#Employment Law In China

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

The Beijing court supported Ms. Gao on two counts and ruled that Dangdang should continue to honour her original contract of employment. In addition, the court said Dangdang should pay her salary from the date she applied for sick leave to the date of arbitration

The Beijing No 2 Intermediate People’s Court went on to state that “social tolerance is a blessing of the rule of law” and highlighted the need to “respect diverse ways of living and protect the dignity of transgender people.”

[nasreenalissalaw]

Saudi Arabian Labor Laws are constantly evolving to the best there is. Such a journey is essential for the continuous growth of our Nation. Misunderstandings of employment law can pose challenging complexities to the employer in Saudi Arabia. As an expatriate, the continuous trends and developments of the Labor Law can confuse you in absence of a local guide.

[nemo20-myparfumsmelllikegarlic]

Comunism will always end up in misogyny. The woman is the only one who can birth the next generation of workers. When the guvernamant is the only employer, it will make sure that the laws will benefit its business. There is no comunist state that hasn't tried controlling the female body . They assured that the female reproductive system will become property of the state. Some examples would be: China's one child plocy, Romanias abortion and contraception ban, urss abortion ban, regardless of any circumstances and even the fact that homosexuality is illegal in all of the soviet countries.

I hate seeing Westerners talk about comunism as the saviour of women, when, in reality comunism ends up reducing people to only their labour and productivity. Real communism, like every extremist regime, is more dehumanizing and abusing than any form of capitalism Westerners have inhabited.

Comunism says that owning nothing and everything being shared is for the good of the people. But no one realises that at one point, the line between objects and creatures disappears.

[exercise-of-trust]

seemingly cool fiber arts person i followed a little bit ago just put radfem shit on the dash, anyway the blanket statement that the only contributions of men to textile production are capitalist/exploitative and the only contributions of women are household-centric/victimized is patently untrue. while less of a documented presence, women in medieval europe [1] absolutely participated in weaver's guilds and commercial cloth production [2], and men have been participating in household knitting in all parts of europe for as long as knitting has been a thing there [3]. like i'm not trying to say women haven't been deeply excluded from economic opportunities in the textile trade for centuries but you cannot be making sweeping statements like that about everyone in every part of the world through all of history and expect them to be true. do, like, a basic level of research and have a basic understanding of nuance, i beg of you [4]

footnotes/sources/etc under the cut, sources are a bit basic because i just grabbed whatever was nearest to hand but they should suffice to prove my point:

[1] i'm only referring to western europe here because that's the only region i feel comfortable talking about in any detail without embarrassing myself. systems of medieval cloth production in european guilds are not gonna look anything like the systems of hundreds of servants employed to do textile production for a household in china. don't make categorical statements about everyone everywhere all at once, you will end up with egg on your face.

[2] quotes from "when did weaving become a male profession," ingvild øye, danish journal of archaeology, p.45 in particular.

england: "in norwich, a certain elizabeth baret was enrolled as freeman of the city in 1445/6 because she was a worsted weaver, and in 1511, a riot occurred when the weavers here complained that women were taking over their work" + "another ordinance from bristol [in 1461] forbade master weavers to engage wives, daughters, and maids who wove on their own looms as weavers but made an exception for wives already active before this act" germany: "in bremen, several professional male weavers are recorded in the early fourteenth century, but evidently alongside female weavers, who are documented even later, in 1440" -> the whole "even later" thing is because the original article is disputing the idea that men as weavers/clothiers in medieval europe entirely replaced women over time. also: "in 1432-36, a female weaver, mette weuersk, is referred to as a member of the gertrud's guild in flensburg, presently germany" scandanavia: "the guild of weavers that was established in copenhagen in 1500 also accepted female weavers as independent members and the rules were recorded in the guild's statutes"

[3] quotes from folk socks: the history and techniques of handknitted footwear by nancy bush, interweave press, 2011, don't roast me it was literally within arm's reach and i didn't feel like looking up more stuff

uk/yorkshire dales: "...handknitting had been a daily employment for three centuries [leading up to 1900]. practiced by women, children, and men, the craft added much to the economy of the dales people." (p.21) uk/wales: re the knitting night (noson weu/noswaith weu) as a social custom practiced in the 18th/19th c.: "all the ladies would work on their knitting; some of the men would knit garters" (p.22) uk/channel islands: "by the early seventeenth century, so many of the islands' men, women, and children had taken up the trade of knitting that laws were necessary to keep them from knitting during harvest" (p.24) -> this one is deeply funny to me, in addition to proving my point uk/aberdeen: "the knitters, known as shankers, were usually women, but sometimes included old men and boys" (p.26) denmark: "with iron and brass needles, they made stockings called stunthoser, stomper, or stockings without feet, as well as stockings with feet. the men knit the legs and the women and girls made the heels" (p.32) iceland & faroe islands: "people of all ages and both sexes knit at home not only for their own use but for exportation of their goods as well" (p.35)

[4] actually? no. i'm not begging for shit from radfems. fuck all'a'y'all.

[fuck-customers]

There is a travel ban for a reason. My office didnt close and we arent essential. They dont let us WFH. Should i report them somewhere? I cant get out of my home and its too dangerous to leave yet im fully expected to go to work today

Yes you should report it.

If you are in the US go to

Canada

https://www.canada.ca/en/services/jobs/workplace/federal-labour-standards/filing-complaint.html

UK

EU

I tried to add China and Japan but their sites only posted the laws regarding labour contracts but no way to report employer violations.

I am missing a few countries so let me know what country you are in and I'll try to add it.

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Now that North and South Weekly has reached chapter 10, I think it is time to highlight this interesting contrast:

"When she had left the room, he [Mr. Lennox] began in his scrutinising way to look about him. The little drawing-room was looking its best in the streaming light of the morning sun. The middle window in the bow was opened, and clustering roses and the scarlet honeysuckle came peeping round the corner; the small lawn was gorgeous with verbenas and geraniums of all bright colours. But the very brightness outside made the colours within seem poor and faded. The carpet was far from new; the chintz had been often washed; the whole apartment was smaller and shabbier than he had expected, as back-ground and frame-work for Margaret, herself so queenly. He took up one of the books lying on the table; it was the Paradise of Dante, in the proper old Italian binding of white vellum and gold; by it lay a dictionary, and some words copied out in Margaret’s handwriting. They were a dull list of words, but somehow he liked looking at them. He put them down with a sigh. “The living is evidently as small as she said. It seems strange, for the Beresfords belong to a good family.”

