Help with Describing a Science-Fictional Revolution?

[DataPacRat]

I have a pet SF setting, which I use to explore new and interesting ideas. I don't know as much about leftist theories as I should, so I'm using the deliberately feeble excuse of wanting to add more detail to the setting as a reason to learn more.

Perhaps I could show what I mean by describing a relevant set of details, and inviting all constructive criticism that could help improve the story:


During the Puppet War, US-land fielded new robotic weapons, including remote-piloted infantry robots, which reduced friendly casualties to near zero. This led to a number of spin-off techs, including robots which could perform most McJobs with costs cheaper than wages humans could survive on; and a boost to space industry, to build solar power satellites to reduce the robo-army's logistical tail.

At around this time, a version of leftist/anarchist thought (one not yet invented in real life) achieved prominence. The general approach could be described as saying that a 'right to life' is just about meaningless without the necessities to continue living: food, shelter, self-defence, medicine, and most politically sensitive: water. Thus the name 'hydro-anarchism', and the adoption of a blue flag (or blue-and-black, in parallel with the red-and-black of syndicalism). Another description: "It's kind of impractical to ever assume a starving man won't steal a loaf of bread."

With an increasing number of jobs simply disappearing entirely; along with some corporations arranging for their factories to have higher priorities for local water than the local citizens, even during droughts.... all the conditions were in place to spark the Blue Revolution, sometimes described as a worldwide version of the Arab Spring.

The early days of fighting were described as "3d-printed solar-powered ad-hoc-mesh-network quadcopters vs infantry-bots controlled by people who had no use for the 'surplus population'." Eventually, one way or another, the revolutionary-controlled areas fell back under control of standard governments. In the luckier areas, this was done by incorporating the revolution's principles at least in name, such as by implementing a guaranteed basic income. (What happens to the revolutionaries up in space is another story.)


Some of the above has been mentioned multiple times in the setting, such as the existence of the Puppet War and Blue Revolution; but most of the details haven't significantly affected the plot so far, and are open to being retconned into something entirely different.

How much passes the initial sniff test for plausibility? What should be changed? What details would fit nicely, that I don't know enough to have come up with myself? What could I read that would help me be able to improve it myself? (Eg, should I read up on Revolutionary Catalonia, or would my time be better spent on a particular theorist?)

[tuwix]

If McJobs are performed by robots, then why do you need a basic income? Revolution should be for abolition of money and private property. Basic income in environment when almost all unpleasant work is done by machines isn't rational to me. It would only conserve a capitalism.

[DataPacRat]

If McJobs are performed by robots, then why do you need a basic income? Revolution should be for abolition of money and private property. Basic income in environment when almost all unpleasant work is done by machines isn't rational to me. It would only conserve a capitalism.

My reasoning process on this point went along these lines:

Various McJobs can be done by robots - which means that the McEmployers can cut their HR budgets, keep their prices the same, and pocket the differences as pure profit. Meanwhile, jobs which don't require particular skills gradually cease to be available. A great many people with neither any particular skills, or any realistic way to get those skills, become permanently unemployable. As the various social support systems become overloaded, never having been designed for so many permanently unemployed people, an increasing number of those permanently unemployed people end up with literally nothing to lose if they try to overthrow the existing system in hopes of something, anything, better... and thus, the Revolution.

The various oligarchs don't want to lose their wealth and lives of luxury, so they have reasonably strong reasons to keep the system going, so that they can stay on top of it. They have robot soldiers to handle the dirty parts of the fighting, to work on keeping the Revolution contained while the rich people work on less violent ways of eliminating the threat to their power... such as, in some cases, giving up just enough of their profits to keep the permanently unemployed fed and housed, so that they /do/ have something to lose by fighting. Throw in all the usual dirty tricks of espionage, moles, network analysis and systems sabotage, and it'll be a lucky part of the Revolution to be able to keep cohesive, let alone fighting, for more than a given number of years.

The portion of revolutionists who are fighting specifically to abolish capitalism, or get rid of money and private property, or establish one version or another of a communistic state, seems likely to be rather smaller than the portion who joined up for more practical reasons (as Terry Pratchett put it, 'a hard-boiled egg'). It seems likely that there will be various ideologically-motivated factions, working at least somewhat at cross-purposes, leading to the potential for their efforts blunting each other. Not to say that such theorists are unnecessary - they were vital in putting together replacement social systems in those areas the Revolution took over - just that they didn't have quite enough on their side to push the Revolution to its permanent, worldwide conclusion. (On the other hand, even once that Revolution peters out, the revolutionaries will have gained a lot of hard-earned, valuable experience to use for the /next/ revolution, which could very well be triggered as soon as three plot-arcs from the setting's current state.)


The above reasoning seems reasonably plausible to me; but I'm here to try to evoke further ideas.


(Up in space, the demands of the Earthly authorities to act in certain ways, in order to prevent any chance of the people working in orbit from having any chance of doing something unpleasant to Earth, such as dropping rocks on cities, meant that no such just-enough measures by the oligarchs were possible. It was either break free of Earthly control, or eventually die when an Earthly-mandated surveillance chip interrupted some necessary function (or some similar demise). There, the Revolution continued unabated, with the orbiting workers' various dispute-resolution agencies eventually evolving into something with enough of the trappings of a state to continue to act in unified resistance to Earth, but which closely approached some descriptions of anarchy; and which evolved over time as the results of various social experiments were observed to work better or worse than others. However, the space part of the setting is fairly well-trodden ground, with little room left for significant retcons and changes; and so I'm currently hoping to focus more on adjusting the events on Earth for greater plausibility.)