1 — why anti-capitalism

Capitalism is inherently a machine of oppression: a system that is not just indifferent to human misery, but actively requires it. Racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, imperialism, incarceration, asymmetrical surveillance, permanent indebtedness, and other forms of organized abandonment are not byproducts of capitalism — rather, they’re what make it possible; and none can be disentangled from the others. To achieve liberation from any form of oppression, we must dismantle all forms of oppression; and capitalism is the vicious circle protecting them all.

(Capitalism is also, at its essence, a delusion of infinite expansion that burns through the finite resources of a real world, and eats its future in exchange for each year’s profits; capitalism’s need for a constantly-expanding market guarantees the ecological catastrophe we can see just beyond us, one we have little time to elude.)

2 — systems & dignity

Our project here is to study and understand the machines underneath the machine, so we can try our best to understand and destroy these systematically connected cycles of oppressions.

As people of color, women, queers, and otherwise marginalized folks, we are born in a place where we are despised but also assured that with endeavor and assimilation we can accomplish what the system knows to be impossible. We’ve been taught not to see the structures of inequality; we’ve been told if we suffer it’s due to personal inadequacy; and we’ve been programmed to respond to the human differences between us with fear and loathing.

None of this is theory, but it is study: learning to define and empower ourselves toward political action and liberation, and unlearning the colonized education that’s become the water we swim in. We aim to cover both concepts and careful descriptions of the agents of capital, so that we see that the forces at work aren’t incomprehensible. Our goal is to build upon the rich body of work that has been done on the many oppressions under capitalism and to help grow the visions, strategies, practices, and common ground we need to build a free, shared society.

3 — on joy

Under capitalism, we’re not particularly human any more — we are parties to a transaction designed to set us against each other; to play exploiter or exploited, eater or eaten.

But beyond mere survival, a horror of capitalism is that it robs us of joy, of human connection, and of doing anything for a reason other than duty and earning the necessities of animal life. It robs us of our uniquely human capacities in favor of turning us, numb, into animals or machines.

One of the cruelest oppressions capitalism requires is our oppression of our selves — of our ability to feel the joy of connection and self-connection; to produce, care, and enjoy; to find the drudgery of work wanting. Capitalism must protect itself against the image of a world that can be free.

And so part of our project is to try to share our emotional, intellectual, and physical joys — to fight self-censorship and self-oppression and to reclaim some of our humanity. Once we see ourselves in our full capacity for joy — free and exquisite — it’s forever impossible to breathe the fumes of the capitalist apparatus.

Capitalism lays waste and produces waste. Its material effect is death, and its emotional effect is inadequacy, powerlessness, and alienation. But no amount of violence can ever extinguish the human passion for dignity and justice: we will likely not win; but the fight is all we have; and perhaps out of this struggle, we’ll get to share some confusion, hope, ugliness, and joy. We hope this can be a place where we can imagine together what a liberated future looks like: one not based in a currency of suffering; one with worlds beyond work; one that recognizes the yearnings and dreams of our human souls.

4 — hello

We’re grateful you’re here! ❤️

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