(Chapter III)

"He [Mr. Thornton] was ushered into the little drawing-room, and kindly greeted by Mr. Hale, who led him up to his wife, whose pale face, and shawl-draped figure made a silent excuse for the cold languor of her greeting. Margaret was lighting the lamp when he entered, for the darkness was coming on. The lamp threw a pretty light into the centre of the dusky room, from which, with country habits, they did not exclude the night-skies, and the outer darkness of air. Somehow, that room contrasted itself with the one he had lately left; handsome, ponderous, with no sign of female habitation, except in the one spot where his mother sate, and no convenience for any other employment than eating and drinking. To be sure, it was a dining-room; his mother preferred to sit in it; and her will was a household law. But the drawing-room was not like this. It was twice—twenty times as fine; not one quarter as comfortable. Here were no mirrors, not even a scrap of glass to reflect the light, and answer the same purpose as water in a landscape; no gilding; a warm, sober breadth of colouring, well relieved by the dear old Helstone chintz-curtains and chair covers. An open davenport stood in the window opposite the door; in the other there was a stand, with a tall white china vase, from which drooped wreaths of English ivy, pale green birch, and copper-coloured beech-leaves. Pretty baskets of work stood about in different places: and books, not cared for on account of their binding solely, lay on one table, as if recently put down. Behind the door was another table decked out for tea, with a white table-cloth, on which flourished the cocoa-nut cakes, and a basket piled with oranges and ruddy American apples, heaped on leaves. It appeared to Mr. Thornton that all these graceful cares were habitual to the family; and especially of a piece with Margaret."

(Chapter X)

Something something the "gentleman" looks at a scene of beauty and can only think of money, status, and family connections. The "man in trade" is presented with a humbler version of the same scene, and thinks of warmth, home-likeness, and feminine care something something.

[socialjusticeinamerica]

Space Karen is a monster. They had opportunities to unionize but they succumbed to pressure from Elongated Muskrat and Texas Republicans and now they’ll be living on the production line. How stupid are you to reject unionization? Now they’re slaves like every other non-union employee in the country.

Republicans in red states pass laws called “right to work”, which is more Republican name trickery. “Right to work” laws prevent unions/organized labor. What it literally means is that companies have the right to make YOU work without any benefits, for minimum wage, without any right to protest wage theft or unsafe conditions, no recourse against unfair labor practices, and to put you on “on demand schedules,” The latter means no set regular hours, 9-5 today then 9-9 the day after, then 1-8, or no hours at all for days or weeks until you quit and can’t collect. “On demand scheduling” is abosolutely cruel. You never get to recover properly, you can never make plans outside of work, you can’t attend school or have a second job, and you miss out on all the major life events of your family. This leads to resentment, divorce, and alienated children who feel unloved.

Even blue states have bare minimum labor laws in place to control abuses by employers. Try going to the state for help in a dispute with your boss. Try hiring a lawyer when you’re poor or even if you’re not lawyers don’t want to touch these cases.

We are already a nation of hopeless wage slaves. Biden and the Democrats are making progress in passing laws to protect workers and unions but it will all be swept away if Republicans regain the White House and Congress. Some people won’t learn until they’re chained to a machine in a building with suicide nets outside the windows like in China.

It took almost two hundred years to get unions, workers rights, and work place safety laws put into place. They’ve nearly all been eroded into a forgotten past since Republican Ronald Reagan, and Fox News, was elected in 1980. Nearly all of you reading this don’t even know a time when workers only needed one job to support a home and family, had pensions, and had health insurance that was provided. Now you live with 2-3 jobs, have no health insurance, can’t afford a home (or rent), can’t afford college or even a new car, and make less than your grandparents. The media glosses this over calling the extra jobs “side hustles” and your lack of a career with dignity is because you’re a generation of “self starters.”

You weren’t born to be a wage slave for billionaire oligarchs and the petty tyrants they hire to be middle managers. Spread the word and unionize. Fight for it. People in the 1800’s literally battled armed mercenaries, cops, and the military for the right to union jobs that let them live and earn with dignity. Don’t let their spilled blood and deaths be in vain. The United Auto Workers and other unions tried repeatedly to get Tesla unionized. Unions are out there and willing to help. It only takes a few phone calls to get the ball rolling.

Muskrat promised his workers free frozen yogurt and a roller coaster ride from the parking lot to factory if they voted against unions, I shit you not. He never delivered either. He did spend millions on union avoidance firms to come in and lie and scare workers into voting no. Now they’re treated like cotton plantation slaves and told they will be literally living on a production line.

To put this into the identity politics millennials are drawn to, unions are the only working environment where marginalized people are protected and have recourse against discrimination and mistreatment in the workplace. If you are mistreated you can file a grievance and if the management doesn’t redress the issue then they are taken to contractually mandated arbitration or court with union supplied lawyers. If you have never worked in a union shop you have no idea what it’s like to not be fearful, to have dignity, and to know people are obligated to protect you from management.

It’s the only non-union automaker in the country.

