Abolish Restaurants

[Quint]

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Announcing the second comic book/coloring book from www.prole.info:

ABOLISH RESTAURANTS: a worker's critique of the food service industry


ABOLISH RESTAURANTS looks at the daily misery, stress, boredom, and alienation of restaurant work, as well as the ways in which restaurant workers fight against it. Drawing on a range of anti-capitalist ideas as well as a heaping plate of personal experience, ABOLISH RESTAURANTS is part analysis and part call-to-arms.

Take a look. Print it out. Pass it to friends. Drop it off in local bookstores and comic shops.

A hi-res printable PDF is available at the following locations (it is 13.4 mb--15 two-sided 11x17 pages):
http://www.libcom.org.uk/lib/ar.pdf
http://www.arbetsfornedringen.tk/polkagrisar/ar.pdf
http://www.prole.info/ar.pdf

A low-res online version is available at:
http://www.prole.info/ar/index.html

And a text only version is available at:
http://www.prole.info/ar.html

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If you haven't been to www.prole.info before, have a look. We have printable pamphlets and online texts written by anarcho-communists, autonomist marxists, left communists, situationists, workers, labor historians, and much more... as well as a prole.info manifesto/coloring book: "Work . Community . Politics . War"

ABOLISH RESTAURANTS, is currently being translated into Swedish. But stop by www.prole.info and get in touch if you would like to translate it into another language.

For further reading on restaurants from a working class perspective check out the classic "Down and Out in Paris and London" by George Orwell or "Hamburgers vs Value" from Riff-Raff #3-4 ( http://www.riff-raff.se/en/3-4/burgers_vs_value.php )

Finally, thanks to everyone who gave suggestions or helped proofread ABOLISH RESTAURANTS, including but not limited to our friends at: A Murder of Crows ( http://www.geocities.com/amurderofcrows1 ), Polkagrisar ( http://www.polkagris.nu ), and LibCom ( http://www.libcom.org/ ), as well as Prec@riat, Mikus, Giovanni, 888, McShiesty, and tiger kung-fu girl.

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[javyn]

if you don't like working at a restaurant, quit and do something else.


oh yeah, btw

 

[LabelKing]

Even Socialist states had restaurants. Granted, the people were even more sullen than in a capitalist society, and the service abysmal.

 

[Edward Appleby]

Unless every household is going to have someone staying at home all the time, you have to have restaurants.

 

[Quint]

no, no and no. did you actually read the piece?

This is not just a critique of restaurants, it is a critique of wage slavery, so "just getting another job" doesn't work under capitalism.

The soviet union was capitalist not communist, so of course they had restaurants.

In an actual communist world, you could have large public kitchens to feed people, or any number of other non-capitalist arrangements.

Restaurants are capitalist.

 

[Augusto86]

Originally Posted by Quint

no, no and no. did you actually read the piece?

This is not just a critique of restaurants, it is a critique of wage slavery, so "just getting another job" doesn't work under capitalism.

The soviet union was capitalist not communist, so of course they had restaurants.

In an actual communist world, you could have large public kitchens to feed people, or any number of other non-capitalist arrangements.

Restaurants are capitalist.

DIAF.

 

[drizzt3117]

Originally Posted by Augusto86

DIAF.

QFT

 

[mano]

Originally Posted by Quint

no, no and no. did you actually read the piece?

This is not just a critique of restaurants, it is a critique of wage slavery, so "just getting another job" doesn't work under capitalism.

The soviet union was capitalist not communist, so of course they had restaurants.

In an actual communist world, you could have large public kitchens to feed people, or any number of other non-capitalist arrangements.

Restaurants are capitalist.


Free Che Guevara!

 

[Kaga]

Bah.

 

[Kent Wang]

You can visit my communist restaurant, 1 China.

 

[Huntsman]

Originally Posted by Quint

no, no and no. did you actually read the piece?

This is not just a critique of restaurants, it is a critique of wage slavery, so "just getting another job" doesn't work under capitalism.

The soviet union was capitalist not communist, so of course they had restaurants.

In an actual communist world, you could have large public kitchens to feed people, or any number of other non-capitalist arrangements.

Restaurants are capitalist.

I doubt if Marx would agree, rather I'm pretty sure he wouldn't. Nor Hegel.

If you are concerned about wage slavery, and agree that labor is an essential component of both humanity and humanity's pursuit of happiness: that people fulfill both themselves and others when their non-alienated labor is invested in creation, and then that labor is received in a product or service by another, such that the labor within it is appreciated for what it is.

Therefore there going to be some people who are going to want to cook crazy and wild things, and nobody is going to want to cook 'large public kitchen' food because it is cheap (from a human perspective, not a monetary one) and unfulfilling to the soul.

So, in other words, no, this is wrong. Ther are critiques of capitalism to be made, but this isn't socialism, either, it's just bad reasoning and (equally important from a Marxian ort Marcusian perspective) bad feeling.

Regards,
Huntsman

 

[Spencer Young]

How would public kitchens provide a suitable alternative to the mismatched personal incentives found in restaurants? An interesting article, certainly, but it does nothing to point out how the alternative is superior.

 

[Quint]

I'm not interested in really defending "large public kitchens" necessarily. I think there are a number of possibilities as to how people could feed each other in a communist society. I don't think you can figure all the specifics out in advance. What I am arguing is that the restaurant, the institution we know today, will not exist. And it will be the people who work in restaurants who tear this institution apart.

This doesn't mean the building will necessarily be burned to the ground. It doesn't mean, people won't cook for each other. It just means that these activities won't be forced on us for a wage, won't be directed toward making a profit, and won't be bought and sold.

Che wanted capitalism where the government was the boss... not communism.

Communism is not a program to be put into effect at some time in the future. It is a movement that exists today.

 

[WN2]

Originally Posted by Edward Appleby

Unless every household is going to have someone staying at home all the time, you have to have restaurants.

Umm, why? Not that I would be against restaurants or agree about the politics in the thread's first post, but on what kind of logic you _need_ to have restaurants if someone's in your home all the time?

 

[marc237]

Originally Posted by WN2

Umm, why? Not that I would be against restaurants or agree about the politics in the thread's first post, but on what kind of logic you _need_ to have restaurants if someone's in your home all the time?

The logic is that dining out is an experience. My wife is a good artist, that does not obviate the desire to visit museums. The need is to prevent folk from committing suicide from sheer and absolute boredom!