“Yeah Capitalism Is Bad…But What Can We Do?”
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the speaker expresses gratitude to new patrons supporting their grassroots-funded operation and discusses the importance of organization in effecting change. Drawing from Lenin's 'What Is to Be Done?', the speaker emphasizes the need for collective action through socialist organizations, labor unions, and political education. They argue for the necessity of agitation, propaganda, and exposure to raise political consciousness and mobilize the working class against capitalism. The speaker also addresses the pitfalls of relying on spontaneous movements and encourages viewers to join socialist organizations to contribute to a brighter future.
Takeaways
- 🙌 The speaker expresses gratitude to new patrons for their support, which has been crucial for the channel's survival.
- 🌱 The channel aims to become fully viewer-funded, reducing reliance on sponsors, and the community on Discord is seen as wholesome and engaging.
- 📚 The video discusses the common question of how individuals can effect change, particularly within a capitalist system.
- 🔄 The speaker references Lenin's 'What is to be done?', suggesting that many questions about activism have been addressed historically.
- 🤝 The need for organization is emphasized as a constant across history and geography for effecting change.
- 🏭 Labor unions are highlighted as an example of collective power that can improve worker conditions within capitalism.
- 🌐 The importance of political education alongside economic struggle is discussed, to help workers understand their position in society.
- 📢 The concepts of agitation, propaganda, and exposure are explained as tools for political education and mobilization.
- 📖 Lenin's views on the importance of exposing economic and political conditions to workers are shared to inspire action.
- 🔗 The speaker calls for personal involvement in socialist organizations to contribute to the collective effort of changing society.
Q & A
What was the creator's primary reason for thanking their patrons at the start of the video?
-The creator thanked their patrons for the overwhelming support and kind words following an announcement about the business struggling. This support has been crucial in helping to keep their channel afloat.
Why does the creator believe that if support continues, they might not need sponsors in the future?
-The creator suggests that with enough patron support, the channel could become entirely grassroots-funded, eliminating the need for sponsorships.
What is the creator's view on organizing as a way to combat capitalism?
-The creator emphasizes the importance of organizing, particularly within socialist organizations, as the most effective way to combat capitalism, as individual actions alone are not enough.
Why does the creator reference Lenin’s 1902 work *What is to be Done*?
-The creator references Lenin’s work to explain that many of the questions people ask about how to fight capitalism have already been answered. Lenin’s work offers insights into the need for collective organization and political education.
How does the creator describe the difference between labor unions and broader political organizations?
-Labor unions can improve conditions for workers but are limited by capitalism, whereas broader political organizations aim to change the system itself by building political consciousness and organizing collective resistance.
What does Lenin mean by 'political education,' according to the video?
-Political education, as described by Lenin, involves teaching the working class about the political structures that oppress them, not just their immediate economic struggles. It also entails raising awareness about broader societal issues caused by capitalism.
What role do 'agitation,' 'propaganda,' and 'exposure' play in political movements, as explained in the video?
-Agitation stirs discontent, propaganda persuades through rhetoric, and exposure reveals injustices. Together, they are used to educate workers about their exploitation under capitalism and to encourage collective action.
Why does the creator believe that spontaneous movements like Black Lives Matter fail to bring about material change?
-The creator argues that spontaneous movements lack political organization and concrete demands, which makes them susceptible to being co-opted or fizzling out without achieving meaningful systemic change.
What does the creator suggest is the most effective way to achieve lasting change against capitalism?
-The creator believes that joining socialist organizations, participating in political education, and organizing mass movements are the most effective ways to bring about lasting change against capitalist systems.
What is the creator's advice to those who are aware of the problems caused by capitalism but are unsure of what to do?
-The creator advises these individuals to join socialist organizations and take action by engaging in political education and collective organizing rather than relying on others or waiting for spontaneous change.