[probablyasocialecologist]

The families who reside in the settlement are dedicated to combating monoculture and preserving regrown native vegetation. “Monoculture is for profit,” dos Santos says, mentioning Brazil’s large soy crops that are mostly exported to the EU and China to be used as cattle feed. “We diversify our production for self-sustainment and as the basis for family agriculture,” he says. After the MST began gaining land in the mid-1990s, its members immediately began producing food. “Now that we had land, we started planting so we could eat and show society that we weren’t like the land monopoly owners who didn’t use that land for anything,” Suptitz says. Some of the families in the Roseli Nunes settlement came together to found the Alaíde Reis collective and purchase a small delivery truck to transport produce to the cities of Barra do Piraí, Volta Redonda, Resende, and Rio de Janeiro. In her 22-acre lot, Amanda Aparecida Mateus grows bananas, manioc, okra, tangerines, oranges, limes, beans, and coffee beans—a far more diverse and ecologically sound harvest than that of the coffee plantations that used to rule the area. For Mateus, it’s important to emphasize the movement’s efforts to produce organic, pesticide-free food. “We have so many MST settlements that have advanced in their food production development and today focus on the production of healthy food through agro-ecological methodologies,” Mateus says. “But above all, it’s essential to highlight that our food production has the objective of ending hunger in Brazil. The agrarian reform, the democratization of access to land, is a project to combat hunger.” MST activists argue that land monopolies are the root cause of inequality in Brazil and that the resulting hunger crisis is a type of political violence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity rates rose by more than 4% in Brazil, mostly due to poverty, unemployment, and right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro’s mismanagement of the health crisis. In 2022, the movement released a statement reading, in part, “We know that hunger is a project of the current [extreme right] government and one of the most serious effects of political violence in Brazil, where half of the population doesn’t have enough food to supply their homes.” Since the pandemic began, the MST has partnered with other organizations to donate more than 7,000 tons of food to struggling families in Brazil. The MST is also combating slave labor, which a recent investigation found is heavily practiced by local agribusinesses. MST settlements abide by an agrarian reform law, which defines using slave labor as grounds for declaring a piece of land unproductive, allowing the federal government to reappropriate it. In addition to using this legislation to call attention to slavery-like working conditions in land monopolies, the MST grants its members autonomy over their own land and production. By owning the means of production, these rural workers don’t have to depend on exploitative land monopolies for employment. Connecting ethical food production to the eradication of hunger has boosted the movement’s visibility on social media over the past three years. For dos Santos, the movement’s mission has always been bigger than land distribution. “People ask me, ‘But why does the movement care about LGBTQ rights and women’s rights?’” he says. “And I say, ‘It’s always been about more than the land; we are all involved in everything.’”

[bambamramfan]

This is obviously a critical response. Also Scott has posted his follow-up post "Highlights from the Comments" here, which I'm also responding to.

Now, even if you aren't conservative I think there is real value in saying "a major cultural change, focused on some sectors, recently happened. WHY did it happen. What were the turning points and structural factors." And I don't think "because we suddenly became better people" is a good answer to that. So exploring the cause and effect from civil rights law to the social justice shift is not, a priori, a bad idea.

Hanania's very partisan and activist slant on the question I disagree with, but it doesn't mean he makes no good empirical points. If you only read the people you agree with, well, they tend not to circulate inconvenient facts to your side and then you get blind-sided. And despite his reputation, I really do like RH's writing on China. And I'm on the record that running large parts of employment regulation through a very tiny errata of the Civil Rights Act, leads to absurd and bad outcomes and bad law.

But I'm pretty disappointed at his book (as summed up here) and Scott's moderate reaction to it. I'm glad Scott pointed out "these administrative changes in the 1970's are unlikely to be responsible for a cultural shift that hit max velocity in 2014." Because Scott gives a lot of credit to the dystopia it paints of government and corporate hiring programs forced to circumnavigate huge vagaries by implementing contradictory and Orwellian hiring standards. The second comments post does this even more so. And I feel that even when these anecdotes are factually correct, they are leaving out extremely important context. To wit:

Bureaucratic hiring processes are already this Orwellian process of doublespeak that pay attention to a lot of factors besides who would be the best at the job. All the procedures people describe were already in place, just for other types of qualifications. Random example: Harvard prides itself on always have a student from every state in it's undergraduate body. Some of our states represent about 0.2% of the population. To guarantee that say Wyoming or Idaho always have someone on campus, you basically have to target geographically - and not by merit. Or a hedge fund that wants to impress investors by hiring graduates from the right schools, even if they've found ambitious state school students are better bang for the buck. It was never the case that employers cared purely for merit and then race came into play, even if it is the case that race is now one of several factors they have to juggle for.

Here's the bigger issue. The book and review really emphasizes how terrible it is to be caught in the bind that the US government wants organizations to be racially equitable, but it doesn't just give a list of rules to follow. It says "you figure it out. So long as you don't cause a problem that's fine. But if someone thinks you're racist, they can sue, and we'll have to prove it out in court." This creates an environment where the rules are unclear, and the best you can do is follow the best practices that similar organizations do, and say you were trying your best. And so if some organizations for idiosyncratic reasons take diversity more seriously, everyone else is forced to follow suit. For certain types of people this causes scrupulosity spirals. I agree that sucks. But this is by design! Not just in civil rights, but in the entire US administrative state, it was decided long ago. See, you can have a legal environment where regulations are enforced either through: a) An agency draws up all the rules for companies to follow, and has the workforce to go inspect every company to make sure they are complying. This is what we do with cars or restaurants, and most of Europe does with a lot more areas than we do. b) The government says "don't fuck this up. You're on your own" and you are left alone until someone thinks you've fucked it up enough that they sue you. Trials are a TERRIBLE way to work this out, but it's supposed to motivate you to be extra careful. This is much more random but much less costly tax wise, so it is the system the US has decided to go with for many of its laws.

So I agree "government by lawsuit" is a terrible curse upon America (and why we have so many more lawyers per capitate than other Western nations.) It leads to all the moral problems this book and review highlights. But it's not limited to the realm of race relations and it's by design so that we don't have to pay more bureaucrats. I doubt Hanania would want us to move to the European model which has less scrupulosity issues.

[nervousladytraveler]

"For All the Tea in China" (or "Demelza Makes a Sandwich")

(slightly longer version from the fic title game prompt sent to me by @jomiddlemarch Thanks for indulging me!)

----

“Fuck it. We’re having the rapini for dinner!” Demelza said aloud to nobody and slammed the slightly wilted bunch down on the work surface.

Dinner was hours away–she was in fact still preparing lunch–but this decision felt like an act of defiance, and that was precisely what she was in need of at the moment.

Ross, or Mister Poldark as he was to her today, disliked rapini. He hadn’t said it in so many words but the absence of praise the last time she served it allowed her to solve for x.

