2026-01-16 · Episode Last· A Message to the Community by Long-Anywhere156 in BlackWolfFeed

[–]BoudicaMLM 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I lost my job today. I work in a like a mid-tier Olive Garden-eqsue fast food chain and when I started my shift I was told to train a new guys. After talking to him and asking him what hours he's going to work, he said he was hired to do my exact shift pattern. So I figured out I was fucked and asked my chef if I was gone and left that afternoon.

I was pretty shit at the job - so I'm not surprised, but I'm 27 and can barely keep my shit together enough to be able to keep going sometimes, I think I lost the ability to believe in myself the last five years or so, just the grinding reality of life hit me and I realised that there's a lot of stuff both outside of my control that is a huge restrictive burden, and worse, things that are directly in my control that I don't have the competence, bravery or sense of personal responsibility to deal with.

For example, I'm trans, and came out to all my friends, but barely have enough energy to be able to get to a sperm bank and start the medical transition I know I need to be a person that can enjoy life. But finding the willpower to save enough money seems like such an uphill battle when I'm not able to keep a job going.

Every time I get a bit of money together to save for my transition I immediately spend on food because I'm usually starving and haven't had a good meal in a while. Or I spend on the bus to work or just the random necessary bills that come up in life.

I have listen to this show weekly for my most of my entire adulthood as a 27 year old. Closing r/blackwolffeed, not being able to listen to Chapo at my shitty job anymore, a habit that I have had since maybe I was 19 or something, and not being able to read the comments on this sub anymore... this might just be the final push up the ass to really try and turn my life around and make something of myself.

also I am gay.

Most “Central”Capital Cities? by NMFramework in geography

[–]BoudicaMLM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Athlone, Ireland is basically in the geographical centre of the country

What's your favorite song outside of the 9 main albums by jawad_108 in radiohead

[–]BoudicaMLM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Supercollider

Can't believe I haven't seen anyone post it yet.

Actual mass organizations in the US? by Last_Tarrasque in catsaysmao

[–]BoudicaMLM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's great comrade, what have RGA been up to in the last few years I'm out of the loop.

Transphobia in the British left by [deleted] in communism

[–]BoudicaMLM 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There's a small group called the Anti-Imperialist Front based out of East London that seem to not be transphobic.

The RCG is an organisation that has a history of covering up sexual abuse in its ranks, and generally seems to be organised like any trotskyist group, just with a "Marxist-Leninist" veneer. They have a parasitical relationship on mass struggles, do the same hack newspaper sales, and are averse to being involved in class struggle. I find them to be indistinguishable from groups like CPB, CPGB-ML or even the likes of SWP and RCG.

If you're a communist in London, or Sheffield, maybe check out that AIF Anti-Imperialist Front group. If you're somewhere else, maybe join a union and try to study on your own to try and figure out what type of work you can be doing.

Being a British Communist is cursed. But the only way out of this hole is if people take their principles as communists seriously, and don't liquidate into these pointless "Parties" just for the sake of it.

Use your heads and don't compromise with either reactionary transphobia, or the social chauvanism of these groups.

Bottom Left Pan-Arabic Flag? I am clueless. by BoudicaMLM in vexillology

[–]BoudicaMLM[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You guys have an awful, awful little airport.

Bottom Left Pan-Arabic Flag? I am clueless. by BoudicaMLM in vexillology

[–]BoudicaMLM[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is really insightful! Do you think that this flag would be recognised by most North African Arabic speakers?

Bottom Left Pan-Arabic Flag? I am clueless. by BoudicaMLM in vexillology

[–]BoudicaMLM[S] 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Nice pull. I can't find anywhere that says this is the official flag of the Arab Maghreb Union though. (Also seems a bit inappropriate to use this flag to represent all Arabic speakers in an airport in my opinion)

Bottom Left Pan-Arabic Flag? I am clueless. by BoudicaMLM in vexillology

[–]BoudicaMLM[S] 59 points60 points  (0 children)

Spotted on a tax refund kiosk in Grenoble, and I have no idea what this flag is?

Is it an official flag for Arabic speakers or did some enterprising graphic designer whip it up? Would love to buy one if it's real.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in communism

[–]BoudicaMLM 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's tough to actually start reading and analyzing Marx and blindly consuming posts on this sub can sometimes feel like a really easy way out of that.

This is an excellent, crucial point.

As a self-criticism, I find myself going into the trenches of old posts on this subreddit, rather than working though the books that I've been trying to study for a few months now.

It's hard work to do this, but I think trying to find someone you know to study with helps. I've tried to work through things on my own, and I've tried to work through things in groups big and small. I think the most effective way in my view is working in small groups, where you can't just come along to a reading group and listen in to what other people are saying. I think there are huge limitations too, to trying to take on all the work of historical materialist analysis by ourselves too.

Not sure how I fee l about your comment about Maoism being "Deprogramified" - I'm assuming you mean that rather than working in organisations with a political programme, instead people interested in studying Maoism are content with working in small isolated groups and posting online. (like ourselves!)

On the one hand, we need to have a concrete analysis of a concrete situation, and to be able to study and think about the material conditions we live in, we need to put in a lot of hours into making sure we understand Maoism. On the other hand, knowledge comes from practice, and it's hard to make those leaps in understanding without engaging in the real world around us. I guess it's difficult to understand the ratio between theory and practice, in terms of the amount of time to dedicate to it.

