Job for young commie?

[sweetandy]

I live in the US, and I consider myself a communist. I'm 19 years old, and due to the currently terrible job "market" (cringe), I find job opportunities to be scarce and somewhat restrictive. Unfortunately, I need money to live, as the societal machine dictates and demands (food, shelter, etc). I can't live with my parents forever, and don't want to do so.

I'd have to say that the easiest job to get would be in a crassly capitalist industry like generic retail or fast food. The problem is, I do NOT want to support all of the capitalist oppression entailed with working at a place like McDonald's, along with all of the socioeconomic oppression that such jobs propagate. In short, I'm too adamantly against the principle of such a job and the corporation that backs it that I simply couldn't do it. I couldn't wake up in the morning and look at myself in the mirror; I'm hurting too many people, not the least of which is myself.

I'm trying to get involved with various activist groups and I've been making a little bit of progress. I'm a budding computer programmer (free-as-in-freedom software only, thank you), a skilled musician, a fairly skilled writer, I'm great at math and love to read, all of that jazz. Can anyone propose a possible job that won't oppress so flagrantly, one that, in the US, is compatible with communist principles and doesn't just feed the bile of corporate capitalism back into the system?

Thanks!

[ComradeOm]

Go work on a commune or grow a little beard and become a professional 'radical'. Otherwise you're going to have to engage with "the system". That's a disadvantage of living in a capitalist society. It wouldn't be capitalism if there were a whole load of 'socialist jobs' floating around :glare:

So if you don't want to work for a capitalist enterprise (the horror) like everyone else, I suggest that you either drop out of the system altogether or go the other direction and start your own business. Alternatively you could get a normal job in a factory/shop like everybody else. It may be a waste of your talents, it may gnaw on your conscience, but welcome to life

And welcome to the forums. Hope you stick around

[Bubbles]

I don't really see how you could work in capitalist economy with communistic principles. The only communistic principle in the market today is the struggle against it. In McDonalds, at Wal Mart and so on.

[this is an invasion]

Sell weed

[Animal Farm Pig]

Take a government job or a job with a non-profit organization.

[Aeval]

Well, first off, just because you work in a crap retail job doesn't mean you have to go against your principles. If you take some shitty job (and lets face it, almost everyone has to at some point in their lifes...) you could try to unionise people and generally make others in that job aware of their rights and hopefully help develop a militant workplace - yea, it'd suck for you, you'd be working a shit job, but on the plus side you'd have money and potentially be being useful....

or you could apply to go to uni in a country without fees - then you could develop your computer programming/maths/writing skills and then get a cool job, though you'll probably have to work in a shitty job to get money to move abroad in the first place and really it's just delaying the decision by a few years...

or go and get a practical and socially useful job - do you have to pay to become things like paramedics/nurses/social workers/teachers etc in the US? If not, you could go and do that - the pay won't be awesome but you'll be being useful and I guess it's not as soul destroying as working in McDonald's :) Or go and learn a trade (ie. become a plumber/electrician etc) and then make sure you don't rip off poor people as a lot of them seem to...

or just go and become a "musician and a writer" - there are tons of them here, I don't really know how they have enough money for food and stuff but they seem to manage it :lol:

[Raúl Duke]

a non-profit organization
My first job was in this...and I enjoyed my time.
But many non-profits don't have a lot of job positions, especially if the depend on volunteers.

[Tavarisch_Mike]

OP, you have probably heard it many, many times before but it is true that when you start your working life you dont have so much of an option, im sorry but thats it.
The whole thing with socialism is the awareness of that we are forced to take whatever gives us an income, and ofcourse that this is what we want to change, besides there arnt any "good" and "bad" companies to work for they are all in the system.

@Aeval about the musician and writers in Berlin arent they (at least the foreigners) very often frome rich backrounds and therefor dont really have any problem with financing theire hobby/work?

[Delenda Carthago]

young commie,you have to remember why people are turning to communism:its because they are poor people that work in shitty jobs in capitalism and they strive for something better.I work for minimum wage and without insurance,that's why i want to destroy this system and put socialism in its place:I have a class interest to do it.

you cant have socialist islands in a capitalist ocean.that shit dont work.so stfu and go work in your local macdonalds and make a fuckin anarchosyndicalist union!NOW!