Recently she’d gotten better at preparing the stuff so there was less bitterness. It turned out blanching, salting, and finishing with red pepper flakes proved key. But that mattered little to her. She loved all greens. Maybe there was a reason for that beyond her tendency to champion the underdog. She’d read somewhere that the bitter ones were higher in iron.

Maybe some bodies just need more iron, she’d wondered at the time. Ross clearly needed little. He was likely made of the fucking stuff, as stubborn and immovable as he was.

Demelza switched on the kettle and stared at the empty mug in her hand. Pride or self preservation, perhaps both, flooded her gut and drove her thoughts.

I will not let him see me upset. 

She’d come to accept that Ross’s manner often swung between that of a companion and one of an employer. She knew Ross had moods and wasn’t always up for a laugh. And on those darker days, she gave him a wide berth but still saw that he was looked after. Well fed, clothes laundered, house tidied–all the things a good housekeeper should be doing. But when he was feeling more playful, she’d sit across from him at the table as more of a mate or even next to him while they watched telly. And when his beloved Everton lost yet another match, she wouldn’t hesitate to tease him for his loyalty. It seemed she wasn’t the only one in the house who favoured the underdog.

On his part, he’d laugh at her jokes, chide her for working too hard, slip her a bonus whenever he found himself even a little flush. Sometimes he’d smile when she just walked into the room.

Still, Demelza knew her place and had a firm enough sense of belonging, at least most of the time. With him anyway. 

What she couldn't abide was the presence of Other People, when the rules were suddenly switched on her.

That had happened earlier when Ross’s prim-assed cousin in law, Elizabeth, came to call unannounced. Suddenly Demelza was meant to skivvy and scrape and be neither seen nor heard in the process. 

Her Worshipfulness didn’t care for anything substantial as far as food or drink was concerned but Demelza still brought out bottled water in a clean glass (that wasn’t chipped) as a good housekeeper would do. And in exchange for her service, she received an icy thank you with delicate nostrils oh so subtlety flared.

Was she born with that sneer or has she been under the surgeon’s knife to perfect it? 

But all that Demelza could bear, and she'd even managed to lock down all her own facial muscles so no brows raised or lips smirked in return. 

It was Ross’s response–averting his gaze and looking at the floor as if she herself was a nuisance to be waited out–that was so intolerable. Then once she’d left the room, she heard him laugh. 

To be fair, it wasn’t his heartiest chuckle, not the one he often shared when they joked and talked together, but a laugh was a laugh. And Elizabeth was his mate. All the time, not just when he felt lonely enough to slum it with the help, which is what Demelza always would be in the end.

It was nearly two hours later and Elizabeth long since gone, but Demelza hadn’t yet shaken the uneasiness. She pulled a knife from the drawer and set back to work.

She hated that Ross alone controlled what was true. 

Recently, quite accidentally, she’d come across the term epistemic injustice in her reading. Now she rolled the words around in her mouth and felt their sharp edges and their weight. Perhaps this particular situation wasn’t injustice exactly but it was fucked up.

But maybe, just maybe, two could play the game. Ross too might come to learn the sting of being cast aside.

No more sportive banter, no matter his mood. If she wouldn't let him know what she was thinking, what she was feeling, then he wouldn’t know what to expect. What was true. 

And he mustn’t know how important this job is to me. She might be able to live without his friendship–or so she tried to convince herself–but not so his paycheque.

The sliced chicken bore a chill from the fridge but the bacon was sizzling hot. Demelza trimmed the edges from the thankfully-still-crisp lettuce before she spread the sourdough slices with pesto mayonnaise. She’d prepared it only minutes before, conveniently forgetting it was Ross’s favourite. 

Then she switched off the kettle and pulled down a second mug from the dish rack.

I will never laugh with him again, she resolved. Not even if he asks it of me. Not for all the tea in China.

[maaarine]

India overtakes China to become world’s most populous country (Hannah Ellis-Petersen, The Guardian, April 24 2023)

“It is also the first time since 1950, when the UN first began keeping global population records, that China has been knocked off the top spot.

China’s population decline follows decades of strict laws to bring the country’s booming birthrate under control, including the introduction of a one-child policy in the 1980s.

This included fines for having extra children, forced abortions and sterilisations.

While initially highly effective in controlling the population, these policies became a victim of their own success, and the country is now grappling with an ageing population in steep decline, which could have severe economic implications.

Part of the problem is that because of a traditional preference for boys, the one-child policy led to a massive gender imbalance.

Men now outnumber women by about 32 million. “How can the country now shore up birth rates, with millions of missing women?” asks Mei Fong, the author of One Child, a book about the impact of the policy.

Recent policies introduced in China trying to incentivise women to have more children have done little to stimulate population growth.

Women still have only 1.2 children and the population is expected to fall by almost 10% in the next two decades.

According to projections, the size of the Chinese population could drop below 1 billion before the end of the century.

In India, the population has grown by more than a billion since 1950. Though growth has now slowed, the number of people in the country is still expected to continue to rise for the next few decades, hitting its peak of 1.7 billion by 2064. (…)

India’s demography is far from uniform across the country.

One third of predicted population growth over the next decade will come from just two states, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, in the north of the country, which are some of India’s poorest and most agricultural states.

Uttar Pradesh alone already has a population of about 235 million, bigger than Nigeria or Brazil.

Meanwhile states in India’s south, which is more prosperous and has far higher rates of literacy, population rates have already stabilised and have begun to fall.

In the next decade, states in the southern states such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu are likely to start grappling with an ageing population, and by 2025, one in five people in Kerala will be over 60.

The divide in population growth between India’s north and south could also have political implications.

After 2026, India’s electoral lines are due to be revised and redrawn based on census data, in particular relating to the number of people in constituencies.

Many politicians in southern states have expressed concern that their successes in bringing down population numbers, through education programmes, family planning and high literacy, could result in a reduction in their political representation in parliament, and a further political domination of the northern states that continue to have a population boom.

Currently the average age in India is just 29, and the country will continue to have a largely youthful population for the next two decades.

