askchapo

As someone who’s been tabling for an org I’m in I find it hard to not get discouraged by apathetic libs and chuds who I talk to. Just today I had some old guy to tell me to move to Russia or Cuba and call me a communist piece of shit. It’s probably due to already having anxiety and other issues, but stuff like that can get demoralizing. So how to y’all push through that?

1. How "planned" was the economy? What are some examples that demonstrate its "plannedness" compared to current states like China?

2. Why did it fail?

3. How good was the standard of living?

I don't watch HBO or whatever it's hosted on and seems to hate it, and I'm barely online enough to understand half of what they spew into the air

Someone made a photo of Justin Trudeau in blackface superimposed over the tanks at Tiananmen Square. Given his position on the ICJ case, I need this urgently for twitter purposes, and I imagine someone on here has it. I swear I do but can’t find it in my photos

Love u

I keep seeing all these game ads and noticing I don't know them, but they're often about fake games pretending they'ren't fake games or obvious "collectable pay-to-win" games but the streamer is screaming about random stuff while post-production effects are happening.

And to an extension "we; ours"

/s

They don't look like hog to me

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3299031

For example, I would like whether countries like China, India are self-sufficient when it comes foods. For example, if some country produces the wheat it if not, how much is imported and other stuff like that.

Mine is purple. Specifically lavender or lilac, depending on how I'm feeling at the time.

Fuck phones. What overpriced POS should i get as replacement?

Motor on my automatic windows seems to have broken, and now my window is stuck open a bit. Tiny bit but still an issue. Anyone got any tips for fixing it? Even if it's just getting it back fully closed.

Also it's an older Honda CRV.

So far Ive been recommended 10 days that shook the world, ilan pape, david graeber, and walter rodney.

I did a theory thread so i might as well do this too.

The boomers running it are so bad they may as well be actively sabotaging themselves and I can't take it any more

Any advice?

Nitter

We know they like to stick flags on everything. We've maybe all seen the Kelly cartoon where some guy complains that their neighbors only put up their flags for the fourth of July. But do they really notice if you don't have a flag on your house or your car? Also, what's the deal with reactionaries randomly removing their flags? A guy I know whose father or grandfather was probably in the klan took his flag down a month or two ago and I have no idea why. "Hunter Biden has tarnished our glorious nation's reputation" or something is probably the reason. I have another neighbor whose shitty wooden flagpole has lacked a flag since Biden won the election.

I've heard they put Blue Lives Matter stickers on their cars to get the police to leave them alone. But if you put a gun sticker on your car, will the police actually leave you alone, or think twice about pulling you over, or just blow you away because you were driving 5 MPH over the speed limit?

Bonus: I have a neighbor who has been flying a full-sized Ukrainian flag upside-down since February 2022.

I also once saw someone with a tiny house like sort of tucked behind everyone else's, but he managed to put a flagpole in his yard and get like, an American flag, an Israeli flag, and a Blue Lives Matter flag all on that pole. Very impressive

Note - I couldn’t find anything on the “United Federation of Workers of Venezuela” (maybe because it’s a wrong translation?) but here’s some background I’ve managed on find on the author. Pedro Eusse, per this article is a member of the PCV (Communist Part of Venezuela). At the bottom of the OG article, it says the original (untranslated) was in Tribuna Popular, which is the press of the PCV. So that’s additional proof. The PCV supported Chavez throughout and Maduro originally, but stopped in 2020 because of difference in economic policies. Since then it seems the rift has widened.

Per the article (no idea what’s true and what’s not, I’ve edited it to make the points more organized for me and remove the more charged/emotional language) -

In 2023, the government consolidated the policy of labour deregulation initiated in 2018.

It has “destroyed” the minimum wage. November 2023’s annualized inflation was 359%, double that of November 2022. But the national minimum wage has been frozen for 18 months at 130 Bs, less than $4/month, making “the Venezuelan labour force the most devalued in the world.”

