Welcome again to everybody! Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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● Find theory on ProleWiki, marxists.org, Anna’s Archive and libgen.
● Audio versions by Socialism For All
Got in a discussion on Reddit about sex work and the whole white, male ‘WOMEN SEXUAL LIBERATION REEEE’ crowd came crawling out of their basements to downvote. To them, sex work is this perverse fantasy of a white woman being empowered instead of the reality in which 99% are human trafficking victims in horrible conditions.
I’m “softer” (lol) on sexwork than most marxists are, and I think it tends to be unfairly demonized, often into SWERF territory.
Of course it’s not that simple or black and white, and nobody should be pressured or coerced into sex work, and it is a genuine horrific travesty that many women find themselves in because they need to make end’s meet, and this is especially true among women and afab of color.
I’ve spoken to women who are prostitutes and who are also marxists and are genuinely empowered by their work, and have their own thoughts and perspectives that deserve respect and consideration, though since I do live in the global north/collective west, I can’t even imagine how bad things are for women who are forced into it, even after reading about, especially in the global south, and the global north too.
Not that it particularly matters, nor is there likely anyway of measuring the statistics, but I’d be woeful of saying that 99 percent of sexworkers are trafficking victims.
But I don’t mean to completely disagree with you, and the percentage is definitely way more than most expect.
99% was a bit of an exeggaration but over here in Belgium it is estimated that around 85% of the people in prostitution are actually trafficked into it. And then there are some people who fall into a grey area of being semi forced into it and then we have a tiny minority who do it out of empowerment.
I used to work with human trafficking victims and almost everyone of them used to be a sex worker. There seems to be this liberal fantasy in which sex work is one of the highest tiers of womens liberation but the reality is just so far removed from that, that we need to abolish this system entirely.
That being said, I am not going against sex workers who do speak up for better conditions and rights, etc. I support the sex workers struggle against the system of course. I have nothing against a free sexual spirit, I am all for it. I just do hope we, as a society, manage to move past viewing sex as labour in order to keep existing.
Obligatory recommendation of “prostitution and ways of fighting it” by alexandea Kollontai
For any of you following the events at Columbia University:
- The NYPD (!) was asked for a statement by the NYT and could not find a justification for why they were asked to arrest the students at the encampment last Wednesday
- The genocidal (even for Zionist standards) maniac Shai Davidai had his ID deactivated but has not been fired: https://nitter.poast.org/probablyreadit/status/1782408919979045117#m
- CU allowed the tents to stay up this week: https://nitter.poast.org/CallaWalsh/status/1782227447447986347#m
- There is a pro-genocide demonstration happening across the street from campus featuring a flag which is half the flag of the US and half the flag of “Israel”
- Please boycott Columbia
Boss make a dollar
I make a dime
I scroll lemmygrad
On company time
Praxis
I moved this weekend and I am sore as fuck now. Always a stressful thing, moving. But it was worth it I think. It’s a nice new place. Life is sort of tiring at the moment and I hope things get better soon. At least it is supposed to be better weather soon. Can’t wait to start my herb nursery on my new balcony.
I hope everyone has a nice week.
Now that you said “I hope everyone has a nice week” did you prepair the capybara video for @graineater
My capybara collection is still in a box somewhere. I have to unpack it still.
As always, death to the Zionist entity
I hope you all have a nice week :D
You 2 oppo!!! :D
Me destroying bourgeois propaganda 💪💪💪
You too comrade ! 🫡
😌👍🏼
You too oppo!
I’ve been blessed
You too!
I can dig it!
The lack of focus I was having last week is only getting worse, I sit down to work and I just…don’t. And I’m having memory problems, last week was even more of a blur than the weeks before it. Going to see a doctor about this soon, hopefully it isn’t anything too major.
I just noticed the text in the post am I the weekly general thread? @graineater
what do you mean, there is no mention of you in the post
I can’t believe you are gaslighting me
I only use LED lights
Hey why is there a secret link in this post? For how long have you been doing this
clearly you have hacked into the Lemmygrad server and manipulated the database
gawd i hate orange site with every fiber of my being
Also NK already has anime. Squirrel and Hedgehog slaps and it’s from the 80s. I’m also pretty sure NK must have furries as a result
maybe 9/11 was just a marketing ploy for general motors to increase white male anxiety and sell more big pickup trucks ten years later
Least futuristic city in China
I’d love to visit chinese megacities if I was into super dense urban areas, but I prefer nature stuff
about come and see. i agree with this
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the carnation revolution in Portugal. Libs seem to have forgotten what the revolution supported.
It’s unfortunate how forgotten this piece of history is outside of Portugal. I also find it funny that I’m the only person in my family that “celebrates” this day.
Yep, April 25th marks the day when the Portuguese working class, with the MFA (movimento das forças armadas) took down fascism and almost made Portugal a socialist country.
And now they are talking about celebrating another date, 25th november, which marks the end of the revolution and the start of the turn towards capitalist western succdem government. Dudes really love discrediting actually liberating movements
yep, what a time to be alive.
