He can’t even make cars anymore. You can’t make this shit up!

Attention urbanists:

Train harder, so each of us will equal one hundred of our enemies!

It’s really nice to be back

So real.

This is inside baseball kinda stuff but tbh if you want a real deep dive then, in my opinion, Morocco is kinda the key to understanding the SCW; it’s where the forces that Franco would go on to lead were blooded, it’s where Franco himself cut his teeth and rose to prominence, the Rif War was where the Spanish military would deploy tactics that would then go on to be deployed against the Republican forces (and later across Europe in WWII), and it was also pivotal in the sense that Moroccan troops would enlist in the war (regulares) and served as shock troops and relief forces that made Franco’s forces much more numerous and effective.

It was also pivot point for this chapter of history - a Moroccan delegation sought independence under terms that were very favorable to the republic early in the SCW but the republic turned the offer down to maintain their colonial aspirations. If there was Moroccan independence from Spain at this point, it could have led to:

• An earlier wave of decolonization

• A second front in the SCW that Franco would have fought in order to try and maintain the Spanish colony

• Cutting off the supply of regulares to Franco’s forces (both of which would have significantly weakened Franco’s position)

• Potentially even having Moroccan troops supporting the Republican forces, which could have proved deadly since they actually knew what they were doing with war

Any or all of these could have turned the tide of the civil war. But the European radicals opted to cling to colonialism to their own detriment (a tale as old as time). The fate of the colonized and the fate of the colonizer are inextricably linked and it’s such a shame that this wasn’t recognized.

I understand that the Moroccans were vilified in Spain, both for the Umayyad Caliphate and for the more recent history where Moroccan troops were sent in to break miners’ strikes in the region that would later be incorporated into the republic (Alcora or the Asturias, I forget - geography isn’t my strong point) and the Moroccan troops were really brutal in this, but not on account of their skin color or their religion but instead on account of the demands of the then-Spanish government. I wish there was more solidarity amongst the Spanish people to recognize that their enemy wasn’t the Moroccan people.

Anyway, I’m yapping. Here’s a fascinating scholarly article on the role of Morocco in the SCW. If the SCW was the prelude to WWII then the Rif War was the prelude to the prelude.

You can connect this to Stalin’s attempts to appease Britain and France and his advice to the Republic to not accept the overtures for Moroccan independence, since those were the big players and both had a vested interest in maintaining their colonial empires. Then the through line connects Britain and France’s lack of enforcement of the SCW non-intervention pact to Stalin figuring out which side these two would be on with regard to the nascent fascist forces and him recognizing that the USSR was basically going it alone against Hitler soon. This then leads directly to decisions like the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the earlier economic ties between the USSR and Nazi Germany because, imo, it was a strategic and temporary appeasement to buy time as well as a sort of canary in the coalmine to signal when war was coming down the pipeline to the USSR. Michael Jabara Carley is really good for this stuff. He’s written a few books on it including Stalin’s Gambit.

If you want to understand what was influencing the USSR’s perspective and actions in the lead up to WWII then understanding the SCW is foundational. (Personally, I don’t take anyone seriously if they have an opinion about the M-R Pact or similar stuff but they can’t connect it directly to the SCW.)

Right? There would be almost nothing.

Speaking of which, the info on the glassworkers comes from the account of Dolores Ibarruri’s They Shall Not Pass.

I can also recommend International Solidarity with the Spanish Republic (1936-1939) which is quite dry but it’s good especially for a primary source for details on the military aid to the republic.

I absolutely agree with this take.

This is from the first volume of Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War by Robert Alexander. It’s the most comprehensive assessment of the economy of Revolutionary Catalonia in Parts 3 & 4 that I’ve ever encountered.

Alexander is a really interesting one - a Trot and a Lovestonite who worked closely with the US State Department, a lifelong member of the CFR, did a lot of work for the AFL-CIA, was advisor to JFK and helped bring about the Alliance for Progress. But his historical scholarship is good, albeit very anticommunist (surprise!) and he’s naturally very sympathetic towards the anarchists in the SCW given that the Trots and the anarchists were in close alignment there.

