I guess I need to revise my previous fears that my son would never get icy, snowy winters like I did due to global warming to he will get them perhaps even more than I saw due to global warming. Lake Erie hasn't gotten to 100% ice coverage since 1996.

According to GLERL's records, two lakes have frozen over completely: Lake Superior in 1973 and 1996; and Lake Erie in 1978, 1979 and 1996.

We are on track for one of the iciest years ever recorded on the Great Lakes. Pretty wild stuff!

Good article on the history of ice coverage.

Lake Superior has frozen over once since 1973, according to NOAA. The lake had 100% ice cover in 1996.
Lake Michigan's ice cover high was 93.2% in 2014.
Lake Huron had 98.2% ice cover in 1996.
Lake Erie froze over completely in 1978, 1979 and 1996.
Lake Ontario had 86.2% ice coverage in 1979.

Up until this point, much has been written in an attempt to analyze the condition of transgender oppression and exploitation. These analyses are valuable for providing a foundation for real liberation efforts, but unfortunately, very little has been written to build off of that body of work and to put it to practical use in eliminating the problems they identify. Theory without practice cannot even be called dead if it never had a life to begin with. If we as transgender people wish to ever be free, we must move beyond mere lifeless theory and into really existing revolutionary praxis.

In writing this, I attempt to produce a starting point for a revolutionary transfeminist movement which can really bring about the liberation of all transgender people. This work was made in conversation and collaboration with many others, but I remain merely one woman and I therefore cannot be the sole architect of such a revolution, but I hope to spur on more conversation and catalyze the formation of new organizations and the transfeminization of existing organizations. My analysis is necessarily limited to the particular conditions found within the USA, but I hope it can still serve others abroad who may freely adapt and transform this program or who may be inspired to design new programs in accordance with the particular national contexts they find themselves in.

Finally, I hope that the contents expressed here are in some way inspiring, motivating, or illuminating to all those I may call “comrade” or “sister.”

• Evalyn Penrose

(Not written by me but a personal comrade of mine)

This movie is amazing and beautiful and extremely dialectical and Marxist

Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.

Life is a wonderful and beautiful thing.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7000354

The recently inaugurated Rodrigo Paz has wasted no time in embarking on his project to neoliberalize the Andean country. According to the president, Paz proposes cutting public spending by almost 30% in 2026, equivalent to 4 points of GDP.

In addition, he has proposed eliminating a series of taxes, especially for the wealthiest. One of these is a special tax on large fortunes, which Paz has promised to eliminate. The special tax is levied on those with fortunes of more than USD 4 million (less than 1% of the population) in a country where the basic salary is less than USD 400.

hate hate hate hate hate hate

Paz has announced the creation of at least ten “Truth Commissions”, which, he says, will be responsible for uncovering acts of corruption in public institutions during previous administrations.

Few public companies have been left out of this sort of “new neoliberal inquisition.” State-owned oil, road, telecommunications, lithium, and other companies will be investigated for alleged irregularities. Even before the investigations begin, Paz has already claimed that the alleged damage to the state amounts to nearly USD 15 billion.

They're going to try to open up all these SOEs for US looting.

However, Paz will have to face an opposition that, despite losing the presidency, has not lost its significant capacity for mobilization and historical resistance to neoliberal measures. Furthermore, within his government, Paz has already experienced a recent rift with his vice president, Edman Lara, who called the president a “liar” and claimed that he is poorly advised in creating the “Truth Commissions”.

This, though, is a nice piece of info. VP and President at each other's throat before taking office while the movement behind MAS remains active reinforces my take I've been saying all year: Bolivia's right wing turn is not going to last even a single term.

The recently inaugurated Rodrigo Paz has wasted no time in embarking on his project to neoliberalize the Andean country. According to the president, Paz proposes cutting public spending by almost 30% in 2026, equivalent to 4 points of GDP.

In addition, he has proposed eliminating a series of taxes, especially for the wealthiest. One of these is a special tax on large fortunes, which Paz has promised to eliminate. The special tax is levied on those with fortunes of more than USD 4 million (less than 1% of the population) in a country where the basic salary is less than USD 400.

hate hate hate hate hate hate

Paz has announced the creation of at least ten “Truth Commissions”, which, he says, will be responsible for uncovering acts of corruption in public institutions during previous administrations.