[ContrarianLemming]

I live in the US, and I consider myself a communist. I'm 19 years old, and due to the currently terrible job "market" (cringe), I find job opportunities to be scarce and somewhat restrictive. Unfortunately, I need money to live, as the societal machine dictates and demands (food, shelter, etc). I can't live with my parents forever, and don't want to do so.

I'd have to say that the easiest job to get would be in a crassly capitalist industry like generic retail or fast food. The problem is, I do NOT want to support all of the capitalist oppression entailed with working at a place like McDonald's, along with all of the socioeconomic oppression that such jobs propagate. In short, I'm too adamantly against the principle of such a job and the corporation that backs it that I simply couldn't do it. I couldn't wake up in the morning and look at myself in the mirror; I'm hurting too many people, not the least of which is myself.

I'm trying to get involved with various activist groups and I've been making a little bit of progress. I'm a budding computer programmer (free-as-in-freedom software only, thank you), a skilled musician, a fairly skilled writer, I'm great at math and love to read, all of that jazz. Can anyone propose a possible job that won't oppress so flagrantly, one that, in the US, is compatible with communist principles and doesn't just feed the bile of corporate capitalism back into the system?

Thanks!

Sweetandy, I'll level with ya, not half these guys work in jobs that don't conflict with communist principles, I don't and few communists do.
You shouldn't feel ashamed when you are forced to work in McDonalds or Walmart, theres nothing wrong with that, you say it yourself, you have little choice, nor do we.

Don't let anyone tell you that you're a hypocrit if you work for a corporation.

[Aeval]

@Aeval about the musician and writers in Berlin arent they (at least the foreigners) very often frome rich backrounds and therefor dont really have any problem with financing theire hobby/work?

Hmm, I dunno about them being from rich backgrounds, though some of them certainly are. It seems to be more that those types of people move here with no job prospects, because they think it's really "alternative" and generally awesome, and then presume they'll just fall into some job once they arrive. Then they get here and realise the city has a ridiculously high unemployment rate, there are hardly any jobs if you can't speak a decent level of German and the pay is normally pretty crap, so they use up all their savings going to Berghain and buying crap from Mauerpark, and eventually run out of money and move back home :lol:

Most people I've met like that I wouldn't call "rich" though - they're certainly not poor but it's not like their mummys and daddys are bankrolling them. They're mostly just idiots for thinking that anyone here will care about their mediocre art/music/writings enough to provide them with a steady income :laugh:

[Tavarisch_Mike]

Most people I've met like that I wouldn't call "rich" though - they're certainly not poor but it's not like their mummys and daddys are bankrolling them. They're mostly just idiots for thinking that anyone here will care about their mediocre art/music/writings enough to provide them with a steady income :laugh:

Haha ok thanks for the info, now my prejudices about those people got a steady ground :lol:

[leftace53]

I'm having sort of the same dilemma as you, but as I'm going to school in 6 weeks, I figured I'd rather spend my time volunteering and doing some personal research (what, I want to be an academic!) until then. I'm in sort of a work study program though, so I know I'll get sufficient living money in a bit, I'm just forgoeing luxuries.

I'd suggest finding a place of work where you're not dying every second. Maybe a small business that sells band shirts, or a leftist cafe (everyone seems to have these near them except me). Or work part time (however many hours you need to work to get enough money to eat, pay rent etc...) and find a non profit/leftist organization to volunteer at part time. That can help you keep sane, and give you experience in the non profit scene that may help you land a job later (like working your way up or something)

[rednordman]

Personally, I think that going and working in a shit job, especially with a hugh powerfull company is the best thing to do for a communist. This is because you actually get to experience first hand exactly how much a farce the system of capitalism is. It also gives you ammo for life that you can use to spread the harsh facts about the 'virtues of the market'. In otherwords, they can say what they like and spew out any statistic they want, just tell them to go and see what it actually like to be at the ever increasing bottom of the scale. A true sespit of 'prosperity' i can tell you:rolleyes:.

God knows what Rand and Reagen where thinking. They fought for a system that creates misery and poverty and spreads it like a disease that is hard to kill.

