who get hourly pay work in standard 9-5 companies so their shifts are the same every day

The thoughts going into these excerpts requires such a bad faith reading of what the fight for a 4 day week is trying to accomplish

and they’re more likely to go grocery shopping at a different time than me!  And they’re more likely to spend time & money at local businesses so those businesses will continue to be open for me when I have time to go there

like this is one step removed from "unions are bad actually because if you unionize then the corporation will close your branch down" or "raising the minimum wage is bad because then businesses won't be able to afford to pay their workers" like way to fucking miss the entire point