The old Swedish tvättstuga was never just about laundry.

It was also a space where people negotiated coexistence, shared responsibility, inconvenience, conflict, and participation in everyday life.

My latest piece explores what disappears socially when friction, shared spaces, and communal responsibility slowly disappear from daily life.

New piece: https://www.martinkubler.com/death-of-the-tvattstuga/

#Community #Participation #Sweden #Society #Politics #MutualAid #UrbanLife #SocialTheory #Syndicalism

"Starting a union can be exciting, risky, hard work, and a right good laugh. The financial rewards might be little or none, but the satisfaction of getting some justice can be enormous."

--Des Patchrider in The Couriers are Revolting! (2000)
https://syndicalism.org/texts/506/the-couriers-are-revolting

#syndicalism

"[T]he Syndicalist stands firmly by these things — the mass meeting, delegates not bosses, the right of recall. Here, indeed, is the hallmark of Syndicalism."

--Tom Brown in What’s Wrong with the Unions? A Syndicalist Answer (1955)
https://syndicalism.org/texts/486/whats-wrong-with-the-unions-a-syndicalist-answer

#syndicalism

"Tridon can claim the distinction of having succeeded in producing the most dishonest book on Syndicalism which has so far appeared on the book market."

--Hippolyte Havel in The New Unionism (1913)
https://syndicalism.org/texts/477/the-new-unionism

#syndicalism

"What is a labor victory? I maintain that it is a twofold thing. Workers must gain economic advantage, but they must also gain revolutionary spirit, in order to achieve a complete victory."

--Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in The Truth About the Paterson Strike (1914)
https://syndicalism.org/texts/474/the-truth-about-the-paterson-strike

#syndicalism

"Political parties can never lead us to Workers' Control, for by building parties we are erecting barriers in the way to that end; we are building something which we must later destroy. On the other hand by organising industrially now we are creating an organisation which can take over control of industry and which is not to be later destroyed, but developed."

--Tom Brown in Trade Unionism or Syndicalism? (1942)
https://syndicalism.org/texts/464/trade-unionism-or-syndicalism

#syndicalism

"The strike, the withdrawal of labour power in varied ways, is not the only weapon of working-class struggle, but it is the chief one — and the basis of others."

--Tom Brown in What’s Wrong with the Unions? A Syndicalist Answer (1955)
https://syndicalism.org/texts/486/whats-wrong-with-the-unions-a-syndicalist-answer

#syndicalism

"The fundamental difference between Syndicalism and the old trade union methods is this: while the old trade unions, without exception, move within the wage system and capitalism, recognizing the latter as inevitable, Syndicalism repudiates and condemns present industrial arrangements as unjust and criminal, and holds out no hope to the worker for lasting results from this system."

--Emma Goldman in Syndicalism: Its Theory and Practice (1913)
https://syndicalism.org/texts/472/syndicalism-its-theory-and-practice

#syndicalism