A similar “demographic dividend” proved highly useful in China, leading to an economic boom, particularly in manufacturing.

While India has one of the world’s fastest-growing economies in the world, and recently overtook the UK as the fifth-largest, experts have stressed that the country needs more investment in education and employment to seize the opportunity presented by a young population over the next few decades.

India continues to struggle with high youth unemployment and less than 50% of working-age Indians are in the workforce.

The figure for women is even lower, with just 20% of women participating in the formal labour market, a figure that is decreasing as India develops.”

[evilelitest2]

I wanted to echo a few points dimensionalrevolutionary said, as well as respond to a few things you said.

Firstly, implementing socialism without revolution has been tried before. Salvador Allende was a Marxist who was democratically elected President of Chile. As President, he began a number of programs to increase literacy, access to healthcare and employment, access to food, etc. You can look him up on your own time if you so choose. However, in 1973 a military coup forced him out of power and installed Augusto Pinochet, a dictator who killed thousands of innocents and caused many more to flee the country. This coup was backed by the United States, with Henry Kissinger saying “I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.”

In Indonesia, the Communist Party operated within the framework of electoral politics and became the largest non-ruling Communist Party on the planet. In return, the Indonesian government and army conducted mass killings of communists in 1965, resulting in the deaths of around 1 million people (many of whom weren’t even Communist Party members, just wrongfully implicated). It is no coincidence that the socialist states that remain today are those that seized state power via a revolution rather than relying on electoralism. History has shown that any non-violent attempt to achieve socialism is doomed to brutal repression by the bourgeoisie.

Now to address some of your points. Your point on “Sweden’s backsliding is because it’s not diverse enough” is only looking at part of the picture. Obviously part of Sweden’s slide to the far right is due to racist and anti-immigration sentiments, this backsliding has been occurring long before that, as far back as the collapse of the USSR (which provided an incentive to keep Scandinavian workers happy, lest they be influenced by the socialists on the border). AzureScapegoat, a Swedish Marxist, has an excellent video on this through the lens of the Overton Window (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK1Ikx6el1E).

You say that most revolutions fail, which is true, but as I pointed out above every single attempt to achieve socialism via electoralism has failed. I would rather risk a low-percentage chance at achieving socialism than try the method that has NEVER succeeded.

Setting aside the fact that Hannah Arendt, a pivotal philosopher in defining authoritarianism/totalitarianism, was a massive racist who claimed anti-racism was totalitarianism (which immediately discredits the ideology for me), every government on the planet is “authoritarian.” Liberalism is just as authoritarian, it’s just that the powers-that-be are unelected and unaccountable billionaires who can set the rules of society to their whims by pouring ungodly amounts of money into the legalized bribery that is lobbying.

Regarding your final point on trans rights, while there are some parties that have bad views on LGBT+ rights (such as the KKE in Greece), in general implying that Marxists are uniquely bad when it comes to LGBT+ rights is laughable. The USSR, a country which dissolved over 30 years ago, didn’t have excellent LGBT+ rights? That’s so crazy, I wonder how LGBT+ rights were in the United States at the same time. It’s also laughable to say that the US has better LGBT+ rights than Cuba, a country which recently passed an incredibly progressive family law by popular vote (rather than via 9 unelected judges), and which provides trans Cubans free gender-affirming care (along with their other free healthcare).

Finally, bemoaning a socialist country like China for having worse LGBT+ rights than the USA is incredibly disingenuous. Less than a century ago large parts of China were still feudal. Less than 50 years ago China was a mostly rural society of poor farmers. Expecting Global South countries which have not had the same abilities to develop due to unequal exchange (and often had bigoted law codes forced upon them by imperialist countries) is intellectually dishonest. China’s LGBT+ rights are absolutely behind the United States, but the difference is that China is improving (recently Beijing made transitioning easier and Shanghai opened several clinics for LGBT+ youths), while the USA is backsliding. I feel the trajectory is far more significant.

Again, thanks for the polite response

I'm a historian, you can assume I know who Allende is, both Chille and Indonesia are some very dark stains on US history and the nation needs to apologize for it property. That isn't really a condemnation of social democracy though, its more a condemnation of School of the Americas, like any country is going to have trouble when an imperialist state overthrows there government to force a right wing mass murdering autocrat. Now the communist states who remain today have mostly become super capitalist at this point, so I'm not sure how much of a win that is.

Your youtube friend is simplifying things a tad, after the Soviet Union fell you had backsliding in some areas but also some major progressive reforms in others, its not a clear backslide until the last few years with the anti immigration nonsense because a major schism in Swedish politics has been the fact that it is a very homogenous country. Social Democracy tends to thrive better when it has a broad diverse base to draw upon and a more intersectional foundation

No friend no, you can't just gloss over the revolutionary logistics bit, your a Marxists, you are supposed to be consequentialist about this. WHAT IS YOUR SPECIFIC PLAN. A revolution without a plan is not a revolution, its a Che Guevara tee shirt with extra steps. What is your revolutionary plan in the United States (I assume you are American). What specific revolutionary steps are you taking. Do you know how to use a gun? Do you have an organized cell? What revolutions' are you modeling yourself after? Marx himself talks about this, Revolutionaries who are stuck on the romantic image of revolutions of the past rather than the realities of revolutions in the present. My argument against revolution is that in the United States, there is no model for it working unless circumstances change dramatically, or you secretly have control of the US military

For electoralism, you get tangible results, just compromised and disappointing one. Biden as I said is a centrist hack, but even under him, the United States has move to the left more in the last three years than in the 30 years before. The reason why so many unions are going on strike right now is because of Biden's policies (though possibly unintentionally). It also prevented Trump from turning the US into a dictatorship

I used to work for the Hannah Arendt society, I know her flaws, but she isn't the only scholar on Authoritarianism. (also Marx was racist, like come on dude) Liberals are often authoritarian, which is why i'm not a liberal, I'm a social democrat. Democratic foundations however produce more stable and egalitarian states than dictatorships, dictatorships are inherently right wing, you don't need Hannah Arendt to do that.