93% of the minimum income is based on bonuses rather than actual wages. The majority of workers and families have to survive on these bonuses and food bags. The majority are forced to perform numerous formal and informal jobs to subsist. The result is deteriorating health, and more time away from family care and the fulfillment of social, cultural and organizational activities.

The government has worked to prevent the eventual workers’ and popular protests in the face of the social catastrophe due to its neoliberal policies, by violating - freedom of association, the right to strike, workplace health and safety regulations which cause fatal work accidents.

The National Budget Law of 2024 prioritises capital and the current government with an unequal distribution of national income. There are no budgetary provisions to establish decent salaries and pensions, but only to continue granting bonuses – obviously with no impact on social benefits, vacations, profits, Christmas bonuses and other legal and contractual indemnities.

The government has dismantled of collective bargaining agreements, via the criminalization of workers’ struggles, open layoffs and sham dismissals. All of it occurs with official acceptance (especially against militant union leaders and safety representatives), employer and government coercion to subdue the individual and collective will of the workers, and the use of judicial power to legitimize abusive and anti-democratic political decisions.

2023 began with months of massive protests by teachers and other primary and basic education workers – demanding, unsuccessfully, the signing of the teachers’ collective bargaining agreement – and is concluding with some scattered labour protests demanding the full payment of year-end bonuses from public employers.

2024 will also see labour protests, considering the serious deterioration of the subsistence-level material conditions of those who depend on a salary or a pension.

We have to broaden struggle of the working class and put aside everything that dismantles unions, the retirees and pensioners associations. In 2024, the efforts of the government and the right-wing opposition to manipulate working people and their organizations will be intensified. Thus we must strengthen the independence and autonomy of the labour forces that fight to recover our human, social and labour rights and to defeat policies that only serve capital and that debase the working class.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident

I’m open to the possibility that there’s still something being kept secret here, but the fact that internet Nazis like to bring this up in their redpill memes so frequently is disconcerting.

Dear people on this website, I'm strongly considering going on a trip to Cuba soon alone. I'm a decent Spanish speaker and an American, wondering if anyone has any good tips or advice for the trip. I know I want to see that ice cream shop that fidel was obsessed with.

Thanks in advance!

Heya folks. I want to attend protests, but they are going to happen fairly far from where I live: to the point where it might be harder for me to navigate without access to my phone. I saw a post today that there are Faraday bags you can get to stick your phone in, which will prevent cops from picking up my cell data. Do you all have any recs or experience with these?

Edit: Thank you all for the recommendations!

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3264448

Lenin in Imperialism talks about the emergence of finance capital as the major driver of imperial conquests. These days we have seen trends of "financialisation" of western economies coupled with deindustrialisation.

I guess what confuses me is why this trend towards financialisation a thing where you cede real material industrial power in favour of large banks.

If you know any books or blogs/websites that cover this, please recommend them.

I'm asking so that I have ammo against Zionists when they say things like "Palestine never existed" and "Palestinian identity/culture didn't exist until after Israel was founded".

I've tried doing some basic internet searches for things like "Palestinian art", "Palestinian art history", and "Ottoman Palestine artwork" but unfortunately the results are largely focused on Palestinian art from 1948 to present. Some of the results go back a bit further to like 1850, but I'd be interested to see some examples of Palestinian cultural production from the 1500s, 1600s & 1700s. Can anyone help me out?

There's a bunch of different sites claiming to be Hirwabi. Does anyone know what the authentic one is? I got an e-mail saying it's www.hirwabi.ps

Does that check out? Anyone know?

I had gen 1 bionicles, 90s transformers toys that actually mother fukin transformed PROPERLY was the absolute GOAT and when I'd transform them I'd go eee e oo ee a ooo ee. And a manta force spaceship.

The spaceship was on another level. It had MINI SHIPS AND VEHICLES INSIDE. And little people to sit in the seats and man the systems. And it was so rugged you could pass it down generations.