[Bubbles]

Personally, I think that going and working in a shit job, especially with a hugh powerfull company is the best thing to do for a communist. This is because you actually get to experience first hand exactly how much a farce the system of capitalism is. It also gives you ammo for life that you can use to spread the harsh facts about the 'virtues of the market'. In otherwords, they can say what they like and spew out any statistic they want, just tell them to go and see what it actually like to be at the ever increasing bottom of the scale. A true sespit of 'prosperity' i can tell you:rolleyes:.

Well, you're bit of a twat if you take a shitty job as some sort of working class tourism... You take as good of a job you can get off course.

Also: What are those non profit jobs you guys talk about?

[NoOneIsIllegal]

Working at a shitty job only radicalizes you more. You cannot avoid the impossible! :lol:
Working in crummy workplaces will help you see first-hand the inequalities and oppression that you cannot see through a book (Knowledge is important, but so is living in the real world...) I'm not saying just go take the first shitty job presented, but if this is your first one, that's the standard for starting off. We all start somewhere.

[Terminator X]

I'm in a unique situation in my job, I think, where I'm able to work for a corporation AND keep my commie principles intact AND infiltrate a lot of workplaces and assist the working class.

Let's just say I can approve employees to take more time off from work and generally be a pain in the ass to supervisors/managers who try to tell them they can't.

[IllicitPopsicle]

Today on Tales From the Yum Corporation...

I worked for six months as a janitor for KFC. Shit was nasty. I was so happy when I got fired. Working at a corporation like that, it made me - if anything - a better anarcho-communist than before. It certainly didn't lead to my respect of the ruling class.

[Tavarisch_Mike]

Wait a minute, this thread got to much of some upper-perspective. I know moste low wage/status-jobs sucks but do we need to call them for "shit-jobs"? Moste of them are things that has to be done, tasks that are importante to make society function.

Im with Bubbles on this one, it sounds like some sort of proletarian safari when people say that they will take a "shitty-job" just to be more radical.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Become a paperboy. It will give you plenty of experience for your future role as professional class warrior.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Some manual labor, like construction worker or prostitute.

Yeah...there are few jobs that will make you fantasize about setting your boss/foreman on fire more than working in the construction field, I've found.

[Lyev]

Become a prison officer or policeman.

[Aeval]

Wait a minute, this thread got to much of some upper-perspective. I know moste low wage/status-jobs sucks but do we need to call them for "shit-jobs"? Moste of them are things that has to be done, tasks that are importante to make society function.


I think we can call them shit jobs when noone in their right mind would choose to do them if they didn't have to - and I'm pretty sure working in fastfood places and stuff aren't too important when it comes to society functioning properly, so I reckon it's find to slag them off :)


Im with Bubbles on this one, it sounds like some sort of proletarian safari when people say that they will take a "shitty-job" just to be more radical.

I read a book once (called ,Lenz' if you want to look it up, I don't think it's been translated into English but it's a good read) about a leftie in the late 60s who becomes really disillusioned with the whole scene and one of the main things that makes him do so is that his group tells all its student members to go and work in some shitty factory jobs and try to radicalise people. So he does so, is overqualified and is offered an office job which he then turns down and demands a job on the factory floor. Once he gets the job he realises the random foreign guy he met whilst he was waiting, who needed to support his family and stuff, now probably wasn't going to get a job - moral of the story: don't steal jobs off people who need it just to win radical points when you could get another one :lol:

[StoneFrog]

Go work on a commune or grow a little beard and become a professional 'radical'.

*scratches his stubble* so when this grows ill be a professional radical, better start reading more don't want to be under prepared. :w00t:

[Lost In Translation]

Try getting a research assistant position at your college (assuming you are in one), so long as it's not at the School of Business (oh the irony). Unfortunately, you're definitely going to have to sell yourself to get the position, but you'll be exposed to a lot of faculty who are very progressive thinking (not communist, but definitely better than a reactionary prof). I'm not sure what the pay's like, but it's a relatively sheltered job.

[Animal Farm Pig]

Also: What are those non profit jobs you guys talk about?

Non-profit organization-- this could be a charity or a non-governmental organization doing some kind of social work.

I work for a non-profit organization similar to UFF Sweden helping to raise money for development work in poor countries.