The US did have better policies on queer issues than the USSR. Not by much, its was pretty awful, but there is a reason why you managed to get a large gay rights organizing group going in the US and that never really took off in the USSR. This is to not let the US off the hook "better than the USSR" isn't a great moral accomplishment. And to be clear, the USSR was better than any far right government, so credit where its due, but its weird to mythologize a regime that was never good on any queer rights issue.

Cuba is a big reversals, because Castro infamously put gays into camps, but the regime has reversed itself a lot in the last 20 years. So you get one, one communist regime which genuinely got better on queer issues and got better than the capitalist states (though only after the dictators died and the state started to moderate but still). Credit where it is due

To be honest, I think you are taking a pretty patronizing attitude towards China. Even ignoring how China has had a very long homosexual tradition (again its not a Christian country) One of the entire points of communism is about "Dragging" nations in to modernity, even ignoring the problematic Hegalian framework of that, the fact is that the anti queer stuff in CHina isn't just coming from ignorant rural peasants, its from the party itself. In many ways, things got worse for queer people under Mao because the state was centralized enough to actually enforce its will more. China has made some progress in the last ten years, but the Party still to this day has not asserted Homosexuality as a human right

Also parts of the US have backslide, the Blue states have some of the best trans protections in the entire world, like its not good what is happening right now in America, but having lived abroad a lot, it can get so much worse. in the US at least, the majority of the country don't support this backslide, and while the Democrats do suck, they have not backslide as a party, if anything they have moved to be more inclusive (no where near enough though, I don't want to let them off the hook)

Finally, I tend to be much more comfortable with Marxists when they are clearly not tankies, but marxists places get so quickly infested with Tankie nonsense which inevitably leads them to repeat rightists talking points. So how the typical marxist response to the crisis in Ukraine is basically a copy/paste of Tucker's Carlson's talking points. I understand that not all Marxists are tankies, but I do think Marxism as an ideology really needs to get over the nostalgic worship of failed authoritarian states.

Cheers, fun discussion

[gulfportofficial]

Jeez, sometimes I remember I was literally in China for the outbreak of COVID. It broke when I was in Istanbul for my holiday, and I was supposed to fly home to Chengdu through Wuhan. The first I knew about it was the hotel I'd booked to stay overnight at in Wuhan texting to say that they were sorry but they would have to cancel my booking due to the pneumonia in the city. Then my flight was canceled and rescheduled. I scrabbled around to find lodging before I could fly home to to Chengdu (it was very much home at the time.) Then they had to send me overseas again because of my visa - if you are not a Chinese national, you must leave and re-enter to renew your visa, so my work would send us to Thailand or Hong Kong for the 3 days it took - and when I re-entered it had truly begun. Lockdown started immediately. The national holidays were extended by the government and a lot of laws were immediately put in place about employers having to pay employees even if it was not legal to come to work. This was the end of January, 2020.

In February, I wrote to my American now wife, "It cannot make landfall there." It was that poetic I think, something like that. "You don't have the infrastructure."

Two months later I was giving tips to Americans in facebook groups about how to survive quarantine, from my apartment in Chengdu, using a VPN of course. Deliveries were not allowed into our apartment complexes in Chengdu, and we were not allowed out without specific permission, and the only way we could get food was delivery, but you were supposed to speak to the apartment manager and my Mandarin was just not good enough. So I would just wrap up my whole face over the mask, take the elevator down and plead with the gate man in the Mandarin I did have. It was certainly a time to be alive.

[zvaigzdelasas]

No details on the legislation beyond its adoption were immediately available.[...]

Titled "Women's Rights and Interests Protection Law", the bill was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) on Thursday. The NPC announced the legislation had passed on its website.[...]

Official news agency Xinhua said on Thursday that the legislation "strengthens the protection of the rights and interests of disadvantaged groups such as poor women, elderly women, and disabled women".

According to Xinhua, employers will be held to account if women's labour and social security rights and interests are violated, while obstructing the rescue of trafficked and kidnapped women will be specified as an offence.

The responsibility of local authorities to rescue trafficked and abducted women will also be set out, Xinhua said.

?????? What do you mean no details were immediately available???? You can literally read it right here

Ohhh they mean they didn't bother trying

30 Oct 22

[moonsb1996]

If I wrote MHA, what would I do with it? (AU??) TW:long post

Okay, this is a weird idea that popped into my head. And I want to complain to MHA while I wait to see how much more disappointing this series will be next. From the message above If I wrote MHA, what would I do with it? You can call it AU. Ps. Most of the ideas range from assassin's creed and bloodborne, etc. If I remember where they came from they will be in parentheses.

Where do quirks come from? "Humans would have traveled the universe if quirks hadn't appeared." Midoriya Izuku “It is caused by an unprecedented virus spreading to the world, carried by rats.” Chisaki Kai From the above information that has not been further stated or expanded, it can be concluded that before the era The superhero society in MHA is an era where space technology is heavily invested. Let's take this part and write it as the origin.

Humans are experiencing energy shortages. (Let's take what we can easily see in our era) because to travel the universe requires energy. When you have to use energy, you have to have money! Which government can find new energy? Or has any scientist discovered new energy? The government will raise as much capital as possible so that the country can become a cosmic superpower.

When you can't find it on Earth, go find it outside of Earth (dead space). Send people to drill outside the universe. But as far as the moon And then a new energy was actually discovered. The owner country and the drilling company received financial support. Raise funds and equipment for free to become rich.

But they went to the moon and got infected with something. and caused the project to be temporarily suspended. Send sick people to Earth to be healed. and covering up news about extraterrestrial drilling projects and these illnesses to keep the public from panicking

Some viruses were found from the patient. And started experimenting to find the cause (resident evil) by testing it on rats. But it caused the lab rats to have thoughts. Until he obtained things called quirks, he planned to escape from the testing center (the origin of Nezu, which Hori didn't think to tell).

Boom! Glowing babies in China! Ps. If you want to make it a big issue and set it in Japan, a superpower country in the style of the Japanese, that would be fine.

okay ! Let's talk about the origins of quirks and what to do after that. The era of the origins of chaos has begun, right? At that time, everyone called it "special powers" (How do you spell it correctly?) From within MHA, we roughly know that it must have been the same era in which AFO was born, but the Villain style of the cartoon Saturday-Sunday is boring, so let's add something that makes sense.

