Holiday. Imagine it with no capitalist propaganda.

The madness of the shopping which results from capitalism's propaganda machine.

An old timer once said that to be a revolutionary you need a sense of history, a sense of humor and a sense of imagination. I have been trying to imagine the end of the year holiday without the corporations profit addiction and their propaganda machine. Like Bush said after 9/11, this propaganda machine tells us to go out and shop. This is what we hear every holiday. From every outlet of the capitalist propaganda machine all we hear is buy buy buy. You cannot love anybody unless you buy and buy and buy. How capitalism turns our emotions into profits. People rushing in all directions with big glossy shopping bags and other trying to cope with the pressure of not being able to buy presents when they are brainwashed into thinking that they have to. By the way we should consider using different terms. Capitalism is very careful about the terms they use. They do not talk about their propaganda machine even though this is what it is. They talk about advertising.

Then there are the workers. I was in a store yesterday and there was a line of over twelve people waiting to be attended to by two cashiers. The owners had obviously not hired more workers so they could make more profits. The idea was simple, they would have more sales with the same number of workers, but the workers, with no stools as usual, had to sell more goods in the same time and for the same wages. And of course keep smiling. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, this is what is going on in every area of capitalism at the moment, squeeze more work and profits out of workers. This reaches even more intense levels during the holiday especially in the retail sector. So much for the spirit of so called Christmas. The season of "giving" their propaganda machine calls it. It is not the season of "Giving" it is the season of "buying" if you have the money. The spirit and season of the capitalist holiday is buy, buy, buy, exploit, exploit, exploit, profit, profit, profit.

Image what it should be like. First we should all have at a least a one week off on full pay as many workers do in other countries. You cannot rest and relax in one day off. This is a bad joke. And many workers have no days off, either because their boss will not give it to them or because they cannot afford to take a day off. So the first rule for a working peoples end of the year holiday is at least one week paid holiday. Then what do we do with that holiday? We get together with families, friends, people from our neighborhoods, workplaces, union locals and we meet without the pressure of bringing the glossy shopping bags with presents. We instead bring some food that we cook ourselves. We share our own food that we make ourselves. This is a humane way to enjoy the end of the year holiday. No pressure to buy and buy and buy, instead get together as family and friends and workmates and dedicate ourselves to developing the strength to win a week long holiday.

At such get togethers we should not participate in the nonsense about some fat man with red cheeks coming from the North pole in a sledge pulled by a reindeer. What absolute garbage. But there is a reason they have this propaganda. The sledge is always full of wrapped presents, that is commodities. The idea is the same, the propaganda machine keeps pumping it out, look at this lovely kind gentleman coming all the way from the North pole in the cold and his poor reindeer, all to bring you presents, the least you can do is go out and buy some presents/commodities also. We should reject this nonsense.

Instead we should celebrate the people who fought and won better wages and conditions and holidays for working people in the past and dedicate ourselves to continuing this struggle. Dedicate ourselves to the struggle in the coming year for a full weeks paid holiday at the end of the year and for five weeks full paid holiday for the whole year. This is the way to celebrate the end of the year holiday. Forget about the capitalist propaganda machine and its buy buy buy and instead get together as working people, comrades and friends and enjoy ourselves and at the same time look forward to the fight for a better life for all working people in the future.

Sean