Isn't one of the main points of having a communist revolution (I am fully aware that China is no longer communist, except in name), the idea that people should be able to work 40 hour workweeks, 5 days a week?
> Isn't one of the main points of having a communist revolution (I am fully aware that China is no longer communist, except in name), the idea that people should be able to work 40 hour workweeks, 5 days a week?
No, which is why your sources identifies it as a union goal, not a Communist revolutionary goal.
A Communist revolution is about who you are working for, not how much you work.
Marx gives credit to the abolition of slavery for sparking new life in the U.S. labor movement in Capital, Volume I, published in 1867, in a section on the length of the workday.
"In the United States of North America, every independent movement of the workers was paralyzed so long as slavery disfigured a part of the Republic. Labor cannot emancipate itself in the white skin where in the black it is branded. But out of the death of slavery a new life at once arose. The first fruit of the Civil War was the eight hours’ agitation that ran with the seven-leagued boots of the locomotive from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New England to California.
The General Congress of labor at Baltimore (August 16th, 1866) declared: “The first and great necessity of the present, to free the labor of this country from capitalistic slavery, is the passing of a law by which eight hours shall be the normal working-day in all States of the American Union. We are resolved to put forth all our strength until this glorious result is attained.”
At the same time, the Congress of the International Working Men’s Association at Geneva, on the proposition of the London General Council, resolved that “the limitation of the working-day is a preliminary condition without which all further attempts at improvement and emancipation must prove abortive … the Congress proposes eight hours as the legal limit of the working-day.”
Stalinism's typical name for itself is Marxism-Leninism, though. I don't think the etymologies make any sense, but when someone calls themselves a Marxist-Leninist, that is what they mean.
Attempts at communist governments seem to regularly drift towards totalitarianism of one level or another. Lots of trappings of communism, but when push comes to shove it doesn't quite work that way.
In Marx's writings, true Communism is true freedom. His goal was for people "to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic".
The system in China is close to the New Economic Policy instituted by Lenin in 1921 (later abolished by Stalin), which he referred to as "State Capitalism". Lenin believed this would be the ultimate form of capitalism, which would then lead to Socialism and finally true Communism. Stalin and Mao attempted more direct routes.
Interestingly, there has been a lot of trouble in recent years caused by Marxist students in China. They are taught classical Marxism in university political science classes at the direction of the Party, complete with the principles of Class Struggle, solidarity with manual workers, etc. Then when they actually go out and campaign for better working conditions for cleaning staff, hold protests against dangerous working conditions for labourers, etc, the Party sends the Police in and locks them all up.
So what. Agile scrum bullshit is just as fucking bad. Every fucking job out there is this fucking cookie cutter Jira pipeline, and if that’s how I’m supposed to go to my grave, playing nursemaid to some joke of a Jira backlog until cashing in a 401k, I’ll just cut to the chase and top it off right now, thanks.
Brainless rung, after brainless rung, climbing and endless ladder to nowhere.
I’m tired of being alive, and pretending I even like the choices I’m offered. The choices I see are no choice at all.
'996' isn't isolated to China. I first experienced this in the late 90's when startup dotcoms were battling things out with each other. In most cases, we first pushed ourselves to those levels of enterprise because we wanted to release new functionality, ahead of the competition. After we started burning out, that's when management started herding us in this direction because they don't get that work is not done when you're asked to join pointless meetings.
Might call it just a "China's version" but I'd rather that its a global thing than anything.
When you look for any decent startup talks, you have people like Elon Musk and Jack ma (of course) claiming to work "every waking hour" and that they used to do it.
Also, being from India, I have had interviews with Startups like:
Them: technical questions
....
Them: do you have any questions
Me: What about the leaves and weekly working hours?
Them: What do you mean?
Me: Is it a 5 day working or 6?
Them: Okay, we already don't like you. (For real, their words).
I have been told that I was rejected for not being a cultural fit. I strongly suspect that was because I asked them about working hours/ days and told them that I have interests outside of tech and I take my time off seriously and don't really believe in 365 days hustle atmosphere.
In India it is very difficult to find developers who have interests beyond coding, drinking and binge watching TV shows and unfortunately, they expect the same out of you.
