Speakers: 📢 Carlos Martinez 📢 Chen Weihua 📢 Qiao Collective 📢 Dan Kovalik 📢 Amanda Yee 📢 Ben Chacko 📢 Sara Flounders 📢 Radhika Desai

Register: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-east-is-still-red-book-launch-tickets-686727700037 Stream: https://youtube.com/live/m8IqgNi3n-g?feature=share

Obviously I'm going to see the movie this week. I know a lot about the subject already, but I thought it would be nice to hype myself with a Marxist perspective of the events in the meantime. I recently listened to an episode of the Socialist Program with Brian Becker on this subject, and I'm hoping y'all can recommend some more content like that to refresh my memory on the topic and keep me grounded in the right state of mind. (I should clarify, I'm ok with documentaries, but I need mostly audio based content because- being a single parent -I am limited to consuming education mostly while I'm at work)

Apparently it is available on Hulu which I happen to have. I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it, but it would be extremely convenient now. So I don’t think for one second that Hulu would host anything which is even remotely praising of Stalin, but I’m wondering if it is at least tolerable for a socialist viewer. Is there any historical accuracy at all? Does humor and entertainment outweigh the ideological position of capitalist Hollywood at all? Will I just get mad if I watch it, or can I enjoy it in the sense that no western media will ever do justice to the history of the USSR and its ok to laugh a little?

This really good (but not explicitly Marxist) environmental org I follow posts about it a lot, sympathizing anti-government protesters and saying the government is really bad. But when I try to research it, mainstream media seems to have really liberal talking points supporting sanctions and regime change, etc. Can anyone help me understand the situation over there from a Marxist point of view? I really like the org in question, but because they don't follow an explicitly Marxist framework they do occasionally fall into liberal mindsets sometimes. But I also know that situations like this can be very complicated and its not as simple as "one side = good, other side = bad"

It is the birthday of comrades Zhou Enlai and Rosa Luxembourg, and the death anniversary of comrades Hugo Chavez and Joseph Stalin.

I am celebrating their lives and accomplishments today! And a hearty Rest in Power to all of them! ¡Viva el comunismo! And may we carry on their revolutionary character today!

So I have been out of work for several years due to being a single parent with no childcare. Now that my daughter is in kindergarten, I have gotten a regular job as a dishwasher at a non-chain restaurant. The 2 owners are also chefs and they work literally right beside me. But there are 27 other employees who are not owners and thus are being exploited. Everyone’s general mindset there is benefitting the company as much as possible. They associate success of the business with the potential for pay raises, promotions, etc.

My mindset is a communist worker working directly alongside the people exploiting everyone else’s labor. It’s important to note the owners in this establishment don’t do nothing at all, they are the head chefs and do a lot of work every day, but I can’t ignore the fact that they tale home the majority of the profits while everyone else is beholden to a standard hourly wage ($12/hr)

My problem is I am very unfamiliar with the restaurant industry and its relation to labor organizing. Are unions a thing in restaurants? Is it more risky to approach labor organizing when the owner is part of that labor? Am I looking at this from an entirely wrong angle?

I’m just not sure what steps, if any, I should consider here. I spend all day listening to Marxist theory through headphones while washing dishes, but I can’t figure out how to approach this situation. Please give me some starting points if you can. It’s also probably relevant to note that I work in a state with Right To Work and At Will Employment laws