The government has declared that quirk is a medical condition. To maintain power, you must find people who understand. Give a lot of funding to scientists who will study this matter and bring people with quirks to experiment and check. p.s. Quirk analysis is a professional matter. There will be employment in the future. But in order for the government to be a villain, it must cause the government to do bad things, such as kidnapping, human experimentation, torture, etc.

People know about their dissatisfaction. Come out and protest. Trying to harm each other (MHA-ch193) and an AFO appears. Become the most powerful outsider. Along with having so many followers, the government is like, they have to turn them into criminals. It began to be called "Villain" because of AFO. It was the origin of the Dark Lord from a comic book. AFO called himself "Villain" which caused the government at that time to call him "Villain". ”

How has the government responded? Use martial law in the area to protect leaders such as the Emperor of Japan. (You can just talk about it) etc. that raises the level of the royal family. I still wonder if AFO wants to rule the whole world. must destroy the entire royal family as well To prevent the government from using the royal family to gather manpower to take back their own power. (For countries with royal blood or it could be a reference to the government's fears)

There is a special military unit. that uses technology that travels the universe to fight with AFO (armored core 6) will explain the robot How can you get Iron Mite?!) which can be connected to the search for energy sources. It uses reverse technology to use energy discovered on planets where old projects used to send people to drill for energy sources.

According to MHA style, the government cannot fight. This has led to a group of vigilantes using their quirks to fight against villains. People began to have hope and called them “heroes”.

Change the new government because the old group is not working well. Was withdrawn by the people to help support the heroes. America came up with the Hero Law! People like it. The vigilante became a hero.

The government must find a way to eliminate AFOs and know that “Heroes don't kill villains,” so they created secret units, special forces soldiers who fronted them as “heroes” like lady nagant (MGS), so they trained these people to become both Assassins, special forces soldiers, secret royal agents, etc., and then use them to wipe out the Villain underground organization until it is completely gone, until even the AFO has to pretend to make itself a legend. Because sometimes The hero is too prominent. Therefore, there must be a special forces gang with a part of them being spies to enter the village. and spy on the heroes to see if they are AFO spies or not at the same time Who came up with the idea? It's the United States of America! (Other countries like kgb, mi6, take it with them and get the same results) And the matter remained unfinished until it reached AM.

And when it comes to our main character, Midoriya Izuku, he gets the power of AM and goes to take the entrance exam for UA according to the rules as the story progresses. What do I do next?

Let Aizawa do as he says. If he really wants to expel a student, he actually does it. For example, Bakugo tried to attack Midoriya the first time. Okay, he warned. The second time (Deku vs Kacchan 1) he put down the documents after the incident. told Bakugou “The exit door is over there.” A cold but attentive teacher will soon appear!

Worthy competitors: I have at least 2 people in mind. 2.1. Iida Tenya at the UA school sports event said that Izuku is his rival, right? Let it be! Both friends and competitors Not having to think about fighting each other all the time is an interesting dynamic. 2.2. Todoroki Shoto also announced at the UA school sports event. The story of AM and Izuku and the story of Shoto and Endeavor (father and son and father and son) are interesting!

Increase the relationship between Izuku and Ochako. There will be a female lead character who is interested in the male lead character. But what does it mean to be someone who likes him so much that in the first episode he didn't show up at all? Let's show some. will feel that This pair has chemistry, okay! And let's face it, these 4 people are their own group with the main prominent roles, like Izuku's side and everyone in Room 1-A, how they became a family, such as Izuku and Aoyama. Are you close friends? (If you were to have a traitor, it would be Aoyama. If you encounter something like this, Izuku and the reader will get hurt a bit.) The female students in Class 1-A were their own gang. Give Ochako friends who are ready to join her in the boat. But I have to put my hand on my forehead because Ochako and Izuku are both equal. Present mic and Midnight side story: Searching for the traitor. To make Mitnight's death even more painful. You have to see her role. (AOT)

If not, Aoyama is a traitor. I would like to present the ideas of those who have written here. Aizawa's former student (His idea is really cool!) which Present mic starting the investigation alone. It's like when no one believes him, he has to find evidence. But don't worry, Midnight believes him. also join in the secret investigation

Showing the lives of UA teachers to make them feel like they are not props. OK, Hori.

Nezu joins the gang. After knowing that Present mic And Midnight doing secretly in his school? but because one must maintain neutrality So he has to be really impartial (and he's very clever, he has to be good at playing political games, like in pre-Chinese movies, right?)

What role does HPSC play? Which side is it? The second villain (if AFO is the villain) and what do they do?

Control a special unit that takes on the role of a hero to eliminate the target. or organization group and corrupt heroes by ordering killings (MHA ch.314) They fear that if AFO is not the only one who must be careful They had to be careful like this all the time. Still gathering manpower Keep bringing in children to train as these special agents (I don't think Lady Nagant and Hawks, just two people working like this, this organization will last until the Izuku era.)

Todoroki Toya and Takami Keigo are in this special training project (fan comic :@keiidakamya I really enjoyed it, go check it out in 2.1 Endeavor sent Touya because HPSC tricked him about it. How to cure Touya so he can become the hero he dreams to be (I might like his redemption arc a bit But I want another type because Enji who is depressed because of Touya's story is an interesting drama.) 2.2 Keigo is number 1 in the training program and Touya is number 2. Their relationship is more like rivalry (no need for Yaoi that much). 2.3 Touya clashes with HPSC after learning that the project wants to create a unit of assassins, not heroes. So he escaped. Then there was a fire at Segoto and the AFO met as per regulations.

And our main villains LOV, if I get them, how will I write them? : They're really villains, but there must be a redemption role if you want the ending. “Well, your eyes say you want me to help you.”

