Work and Alienation

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

The details of Craig Carlos-Valentino’s work should not be seen as a minor detail in the story of his life, of which the event that occurred in the Bay Bridge the morning of November 11 can be seen as the most logical outcome of such a form of existence. It seems as if everyone, everywhere, is simultaneously feeling the devastating effects of wage-labor on every aspect of what little lives we have left after coming home from work and the enveloping feeling that there is no other possible way of life than the one we are currently forced into, which is the closest one can get to what it would feel like to fall from the top of a very large cliff or sky-scraper. Only, the fall lasts for several decades and the equivalent of hitting the ground at the end is ending up on a changing table at a retirement home, on the streets, or another decade of an existence that is filled with a feeling of uselessness.

The rupture that occurred in this man’s life, and ultimately in the lives of every person trying to cross the Bay Bridge that morning, is not an isolated event and it did not occur in a vacuum. There are very real, very concrete reasons why these sorts of things happen, and why they always involve people who are forced to sell their bodies and their time in order to survive. We will be blunt: the reason why this happens is because work, being the institution in which we sell our creative labor power, alienates us from ourselves and from those around us. When we do not have control over the ways our labor is realized and we do not own the realized objects of our labor, or when our time is wasted not producing anything but merely transferring things and money from one group of people to another, we lose our feeling of connection to our own lives and to each other. When a man’s entire life is devoted to selling his time, is it any small wonder that he will begin to have issues in his household? Is it even surprising that this same person may come to the realization that, on top of his family collapsing around him, his whole life essentially has no meaning, that he has had zero creative control over the way his life has played out?

Craig’s life is an extreme of what kind of existence capital forces working people into. And is something that many of us can look forward to as the economy goes through yet another cycle of crisis, and working people are forced to take up more than one job just to get by. Craig spent a bigger chunk of his week working in the City and sleeping in his car because his family and home were too far away for him to commute each day. The days he was in his hometown of Antioch he also spent working. In this way we see the contradiction capital forces us into everyday: we work in order to take care of our families and the people we love, but at the same time, because we are working, we have little to no real human interaction with these people that mean so much to us. What’s important to remember here is that it is not just a few individuals here and there that are forced into these conditions, but it is endemic of the world we live in.

What is most interesting is how this particular event played out – namely the place that it happened and the effects of it. Often times, this sort of working class reaction to capital is nothing more than individualized acts of anti-social violence. The shooting up of a post office or a school, the robbing of a corner store or bank by a desperate worker pushed to her limits, the suicide-homocide combo in which a broken worker takes the lives of his family as well as his because to die is better than to live in this world. While we may sympathize with the people that end up snapping under the stress of an existence that is without life, nothing positive can come out of these things. In fact, this sort of violence is symptomatic of the ever-increasing isolation masqueraded as individualism. When we feel so utterly alone as to have to live with the gnawing feeling in the back of your head that there is something missing in the relationships we have with those we are “closest” to, then perhaps the only way to cry out for help is to physically disrupt the lives of those around us. This is indicative of the present state of the working class, which would be better described as a mass of disconnected individuals going to work during the day and preparing for work in the evening. What separates Craig from the normal explosions of anti-social violence is that it took place during the commute hour on a major road way. We do not know if this was an conscious choice of his, but his instability ultimately led to a stoppage of the flow of commodities – workers and things – which, if undertaken in a collective manner, could lead to possibilities of a better world.

The only way for us as working people to truly enjoy our lives and to truly relate to each other as human beings is a complete destruction of the current form of production, and the creation of a world in which we have control over our labor and the outcomes of our labor. Ultimately, a world in which we work with each for each other – not for someone that we have no connection with and is not involved in the actual labor itself. What we are calling for is communism. Not the communism of our history books that is marred with the image of militarism and the fetishism of production under the tyrannical rule of the Party. This is not our communism and has nothing to do with a human community. We must overcome the desire to denounce people such as Craig, and we must find ways to use our collective rage in a way that will better the lives of working people everywhere at the expense of the ruling class.

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Justice for Oscar Grant?

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Let’s face it, the idea of “justice” for Oscar Grant isn’t what we need. It sounds good as a slogan for an easily co-opted movement, but it ignores several important factors when looking at the murder of Oscar Grant at the hands of Mehserle and when looking at the entire system of police.