Honesty, I’m standing on the shoulders of giants in this.

That excerpt doesn’t capture the half of it imo. For example, there were attempts to nationalize the telecommunications industry in Barcelona. The Generalitat conducted a census of the industry and, although the results were incomplete, there were hundreds of companies operating. Just in Barcelona. (I can’t remember if it was over 300 or over 500, but the details don’t really matter.)

Obviously, especially in war time (and a civil war to boot), such critical infrastructure needs to be secured. This is straight up non-negotiable imo (putting aside the matter of the May Days for brevity here). I might be more sympathetic to other anarchist arguments but in these matters, you simply must seize and nationalize infrastructure and to do that you need a state, there’s just no other way around it.

Also this quote doesn’t even address the issues of military discipline, which was atrocious amongst the Republic forces although Jorjor Well, of all people (lol), happens to discuss this.

There were major issues in the Spanish Republic and I’m loath to pin its failure on one single matter however Catalonia and the surrounding regions that were held by the republic were the most economically productive in Spain, although critically they were almost always characterized by smallhold factories and production by small companies (think petit-bourgeois cobblers or tailors or very small factories that produced things like candles rather than big industrial factories like existed in Britain.) This made it virtually impossible to manage the economy and production well, especially for a revolutionary government, and it was well suited to sabotage and reactionaries doing what they do.

Due to the political ideology of the CNT/FAI they didn’t go nearly as hard on liquidating these smallhold companies and organizing a necessarily ruthless program of nationalization, much to the detriment of the war effort. On top of that you had classic trade union consciousness rearing its ugly head, given the nature of economic organization there, and so you have things like an hours-long debate in the government because the glassworkers’ union was demanding that recycling efforts were ceased so that artificial demand could be induced to keep glassworkers employed.

The government was jammed up for hours because glassworkers wanted to smash bottles and jars to create more work for themselves while the fascist forces were nipping at their heels the whole time. I’m still astounded by this, honestly, and we all know the consequences that poor organizing had on Spain and more broadly for Europe (not to mention WWII and, of course, Morocco.)

If you get me talking about this long enough I end up getting legitimately angry for how this incredibly rare opportunity got pissed up the wall.

I’m trying so hard to remain a polite and respectful guest here and this reply is bringing the absolute worst out in me lmao

If they were an actual lib I wouldn’t be trying to hold it in right now.

The OP in these comments saying that didn’t even know that communism is by definition stateless and yet Cowbee is in here writing full-blown essays on the different understandings of the definition of communism per ideological position, including slippery ones that require a lot of reading such as communization theory, and you’ve got me making references to primary sources on Nestor Makhno’s record and the governmental structure of the Generalitat of Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War (albeit oblique references.)

But sure, it’s those darn MLs are the ones who can’t read.

Edit:
Oh god, they just said that my ~500 word comment is me writing “a book”. Please, that’s 2 minutes of reading at an average reading speed. Don’t say these sorts of things to me - it’s just baiting me into insulting you if you do 😭😭

https://files.catbox.moe/9bqwcr.mp4

I’m still hanging in there. New treatment soon so fingers crossed. It will be a few months until I’m on the other side of it. Will update when there’s something to update on.

Sorry if I’ve missed any messages or pings.

I can share all of the systems that I have developed for the Webfishing server for yourself or @Stigsbandit35z@hexbear.net to use if you are interested.

I’m taking a break from everything due to poor mental health so I’m on light duties and it means my response time is usually at least a couple of days, so set your expectations accordingly.

It’s not that difficult to set up a server in Webfishing for this purpose but I did take a few steps to help with accessibility, like multi-modal ways of understanding the time it was scheduled (because of time zone conversion issues.)