Outlines
🙌 Appreciation for Patrons and the Importance of Grassroots Support
The speaker begins by expressing gratitude to new patrons, acknowledging the overwhelming response to a recent announcement about the business's struggles. They mention the increase in patrons and the supportive messages on their personal channel and Discord server. The speaker emphasizes the potential of becoming a fully grassroots-funded operation and describes the Discord server as a wholesome political community. They encourage viewers to become patrons for early video access and Discord participation, which includes a book club and live Q&As. The speaker also discusses the common question of how individuals can effect change, hinting at the answer involving organization and referencing Lenin's work 'What Is to Be Done?'
📚 The Multifaceted Approach to Social Change
The speaker delves into the question of what individuals can do to enact change, emphasizing that the answer varies based on one's location and material conditions. They stress the historical and global importance of organization, countering the western hyper-individualist narrative. The paragraph discusses the power of collective action, using labor unions as an example of how团结 can lead to significant changes, such as improved working conditions. However, the speaker also points out the limitations of unions within a capitalist framework, suggesting the need for political organizations to complement and extend labor unions' efforts.
🔍 The Role of Political Education and Agitation
This section focuses on the concept of political education within the socialist movement, drawing from Lenin's 'What Is to Be Done?'. The speaker explains that political education involves not just highlighting workers' economic struggles but also their political oppression. They discuss the importance of agitation, propaganda, and exposure as tools to raise awareness and incite action. The speaker uses examples to illustrate how exposing specific instances of oppression can lead to broader political consciousness and collective action against the systemic issues of capitalism.
🌟 The Necessity of Organization and Political Vision
The speaker addresses the common misconception that spontaneous movements can bring about systemic change, arguing that without political organization, such movements are likely to fizzle out or be co-opted. They reference Lenin's views on the importance of political agitation and organization, emphasizing the need for a united front of socialists and workers. The speaker calls for individuals to join socialist organizations to work towards a collective goal, suggesting that mass mobilization and political organization are essential for meaningful change. They conclude by encouraging viewers to get involved in local socialist organizations, despite potential disagreements, to contribute to the broader struggle for socialism.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Patronage
💡Grassroots funding
💡Discord
💡Socialism
💡Labor unions
💡Political education
💡Agitation
💡Propaganda
💡Exposure
💡Spontaneity
💡Class consciousness
Highlights
Thanking new patrons for their support and the overwhelming response to the announcement of the business struggling.
Mentioning the potential for the channel to become completely viewer-funded with enough support.
Discussing the benefits of joining the Discord server, including early access to videos and live Q&As.
Acknowledging the influence of Lenin's 1902 work 'What is to be done' in answering common questions about individual actions against capitalism.
Emphasizing the need for organization as a constant throughout history and across countries.
Arguing that individual action is less effective without the collective power of an organization.
Highlighting the importance of labor unions as an example of collective power and their recent growth in the US.
Explaining that labor unions within capitalism are limited in their ability to alter the relationship between labor and capital.
Stressing the need to build political organizations alongside labor unions for a comprehensive approach.
Reading an excerpt from 'What is to be done' about the importance of political education and agitation.
Discussing the concept of agitation, propaganda, and exposure in a political context.
Describing the effectiveness of exposing capitalist labor issues in spurring worker action.
Calling out the assumption that someone else will do the work of political agitation and organization.
Criticizing the over-reliance on spontaneous movements without political organization.
Quoting Lenin on the importance of political organization over spontaneous uprisings.
Encouraging viewers to join socialist organizations to contribute to the fight against capitalism.
Providing resources and links to US socialist organizations for viewers to get involved.
Promoting the Discord server for patrons as a platform for further discussion and engagement.