Few public companies have been left out of this sort of “new neoliberal inquisition.” State-owned oil, road, telecommunications, lithium, and other companies will be investigated for alleged irregularities. Even before the investigations begin, Paz has already claimed that the alleged damage to the state amounts to nearly USD 15 billion.

They're going to try to open up all these SOEs for US looting.

However, Paz will have to face an opposition that, despite losing the presidency, has not lost its significant capacity for mobilization and historical resistance to neoliberal measures. Furthermore, within his government, Paz has already experienced a recent rift with his vice president, Edman Lara, who called the president a “liar” and claimed that he is poorly advised in creating the “Truth Commissions”.

This, though, is a nice piece of info. VP and President at each other's throat before taking office while the movement behind MAS remains active reinforces my take I've been saying all year: Bolivia's right wing turn is not going to last even a single term.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6791195

Commune or Nothing! Venezuela's Communal Movement and its Socialist Project

As the US shifts the focus of its gargantuan death machine towards Venezuela and the Caribbean, the socialist project there has been getting a lot of attention on the left. Discussions about grassroots mass democracy, economic recovery, and especially communes have begun to build a stronger appreciation for the progress of the Bolivarian Revolution. Chris Gilbert and his intellectual comrade Cira Pascual Marquina have been doing the podcast and Youtube rounds to share the lessons they've learned from the courageous Venezuelan people. That circuit got me connected to this book, which I grabbed last week to read on a couple of long Amtrak rides.

I finished the book up last night - it's a pretty brisk read - and I am absolutely compelled by the ghosts of Marx and Chavez to share what I've learned with the comrades here at Hexbear.

First and foremost is an overwhelming sense of excitement and inspiration. What the Venezuelan communards are achieving right now is, in my opinion, the cutting edge of socialist construction. The Venezuelan people are taking the revolution into their own hands, a historical necessity, and creating true communes across the country to meet their material needs and build socialist democracy. Here's the big takeaway: these communes are genuinely in the early stages of abolishing the value form.

Without liberal or anarchist demonization, Gilbert plainly and directly criticizes the ultimate failure of ML states in the 20th century to transition to the next stage of socialism. He doesn't condemn them as wicked statists, he just recognizes that they never figured out how to progress beyond state-owned enterprises to the worker-self managed systems. He does so by following in the footsteps of the Bolivarian communards, who are, by-and-large, extremely politically literate Marxist-Leninists who have, though practice, innovated the answer to the question of why prior ML states stalled out or fell apart in their progress.

What is that answer?

Only grassroots democratic processes can build socialism, but these are impossible under a capitalist state. A popular socialist state, however, can use its resources to facilitate the socialist accumulation necessary to create high-productivity communes at sufficient scale to unlock network effects of democratic planning and production for use rather than commodity production. Though the Venezuelan state faces issues of corruption, backsliding, and a devastating economic war, it is far more an ally of the commune building process than an opponent. The law on communes passed under Chavez enshrines the right of workers to occupy and seize unutilized productive property (land, buildings, and equipment) for the process of establishing a commune. The state does not always deliver on this right, and sometimes sides with capitalists, but the friction produced in this process is more productive than destructive. And in many, many cases, the sympathetic socialist state finances and protects the communes, aids in their development with technical expertise, and ensures certain legal rights and protections.

These are not hippie communes. Though incredibly restrained by Venezuela's forced impoverishment, they are filled with serious, disciplined Marxist revolutionaries dedicated to using communes to create a society-wide socialism with internationalism built in. They are constantly seeking to elevate their productive capacity and innovating new means of building communal economies locally and nationally. They are industrial, agricultural, and urban. They are dedicated to the defense of the Bolivarian state as a sometimes-reluctant, sometimes-enthusiastic partner in the project. And they are deeply historically rooted in both the international Marxist tradition and Venezuelan indigenous, Afro-Caribbean, and anti-colonial resistance movements, including the pre-colonial and pre-capitalist communal systems that existed in some native nations in the Amazon, Andes, and Caribbean,

Folks, this shit is legit. Defending Venezuela from imperialist aggression needs to far beyond bog-standard anti-imperialism. Venezuela is not just a country that could be destroyed by the US - it is potentially the heart of the world's most-effective-yet effort at building socialism in all senses: a society prepared to leave behind the value form, wage labor, and the state. If the Venezuelan project is destroyed, it will not just be a tragedy for the people of that country but for all socialists across the planet.