In my experience the demands vary depending on what people need on the day. I’d say that it’s important to have a clear understanding in mind for how you would manage any disruptive or inappropriate behaviour (though I didn’t encounter any at all across the times I’ve run a server) and what you would do to maintain a safer environment (reminding people not to over disclose if they seem to be digging too deep into something that is raw and traumatic [i.e. where you would draw a line and guide them to talking with a support hotline or therapist instead], reminding people about being cautious not to give out too many specific personal details, and how you would respond if someone is in a mental health crisis etc.) This is probably overkill but there is a duty of care that you have when you set up a space like this.

Ensuring that you have the right self-care in place is also important, especially if you are newer to facilitating groups like this. Having your own support network to help you with debriefing and processing stuff is crucial.

Let me know if you’re keen and I’ll provide you with what I’ve got, just remember that it will probably take at least a few days for me to do it.

The big sad as temp-banned me from functioning but I’m still here. No ETA on when I’ll be active again, nothing to worry about, and nothing to do with this site or anything external.

I don’t have the capacity to deal with much more than the basics. Could I ask that you edit your comment to remove my username or to put strike-thru formatting on it so that I don’t become the center of drama that I’m unable to address at present? I’d really appreciate it.

That’s really weird. I’ve checked this in two different browsers on my phone and it works fine but I thought I should quickly check on PC and it is showing an error when I open the link there, but I can download and view the video just fine. I’m a little stumped by this lol.

I wonder if there’s some sort of problem with catbox. I’ve just tried reuploading in a completely different way hopefully that works. E: Seems to be working fine now? Strange.

“Would you say that Brexit was a scam?”

“Yes.”

“And would you agree that it was sold to the British public through propaganda and outright lies?”

“Very much so.”

“Do you take glee at the news at the victims of this mass-scale scam have faced hardship and financial ruin, if not openly wishing death upon them?”

“Of course I do.”

“And would you agree that you are morally superior than these people and that you have their best interests at heart?”

“Undoubtedly.”

It’s shit like this attitude that I just cannot square the circle of. It’s much easier for someone to detect the open scorn and contempt that another person has for them than it is to detect the lies that someone like Nigel Farage feeds them.

That’s not to say that Farage isn’t transparent with his bullshit but when someone genuinely hates you and wishes ill upon you, it’s virtually impossible not to take notice of it. I’m not saying that reactionary and bigoted beliefs aren’t contemptible or that they should go unchallenged but, generally speaking, treating people with contempt is one great big own-goal imo because you aren’t gonna get far educating and agitating amongst people who you consider to be human garbage.

I once found a really niche, deep-youtube channel of a person who was a consumer-animatronic enthusiast who collected and refurbished mostly Big Mouth Billy Bass.

At first I thought it was satire but the person genuinely knew their different editions with different features and would collect and refurbish them. They seemed to be part of a small community of animatronic enthusiasts and it was like peering into another world. I thought it was neat and it was really nice to see that they had found their people and what brought them joy in life.

[Sung to a thrumming new wave baseline]

🎵When a problem comes along, you must Beanis!
When there’s something goin’ wrong, you must Beanis!

I say Beanis
Beanis good🎵

Oh hell yeah, is this getting discussed in the mainstream more?

AMAB/AFAB seem like they have just become stand-in terms to conceal bioessentialism by using progressive-sounding words. I tend to use them only in a pinch and I’ve made efforts to be very intentional about saying “was” and not “is”, as this subtle distinction makes a big difference if I’m going to resort to using those terms at all since your assignment at birth is not who you are but rather it’s something that happened to you. Even then it’s something I generally only use for shorthand to refer to socialisation and mostly only in referring to myself. E.g.:

“I was AMAB and so I’m still trying to figure out whether I’m genuinely NB/agender spec or if there’s some really super deep internalised misogyny that I’m completely oblivious to lurking in my psyche which is there because of how I was raised.”

