"Comrade" Vs. "Compernro"

Do you mean compañero/a?

I just think of travelling music hall troupes when I hear the word companion.

It sounds awfully twee in English English usage. The Wobbly term "fellow worker" is better if you want to avoid "comrade".

And TBH I don't think the etymology of comrade is from Spanish originally, but Latin, ultimately meaning room-mate. Companion means "one you share bread with"

Regards,

Martin

Are we not meant to keep saying it in Spanish though martinh?

probably one of the most pressing issues of our day

'companion' does sound a bit off in English, and 'comrade' sounds quaint even when sincerely meant imo.

well, fuck, how will I know what to call you when the anarchy comes?

I have to say that I think "comrade", "companero/a", "fellow worker" etc all make you sound like you're part of some nutty Scientologist splinter cult.. whenever I hear people say it (or even write it in emails) it embarasses the shite out of me..

how do you put it then, Ed?

Put what? 'Comrade'? Depends on context but I do find it strange when people address a meeting/email list with "comrades". We don't use it to address groups of people generally in our lives so clearly there are alternatives, I don't understand why being in a political meeting makes people change the words they use..

In Mexico, both were pretty common parlance actually.

Cool, I guess for there it's fine then.. I've never been to Mexico though, have you?

No, been to Thailand though.

Same thing then?

I usually post on ABCat... and this is a pretty silly topic to have my first post (under my new username... I used to post here under a different username years ago before all the conflict and exodus... nice to see how the boards have changed over hear by the way). But I think this is a good piece of writing on the meaning of comrade from folks of the general libertarian communist orientation, whether folks want to use the term or not:

Definitions of a Comrade
http://anarkismo.net/article/13386

I use "compa" to refer to my allies. I use "the comrades" when referring to Leninists.

Oh, I didn't know you were talking about us "neo-platformists"...

It's because of our stated...

And -widely-known-but-still-closeted...

...obsession with all things that are or sound Russian.

At least that's the current line as passed down by Comrade Dundee through the secret WSM/ L&S Central Commitee.

In Spanish using companero sounds fine. In english it sounds stupid. Comrade is fine.

Tbh, I think both terms are pretty outdated and I'd definitely be a little weirded out if someone used it in front of me. They have too many connotations towards military or cold-war terminology.

Dunno, generally among friends some people have regularly used comrade in a largely tongue in cheek fashion, did that a fair bit in the past. Don;t think its really a big issue, never heard anyone use at a public event tbh. Its a nice enough word to use as long as you have a sense of humour about it.

I've never used companera and 'fellow space worker', they always sounded awful, fellow worker sounds like you love working or some mental flatcap wearing crap and companera sounds like its only two steps away from all that 'anti-capitalista' bollocks.

number six

Ditto for me..

Cheers for the info t-man, your libcom-snitch cheque is in the post by the way..

So...which former Libcom poster is Thomas Mas?

As regards the OP, I'm trying out some new revolutionary shit called first names.

Don't see whats wrong with using comrades to refer to people who you agree with political, it would sound weird to greet some on as comrade though.

I think comrades just sounds quaint and archaic, I've used it before, but I try to avoid it. Companero/a I've only used a couple times.

I really dislike 'fellow worker' and, after it being pointed out by someone, I don't like it's constant usage in the IWW's paper.

The one way "comrade" is used that I think actually works is in written form when one is dealing with a point of contention. Using "comrade" in that context works as a sign of respectful disagreement. But yeah, I can't imagine ever using either word IRL.

In Brasil, we usually call ourselves "compa", short for compañera/o, which is mostly used in unions (the capitalist left stole it from anarchosyndicalists). The neoplatformists use it too. I didn't now about that millitary stuff with camarada, I'll drop it for good!

I think it's funny to see people be like "comrade and fellow worker are offputting!" in a thread that begins with the words "I am an anarchist" on a website whose name is an abbreviation for "libertarian communist." I don't know if you've heard but there are, like, once in a great while, some people who have hang ups about each of those three words too. (I also heard that this one time "marxist" caused a bit of confusion too.)

I get that there's no universally comfortable term for all contexts, but that's what words are like. They fit well for some people in some places, not for all people in all places. Rather than particular terms being right or wrong it seems to me the real issue is having a sense of who you're talking with and be deliberate about how you talk. Where I live it'd be weird for anglophone people to use "compañero" a lot, it'd come off like fetishizing latinos or something. Especially if spelled/pronounced wrong ("compernro") and wrong in a way that is really clearly not a spanish speaker's mistake.

That said I think "compañero" is cool in bilingual contexts, I like that it shortens to "compa." I remember some comrades - oops, make that "brothers and sisters" - from Spain and Argentina saying "compañer@" and "comp@" a lot on email a few years ago. I always liked that.

it'll never catch on

I'm with Nate on this (as in I agree with his first paragraph) - comrade has been used more in the past on the left, including anarchists, and some union members also used it in the past (much preferable to 'brother' with 'sisters' tagged on once in a while) but with low levels of class struggle that left has ben vastly reduced in size and influence so use of the word comrade has lessened and hey presto people now see it as weird. Its all a bit circular really - if people used it more it wouldn't sound 'weird'.

Comrade isn't the best example but we can keep on dropping weird sounding (which usually means unfamiliar) words until we end up with a very limited vocabulary with which to actually describe our politics. God, we should stop saying anarchist cos, like its weird (and some anarchists are weird), we should stop using libertarian cos like there are libertarian capitalists, we should stop saying communist cos people think of the USSR (the argument for this is currently out of vogue but was still strong in the 80s and early 90s), we should find a word that isn't worker(s) cos there are unemployed people and students we don't want to exclude, we shouldn't use the word union because it means reformist trades union, we shouldn't use the word syndicalist cos only a small amount of people know what it means ad in fucking finitum.

And Nate is also correct in pointing out that the answer is not for English speaking anarchists to all start speaking Spanish - that is really fucking weird.