Instead, we need to learn how to communicate a vociferous defense of the Bolivarian Revolution that goes beyond counter-atrocity propaganda and supporting Maduro and demonstrates the practical construction of actually existing socialsim in the most dire of circumstances. We must learn from their revolutionary praxis just as we do from the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China.

There may be no greater hope for humanity right now than the success of the Bolivarian Revolution and the triumph of the Venezuelan people in their pursuit of socialism.

Commune or Nothing! Venezuela's Communal Movement and its Socialist Project

As the US shifts the focus of its gargantuan death machine towards Venezuela and the Caribbean, the socialist project there has been getting a lot of attention on the left. Discussions about grassroots mass democracy, economic recovery, and especially communes have begun to build a stronger appreciation for the progress of the Bolivarian Revolution. Chris Gilbert and his intellectual comrade Cira Pascual Marquina have been doing the podcast and Youtube rounds to share the lessons they've learned from the courageous Venezuelan people. That circuit got me connected to this book, which I grabbed last week to read on a couple of long Amtrak rides.

I finished the book up last night - it's a pretty brisk read - and I am absolutely compelled by the ghosts of Marx and Chavez to share what I've learned with the comrades here at Hexbear.

First and foremost is an overwhelming sense of excitement and inspiration. What the Venezuelan communards are achieving right now is, in my opinion, the cutting edge of socialist construction. The Venezuelan people are taking the revolution into their own hands, a historical necessity, and creating true communes across the country to meet their material needs and build socialist democracy. Here's the big takeaway: these communes are genuinely in the early stages of abolishing the value form.

Without liberal or anarchist demonization, Gilbert plainly and directly criticizes the ultimate failure of ML states in the 20th century to transition to the next stage of socialism. He doesn't condemn them as wicked statists, he just recognizes that they never figured out how to progress beyond state-owned enterprises to the worker-self managed systems. He does so by following in the footsteps of the Bolivarian communards, who are, by-and-large, extremely politically literate Marxist-Leninists who have, though practice, innovated the answer to the question of why prior ML states stalled out or fell apart in their progress.

What is that answer?

Only grassroots democratic processes can build socialism, but these are impossible under a capitalist state. A popular socialist state, however, can use its resources to facilitate the socialist accumulation necessary to create high-productivity communes at sufficient scale to unlock network effects of democratic planning and production for use rather than commodity production. Though the Venezuelan state faces issues of corruption, backsliding, and a devastating economic war, it is far more an ally of the commune building process than an opponent. The law on communes passed under Chavez enshrines the right of workers to occupy and seize unutilized productive property (land, buildings, and equipment) for the process of establishing a commune. The state does not always deliver on this right, and sometimes sides with capitalists, but the friction produced in this process is more productive than destructive. And in many, many cases, the sympathetic socialist state finances and protects the communes, aids in their development with technical expertise, and ensures certain legal rights and protections.

These are not hippie communes. Though incredibly restrained by Venezuela's forced impoverishment, they are filled with serious, disciplined Marxist revolutionaries dedicated to using communes to create a society-wide socialism with internationalism built in. They are constantly seeking to elevate their productive capacity and innovating new means of building communal economies locally and nationally. They are industrial, agricultural, and urban. They are dedicated to the defense of the Bolivarian state as a sometimes-reluctant, sometimes-enthusiastic partner in the project. And they are deeply historically rooted in both the international Marxist tradition and Venezuelan indigenous, Afro-Caribbean, and anti-colonial resistance movements, including the pre-colonial and pre-capitalist communal systems that existed in some native nations in the Amazon, Andes, and Caribbean,

Folks, this shit is legit. Defending Venezuela from imperialist aggression needs to far beyond bog-standard anti-imperialism. Venezuela is not just a country that could be destroyed by the US - it is potentially the heart of the world's most-effective-yet effort at building socialism in all senses: a society prepared to leave behind the value form, wage labor, and the state. If the Venezuelan project is destroyed, it will not just be a tragedy for the people of that country but for all socialists across the planet.

Instead, we need to learn how to communicate a vociferous defense of the Bolivarian Revolution that goes beyond counter-atrocity propaganda and supporting Maduro and demonstrates the practical construction of actually existing socialsim in the most dire of circumstances. We must learn from their revolutionary praxis just as we do from the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China.

There may be no greater hope for humanity right now than the success of the Bolivarian Revolution and the triumph of the Venezuelan people in their pursuit of socialism.

tags: claudia, mexico, presidente, feminism