The movement so far, and the responses at several points in the history of the movement, show exactly what “justice” means for the movement. That is, a “proper” trial within the judicial system. Obviously, this does not do anything for Oscar Grant or his family in any real way. It does create a sense of fulfillment, I’m sure, for his family and friends, but it stops there. A longer sentencing for Mehserle will put one murderous cop behind bars, but it will not bring back Oscar Grant, nor will it raise Oscar Grant’s son, or fill the void that is left within that family. Just as importantly, this only serves to recreate the system of police and prisons and judges and jails that murdered Oscar Grant and so many others. It only serves to recreate the same system that continually destroys families and lives and keeps the ruling class in control.

In a broader sense, the slogan “Justice for Oscar Grant” ignores the fact that this is so much bigger than just one dead person and a murderous cop. It is so much bigger than just police brutality. The entire system is the problem. And you can’t bring the system to trial. A society that is based around the accumulation of capital and private property requires police. And a society that is based around these things is going to create the antagonisms within itself that lead crime and murderous cops. It is impossible to talk about ending police brutality without also talking about ending the existence of a police force and the existence of class society. The police exist to ensure that we stay poor and keep going to work. That is why they deport those without papers, evict those that default on their house payments, and arrest us for taking food without paying for it.

The call for justice in any situation in which poor and working people are under attack only removes any semblance of struggle from the realm of everyday life. It creates a spectacle where we remain the passive machines of production, while the proper agents go through certain motions to create a false sense of accomplishment, and the system remains unchallenged. The call for “justice” is exactly what the ruling class and the managers of struggle (the Left) want and need. If we see the problem of police brutality to just be a problem of a couple of bad apples instead of a whole rotten tree, we will continue to see bodies pile up in our communities. As long as we allow the logic of capital to dictate our struggles we will never break free from this society, and more people will fall at the hands of those that claim to serve and protect us.

Vengeance for Oscar Grant!
Vengeance for James Rivera!

RAAN Nation

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Conflict in Turlock

Monday, June 28th, 2010
Another first draft/ideas
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We live in a society that is primarily divided by class. This was made very apparent on June 25th when Sarah Palin spoke at CSUS. The audience was composed of those who can afford to drop 500 dollars to hear some bullshit (the ruling class). The organization responsible for getting Palin to speak is private, although it consists of members of the CSUS administration. Palin recieves around 100,000 dollars per speaking event, and for this particular event, the money came directly from the university. This is a ridiculous misuse of money during any state of the economy, and given the crisis we are currently facing, it really makes you question the motives and sanity of the administration.

The protest that was organized by students of CSUS, teachers, and community members was met by a heavy police force, security guards, and fencing that was reminiscent of G20 summit security. All of this, of course, was paid for by the school and state. The composition of the protest itself was extremely interesting. Of course, there were the typical sign-waving liberals present, with slogans that were apologetic to anti-worker ideas (“Whos country? Our country”). And of course the scum bags in Socialist Organizer were there, too, despite the fact that they seem to be pushed more and more to irrelevance. However, most of the people there were just regular, broke-as-fuck students/teachers/workers. These people did not bring their politics. They didn’t give a shit about the Democrats, and I only heard one instance of someone talking about reforming the administration. No, the only thing these people brought was venom for the system. Pure rage at the fact that a bunch of rich assholes were wasting their money to hear some stupid douche bag talk. It’s interesting to note that while people were open to yelling “Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay – Sarah Palin Go Away,” they were just as open, if not more-so, to yell “Eat the Rich!” I don’t think this says anything about the intelligence of working people; it really just shows how alien these conflicts are to people in the Central Valley. That a group of 20 regular people were super down to yell “fuck you” and “eat a fucking knife, you scum” at rich people as they parked their fancy SUV’s speaks volumes about the nature of this protest.