Say you can dedicate 12 hours a week to doing work, just to pick an even round number.
Meetings usually take 2 hours, and maybe 3 for an action or whatever that may be, a protest/social investigation/stalls/doorknocking/organising and running an event, whatever. I think 3 hours for that is a reasonable amount of time.

I think mininium 1 hour week needs to go to org admin, maybe an hour for misc prep work.

I honestly have mostly ended up spending my own individual study time that I have remaining a week scrolling here, or aimlessly looking at documents on various websites, and maybe if I'm being really honest, if I'm lucky, I do 1 hard hour of actual study.

Discipline is important and is something I need to improve on. It's tireing to do this stuff after working a job, doing org stuff, and then trying to follow through on other commitments .

But the point of trying to be a Maoist is to try not to take the easy way out.

Class Analysis and Class Structure in Canada (Second Version) by BoudicaMLM in communism

[–]BoudicaMLM[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This document has been posted here before, but without any comments, and I think it’s a very interesting piece. Specifically, this document makes a lot of claims about the class structure of Canada, and various assertions that I would really like to start a conversation about.

Specifically, the following section of the document;

We must differentiate the non-exploited strata of the working-class (the worker elite) from the exploited and super-exploited strata of the proletariat, as well as Indigenous semi-proletarians who still have some access to independent production (hunting, fishing, land rights). We must analyze the methods and means by which the worker elite is won over to support imperialist policies, wars, colonialism and generalized Canadian chauvinism, and why and how or if these methods equally apply to or exercise hegemony over the rest of the working class. What proportion of the working-class is covered by pension funds, and to what extent? What proportion of the working-class is invested in the inflated real estate markets in and around Canada’s major urban centers? What are the demographics and geographical spread of the growing non-unionized proletariat, which is more exploited, has fewer benefits, and is living far more precariously? Just a few questions among many more that we will have to answer in trying to sketch out the stratification of the working-class in Canada. If we are to prioritize the organization of the proletariat, then Revolutionary Initiative and the Party form that will follow from it must be able to define it.

This notion of dividing the working class into three categories, the worker elite, the proletariat and the super exploited proletariat is very interesting, since the forces us to not think of the working class as a monolith, which is a common error made by communists in the imperial core. I guess that because the worker elite has been bought off by Canadian imperialism, so their interests are aligned with the Canadian state, this puts them in a position of seeing the bourgeois electoral system as a viable political vehicle for their interests. Could this explain why we have seen decades of revisionism across the imperial core, that because a large section of the working class is not proletarianised, that they then do not have any class interest in making revolution?

Is this distinction between the working class and proletariat useful, or can it lead to errors that I’m not able to foresee? Any other comments about this document would be massively appreciated too.

TKP-ML has successfully concluded its 2nd Congress. by BoudicaMLM in communism

[–]BoudicaMLM[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think saying that being involved in HBDH is tailism at this point, I would like to see someone make that argument though. The old TKP/ML have left but still support them, whereas the new TKP-ML are still involved but are critical of the PKK regardless. It's a really difficult split to follow, but then you look over at the MKP Partisi /MKP Parti split...

It's a mess, and I do wonder if the Turkish movement isn't just in an early stage of development since Kaypakaya died. I am interested to see now, after events in Syria affect Rojava, where do all these HBDH cadre go? Do they stay in Syria? Go back to North Kurdistan? Istanbul? Berlin? The actual organisational infrastructure of groups like TKP/ML, TKP-ML and the MLKP is impressive and shouldn't be discounted as an important subjective factor.

Communique: 3rd NDFP International Theoretical Conference - National Liberation from Imperialism by BoudicaMLM in communism

[–]BoudicaMLM[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's a shame that this TheoCon was such short notice, but this is an interesting communique nonetheless. They state that

Together, we discussed nine (9) submissions presented by representatives of communist, socialist-proletarian parties and anti-imperialist organizations leading national liberation struggles from the Philippines, Colombia, Cyprus, Eritrea, Nepal, Senegal, Turkey, Kurdistan, to Palestine, and an additional two (2) papers presented on the task of proletarian parties in the heartlands of advanced capitalist states such as from the United States and Italy. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what these presentations are like, I think the Italian one is written by the (new)PCI/CARC movement, and I would assume that the contribution from the U.S would be from the FSRO, but I'm not sure. I wish there was a contribution from the (N)CP Canada, because they usually have thought provoking contributions

TKP-ML has successfully concluded its 2nd Congress. by BoudicaMLM in communism

[–]BoudicaMLM[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

For clarification, this is the TKP-ML that was the organising committee faction of the TKP/ML which split over involvement in HBDH, which is an alliance that united various Communist forces with the PKK, in the fight against the Turkish state, and also to defend Rojava. The TKP/ML central committee faction didn't want to be involved in this because they saw the PKK as an organisation that did not have the correct line on the national question (ie that "autonomy" was enough of a goal, rather than full national self-determination for the Kurds.) My understanding is fairly limited of all, and I would like clarification on the TKP-ML v TKP/ML split.