Communism Is An Empty Factory
Yes! You heard it right! Alexey Stakhanov was a counter-revolutionary. And yes! We know that his achievements (August, 1935: 102 tonnes of coal mined in 6 hours — September, 1935: 227 tonnes in one shift) were the product of Soviet propaganda.
Nonetheless, Stakhanov represents a symbol, the symbol par excellence: he represents work. More specifically, his myth embodies the tendency of almost all communists to incense, glorify, mythologize (precisely!) the action of working.
But, without hesitation, we reply: communism is the society that abolishes work. “I can’t believe it! Did they really say that?!”, “Bunch of lazy ass bastards!”, “But that’s impossible!”, “Because I work for you, fuckers!”. No worries, we’re used to these reactions!
But look closer! Capital needs work. It needs our intellectual or physical power to sustain itself and to expropriate surplus-value. Hence, we were forced to work, since the first time common lands — used for sustenance — were expropriated, generating simultaneously the capitalist and the wage-worker. And guess what? We still have to fucking work today!
Given the essential role of the worker, without whom accumulation wouldn’t be possible, the refusal of work becomes the highest form of conflict possible. Remember: “if the labourer consumes his disposable time for himself, he robs the capitalist”. But — don’t panic! — refusal of work is not necessarily the complete abstention from it.
Refusal of work could be synthesized with this concept: time of life subtracted from work. No! We are not suggesting bank robberies! Don’t get us wrong, we like the practice! But the action of movements should always reflect their power; leap-forward mentality and vanguardist machismo are reactionary and authoritarian.
On the contrary, these practices should be easy to reproduce and should emphasize the centrality of use-value (goods are useful and satisfactory to you). Re-appropriation as the cut that rips the capitalist veil of profit; in essence, workers produced it, it’s yours!
Refusal and re-appropriation examples for picky people: fake sick leaves, five finger discounts, alteration of time sheets, free transportation rides, etc… Re-appropriation of life and goods!
Last but not least, Capital reacts to workers insubordination. As the past shows, refusal of work is met with progressive automation and technologization of production. This is good! More power to dead labour, more freedom to living labour! We want automation, but in common! Give us the means of production! Communism is an empty factory!