[Bubbles]

Non-profit organization-- this could be a charity or a non-governmental organization doing some kind of social work.

I work for a non-profit organization similar to UFF Sweden helping to raise money for development work in poor countries.
That's a really bad example. UFF Sweden was a scam company... Only 6 percent went to charity, cheating with taxes and so on

My experience is that the non profit organizations are as bad as the rest of the capitalist companies. For example we got a business chain called Emmaus who has been involved in union conflicts with their employees. The same goes for the biggest animal rights organization with employees who also has been involved in union conflicts.

[Tavarisch_Mike]

I read a book once (called ,Lenz' if you want to look it up, I don't think it's been translated into English but it's a good read) about a leftie in the late 60s who becomes really disillusioned with the whole scene and one of the main things that makes him do so is that his group tells all its student members to go and work in some shitty factory jobs and try to radicalise people. So he does so, is overqualified and is offered an office job which he then turns down and demands a job on the factory floor. Once he gets the job he realises the random foreign guy he met whilst he was waiting, who needed to support his family and stuff, now probably wasn't going to get a job - moral of the story: don't steal jobs off people who need it just to win radical points when you could get another one :lol:

Yeah one of our communist parties here in Sweden did the same in the 60/70s. Told theire members who where students to quit theire studies and start working in factories, in the 30s that was very common in the western world, ive heard, that intellectuals (middleclass) would get a job in some factory and tell the workers that they are being exploited, like if they didnt allready know that :rolleyes:.

Your book seems the give the point very clear. :D

[chegitz guevara]

Wait a minute, this thread got to much of some upper-perspective. I know moste low wage/status-jobs sucks but do we need to call them for "shit-jobs"?

It's not the money that makes a job a shit job. Cleaning grease traps at $30/hour would still be a shit job.

What makes a job a shit job is whether or not it is degrading to your dignity as a human being. Most low wage jobs are precisely that.

[sunfarstar]

welcome to china shanghai! being 2010EXPO,SO ,there are many jobs.:rolleyes:

[Obs]

Yeah...there are few jobs that will make you fantasize about setting your boss/foreman on fire more than working in the construction field, I've found.
Yeah, probably 80% of the class conscious workers I've met have been in construction.

[Tavarisch_Mike]

It's not the money that makes a job a shit job. Cleaning grease traps at $30/hour would still be a shit job.

What makes a job a shit job is whether or not it is degrading to your dignity as a human being. Most low wage jobs are precisely that.

You se i dont think its degrading to do stuff thats must be done, like cleaning up some sort of mess. Whats degrading for me is the actual low pay for doing somethin necessary and the whole thing that i dont have any freedom ore influence on my life, and therefor i hate wage slavery. :)

What i tried to say is that we today have to much of the upper-classes mentality. By refaring to traditionally working class jobs with necessary tasks as just shit, because of that some people with theire posisition in society thinks that they are to much of a human for doing some tasks, and that attitude spreads down to ordinary people who later on when they got on of this "shit-jobs" feel some sort of personal guilt.

[rednordman]

Well, you're bit of a twat if you take a shitty job as some sort of working class tourism... You take as good of a job you can get off course.Obviously. But I would not really consider it as working class 'tourism', but rather 'experience in the real world'.

I think that solidarity plays a big part in all left-wing ideologies. All I can say is that you are most likely to find solidarity in shitty jobs, than good ones. Its the good jobs where people find out quickly that it pays to look out for themselves only. This generally as competition is so intense. They are also centred around the individual rather than the collective workforce.

I can see this with some of my friends who have decent office jobs. Alot of them went into buisnesses with high morals and ideals, yet end up looking at their former ideals as naive and out of touch with reality.

Does anyone on here know of any 'successful' and 'wealthy' communists? Well I bet you could name a few more successful and wealthy people who used to be communists.

In todays age, I do think that the term good job is linked highly with how much money you get, and shitty with how little you get. How many £30,000-£40,000 a year jobs are considered shitty?

[rednordman]

Wait a minute, this thread got to much of some upper-perspective. I know moste low wage/status-jobs sucks but do we need to call them for "shit-jobs"? Moste of them are things that has to be done, tasks that are importante to make society function.