> told them that I have interests outside of tech and I take my time off seriously and don't really believe in 365 days hustle atmosphere.
Yep, that might be it.
> In India it is very difficult to find developers who have interests beyond coding, drinking and binge watching TV shows and unfortunately, they expect the same out of you.
Well, the problem here, while looking for a job is that your interests should not bother them and the other way round too. That is something some interviewers can't comprehend.
> Well, the problem here, while looking for a job is that your interests should not bother them and the other way round too.
You're correct. In my situation the interviewer asked "you're idea of an ideal company to work for". That is where the whole saga started when I mentioned I like my down time and hobbies.
if it's your own business go ahead - build what you like for how many hours your like.
But I'll never expect employees working on a salary to this kind of hours except maybe for 2-3 days for a specific project a couple of times a year.
That Baidu guy hit the nail right on its head, 996 works when you're in a new booming industry because the lucrative rewards are going to be worth all those long hours put in. But when you're in a maturing sector it just feels like a never-ending grind without getting much in return.
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 61.2 ms ] threadMake up your mind, journos!
https://www.texasaflcio.org/sites/default/files/article/feat...
No, which is why your sources identifies it as a union goal, not a Communist revolutionary goal.
A Communist revolution is about who you are working for, not how much you work.
https://socialism.com/fs-article/karl-marx-on-the-struggle-f...
Marx gives credit to the abolition of slavery for sparking new life in the U.S. labor movement in Capital, Volume I, published in 1867, in a section on the length of the workday.
"In the United States of North America, every independent movement of the workers was paralyzed so long as slavery disfigured a part of the Republic. Labor cannot emancipate itself in the white skin where in the black it is branded. But out of the death of slavery a new life at once arose. The first fruit of the Civil War was the eight hours’ agitation that ran with the seven-leagued boots of the locomotive from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New England to California.
The General Congress of labor at Baltimore (August 16th, 1866) declared: “The first and great necessity of the present, to free the labor of this country from capitalistic slavery, is the passing of a law by which eight hours shall be the normal working-day in all States of the American Union. We are resolved to put forth all our strength until this glorious result is attained.”
At the same time, the Congress of the International Working Men’s Association at Geneva, on the proposition of the London General Council, resolved that “the limitation of the working-day is a preliminary condition without which all further attempts at improvement and emancipation must prove abortive … the Congress proposes eight hours as the legal limit of the working-day.”
I leave it to the reader to evaluate the veracity of that argument.
The system in China is close to the New Economic Policy instituted by Lenin in 1921 (later abolished by Stalin), which he referred to as "State Capitalism". Lenin believed this would be the ultimate form of capitalism, which would then lead to Socialism and finally true Communism. Stalin and Mao attempted more direct routes.
Interestingly, there has been a lot of trouble in recent years caused by Marxist students in China. They are taught classical Marxism in university political science classes at the direction of the Party, complete with the principles of Class Struggle, solidarity with manual workers, etc. Then when they actually go out and campaign for better working conditions for cleaning staff, hold protests against dangerous working conditions for labourers, etc, the Party sends the Police in and locks them all up.
Brainless rung, after brainless rung, climbing and endless ladder to nowhere.
I’m tired of being alive, and pretending I even like the choices I’m offered. The choices I see are no choice at all.
When you look for any decent startup talks, you have people like Elon Musk and Jack ma (of course) claiming to work "every waking hour" and that they used to do it.
Also, being from India, I have had interviews with Startups like:
Them: technical questions
....
Them: do you have any questions
Me: What about the leaves and weekly working hours?
Them: What do you mean?
Me: Is it a 5 day working or 6?
Them: Okay, we already don't like you. (For real, their words).
Me: Ummm.. Thanks?
In India it is very difficult to find developers who have interests beyond coding, drinking and binge watching TV shows and unfortunately, they expect the same out of you.
Yep, that might be it.
> In India it is very difficult to find developers who have interests beyond coding, drinking and binge watching TV shows and unfortunately, they expect the same out of you.
Well, the problem here, while looking for a job is that your interests should not bother them and the other way round too. That is something some interviewers can't comprehend.
You're correct. In my situation the interviewer asked "you're idea of an ideal company to work for". That is where the whole saga started when I mentioned I like my down time and hobbies.