New Marxist learning center opens in Ohio

[Robocommie]

The Rust Belt School is a newly founded Marxist learning institution located in Yellow Springs, Ohio - deep within the dilapidated industrial heartland of the United States. Its mission is to serve as a library and publishing house for Marxist/socialist works, promoting working class political education and political consciousness, and serve as an organizing space for working class politics and labor struggles both locally and nation-wide.

Its task as a library and education center is already well under way, having acquired hundreds of titles, including many rare editions and English translations of works seldom seem within the US. Most of these books have been acquired through donations by generous supporters, or else were rescued from libraries that have been purging their collections to clear shelf space. Additionally the Rust Belt School has plans underway to publish a quarterly journal, the first issue due out later this year. It also hopes to publish books and other materials of socialist theory and political economy from as yet unpublished writers.

Right now the Rust Belt School needs the help of any and all potential supporters. As an entirely grassroots effort, it needs support to get off the ground, to be able to pay for rent, purchase shelves, catalog materials, cabinets and other necessities for a brick and mortar library.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-rust-belt-school

All your contributions would be most welcome and would go a long way to help strengthen the current of left-wing politics in the United States.

And if you cannot contribute financially but are still interested in lending a hand, you can do a lot. Spread the word, or get in touch with the Rust Belt School over Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/rustbeltschool

Remember, socialism is the power of many uniting together to achieve incredible things!

[Creative Destruction]

This sounds great. Thanks!

[MarxSchmarx]

Is this basically what used to be called an infoshop?

[Psycho P and the Freight Train]

I better quit stalin and get there! It'll certainly help me make good marx.

Sorry I had to, but that seriously sounds like an awesome idea.

[Creative Destruction]

Is this basically what used to be called an infoshop?

i thought infoshops were more just small bookstores and newspaper stands. this sounds like they're trying to build a lending library.

[MarxSchmarx]

i thought infoshops were more just small bookstores and newspaper stands. this sounds like they're trying to build a lending library.
Id say thats a common misconception. Quite A few were actually run by professional nlibrarians. Frankly their only difference from this group was in financing- rather than online donations, they often hoped to get donations from users or had custom businesses e.g coffee shops or t shirt can ng to sta
y viable

Several infoshops had very similar goals as this group, but did not survive. A pretty good analysis of why one info shop with a virtually identical profile ultimately failed is:

http://www.infoshop.org/library/Demise-of-the-Beehive-Collective


I am actually quite critical of orgs that try to be an IRL internet, focusing on brick and morter information provision as a goal.

I think those services are probably needed on some level e.g are critical fornpplnwithout web access like the homeless, and I think community media is important for effective advocacy. So maybe these guys got it right , but im not holding my breath and their prospectus is underwhelming - the only noticeable thing is that Rustbelt logo, but in an age when even regional unis with billions in govt aid try to "revitalize" a region and fail, I don't think branding ones group is sufficient . For me, supporting them should be a low priority in this day and age.

Yet this wheel keeps getting reinvented.

I think enterprises like this have more to do with the self-satisfaction of petty bourgeois activists to feel like they are doing something that utilizes their clerical skills . They are about as pointless and mastubatory as leninists selling newspapers.

[Creative Destruction]

Id say thats a common misconception. Quite A few were actually run by professional nlibrarians. Frankly their only difference from this group was in financing- rather than online donations, they often hoped to get donations from users or had custom businesses e.g coffee shops or t shirt can ng to stay viable

Several infoshops had very similar goals as this group, but did not survive. A pretty good analysis of why one info shop with a virtually identical profile ultimately failed is:

http://www.infoshop.org/library/Demise-of-the-Beehive-Collective


I am actually quite critical of orgs that try to be an IRL internet, focusing on brick and morter information provision as a goal.

I think those services are probably needed on some level e.g are critical fornpplnwithout web access like the homeless, and I think community media is important for effective advocacy. So maybe these guys got it right , but im not holding my breath and their prospectus is underwhelming - the only noticeable thing is that Rustbelt logo, but in an age when even regional unis with billions in govt aid try to "revitalize" a region and fail, I don't think branding ones group is sufficient . For me, supporting them should be a low priority in this day and age.

Yet this wheel keeps getting reinvented.

I think enterprises like this have more to do with the self-satisfaction of petty bourgeois activists to feel like they are doing something that utilizes their clerical skills . They are about as pointless and mastubatory as leninists selling newspapers.