Transcripts
hey everyone before we get to the video
I just wanted to take a second to give a
huge thank you to all our new patrons
two weeks ago I made an announcement
that the business is struggling and the
response has been overwhelming not just
the signups but also just the kind words
and outpouring of support here on my
personal Channel and in the Discord one
more surge like that and we can stop
looking for sponsors entirely and make
second thought a 100% Grassroots funded
operation the Discord has been a blast
with all the new members in my opinion
it's the best most wholesome political
server around if you're interested in
helping make this channel completely
viewer funded consider becoming a patron
every Patron regardless of pledge amount
gets Early Access to every video plus
access to the Discord we've got
everything from a book club to live q&as
with me to Educators ready to answer any
questions you may have about socialism
so once again from the bottom of my
dirty commie heart thank you to all our
wonderful patrons it's only because of
you that we're able to do this work I
hope you enjoy the video
well I was going to make this a big
fancy video like always but hakee beat
me to this particular topic and he did a
great job so go and watch his video if
you haven't already I still do want to
take a few minutes to answer this
question that I get asked a lot and by a
lot I mean this is probably the single
most common question I get what can we
do this usually comes in the form of
yeah capitalism is bad but what can we
as individuals do to make a change and
I'm kind of giving the game away a
little bit by using that particular
wording but we'll get to that the
original idea for this video was to have
a concrete answer I can link people to
because honestly I'm tired of typing out
the same answer 30 times every episode
but I do think it's valuable information
in its own
right okay so what can we do how to
answer that question if only there were
some book I could refer to with that
exact question as the title The more
experienced socialists among you have
probably already guessed we're going to
be drawing a bit from Lenin's 1902 work
what is to be done this is the thing
that's both frustrating and useful about
questions like these they've pretty much
all been answered for the past like 100
years it's frustrating because we've all
had a hundred years to realize that and
read the books and learn from the past
and it's useful because at least the
books exist to point to when people ask
the same questions they've been asking
for the past Century as annoying as it
can be to have to keep rehashing the
same arguments and citing the same
resources it's our responsibility
talking about the more experienced
socialists here it's our respons
posibility to help educate people who
come to us with questions and this is a
big one the answer to the question what
can we do is multifaceted a lot of it
will depend on where you live someone in
Russia or Somalia or Indonesia may need
to take a different approach than
someone in the US for example it depends
on the material conditions in your
country but there is one thing that has
remained constant through all of history
and across every single country on Earth
and that's the need to get organized
this is something that westerners in
particular particular seem to overlook
and it's not entirely our fault we've
been spoonfed hyper individualist
propaganda for many many decades it
stands to reason that we default to
thinking there must be some individual
course of action we each can take and if
you want to look at it that way sure
each of us can take the individual
personal step of joining a socialist
organization but we need to shift our
perspective to realize that it's only
through the collective power of the
organization that we actually have any
agency to really change things for most
Americans the first thing that probably
comes to mind when we talk about
organizing is labor unions unions are an
example of collective power one worker
standing up to the boss alone is likely
to get fired and replaced but an entire
store that's a different story we've
seen some incredible growth in labor
militancy and strike actions in the US
over the last few years from teachers to
doctors to Auto Workers people are
unionizing and fighting back against the
ruling class after all it's only fair
we're the ones who do the work and while
it's amazing to see the victories our
unions are winning it's important to
recognize that these victories are still
confined to the range of possibilities
that exist within capitalism you can win
better conditions at work but a labor
union under capitalism will never be
able to alter the relationship between
labor the people who do the work and
capital the people who own the means by
which that work is done that brings us
back to the same question what do we do
according to most marxists we also need
to focus on building political
organizations to work alongside and
within labor unions let me read you an
excerpt from what is to be
[Music]
done socialism represents the working
class not in its relation to a given
group of employers but in its relation
to all classes in modern society to the
state as an organized political force
hence it follows that socialists must
not confine themselves entirely to the
economic struggle we must actively take
up the political education of the
working class and the development of its
political Consciousness he goes on to
say the question now arises what does
political education mean is it
sufficient to confine oneself to the
propaganda of working-class hostility
towards autocracy of course not it is
not enough to explain to the workers
that they are politically oppressed any
more than it was to explain to them that
their interests were antagonistic to the
