AntiWork is an online community on Reddit dedicated to exposing the poor conditions of workers, promoting labor consciousness.[1] Despite its name, it is not opposed to work in general, rather it's opposed to the current state of work under neoliberal capitalism.
From a Marxist perspective, AntiWork a valuable space for agitating the working class, but is currently insufficient in educating them in revolutionary and socialist thought, which could help to liberate the workers from their conditions in more concrete terms, rather than fighting for small concessions within the capitalist system. Forums like AntiWork could be compared to the role of the Pravda newspaper during the pre-revolutionary period in Russia, that of agitating the workers against the capitalist-feudalist system and heightening their consciousness to lead them towards socialist politicization.
Some moderators of AntiWork have taken stances against Marxism-Leninism on the basis of opposition to so-called “authoritarianism,”[2] an idealist and unscientific position which has been criticized since Engels' time.[a]
As of January 2022, AntiWork is experiencing a temporary shutdown while moderators try to clean up the community from a recent brigading attack that was waged against the community.[3]
Criticism
January 2022 shutdown
On January 26, a moderator of the AntiWork subreddit appeared in a Fox News interview hosted by Jesse Watters.[4][b] True to its form, Fox was not interested in asking questions but rather used the interview as an opportunity to ridicule their guest and preach to their audience. The interview lasted a little under 4 minutes, during which time the self-proclaimed anarchist guest had trouble responding to any argument the host made and only dug themselves deeper into a hole.
Release of that interview led to outrage on the subreddit, as the community (that had grown to 1.6 million members over little more than a year) felt that they were unfairly represented and were not included to discuss the decision. As the moderation team explained, Doreen Ford was messaged by Fox News directly and after concerting with the rest of the team, agreed to appear on the interview because she had media experience in the past.
The outrage was such that the moderation team first massively banned what they deemed "brigaders", which refers to people that do not normally participate in a community and suddenly floods it with disparaging comments or posts. This accusation was refuted by the community who claim there were no brigaders but that regulars were feeling betrayed and outraged at the moderation's actions. This led the moderation team to close the subreddit on January 27 for several hours. They reopened with a statement that was once again met with outrage from the community.[5]
Criticisms from the community
The community as a whole criticizes that the moderation team acted as spokespeople without discussing the interview with the community, who did not want them to appear on Fox News. The statement was not well-received in particular because the moderation team, who promised not to do more interviews, admitted four more had already been given and were awaiting publication.
Some of the criticisms made include that the moderation team is not composed of "real workers", as many in the community regularly work more than 60 hours a week and Doreen worked 20 to 25, while the new owner is a "21 years old male, long-term unemployed and an Anarchist". Several hours after the statement was posted, the new head mod stepped down as well.
The statement after reopening the subreddit has seen almost 11'000 comments published at this time, with a score of 0 karma and only 15% upvotes.
Consequences
At the time of writing, it is increasingly clear that the AntiWork project has lost all credibility when even its adherents have lost trust and are leaving. The news of the subreddit closing down after the Fox interview was picked up by major media outlets both in print and online, though it should be noted that the bourgeoisie is, obviously, going to attack any pro-labour movement.
Lessons
There are useful lessons to take from this event for communists, and specifically Marxists-Leninists. This shows again that anarchism is not in line with the liberation of the proletariat, as it is a petty-bourgeois ideology. The moderation team tried to act as a vanguard of sorts, but without insights or answers to give to the masses. They became increasingly disconnected from the actual workers and failed to harness the energy and grievances their 1.6 million members had with the system. Instead of redirecting this energy towards class struggle and organization they kept it inert in the subreddit, and instead of including the members in policy and decision making, they kept these functions between themselves without transparency.
In contrast with that, the role of the communist party is not to force the masses towards communism, but to keep them on the right track. The difference may seem subtle but is actually major: the communist party does not force their policies on the proletariat, they listen to them and make sure that their demands and needs are met, and through criticism and self-criticism, make sure it is in line with the path towards communism.
As an analogy, if the subreddit was a communist party, and the moderation team were the cadres, a vote would have likely been initiated to dissolve the leadership and elect a new one. They would have had to explain themselves and engage in self-criticism. Then the party would have gone through self-criticism themselves to understand how this situation happened, clarify their party line after investigation, and make sure such a situation could not happen again in the future. The willingness to criticize one's own actions when wrong shows selfless commitment to improving.
An inner-class warfare waged by some members, and some individualism seeping in can be seen in the posts. This is a reminder that communists must never stop explaining, never stop educating. Not everyone will listen right away, but they will once they see that communists are right.
See also
References
- ↑ "Kellogg workers refuse to accept awful 3% raise offer, vote to continue the strike.".
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZedong/comments/sagwef/anarchist_mod_of_rantiwork_says_theyre_fine_with/
- ↑ Jan 2022 Archive
- ↑ Read transcript here: Library:Interview with r/AntiWork's Doreen Ford
- ↑ Statement r/AntiWork. Reddit.com. Archived from the original.
Notes
- ↑ Refer to Engels' work On authority, available in ProleWiki's library.
- ↑ The interview in question is available in our library.