Not to want to be referred to as ‘Comrade’

[Shellacbabe]

I work for a university and many uni staff are on strike this week. I am not a member of the union so am not on strike, and disagree with a few of the things that the strike is fighting for, but my main gripe with the union is that many members still hail each other as ‘comrade’. Can we agree that communism is dead, and that’s a very good thing, and referring to people as ‘comrades’ has no place in a modern society?

Solidarity

Amazing what people are bothered by.

People who are in the same union and fighting for the same cause can call one another whatever they like. I like comrade. YABU

I cringe at the word "comrade". I do think nowadays it's a signifier of being middle-class.

Товарищ, не беспокойтесь. Это шутка!

Splitters!

I'm very leftwing, but 'comrades' makes me cringe to the core of my boots. It just seems so performative. Plus, it's really only addressing the people in the bubble. The point is that we, as socialists, need to bring other people in, not make them think we have the emotional intelligence of 6th formers.

Solidarity Reg.

@Mnenmoa

I cringe at the word "comrade". I do think nowadays it's a signifier of being middle-class.

It then needs to be more widely used. I was (decades ago) very proud to be called comrade by a man who had fought in the Spanish Civil War. I don't think he would have responded to being called 'middle class' at all positively and I'm glad if we are reclaiming this language, which has been shoved under the carpet for decades.

No Pasaran!

You're certainly no 'comrade' OP. I suppose you're probably a Blairite/Blair apologist too?

A signifier of being middle class...quite the opposite. It would be better if people didn't flout their ignorance and were instead open to learning.

And before anyone jumps in, I've lived in Spain and the UK for a number of years and almost none of the socialists I know from either country who use this word are middle class.

You object to people striking because the pension they signed up has been brutally slashed? I'm not an academic but I know quite a few people who are and they're facing reductions in what they will receive in retirement of between 20-50%. People who are currently professors, who have worked in academia their whole careers and will receive less than £10,000 a year in retirement. And they're not just changing the amounts people will receive in retirement, they are reducing the amount that universities contribute towards the pension pot too, so it's effectively a cut to your income now too. The outcome will be that talented people leave the sector, and the only people who are left working in universities is people who are independently wealthy or have financial security from their spouse. Yes if you work for a university you get a better pension if you work in the private sector, but as a highly qualified individual you're also likely to be paid less overall and receive fewer benefits throughout your career.

Why aren't you bothered about this? Are you old enough that you'll be unaffected? Have you managed to put enough from your time in the private sector that you are alright Jack? Or do you just not understand what the implications are for you? If you think there's a 35% pay rise on the table to compensate you are in cloud cuckoo land. You should be less interested in who is being called comrade, and more worried about what they call people who cross pickets.

@oakleaffy

Товарищ, не беспокойтесь. Это шутка!

Like others, I presume this is a wind-up.

Thanks to the cuts, I will have less than £5k a year to live on from my pension because years of casual teaching and temporary contracts has left me in a much worse position (primarily than my male colleagues). The pension issue is not unrelated to the other issues the OP says that she is worried about. I presume the OP has some money or knows someone who has. I'll be working in the supermarket in my old age or driving mini-cabs.

Being called 'comrade' is the least of my problems; but then it doesn't bother me because it's long been used in British trade unions and I've been intermittently call 'comrade' since I was a kid.

You sound super intolerant, get back to your copy of the Daily Mail

@Geezabreak82

You object to people striking because the pension they signed up has been brutally slashed? I'm not an academic but I know quite a few people who are and they're facing reductions in what they will receive in retirement of between 20-50%. People who are currently professors, who have worked in academia their whole careers and will receive less than £10,000 a year in retirement. And they're not just changing the amounts people will receive in retirement, they are reducing the amount that universities contribute towards the pension pot too, so it's effectively a cut to your income now too. The outcome will be that talented people leave the sector, and the only people who are left working in universities is people who are independently wealthy or have financial security from their spouse. Yes if you work for a university you get a better pension if you work in the private sector, but as a highly qualified individual you're also likely to be paid less overall and receive fewer benefits throughout your career.

Why aren't you bothered about this? Are you old enough that you'll be unaffected? Have you managed to put enough from your time in the private sector that you are alright Jack? Or do you just not understand what the implications are for you? If you think there's a 35% pay rise on the table to compensate you are in cloud cuckoo land. You should be less interested in who is being called comrade, and more worried about what they call people who cross pickets.

^ this. If you’re not on the wind-up, OP, then you probably shouldn’t be working in HE. It seems as though you have a bit of a chip on your should about public vs private sector, and are dramatically underestimating the excessive workload for less-than-private-sector wages that most academics experience.

• shoulder

Yeah, back in the day when it was used by the working classes in wars. However, nowadays it's mainly used on academic picket lines, university students, groups such as extinction rebellion etc which have issues with diversity. I come from a different background and wouldn't ever use the word comrade with my friends or colleagues so from my observations - in modern times, I think the word has changed context and that's where my opinion has come from.

@InsideTheNet

I would have laughed in his face. I'm in my 60's and remember the havoc unions wreaked on this country.

I know it's disgusting isn't it, guaranteed time off work, sick pay, maternity pay and leave, livable wages, a weekend, fair working time and conditions, all being eroded by the Tories, people should be happy to work themselves to death for a pittance

an educational charity, which is what universities are.

