this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2026
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France is like that because they are socialimperialist fucks
the us empire is bigger but we don't have that because we can't even be fucked to have a parade on a weekday. of course, that's after decades of "left-wing" organizations and "communist" parties taking the imperialists' bribes at every turn.
There's a lot more going on.
Maybe there's a cultural difference, or maybe I'm just projecting here, but there's a great feeling of shame that comes with losing your job and especially with being unemployed for more than a few months in the states. It doesn't matter what the material conditions are: you're seen as a loser and a failure if you can't immediately land another role somewhere, and then it gets worse because employers actively disqualify people with employment gaps. Getting fired is almost a death sentence here.
I also don't see enough of a safety net to take the risk. Sure, I could probably sleep on a couch for a while but again, our culture pushes even my family to go "who don't you have a job yet?" during those times.
Then there's the lack of numbers. Part of why the French protests seems to be working is so many people on the streets. That makes it easier being comfortable stepping out of line. Classic peer pressure. Here if I try to crash a Republican meeting or do something on my own... I'm on my own.
Lastly, IDK what the working hours are like in France. I know here 40 hours is more like 44-50 hours depending on commutes, unpaid overtime via the salary trick, and then chores and cleaning takes up a lot of the other time. People are tired.
Yes, others had it worse and did more. I'm not denying that there's some laziness or comfort involved in keeping Americans from doing this. I just don't want to boil it down to any one thing.
in my field, being unemployed is quite common. i don't know what to say about this other than you're gonna have to get over it. i wish there were something better but how are you gonna do revolution if you're emotionally dependent on bourgeois approval?
ultimately, the rest of the comment boils down to this. it is a failure of the left in this country that our organizations suck shit. that's what i was getting at in my last comment. but even so, the first step for any communist or even any labor aristocrat social-fascist union is to get organized. there's nothing you can do by yourself, no matter how many republicans you troll. but there are huge masses in every corner of capitalism, no matter how small, whose lives will improve if they get organized. the hard part is learning how to do it.
Comrade, I appreciate the feedback and will say upfront we're going to have to agree to disagree.
I admit having a chuckle when I followed that link and saw it go to a guide on running a study group. I've posted here a few times how the theory just isn't working for me for several reasons. I really don't believe telling someone who is looking at France and going "I want to do that here" to read some dense theory for a year before doing anything...
I am part of an org and am gonna try to keep this vague, but we have done:
My post was more about the more "extreme" stuff. The stuff we can't really talk about online for obvious reasons. I'd love to see some shit pop off but that post explained why I am not doing that and I'm not blaming people around me for doing the same. France makes sense because the people in the streets are literally high school students and younger folks. They have less to lose! I have a family and getting thrown in jail would ruin my life. I don't see being able to recover from that, so sidelines and mutual aid for me.
i think calling it a "study group" is a mischaracterization. action without direction is just flailing around, so your party needs to have the requisite base of knowledge before it can possibly create lasting wins. it would be like getting behind the wheel before you ever read the driver's handbook. how can you "do that here" without knowing how they did that there, whatever that may be?
i'm not saying that you have to go out and smash windows, nor am i saying that you need to get 10 of your friends and go around smashing windows. actually, part of the reason to read these books is to be able to be effective without going to jail. as the united states slides further into fascism, that's going to be increasingly important.
especially in a time and place where all or most of the left wing has been co-opted or crushed, the first thing we need to do is learn from our mistakes. communism in the us has historically been a failure, and it's the historic responsibility of the communists to right that wrong.
Technically it is both. French workers won these concessions through clas struggle but the concessions were only possible through imperialism. The US worker class COULD have won these concessions through struggle but haven't.
Actually they won many of those during the FDR era. But disorganization and persecution of socialists and communists, together with the constant pressure of capital to increase their profit margins resulted in the US we have today.
Yeah honestly this; they're imperialist (nationalist?) socialist; as long as they benefit from the imperialism they're fine with it.