Shimura Tenko has never disappeared. I know Shigaraki Tomura is a favorite villain of many people. But what if we didn't see Tenko at all? It feels like why Shigaraki must want to be better than AFO. Is it true? He could be in the same style as AOT (Eren Yeager is the hero and the villain who hurts a lot. I'm not finished yet. )

Himiko Toga didn't intend to kill Saito (MHA utra analysis –p.226-227) If you want her to not be a psychotic murderer, then a 17 year old girl forced to hide her quirks becomes. It's a mental problem, such as not getting the right amount of blood to drink. become an addiction Because I feel “I'm afraid he'll say I'm not cute. So I took a knife and stabbed Saito.” It sounded like this. Killing people with clear intent

Mr.compress is a Robin Hood like his ancestors. will come to change society by destroying I'm afraid that his great-grandfather, Oji Harime, will curse Mr.compress. He's really a Robin Hood. Go ahead and don't kill people because it's against his family's rules and such.

Spinner, the voice of reason Characters who become supporting roles Instead of getting a prominent role with him, let him be the No. 2 glue after Twice. When LOV does something that is against the idea of calling everyone. Let him be the one who speaks with reason to his people. During the battle in front of the hospital, you will feel that, yes, this is the leader. Not an MLA poster boy.

Twice is Twice. But you may have to change the subject. Some of my best friends (for example, killing all the people who aren't my friends, etc.) If you want LOV to survive, you have to show other sides than just your own group.

Dabi has no icy quirks: I hate it when Hori said it was like a slap in the face to Enji: Look! He is already a masterpiece. You made a mistake, Endeavor. Ha ha ha! Damn it! A message that will make readers like me feel that Endeavor is dead. He is Todoroki Enji. Where has he gone?! words to say Even if you're not a masterpiece, you're still my child! That's because if it has more power than Endeavor but is inferior to AM, it makes AFO's kidnapping sound more believable. But I love my father very much, so it's like this now. Ae Wang Okay, looks like I'm complaining a lot again. Use a translator If it's weird, I apologize in advance. Thank you for reading until the end.

[mightyflamethrower]

Elite higher education in America—long unquestioned as globally preeminent—is facing a perfect storm. Fewer applicants, higher costs, impoverished students, collapsing standards, and increasingly politicized and mediocre faculty reflect a collapse of the university system.

The country is waking up to the reality that a bachelor’s degree no longer equates with graduates being broadly educated and analytical. Just as often, they are stereotyped as pampered, largely ignorant, and gratuitously opinionated.

No wonder polls show a drastic loss of public respect for higher education and, specifically, a growing lack of confidence in the professoriate.

Each year, there are far fewer students entering college. Despite a U.S. population 40 million larger than 20 years ago, fertility rates have fallen in two decades by some 500,000 births per year.

Meanwhile, from 1980 to 2020, room, board, and tuition increased by 170 percent.

Skyrocketing costs cannot be explained by inflation alone, given that campuses have lightened faculty teaching loads while expanding administrative staff. At Stanford, there is nearly one staffer or administrative position for every student on campus.

At the same time, to vie for a shrinking number of students, colleges began offering costly in loco parentis counseling, Club Med-style dorms and accommodations, and extracurricular activities.

As applicants grew scarcer and expenses went up, universities began offering “full-service” student-aid packages, heavily reliant on government-subsidized student loans. The collective indebtedness of over 40 million student borrowers is nearing $2 trillion.

Worse still, an entire new array of therapeutic majors and minors appeared in the social sciences. Most of these gender/race/environmental courses did not emphasize analytical, mathematical, or oral and written skills. Such course work did not impress employers.

Faculty hiring had become increasingly non-meritocratic based on diversity/equity/inclusion criteria. New faculty hires have sought to institutionalize self-serving DEI and recalibrate higher education to prepare a new generation for self-perpetuating radical ideologies.

At the more elite campuses, racial quotas vastly curtailed the number of Asian and white students. But that racialist social engineering project required dropping the SAT requirement and comparative ranking of high school grade point averages.

As less well-prepared students entered college, faculty either inflated grades (80 percent are A/A- now at Yale), watered down their course requirements, or added new soft-ball classes. To do otherwise while attempting to retain old standards earned targeted faculty charges of racism and worse.

Another way to square the circle of rising costs and fewer and poorer students was to attract foreign students. They pay the full costs of college, especially those on generous stipends from the Middle East and China. Nearly a million foreign nationals, the majority from illiberal regimes, are now here on full scholarships.

While here, many see their newfound freedoms as invitations to attack America. Once here, they too often romanticize the very autocratic governments and illiberal values of their homelands that they seemingly sought to escape by coming to America.

Most foreign students assume they are exempt from the consequences of violating campus rules or laws in general. After all, they pay the full cost of their education and thus partially subsidize those who do not.

Almost half of all those enrolled in college never graduate. Those who do, on average, require six years to do so.

All these realities explain why teenagers increasingly opt for trade schools, vocational education, and community colleges. They prefer to enter the work force largely debt-free and in demand as skilled, sought-after tradespeople.

Most feel that if the old general education curriculum has been destroyed at weaponized universities, then there is no great loss in skipping the traditional BA degree. A far better selection of demanding and well-taught classes can be found online at a lower cost.

The result is a disaster for both higher education and a wake-up call for the country at large.

Entire generations are now suffering from prolonged adolescence as they drag out college to consume their early and mid-twenties. The unfortunate result for the country is a radical delay in marriage, childbearing, and home ownership—all the time-honored catalysts for adulthood and the responsibilities that come with it.

Politicized faculty, infantilized students, and mediocre classes have combined to erode the prestige of college degrees, even at once elite colleges. A degree from Columbia no longer guarantees either maturity or preeminent knowledge but is just as likely a warning to employers of a noisy, poorly educated graduate more eager to complain to Human Resources than to enhance a company’s productivity.

Yet it may not be all that unfortunate that much of higher education is going the way of malls, movie theaters, and CDs. The country needs far more skilled physical labor and less prolonged adolescence and debt.

STEM courses, professional schools, and traditional campuses are better insulated from mediocrity and should survive. Otherwise, millions more starting adulthood at 18 debt-free and fewer encumbered, ignorant, and entitled at 25 is not a bad thing for the country.