The Central Valley is not, however, a bastion of militant workers. There were people present that have an interest in the continuation of a society stratified by class, and there were people there who, regardless of their intentions, helped strengthen the state. The first group of people was the Tea Party Patriots, an extremely silly, but extremely reactionary, group of people whos entire political agenda consists of knee-jerk reactions and a Red-Scare-like obsession with communists. It was extremely enraging to see obviously broke people screaming, rather uncreatively, “Palin Yes!” alongside people who had probably never had to really worry about putting food on the table or not having medical insurance. In fact, the Tea Party is composed primarily of people who don’t actually have to worry about having their jobs “taken” by illegal immigrants (although jobs aren’t taken by “illegals” – they are given away by the bosses who are only looking to turn a profit, not that the sloganeering of the Tea Party and the Right that jobs are being taken is even true on a large scale) or those who almost viciously oppose single-payer healthcare because they have no idea what it’s like to have a family but have no way of insuring their health. These people showed up to counter-protest those that were pissed off at having to see their tax dollars wasted on Sarah Palin. Ironic that people who hate taxes so much would support such a thing. The only thing they accomplished was coming off as total dickheads. The second group of people mentioned are the sort of people who want to direct any resemblence of a movement for their own interests or because they feel they know what’s best. These people, like Socialist Organizer and union reps, only strengthen capital and the state by trying to head off any attempt at effectively resisting. Socialist Organizer were the first to try to tell people to get out of the street when people tried to block cars from entering the campus. Even if these people have good intentions, they are enemies of working people.

What needs to be taken into account here is that this is just another example of how the interests of the administration are in direct conflict with the students and working people. Even if there were a more liberal administration, events like this would still happen at the expence of working people, although they might try to dress it up a little nicer. The education system directly mirrors the sort of society we live in. There are those at the top who are going to make a shit ton of money off of us at the bottom. School administrators, workplace bosses, whatever you want to call them, they are the same people.

We should also look at the police, and what they were doing, which is… their jobs. The notion that police are out on the streets fighting crime and keeping us safe is a farce. The fact of the matter is, crime still happens and is growing, despite the increasing prison population in America. The true role of the police is to protect the social relations that keep us working people as slaves. How much tax dollars were spent on the increased police presence at CSUS on the 25th? Why were there Highway Patrolmen present? Why were people who are justifiably angry subject to intimidation and the threat of arrest for stepping foot on the campus (the same campus, need I remind you, that is paid for almost entirely by working class tax dollars)? The idea that cops are our friends, especially at events like the 25th is a lie.

This protest was a beautiful example of working people acting in their collective class interest. It’s really simple: when something that happens, no matter what it is, that effects our material conditions in a negative way, then there needs to be an immediate response. How much sense would it have made to organize a day of action several weeks down the road, as have happened with the state-wide education crisis? Instead of waiting, people took to the streets when the shit went down.


One last final note, so that our “comrades” in Socialist Organizer and in the unions can’t try to pin anything on us. When people got in the streets and tried to obstruct the flow of traffic and police trying to put up fences, they were at first told by people like Socialist Organizer to stay off the streets. They may try to say that they were only looking out for other people, and that we hooligans are only trying to get people arrested. Neither of this is true. We recognize two things here. First, that if people are truly interested in disrupting things, then standing on the corner yelling boring chants and waving signs isn’t going to accomplish shit. The ruling class does not listen to us when it’s not in their interests to do so. It is time we start acting in our interests. Second, we see the people that come out to these protests as intelligent and mature humans. None of us need the paternalistic behavior of movement cops.

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This is a rough draft…

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

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A Continued Discourse on Crews: All Friendships are Political

I intend this to build upon what Nachie wrote in Emotional Poverty on crews and their use for (anti)political organizing and activity. The crew/street gang structure has shown to be extremely effective, and is definitely something that anarchists and anti-state communists should be using. But there are social implications of gangs and crews, and of friendships, that need to be taken into account. I plan on discussing these as I have experienced them. Other people may have different views and/or experiences, and I encourage them to share these, as the discourse on organization and tactics is always on going and especially crucial.

I have shared this idea with a few close friends, and they thought it was an extremely important subject to cover. One of the things we all agreed was important was to explain what a crew is, and how it is different from an affinity group as used for political actions. This is a fairly common misconception. One important difference is that crews are permanent organizations; while the latter are not and generally only exist for the sake of one or a series of connected actions. Crews also exist on the street, rather than in an abstract political world. I think this is an aspect that really turns certain people off and away from crews. They are essentially street gangs, and exist by creating a presence within an area. In other words, the existence of a crew is entirely dependant upon some sort of action, be it the distribution of propaganda with a name on it or graffiti on a wall.

