if you must study hegel, do so via books on tape at the gym or in between sparring sessions in your MMA class
tears posted:lmao if u havent read every book
One of these days I'll read a book.
animedad posted:DONT join an organization. how bout dem apples
MODS
autopsyturvey posted:I've been doing dsa meetings and book groups for a while and it's ok but I think I'd like to be doing something more marxo and focused. Anyone know any good orgs in Boston
autopsyturvey posted:I've been doing dsa meetings and book groups for a while and it's ok but I think I'd like to be doing something more marxo and focused. Anyone know any good orgs in Boston
PSL
Went to a committee meeting for providing economic resources to the poor. Lot of great ideas.
Going to a committee tonight which has the explicit goal of disrupting the prison pipeline by organizing the resources available (and lobbying for improvement of those resources) for homeless people, at-risk youth, etc, and providing extensive training to a pilot group of local pigs. I guess the cops explicitly have only two options right now for a bunch of problems---ignore or arrest? This group is working with the local govt to make it explicit that diversion (transporting people to shelters, support orgs, etc) is an option, and the preferred option. I don't understand the background, the groundwork laid, or the details fully at this time, but I have wanted to get involved in prison outreach or something related.
for the most part you won't be doing restorative justice work to heal violence in marginalized communities and rehabilitate oppressed peoples abused by the law, you'll be running a healing session between a rich white kid who shoplifted once on a lark and the nice understanding manager who isn't pressing charges. because those are the people who actually get granted access to the programs, and you have no control over it.
or worse, you'll spend years building connections and trust in a community, and then the cops will demand that you be their catspaw in the area and run Reconciliation meetings on behalf of one of their thugs in uniform who beat some poor kid within an inch of his life. the cops, parole boards, everyone else in the justice system will treat you and your work with utter contempt and take every opportunity to manipulate you into letting them abuse the trust you work so hard to foster.
which isn't to say a person could never do any good, but have no illusions, bastards will try to subvert your work at every turn. the same rule of thumb goes as for anything else touching the prison system: get ready for unreasonable demands and cruel bullshit, and the more you refuse to go along with the bullshit the more you will be denied access to the people you want to actually help.
shriekingviolet posted:the theory is sound, the work itself is genuinely effective, but if you're working for a program or organization that actually gets funding and access to people entangled in the prison system you don't really get to apply it on behalf of the people it's actually meant for. i knew a couple people who got really frustrated with the field.
for the most part you won't be doing restorative justice work to heal violence in marginalized communities and rehabilitate oppressed peoples abused by the law, you'll be running a healing session between a rich white kid who shoplifted once on a lark and the nice understanding manager who isn't pressing charges. because those are the people who actually get granted access to the programs, and you have no control over it.
or worse, you'll spend years building connections and trust in a community, and then the cops will demand that you be their catspaw in the area and run Reconciliation meetings on behalf of one of their thugs in uniform who beat some poor kid within an inch of his life. the cops, parole boards, everyone else in the justice system will treat you and your work with utter contempt and take every opportunity to manipulate you into letting them abuse the trust you work so hard to foster.
which isn't to say a person could never do any good, but have no illusions, bastards will try to subvert your work at every turn. the same rule of thumb goes as for anything else touching the prison system: get ready for unreasonable demands and cruel bullshit, and the more you refuse to go along with the bullshit the more you will be denied access to the people you want to actually help.
this completely meshes with my experience getting an RJ reform passed in my city and then watching the nonprofit i was working alongside bring multiple police departments (school, city, and sheriffs because of course the US has school police departments, did you think for a second it wouldnt be that terrible) and DA into program administration. the pilot had many clauses exempting their participation at multiple levels, but that doesnt really stop the sponsor or the city from doing whatever the fuck they want. working on it was a net positive, imo, because atm it keeps about 80 PoC kids a year out of the local machine. but at the same time, the system fought back by adding the cops themselves into the referral process, the city councilor passed a curfew in the area (despite a lower crime rate than certain largely-white neighborhoods) which has dramatically increased 'disproportionate minority contact' (fuck your euphemism DoJ), and schools are volunteering their campuses for processing kids caught in the curfew sweep.
when i moved back and saw all this happening i just couldnt work on similar projects anymore and it broke me emotionally for quite a while tbh
Edited by JohnBeige ()
glomper_stomper posted:what's the deal with marcyism? like what's the deal with it?
i too wonder about this. when i see people reference the whole "global class war" thing, it's often in a derisive or dismissive way
i was just perusing some of the old doccos outlining it. if GCW-theory's whole deal is
• warfare can and generally does have a class character (e.g., his go-to example was the Korean War)
• it should be analyzed in the broader context of geopolitics with this understanding (a point supplemented by the recognition that bourgeois ideology already views it this way)
then that seems pretty... uncontroversial? i feel like i'm missing something, but i admit Marcy's stuff is kind of a slog and i've jumped around a few times. maybe someone who's had more time to digest it can shed some light?
Edited by Constantignoble ()
stegosaurus posted:it doesnt mean anything. it was a way to split from the swp sixty years ago. thats it
agreed... sam marcy was the michael harrington of worker's world.
autopsyturvey posted:I've been doing dsa meetings and book groups for a while and it's ok but I think I'd like to be doing something more marxo and focused. Anyone know any good orgs in Boston
lucy parsons center is a shambles, as you'd expect. Black and Pink rules but usually ends up being more of like a low time-commitment thing, unless you end up connecting with someone on the inside who you can help directly (do this if you can). Jp had some housing orgs, but the best one I knew shut. good luck, either way
glomper_stomper posted:every time i'm in a meeting and someone mentions hegel i tell them to shut the fuck up. if you go into hegel you're just going to waste time that could be spent reading some actual fucking marxists, putting that shit into practice, and testing whether these theories actually hold up in the course of organizing. it's no use trying to process this continental idealist bullshit.
fuck hegel.
not everyone needs to read hegel but it's useful if you can and i can't stand this take really
Edited by graphicalUSSRinterface ()
palafox posted:autopsyturvey posted:I've been doing dsa meetings and book groups for a while and it's ok but I think I'd like to be doing something more marxo and focused. Anyone know any good orgs in Boston
lucy parsons center is a shambles, as you'd expect. Black and Pink rules but usually ends up being more of like a low time-commitment thing, unless you end up connecting with someone on the inside who you can help directly (do this if you can). Jp had some housing orgs, but the best one I knew shut. good luck, either way
Re: Housing Orgs in JP CLVU does good work--they have meetings in Eastie as well.
for real tho you going to that conference theyre bringing other party's members to? v interested, hope the local sends a few
Edited by hobotorium ()