Well, again, this doesn't seem to be like an enterprise. It seems more like a Marxist version of ABC No Rio, which is -- as far as I know -- a pretty successful library/community center/infoshop or whatever you want to call it. Or the Rhizome Collective, which was a successful meeting center for a lot of radicals in Austin, TX until it got shut down by the city. ABC No Rio is still going, but their struggles mirrored the struggle of the Rhizome Collective, whereas the RC didn't survive. And it didn't have anything to do with how the Beehive Collective apparently disintegrated.

I think there is value in having this archive in an area where the predatory nature of capitalism is particularly on display and which lacks a social center for a lot of activists in that region, especially rural activists, who are disconnected and dispersed. Having a central location for them to discuss and arrange their activities and engage in some propaganda spreading, as well as having the benefit of the library, is great.

What would really kick this project into high gear is if they digitally archived the books regardless of their copyright status, and supplemented whatever a site like Marxists Internet Archive doesn't have (and there's a lot missing, through no fault of their own.)

If this project does get shut down it'll either be due to the same issues that the RC or ABCNR faced or they just wouldn't end up being able to raise enough money as they need. But anarchist in-fighting and quarreling over issues like gentrification, and the idea that "infoshops are the revolution," do not seem to apply here so I am not sure what lesson we're supposed to take away from that article vis-a-vis The Rust Belt School. I think this project, along with outlets like Jacobin gaining popularity, could only help socialism. If you don't feel the need to support it, that's fine, but it doesn't make it any less important, I don't think.

[consuming negativity]

RevLeft: "Why show people that socialism is not worshiping Stalin when we could continue chatting online and reading books?"

I am being hyperbolic, but lol

[Loony Le Fist]

RevLeft: "Why show people that socialism is not worshiping Stalin when we could continue chatting online and reading books?"

I am being hyperbolic, but lol

If I could thank this post twice, I would.

Socialism is for the people! Admittedly, I have been spending too much time chatting on this forum, and not enough time organizing. Thank you for pointing this out.

I hope that one day I and at least a subset of the people on this site can meet up somewhere and take action instead of theorizing all day. I'm curious in meeting fellow leftists in my area. Unfortunately, my local OWS group is mostly filled with liberals, Democrats, and libertarians (!) unwilling to rock the boat. That was quite a disappointing experience.

[Robocommie]

A point which has been completely missed so far is that at this time the entire library system of the United States, nation-wide, is purging Marxist materials from their shelves in a drive to clear shelf space, and an enormous amount of that material cannot be digitized quickly enough.

This space and organization is needed for that reason alone and that is one of the primary reasons for this initiative.

Frankly, MarxSchmarx can think whatever he wants, but he obviously has not been paying attention to the actual crisis occurring in the switch over from paper materials to digital, nor how that crisis has Marxist materials particularly cornered. It cannot be stressed enough: Some of these materials cannot yet be LEGALLY archived, and others simply do not exist yet in archives and we at the Rust Belt School are building them. Others have not yet even been translated into English.

One need look no further than what happened to Marxists.org recently - they had to remove no fewer than ten volumes of work by Marx and Engels - ten entire volumes!

I won't even grace the comment about petit bourgeois activists with a response. Suffice to say I am rather disappointed that MarxSchmarx has chosen to forgo solidarity with a project aimed to advance socialism within the United States - however much they may disagree with it's likely efficacy - by immediately launching into a smug dismissal replete with snark and sexually demeaning language like "masturbatory." It could be supposed that he has in fact spent too MUCH time on the internet if he finds this appropriate.

His statement is ill-informed, and reactionary. He can say there's no need for public meeting spaces or for libraries, but then again, what the fuck does he know?

[Robocommie]

To the rest of you, thank you for your support and enthusiasm, it truly is appreciated. :)

[MarxSchmarx]

A point which has been completely missed so far is that at this time the entire library system of the United States, nation-wide, is purging Marxist materials from their shelves in a drive to clear shelf space, and an enormous amount of that material cannot be digitized quickly enough.

This space and organization is needed for that reason alone and that is one of the primary reasons for this initiative.


Storage is a big issue. But privileging ostensibly "Marxist" writings over others is sleight of hand. Marxist works, even those that have been bound as paper books, vary enormously in quality. Whether you like it or not, in places like America the underpaid library staff do a terrific job curating what they can.