What is important about anarchist and communist crews is that they are not comprised of activists, nor do they function as activist organizations. In this aspect, they most clearly set themselves apart from affinity groups and other similar organizations. Activism is a mode of behavior that seeks to create some sort of change through avenues that legitimize the powers that be, whether on purpose or not. Crews do not exist to speak to power at all, but instead are the means and the ends of self-organization. Through the bonds we create with our friends and comrades in our crews, we can begin to lay the foundation for communism now.

“I will always stand beside you, we’ll always defend you, in any situation you’re put in” – Black My Heart

I once read somewhere, on some stupid leftist site, that loyalty within organizations is a characteristic of fascism. This is wonderfully indicative of the militant activist mindset, and shows the difference between truly proletarian organizations based upon shared conditions, and the organizations based upon empty ideology and political identity. Loyalty is the very basis of friendship, and therefore of communism. Without some sense of loyalty to our neighborhoods and our comrades and our friends, we are left with hollow relationships that don’t mean anything; relationships that are completely unable to pose a threat to the current order of things. To denounce loyalty, is to denounce everything that is positive in this world, and everything that has potential to attack capital.

What I mean when I say that friendship is the basis of communism is that the way real friends treat each other and the way groups of friends operate is probably the best look at communism that we have in this world. There is sort of an unspoken and un-articulated mutual aid between friends. You help your buddy out, whether she needs money or food or a place to stay or someone is trying to hurt her. You do this because you know they would do the same for you, and because we protect the ones we love. There have been countless times when a couple of my friends and I pooled our food stamps in order to make sure we all had something to eat for that night. When we are sitting around bullshitting and laughing, or out drinking and skating and writing graffiti all night, we are living communism.

There is something potentially explosive in the phrase “I have your back.” It is not so much a line in the sand, as it is a fissure in cement. On one side there are the people that have your back, and on the other there are the people that don’t. It is an extremely violent attack on the way capital intends our relationships to be composed. From day one, we are pounded from all sides to think along the lines of “I.” What can I get out of this? What am I going to do? How can I play my part in the destruction of capital? To tell someone you have their back immediately turns that “I” into “we.” And we are so much more powerful than I could ever be. In that sense, friendship is indeed very political. On a very basic level, more basic than solidarity, the creation of a bond between two people negates capital’s farce of individualism. It fundamentally changes the way people see the world, and challenges that we all face. Without having each other’s backs, without love and loyalty to each other, we are left in a position of being unable to create collective power. On the most basic level, to say “we are friends” is to form a commune.

“I hear your words, where are your actions?!” – Signs of Hope

There is a trend that I’ve noticed inside and outside of the revolutionary movement that fetishizes friendship. People are quick to call someone a friend, or quick to want to be in a crew without once stopping to think of what any of this means. Perhaps this is a symptom of the alienation that is created through sites such as facebook and myspace, or maybe it’s Capital beginning to recuperate something that can literally bring it crumbling to the ground. Maybe it’s both.

The only way the façade that is becoming known as friendship can be broken down and replaced with real bonds is to move beyond the language of friendship and crews. Language alone creates posturing. We need to act like friends, and work like crews. There needs to be a move beyond telling a friend “I have your back” and actually showing them you are always going to be right there with them, no matter what life or capital throws at them.

I think the logic of loyalty and camaraderie already exists in a lot of poor and working class communities. When I was younger and growing up in low-income housing, it was common for my mom to send me to the neighbors to get a cup of sugar or some eggs, and vice versa. But when I got older and we moved into a nicer neighborhood, there was far less interaction between neighbors, and each block of property felt like separate islands. It is honestly the smallest actions that give me the most hope for a communist future. I can’t even begin to count the times that my friends have been there for me financially or emotionally, or me for them, without any question of whether one of us was going to be paid back. We act this way not just because we recognize it is in our self-interest, but, most importantly, because we want to see ourselves and our friends flourish and live life to its fullest.

In a lot of ways I am disconcerted that I feel like I have to write this. I think it says a lot about a society where the ideas of loyalty and love are so empty and tossed around that actual friendship is hard to come by. I hope that this can be the beginning of a movement wide discussion on the way we treat each other, and the potential for friendships to be the basis of a strong communist force.

All Power to the Communes!
RAAN Nation

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