How did you become a leftist?

[IbelieveInanarchy]

I made this thread to see how you became a leftist. I know that this is often the result of a long investigation like it was with me, but i think that everyone has some examples when their mind was really made up more.

For me it was when i started working in a factory(I am now back in university) for a year as a manual laborer. I found here that even in my western ivory tower country that workers live in, to me, awful situations. From hearing conversation with people who worked at this company for 20+ years i found it shocking to hear/see that they only lived for the weekends. They achieved no satisfaction from their work and were left to blaming it all on immigrants and the jobless. After hearing a monologue of how unions were to blame for the bankruptcy of a nearby factory, i started really reading into the history and struggles of unions. This led me to read more and more leftist theory eventually leading me to the communist manifesto, a piece of brilliance in my mind. This experience of working in a factory as a naive teen was what changed me the most into a leftist. Not just because i disliked injustice but because communism/anarchism is the only strong theoretical solution to capitalist problems, unlike one-issue strikes for just higher wages or better conditions.

I see forward to hearing your stories/experiences! :)

I don't know in what forum to post this so please move me or point me to a other if i am wrong in posting here.

[Makaru]

My experience wasn't entirely different from yours really. I was working in a restaurant at the time, working through college because loans weren't enough to cover living expenses. And then still working there part-time after college because I couldn't find anything. It was sometime in 2009 that I really had the experience of understanding just how ingrained our culture is with things that lift up the already lifted while effectively dismissing the rest of us. I still remember one morning when I was prepping at work and listening to an audiobook of the Communist Manifesto and just feeling so deeply angry at the situation. Not long after they extended the restaurant hours and I raised a big stink about it, pointing out how they didn't think how that would impact employees having to work so late. I was essentially told that I was not the boss and that it wasn't a democracy. Which, I mean, was exactly my point. :P

But that's how I really became a leftist, not that I've consistently stayed in the leftist sphere. I'd been content to be a progressive Democrat for the last few years. Things have been going okay for me more or less. I got complacent. I guess it just happens.

And now? Well, now we're fucked (in Trump's America). So I'm back. Ready to help mobilize mass action and get organized for self-defense and resistance. Ready to never, ever get complacent again.

[IbelieveInanarchy]

My experience wasn't entirely different from yours really. I was working in a restaurant at the time, working through college because loans weren't enough to cover living expenses. And then still working there part-time after college because I couldn't find anything. It was sometime in 2009 that I really had the experience of understanding just how ingrained our culture is with things that lift up the already lifted while effectively dismissing the rest of us. I still remember one morning when I was prepping at work and listening to an audiobook of the Communist Manifesto and just feeling so deeply angry at the situation. Not long after they extended the restaurant hours and I raised a big stink about it, pointing out how they didn't think how that would impact employees having to work so late. I was essentially told that I was not the boss and that it wasn't a democracy. Which, I mean, was exactly my point. :P

But that's how I really became a leftist, not that I've consistently stayed in the leftist sphere. I'd been content to be a progressive Democrat for the last few years. Things have been going okay for me more or less. I got complacent. I guess it just happens.

And now? Well, now we're fucked (in Trump's America). So I'm back. Ready to help mobilize mass action and get organized for self-defense and resistance. Ready to never, ever get complacent again. Thanks for sharing,really interesting! :) And thats right, we should never be complacent!

[RA89]

I saw a common theme in my life that by far the most intelligent people I knew were anti-capitalists. Researched online and fell in love with Marx. As someone who's spent much time cycling between welfare and minimum wage/shit pay jobs the anger has always been there.

For a while I was more of a liberal who was fond of many socialist concepts, but then I realised the system is broke, regulation ain't fixing shit.

I'd put most of it down to Marx though, everything made/makes sense when I read his works.

[IbelieveInanarchy]

I saw a common theme in my life that by far the most intelligent people I knew were anti-capitalists. Researched online and fell in love with Marx. As someone who's spent much time cycling between welfare and minimum wage/shit pay jobs the anger has always been there.

For a while I was more of a liberal who was fond of many socialist concepts, but then I realised the system is broke, regulation ain't fixing shit.

I'd put most of it down to Marx though, everything made/makes sense when I read his works. This is so true, the way Marx set out his ideas and makes them very clear in the communist manifesto to me was the tipping point. Before that i was anti-capitalist but didn't know why or what to do with it.