Even if they decide to get rid of the books you are partial to, a good sample of the diversity of intellectual contributions from Marxists will remain available for a very, very long time from the interlibrary loan system. No one has every made a compelling argument that this system will stop working anytime in the short-to medium term.

Finally, Whether the library of Smithsville Missouri or whatever decides it can live without the likes of the collected writings of Kim Il Sung taking up valuable shelf-space, I frankly think should be left to local librarians. If in this day and age a teenager is deprived of these Jucheist insights because they weren't available whilst he was browsing the library shelves, well, it's hard for me to see what is lost.



Frankly, MarxSchmarx can think whatever he wants


Thanks for the kind permission :)




, but he obviously has not been paying attention to the actual crisis occurring in the switch over from paper materials to digital, nor how that crisis has Marxist materials particularly cornered.

Well, in some respects you're right. I, and I suspect others, do not see the most critical, essential problem of the left as one of an information vacuum - rather, the issue is that the terms of debate are set by the ruling class. Even if the worst case scenario you envision were to come to pass, I don't see how the serious left at least in places like the American midwest could be any weaker or more pathetic than it is today.



It cannot be stressed enough: Some of these materials cannot yet be LEGALLY archived, and others simply do not exist yet in archives and we at the Rust Belt School are building them. Others have not yet even been translated into English.

One need look no further than what happened to Marxists.org recently - they had to remove no fewer than ten volumes of work by Marx and Engels - ten entire volumes!


The horror, the horror. The left has struggled immensely even with this material available, why you think this makes all the difference in the world is beyond me.



I won't even grace the comment about petit bourgeois activists with a response. Suffice to say I am rather disappointed that MarxSchmarx has chosen to forgo solidarity with a project aimed to advance socialism within the United States - however much they may disagree with it's likely efficacy - by immediately launching into a smug dismissal replete with snark and sexually demeaning language like "masturbatory." It could be supposed that he has in fact spent too MUCH time on the internet if he finds this appropriate.

His statement is ill-informed, and reactionary. He can say there's no need for public meeting spaces or for libraries, but then again, what the fuck does he know?

Look, let me make clear. I think they have a purpose AMONG THE SEGMENT OF THE POPULATION THAT LACKS ACCESS. As I said in my post. Not only the homeless, but I think for groups like prisoners, these kinds of services are useful, possibly vital.

But let's for once act like the materialists we claim to be. At least 70% of Americans have access to high speed internet (http://www.ntia.doc.gov/blog/2013/household-broadband-adoption-climbs-724-percent). An insane 90% of adults have cellphones, about 2/3 of which are smartphones (http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/).

You think library space and what you call "public meeting spaces" are critical in that environment. Fine. If it were the case that the remaining 10-25% of Americans shut out of the modern information infrastructure would be the vanguard of the revolution to overthrow capitalism, I'd be all for spending our precious limited resources on these kinds of endeavors.

But neither you, Robocommie, nor anyone else who has been playing at this formula for the last 3 decades, has managed to make this case either in theory or, where I'd argue it matters most, in praxis.

Believe me, I'd be the first to love being proven wrong. I'd love to find out that your typical American fast-food worker who spends their free time commuting to a place like this, for no other reason than to hang out on the kickstarter-provided desk and reading "The Origins of Family, Private Property and the State."

The left needs to grow up and realize that it has incredibly finite resources - finite in terms of its labor power it can devote to the cause, and unmistakably finite in terms of its financial capability. In fact, compared to the ruling class, our financial resources are not just finite, but infinitesimal.

I make no bones about my utter dismay that leftists should dedicate such scarce commodities as their time or money to an enterprise like this.

What the fuck do I know? I fucking work 60 hours a week producing surplus value for a capitalist. I have infinitesimal funds left over after I take care of the survival of myself and my family, and forgive me for spending it on causes worthier than yet another attempt to create an IRL internet.

I've seen this sort of thing tried time and time again in the context of the global north, yet have not one, NOT ONE success to its claim. (at least the people hawking Leninist newspapers have one victorious revolution!)

Maybe you are right that I have spent too much time on the internet. I tend to think in the global north, where I live, apart from very few exceptions like prisoners, that the internet is where the people most receptive to massive social change get their political education.

