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You know you're a socialist when...
April 4, 2009 - 3:56am
First post left blank.
You consider home ownership to be one of the worst decisions a person can make.
... other people try to make you surrender your views. They measure their strength by matching wits with you.
"when someone says to you "you know not all people think like you".
"when someone says to you "you know not all people think like you".
When you're on Karl Marx' facebook.
When you consider facebook to be an "organizing tool"
When you've ever gotten into an argument with a social democrat and called them an "intellectual heir to the murderers of Rosa Luxemburg"
When you can name more than four Trotskyist Internationals
When you hate Gary Doer, third world oriented NGOs, and "the labour bureaucracy" - from the left!
When your coworkers think you're wierd because of the books they've caught you reading at work
When you actually understand why Canada has two Communist Parties and side with one of them
When much of your spare time is taken up by "meetings"
When you have a pile of Canadian Dimension, People's Voice and New Socialist which is over three inches high
When your jacket pockets are stuffed with pamphlets you were handed at the last three rallies
When you call other people "sectarian" and "ultraleftist", because clearly your groupuscule is the one true vanguard
When you actually know what a Maoist is and why you consider them to be crazy
When you belong to a group called Vancouver Socialist Forum.
When "Canadian Bolsheviks" is on your favourite books list.
When you have several friends who are ex-members of the Communist League.
When your explanation of the current economic crisis begins in 1970.
When you prefer the old facebook layout because you think it was more useful as an "organizing tool".
When the mere mention of MAWO makes you cringe.
When you call for splitting from "social-democrats" and focus on building a politico-ideologically independent worker-class movement "merged" with revolutionary "socialist" ideas.
When you already know the answer to the question "Who's Ferdinand Lassalle, August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Jules Guesde, Paul Lafargue, Karl Kautsky, Daniel DeLeon, Clara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg, James Connolly, and Rudolf Hilferding?"
When you're splitting hairs over the applicability of the terms "minimum" and "transitional" in regards to slogans, demands, programs, etc.
Ummmm, Jacob, I think some of that stuff is "you know you're Jacob Richter when"
When you think that the NDP is barely middle-of-the-road, and not truly 'left' at all.
When you read Acts 4:32-35 (about how the first believers held everything in common and everything was distributed so that no one was in need) and ask yourself, "but why didn't they hold the means of production in common?" (In fact, the real RosaL addressed this question.)
When you realize you're "rooting for the wrong side" in a late-night move.
[I think I'll just keep adding to this list!]
Likewise, I don't have a pile of Canadian Dimension, People's Voice, and New Socialist papers, much less those same piles accompanying the book "Canadian Bolsheviks."
When in considering whether or not to date a stunningly good looking socialist, her socialist politics are a bigger factor than her stunningly good looks.
...guess I've never known a socialist.
... when you feel badly for the increasing number of Americans who are sick and going without health care through this financial 9-11.
...when people who believe capitalist market systems can solve the climate change crisis accuse you of being unrealistic.
...when your eyes don't glaze over when someone mentions Karl Marx.
...when it suddenly dawns on you that Rosa Luxemburg was right when she said the choice we face is socialism or barbarism, and you realize that what we've got is barbarism.
When you roll your eyes when people tell you '"look how communisim worked in China and the USSR" and then state that socialism is not communisim and that the communisim practiced in communist countries is not what Marx envisioned.
When you get called a socialist scum for simply stating that socialism for the rich exists in America (and here) and they have no idea what you're talking about.
When you've studied Marx and Engels work extensively.
When you become a member of any socialist movement and people think you're crazy.
You're a socialist when you have been physically assaulted by rightwing scumbags while defending a lonely picket line in the middle of a filthy wet November night after two or three months of same. Actions not words.
No, for that you just need to be a union member.
...but it is how union members get turned into socialists.
If it were that simple I'd go out and beat up a few strikers myself!
Former CUPW President JC Parrot once remarked, in response to a right wing complaint that the Post Office was "full of Communists", that it wasn't that lots of Communists worked for the Post Office but that "the Post Office made them into Communists."
You know you're a socialist when others take to calling you a Communist in order to scare you off what you're doing.
Here are the words to that song that I love to sing at rallies and picket lines.
Faith Petric
When I was just a little thing I used to love parades. With banners, bands, red balloons, and maybe lemonade. When I came home one May Day, my neighbour's father said, "Them marchers is all commies. Tell me kid, are you a Red?" Well I didn't know just what he meant- my hair back then was brown. Our house was plain red brick- like most others in the town. So I went and asked my momma why our neighbour called me red. My mummy took me on her knee and this is what she said, "Well ya ain't done nothing if ya ain't been called a Red. If you marched or agitated, then you're bound to hear it said. So you might as well ignore it or love the word instead. Cuz ya ain't been doing nothing if ya ain't been called a Red." When I was growing up, had my troubles I suppose. When someone took exception to my face or to my clothes. Or tried to cheat me on the job or hit me on the head. When I organized to fight back, why the stinkers called me Red But ya ain't done nothing if ya ain't been called a Red if you marched or agitated, then you're bound to hear it said. So you might as well ignore it or love the word instead. Cuz ya ain't been doing nothing if ya ain't been called a Red. When I was living on my own, one apartment that I had. Had a lousy rotten landlord Let me tell you he was bad. But when he tried to throw me out, I rubbed my hands and said, "You haven't seen a struggle if you haven't fought a Red!" And ya ain't done nothing if ya ain't been called a Red. If you marched or agitated, then you're bound to hear it said. So you might as well ignore it or love the word instead. Cuz ya ain't been doing nothing if ya ain't been called a Red.Listen to it on YouTube
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Joshua Parry
Nicely done, Joshua.
Marx was one crazy Party animal.
"No more replastering, the structure is rotten!" - Paris 1968
When you are disappointed because progress got in the way of process