This community seems to be a curation of news articles, so I’m not sure if a discussion question is supposed to be here.
So anyways:
I really liked this term, but unfortunately, it has been used by authoritarians (particularly the people that call themselves “Marxist-Leninists”), so the word has a negative connotation amongst people living in countries with a democratic system, to be associated with those authoritarian regimes.
Given this negative connotation with the term, should Non-Authoritarian Socialists/Leftists use this term? Why or Why Not?
All left parties and trade unions and work songs will say “Genosse” or “Kameraden” a cooperative is literally called Genossenschaft. Both Words are just a variant of friend/sympathetic person. Words can be used by everyone so in Germany I don’t think you’ll encounter many people who’ll be offended.
“Leidensgenossen” which translates to “fellow sufferers” is a very nice description of what most people get turned into by the ever churning machine of capitalism. It’s also encapsulates the meaning of life as suffering if seen from a slightly different perspective.
I like to call things for what I understand them as, and seeing the average person react to the word anarchism tells me that on average I have a better understanding of what words mean at least in that realm of speech. Knowing that I think it’d be a disservice to my comrades to not speak with them using the terms of socialist philosophy, because ultimately it’s simpler to understand if we call things for what they are.
I like “turba miserorum” which means “crowd of miserable people” or the Latin phrase for “suffering together” is “passio communis” or “communis passio”. Maybe a Latin portmanteau, communipasio, the community of the sufferers.
Latin feels fancy.