I think one of the things that works is finding users who you particularly enjoy having exchanges with, often the ones who you find sharing an overlap in interests with and who spends time in the same comms and who seems to enjoy replying to you (especially if the comment exchange goes for more than one or two replies).

The next step is usually connecting with them via DM or exchanging socials. Usually this is easier if you have a purpose for contacting them rather than trying to strike up a discussion from nowhere.

There is the visual cuisine which happens once a week, I think, and is announced in masterposts like this upcoming one. There’s a chatroom in there which you can use to engage with others. There are other events like a peer support space that I try to run at least every week or so via the game Webfishing, although that might not necessarily suit your interests.

I’ve seen comrade CorgiWithALaptop invite people to impromptu viewing sessions via the visual cuisine cytube space but idk how that works exactly, but I think they set a good example of how to invite people to hang out.

I think this stuff is kinda hard to navigate as someone who is autistic because understanding the nuances of the whole thing can be kinda tricky, speaking from personal experience. Not to say that you should self-segregate but you might find it easier to try a comm which could be more accommodating such as the neurodiverse comm or to ask the mods there if they would consider helping you set something up via that comm if you feel like you would benefit from getting some assistance with connecting with other users or organising a group activity like a watch party via cytube, for example.

When it comes to content warnings I try to be specific about the content and to give a estimation of how in depth the content is because I think it’s helpful for people to make an informed decision. I also try to remember to bold my content warnings and to put them on a separate line, often I will put them halfway into a comment right before the CW content appears as that way a person can still read part of a response while choosing to skip over a detailed example that may be triggering.

I’m going to give some examples of what I think are better and worse content warnings to illustrate my point in quoted comments:

CW: violence
I disagree with your point because sometimes violence is necessary to defend yourself from harm. For example, take a child who fights back against their abuser…

So in this one the CW isn’t as visually distinct so it’s easier to skip over if you’re skimming and it also excludes a person from reading a response before the potentially triggering content. Also “violence” isn’t really descriptive - is it shouting? Is it a gunshot? Is it something really gruelling like you’d expect from a gory horror movie? This makes informed consent much trickier and it unintentionally excludes people.

Another example:

I don’t agree with the absolute pacifist position like you’ve described. I think that justice is something that needs to be defended, with violence if necessary [note here that just mentioning violence in the abstract isn’t a problem imo because what are you going to do - say CW: violence before you mention the concept of violence?]. As MLK put it, the absence of the absence of tension vs. a positive peace, which requires the presence of justice, is an important distinction to make.

[CW: Brief discussion of child abuse and neglect in the abstract]

For example, only the most rabidly dogmatic pacifist would denounce a victim of child abuse for resorting to an act of violence to defend themselves unless it was wildly incommensurate with the threat or perceived threat that they were defending themselves against. Maybe they would take a different position for a child that is being subjected to serious neglect like a child who is being denied meals but I’m uncertain tbh.

In this example, if a person decides to skip the comment because of the content warning they can still participate in the discussion to a large extent, even if they opt out of the last part so it’s less exclusionary by its structure.

The content warning is also visually distinct and it’s descriptive - it provides a good example of what to expect in the next part and who the language will be addressing. If it wasn’t an abstract discussion I might say something like “Detailed personal experience of psychological abuse as a child who went through it” or “Description of fictional animal abuse in a film” because these can be very different experiences for someone to read about and they can have very different impacts.

When it comes to really intense stuff often I’ll just put a CW at the top saying something like “Really in-depth discussions of transphobia, SH, suicide - if this stuff can be too much for you just skip the comment because you won’t get anything out positive of reading this comment.” such as in a case where maybe I’m really getting into the weeds and educating someone on a topic and encouraging them to shift their opinions. Or I might say “Blanket CW for very detail discussion of most/all forms of child abuse” rather than attempting to make a laundry list of each type of abuse. That sort of thing.

Anyway I’m not saying that this is how everyone must do their CWs but I feel like this is a good way to go about doing better, more helpful CWs.