Are they?!

The unions can do what they like, but they’d make much more progress if they cut the socialist nonsense and broadened their base a bit.

That "socialist nonsense" got you:

Pensions - at all!

Weekends
Bank holidays
Annual leave
Sick leave
Sick pay
Maternity leave
Maternity pay
Protection from being sacked for no reason at all
Protection from being sacked for being a woman, disabled, non British, Non white
Protection from being sacked for refusing to sleep with the boss
Health and safety protections
Equal pay legislation...

Among MANY MANY other benefits

Why are you looking down your nose at it?

But maybe I’ve studied too much Russian history and it’s coloured my use of the phrase

Maybe you'd benefit from studying some working class British history!

tbh you don't really seem to understand what unions are.

Just what I was thinking

But that seems to be increasingly the case these days and more and more people are looking down their noses at unions while employee rights are getting absolutely hammered and social mobility is being squashed!

We need unions now more than ever!

Bet you’ll happily take the benefits that we union members fight for

Ohhhhh yes!

I hope you refuse any pay rises and improvements to working conditions that the unions win, then?

Don't be daft! This type of person always accepts even feels entitled to pay rises etc that have been fought for by others more willing to put themselves out

What do you think defines a socialist op?

Why do you think you aren't one?

The sensible thing is to accept it BUT instead concentrate on asking for a 35% increase in pay to compensate.

And exactly who do you think is more likely to achieve that? Unions!

You don’t think that if lecturers started leaving in droves wages might start rising to keep people?

Nope

@Mnenmoa

Yeah, back in the day when it was used by the working classes in wars. However, nowadays it's mainly used on academic picket lines, university students, groups such as extinction rebellion etc which have issues with diversity. I come from a different background and wouldn't ever use the word comrade with my friends or colleagues so from my observations - in modern times, I think the word has changed context and that's where my opinion has come from.

Honestly I'm not trying to be difficult here, but (I hope most) of the Left in the UK in 2022 don't go around addressing each other as Comrade in everyday settings. It has a long history and proud tradition of being used in socialist politics and the union movement. I'm not going to start calling eg my next door neighbours 'comrade' anytime ever, but the OP seems to have a problem with it being used in context. It is not an insult, it is not a slur and people who wish to should be able to use it. Some of them will be twittish wankers, some of them won't be.

@Shellacbabe

I’d join the union to fight for more diverse professors if it wasn’t actively excluding me in its socialist nature, but as another poster has pointed out, trade unions are for socialists and that’s not me.

People are living longer and defined benefit schemes are getting less and less affordable. Either the contributions are upped (which union members don’t want) or the whole scheme goes bust.

This reeks of privilege

"I can accept racism but I draw the line at socialism"

Jesus Christ.

You know what's really interesting? If you actually go back to Marx, the OP is delineating a really interesting concept. The proletariat (workers) are striving for something. The bourgeoise (owners of the means of production) are striving to cut costs and maximise profit. The petite bourgeoise (OP) are striving to separate themselves from the struggles of the workers and align themselves with the moral code of the bourgeoise (profit above all).

If I remember correctly, Marx wrote that the petite bourgeoise would be losers, regardless of who triumphed.

Unfortunately communism was always destined to fail in the only countries allowed to try it, those big enough to fight the US (China, Russia). It might well have been OK in smaller, more rural, less industrialised countries (Nicaragua, El Salvador, Lao PDR, Angola etc).

I assume the OP doesn't actually want to look at actual communism, just get all peeved with words and such.

Universities are 100% educational charities! Check the small print on your website.

And as for the 35% pay rise, if you can demonstrate clearly that the pension cut is a 35% drop in pension income, then show the unis that they are cutting your overall remuneration package by a set percentage and ask for that in pay rise. Most companies each year tot up the value of your pay and bonus and pension and health insurance and life insurance and say ‘look at what your pay is worth’. If I was a union I’d do this before and after the pensions changes to demonstrate a clear cut in the value of the overall package and ask them what they are going to do about it. If you want to get rid of the pension that’s fine, but you’ll have to make up the overall package elsewhere. It’s a stronger argument than trying to cling onto db pension scheme which the unis don’t want to do due to the uncertainly of trying to furnish such a risky liability.

And my privilege is having skills that the uni vitally needs but are also in extremely high demand in the private sector so I could get another job tomorrow if I wanted to. Unis are an interesting place to work but extremely badly organised which is tiresome. It’s that which will see me move back rather than any pensions concerns.

And yes, it’s just a fact that if you don’t up your contributions the pension scheme will go bust, but one thing I’ve found working for unis is a lot of the workforce have real problems with inconvenient truths. It’s inconvenient but if you want a dab pension you’ll have to pay more in.

@VeniVidiWeeWee

"Communism is dead".

I think the Chinese and North Koreans would disagree.

😁😁😁

You're either a government paid troll OP or in a privileged enough position to not care about the pension cut. Either way as others have pointed out unions have given us so much - paid holidays, pensions etc that I couldn't care less what word of greeting individuals use. Every thing which has been won for workers has been won despite people like OP claiming these basic rights are unaffordable. No one in power I notice worries about the unaffordability of banker's bonuses or university VP salaries. Why is it only the 'ordinary' people who need to be so concerned with the affordability of their salaries and pensions. We learnt who the key workers were in lockdown and it wasn't those who suck out all the money.