But look. I'd love to be proven wrong. I've given you plenty to work with, probably even poke holes in if you want to go that route. But I think activism should be about evidence-based decision making, and I guess at the end of the day, I just read the standing state of affairs differently.

[consuming negativity]

I would like to think that even the US would riot if threatened with having libraries taken away, but then I'm not so sure that enough people would see how important they are as technology becomes more mainstream.

[The Red Star Rising]

A point which has been completely missed so far is that at this time the entire library system of the United States, nation-wide, is purging Marxist materials from their shelves in a drive to clear shelf space, and an enormous amount of that material cannot be digitized quickly enough.

This space and organization is needed for that reason alone and that is one of the primary reasons for this initiative.

Frankly, MarxSchmarx can think whatever he wants, but he obviously has not been paying attention to the actual crisis occurring in the switch over from paper materials to digital, nor how that crisis has Marxist materials particularly cornered. It cannot be stressed enough: Some of these materials cannot yet be LEGALLY archived, and others simply do not exist yet in archives and we at the Rust Belt School are building them. Others have not yet even been translated into English.

One need look no further than what happened to Marxists.org recently - they had to remove no fewer than ten volumes of work by Marx and Engels - ten entire volumes!

I won't even grace the comment about petit bourgeois activists with a response. Suffice to say I am rather disappointed that MarxSchmarx has chosen to forgo solidarity with a project aimed to advance socialism within the United States - however much they may disagree with it's likely efficacy - by immediately launching into a smug dismissal replete with snark and sexually demeaning language like "masturbatory." It could be supposed that he has in fact spent too MUCH time on the internet if he finds this appropriate.

His statement is ill-informed, and reactionary. He can say there's no need for public meeting spaces or for libraries, but then again, what the fuck does he know?
You know, I really should stop being surprised by the American far-right's constant attempts at trying to shut down the free speech they claim to value.

I better quit stalin and get there! It'll certainly help me make good marx.

Sorry I had to, but that seriously sounds like an awesome idea.
Now you're just russian to the political punnery. You better cheka your pun privilege before I trotsky out the really awful puns.

[Q]

I wonder: Is this a local collective? Or is it backed/owned by a bigger organisation, like the ISO? I'm a bit sceptical of initiatives like this just "popping up".

But otherwise, this seems like a great initiative! I'll look if I can send in some money for it on the Indiegogo.

[Slavoj Zizek's Balls]

You know, I really should stop being surprised by the American far-right's constant attempts at trying to shut down the free speech they claim to value.

Now you're just russian to the political punnery. You better cheka your pun privilege before I trotsky out the really awful puns.

You call those puns? I'm not Lenin much from them I can tell you that! They're a bit like communism, you see. No class.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

I wonder: Is this a local collective? Or is it backed/owned by a bigger organisation, like the ISO? I'm a bit sceptical of initiatives like this just "popping up".

But otherwise, this seems like a great initiative! I'll look if I can send in some money for it on the Indiegogo.

Yellowsprings is a small yuppy college town populated with foodies, snake oil salesmen offering colon cleansing, acupuncture, and crystal healing, and people who still dress like it's Woodstock. Pretty removed from struggle in general. Infoshops are neat and everything, but are out of place outside of big cities in my opinion. There must be better places to send donations.

[The Red Star Rising]

You call those puns? I'm not Lenin much from them I can tell you that! They're a bit like communism, you see. No class.

Oh now you're just making a mig deal out of all this yak.

[Q]

I wonder: Is this a local collective? Or is it backed/owned by a bigger organisation, like the ISO? I'm a bit sceptical of initiatives like this just "popping up".

But otherwise, this seems like a great initiative! I'll look if I can send in some money for it on the Indiegogo.
Since the OP isn't responding on my post here or on a PM, does anyone else know? Their campaign is soon running out (just 24 hour left).

[Q]

Too bad nobody knew. And now I'm too late to throw in a few bucks.

Oh well.

[Red Star Rising]

It's a shame that I live on the other side of the Atlantic :( Perhaps that place should set up website that archives all the writings. That library is a great idea, but I hope the utilize the internet to get as broad a readership as possible.

[Q]

It's a shame that I live on the other side of the Atlantic :( Perhaps that place should set up website that archives all the writings. That library is a great idea, but I hope the utilize the internet to get as broad a readership as possible.
Uhm... (http://marxists.org/)

It's basically that on paper.