interest of the employers Advantage must
be taken of every concrete example of
this oppression for the purpose of
agitation in the same way as we began to
use concrete examples of economic
oppression for the purpose of agitation
and in as much as political oppression
affects all sorts of classes in society
in as much as it manifests itself in
various spheres of life and activity in
industrial life Civic life in personal
and family life in religious life Etc is
it not evident that we shall not be
fulfilling our task of developing the
political consciousness of the workers
if we do not undertake the organization
of the political exposure of autocracy
in all its aspects in order to agitate
over concrete examples of oppress
these examples must be exposed in the
same way it was necessary to expose
Factory evils in order to carry out
economic agitation okay I think that's
fairly clear but to people who may be
unfamiliar with some of the jargon the
gist of the text here is that while it's
important to agitate within capitalist
firms say getting your local grocery
store workers fired up about wage theft
or showing how the boss takes advantage
of workers by capping hours just below
fulltime it's equally if not more
important to help them develop a
political understanding of how
capitalism as a poll creates all the
problems they face both at work and in
society at large how the police protect
the interest of capital how the profit
motive leads to crumbling infrastructure
which leads to train derailments that
poison entire towns it's all well and
good to expose the evils of the boss but
we also need to expose why the boss acts
the way he does his actions are informed
by the capitalist system if we get rid
of capitalism the antagonism between
boss and worker goes away okay so you
may have noticed the words agitation
propaganda and exposure in that passage
what do these terms mean in a political
setting in a nutshell they all serve
roughly the same purpose agitation is
the process of trying to arouse feelings
of discontent like when you're
explaining how a pay raise of any less
than the inflation percentage is
actually a pay cut propaganda which
usually has a negative connotation in
this older use of the word simply means
persuasive language the same sort of
thing we'd write in a high school
English class or the stuff that video
essay YouTubers do exposure has a very
particular meaning in this setting it's
used in the comment sense to reveal
something that was hidden but an
exposure was also used to refer to a
physical thing like a pamphlet here's a
passage where Lenin explains the
importance of these exposures in
economic agitation specifically in
Russia but this applies to any country
everyone knows that the spread and
consolidation of the economic struggle
of the Russian workers proceeded
simultaneously with the creation of
literature exposing economic conditions
I.E Factory and Industrial conditions
these leaflets were devoted mainly to
exposure of factory conditions
and very soon a passion for exposures
was roused among the workers as soon as
the workers realized that the Socialist
circles desired to and could Supply them
with a new kind of leaflet that told the
whole truth about their poverty-stricken
lives about their excessive toil and
their lack of Rights correspondant began
to pour in from the factories and
workshops this exposure literature
created a tremendous sensation not only
in the particular Factory exposed in the
given leaflet but in all the factories
to which news of the revealed facts
spread and since the poverty and want
among the workers in the various
Enterprises and in the various trades
are much the same the truth about the
life of the workers stirred everyone
even among the most backward workers a
veritable passion arose to get into
print a noble passion for this
rudimentary form of war against the
whole of the present social system which
is based upon robbery and oppression and
in the overwhelming majority of cases
these leaflets were in truth a
declaration of war because the exposure
served greatly to agitate the workers
they evoked among them common demands
for the removal of the most glaring
outrages and roused in them a Readiness
to support the demands with strikes
finally the employers themselves were
compelled to recognize the significance
of these leaflets as a declaration of
war so much so that in a large number of
cases they did not even wait for the
outbreak of hostilities on more than one
occasion the mere appearance of a
leaflet proves sufficient to compel an
employer to concede all or part of the
demands put forward in a word economic
exposures were and remain an important
lever in the economic struggle and they
will continue to retain this
significance as long as there is
capitalism which makes it necessary for
the workers to defend themselves even in
the most advanced countries of Europe it
can still be seen that the exposure of
abuses in some backward trade or in some
forgotten branch of domestic industry
serves as a starting point for the
Awakening of class Consciousness for the
beginning of a trade Union struggle and
for the spread of
socialism okay that was a long way of
saying sharing information about
capitalism in the workplace is effective
Spooks the ruling class and helps build
a strike movement and favor of socialism
the same is true today we may not make
use of physical pamphlets quite as much
but a business card with a QR code
serves the same purpose the simple Act
of exposing the ills of the capitalist
labor landscape is often enough to start
the snowball down the hill once that
process has begun it's critical to work
within socialist organizations to pursue
the political education of the working
class when new socialists or just normal
people say things like we all know this