Im with Bubbles on this one, it sounds like some sort of proletarian safari when people say that they will take a "shitty-job" just to be more radical.Well it isnt like many on here actually have much of a choice nowadays. The economy in most countries are so fucked that its near impossible to get a 'professional' job due to companies being cut-throat and competition pools being so full. Also I apologise for using the phrase 'shitty job' just i have been told so many times that I have one, that I cannot think of another word:D.

[Bubbles]

Obviously. But I would not really consider it as working class 'tourism', but rather 'experience in the real world'.

Experience in the real world... Maybe i should get a descent office job then instead of my shitty one (i deal with excrement for real). Must be just as easy to be a tourist there.

[rednordman]

Experience in the real world... Maybe i should get a descent office job then instead of my shitty one (i deal with excrement for real). Must be just as easy to be a tourist there.haha, you cannot be a tourist as such anywhere nowadays, there is way too much competition and way too little job insecurity. Everyone is feeling the pressure. I suppose that is what is most nasty about capitalism. Even people who have so-called 'good-jobs' also have to deal with severe stress. But they still have it ten times better than the people in manual jobs and such.

Anyway, sometimes you have to do such jobs just to get a better idea of what sort of work you like and what you dont. Im not talking whole career here, just mabey a few months to get an idea how shit it really is for a rather large portion of the population.

[Bubbles]

Anyway, sometimes you have to do such jobs just to get a better idea of what sort of work you like and what you dont. Im not talking whole career here, just mabey a few months to get an idea how shit it really is for a rather large portion of the population.
Well, you're most certainly right. I'm calling my mother tomorrow and I'm gonna tell her; You're doing it wrong *****, you should of just have stayed at your shitty job for about five months and then when you realized you where all stressed out and felt the pain in you're body, you should've taken a comfortable management job somewhere instead.

[this is an invasion]

It's not the money that makes a job a shit job. Cleaning grease traps at $30/hour would still be a shit job.
.

Would totally do that for 40 hours a week.

[Tavarisch_Mike]

Well it isnt like many on here actually have much of a choice nowadays. .


Thas exactly what i said earlier in this thread.

[ArrowLance]

There is always homelessness, just saying.

I'm in a similar position actually and am finding myself rather apathetic about caring for myself in any sense. Perhaps it's just delayed teenage angst, and I'm not opposed to having a job, but I very much dislike the idea of looking for a job. If one fell in my lap that's one thing but that's not how it works.

[Tomhet]

This is an old thread but I feel it deserves a bump!!!
OP I am a construction worker, I work hard and I work long because I have to..
Many construction workers are INDEED class concious, although many myself included have a distaste and distrust for 'intellectuals'..

[RED DAVE]

Go to school.

Become a teacher.

RED DAVE

[AK]

Nothing is more prole than working down in the coal mines.

[Thirsty Crow]

I don't really see how you could work in capitalist economy with communistic principles. The only communistic principle in the market today is the struggle against it. In McDonalds, at Wal Mart and so on.

By sheer force of need?
Yeah, it's demeaning and insulting and possibly alienating. But maybe, just maybe, if that does not kill us, it will make us stronger.

As far as my personal heart breaking story is concerned, my wish is the following: teach sociology and philosophy in high school, possibly do a translation here and then (for instance, Chris Harman's A People's History of the World is still unavailable in Croatian). These would be activities that are fit for both meeting material needs and desires (ugh, bourgeois state will be my boss and sign my paycheck) and meeting other desires which would make my life meaningful in my own eyes (you know, factors which have everything to do with the fact that I consider myself a communist). Now, this second category could also include the following: writing (I adore literature and), social and cultural analysis (after all, I intend to graduate sociology and I see it fit for a careful collaboration with and participation in the existing institutes - only those a wee bit left leaning - for social concerns and sociological inquiry).
Above all that jazz...my wish to directly participate and fuel class struggle is solid, and I believe that I'll join some of the existing teacher unions (if all goes well and I manage to study another 5 years - alongside work). I really see no point to my life besides this complex of factors which is primarily guided by my desire for freedom - defined as the striving to build a global network of free communes - i.e. communism.

Geez, sorry for this "spill"...I might have overdone it :confused: