Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

@LeoSammallahti I just finished reading this book on the rise and fall of radical left politics in NE Montana. During the 1910s & 20s, socialists ran Sheridan County. They gained power by focusing on local problems and providing services to farmers.

Then CPUSA took notice of their success, and some of the local leaders decided they were destined for bigger stages than were available in Plentywood, MT...and it ruined everything.

Successful social democratic movements were built on cooperatives, unions and the party forming an intertwined ecosystem of mass membership organisations that provided tangible benefits in the everyday life of the ordinary people who participated in them.

My new article "Cooperatives can help explain the rise and fall of social democracy. They can also help revitalise it." on Mutual Interest, a free-to-read media #coop owned by the readers and the writers.

https://www.mutualinterest.coop/2021/04/how-co-ops-help-explain-and-reverse-the-rise-and-fall-of-social-democracy

That article was inspired by @ntnsndr "Populism of Hope Begins When People Feel Their Own Power". It caused one of the biggest AHA! moments of my life.

https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/solidarity-economy/2018/01/16/a-populism-of-hope-begins-when-people-feel-their-own-power

Had been a member of the social democratic party since I was 16, and was obsessed with explaining its decline.

That piece made me realise that it wasn't about leaders or the election manifesto policies - it was about how we do organising.
Working on a longer, better written article that delves into this in more detail.

Pre-checked boxes can be used to
☐ indicate consent
☑ obligate you to months of unexpected financial contributions and unintended data sharing with third parties.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/04/deceptive-checkboxes-should-not-open-our-checkbooks

This is the original announcement (translated to English): https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2021/04/02/free-software-becomes-a-standard-in-dortmund-germany/

Why has the number of worker-owned cooperatives grown 20 fold in the UK since 1970?

A new article on Mutual Interest, a a free online media cooperative owned by readers & writers.

https://www.mutualinterest.coop/2021/03/why-has-the-number-of-worker-co-ops-increased-20-fold-in-the-uk-since-1970

Become a founder member here and help distribute our funds using participatory budgeting:

https://opencollective.com/mutual-interest-media

I just learned VLC in Linux can stream videos to a Chromecast. One more task my Librem 5 can take over from my old Android phone.

Two good essays on the class structure of US society. The second one is the better of the two, but you kinda gotta read the first one to understand what he's talking about:

https://indiepf.com/michael-o-churchs-theory-of-3-class-ladders-in-america-archive/

https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2021/01/28/a-reply-to-alex-danco-revisiting-macleod-and-the-three-ladders-in-the-wake-of-trump/

good morning ✨ don't forget to work towards the redistribution of wealth and the liberation of colonies and semi-colonies in everything you do 💖

Biden restores $200m in US aid to Palestinians slashed by Trump - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/08/joe-biden-restores-us-aid-palestinians-donald-trump that's good

Yup, this is a very solid position: https://waldo.jaquith.org/blog/2020/12/government-open-source/