bad stuff is happening but no one does
anything about it that's a reflection
not on the average worker but on the
people who have the time and political
understanding to engage in political
agitation and fail to do so here's lenon
on the
subject why is it that the Russian
workers as yet display so little
revolutionary activity in connection
with the brutal way in which the police
mistreat the people in connection with
the persecution of the religious sects
with the flogging of the peasantry with
the religious censorship with the
persecution of the most innocent
cultural Enterprises is it because the
economic struggle does not stimulate
them to this because such political
activity does not promise palpable
results to advance this argument is
merely to shift the blame onto the
shoulders of others to blame the masses
of workers for our own failings we must
blame ourselves our remoteness from the
mass movement we must blame ourselves
for being unable as yet to recognize a
sufficiently wide striking and Rapid
exposure of these despicable outrages
only those who themselves go into action
now can make appeals for action and our
business as socialists is to deepen
expand and intensify political exposures
and political agitation how's it feel to
be called out from 120 years in the past
what Lennon's talking about here is
something we really struggle with today
we assume someone else is going to do
the work someone else can organize the
masses unite the various unions provide
political education we'll show our
support when it's convenient that's not
how this works there's no single savior
we are all responsible all of us who are
aware of the evils of capitalism we all
have to do the work to get organized
join a socialist organization and do the
work ourselves not as atomized
individuals but as a united front of
socialists and workers and a related
issue we struggle with is that many of
us put too much faith in spontaneous
movements assuming that once things get
bad enough a critical mass of people
will rise up and fix everything in one
glorious social movement that's not how
this works either think about the black
lives matter Movement we had a whole
summer where huge numbers of people were
protesting across the country blocking
traffic confronting the Servants of
capital even torching a police station
but what came of that we got a street
named after the movement and the
Democrats put on a little show no
material change came of this massive
Uprising because it wasn't politically
organized it didn't really even have
concrete demands there was plenty of
righteous anger which is good but
without a way to channel that into
forcing specific change it was always
destined to be co-opted or fizzle out
here's Lennon on the subject of
spontaneity here he's talking about
about some recent strike movements in
Russia the fact that these strikes
spread over the whole of Russia showed
how deep the Reviving popular movement
was and if we must speak of the
spontaneous element then of course we
must admit that this strike movement
bore a spontaneous character strikes
occurred in Russia in the 186s and70s as
well as the first half of the 19th
century and these strikes were
accompanied by the spontaneous
destruction of Machinery Etc compared
with these revolts the strikes of the
1890s might even be described as
conscious to such an extent do they Mark
the progress which the labor movement
had made since that period this shows
that the spontaneous element in essence
represents nothing more nor less than
Consciousness in its embryonic form even
the Primitive rebellions expressed The
Awakening of Consciousness to a certain
extent the workers abandoned their agel
long faith in the permanence of the
system which oppressed them they began I
shall not say to understand but to sense
the necessity of collective
resistance I'm sure you've heard the
expression history does doesn't repeat
itself but it often Rhymes this struggle
against capitalism is about as clear an
example as it gets large righteous and
disorganized uprisings failed because of
a lack of political Vision but the seed
of understanding was there when people
ask what can we do this is the answer
join organizations that are working
towards building the political program
necessary to unite the working class
under a single banner there is nothing
we can do alone against the oppressive
capitalist regimes of world the only
thing that has ever worked in the past
is the only thing that will work today
Mass mobilization and political
organization that's why the expression
agitate educate organize is so common in
socialist circles that's the
formula I'm going to leave some
resources in the description as well as
links to all the main us socialist
organizations they all have their pros
and cons they all have their problems
and God knows they all hate each other
we socialists are really good at not
getting along I've personally worked
with cpusa and DSA but join whatever is
available in your area even if you don't
agree with them on everything it is way
more valuable to get involved and start
working with other socialists towards a
brighter future than it is to criticize
from the sidelines okay that's pretty
much it for this episode thanks for
coming to my little book club I only
focused on one aspect of the struggle
for socialism here there's a lot more to
it so make sure you go check out
hakeem's video as well he's got some
great advice that applies wherever you
live in the world I've also got a
Discord server for my patrons where we
do an actual book club and I try to do a
live Q&A every month so if you
appreciate my work consider supporting
me on patreon it really does help keep
this operation afloat go get organized
and I'll see you next time
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