Workers' Girder! Getcher Workers Girder!

[brogdale]

You can still find them on Ebay. They kind of developed from a between-the-wars Soviet copy of the Leica II (known as the FED 1), and mutated from there. Excellent cameras in their own right, and the optics were all made on Zeiss plant taken from Germany after The Great Patriotic War as reparations, to Zeiss designs, so they're generally cracking too!

As you may have guessed, I own several FED cameras (and Zorki cameras too, tbh).

Good stuff...but made by child labourers?

 

[Hocus Eye.]

Good stuff...but made by child labourers?

No, by adults; it takes skill and knowledge to build a camera like that, using machine tools, not something a child could do even in the Soviet Union.,

 

[ViolentPanda]

Good stuff...but made by child labourers?

The original factory used physically-small orphan labourers of 13-16 (for reasons of manual dexterity, apparently) to assemble the shutters of the cameras. That was only the case with the original pre-war Fed 1/Zorki 1 cameras, though. Post-war production of photographic apparatus was massively rationalised into half a dozen "super combines", and the labour force was all adult.

 

[brogdale]

No, by adults; it takes skill and knowledge to build a camera like that, using machine tools, not something a child could do even in the Soviet Union.,

Quite alot on the besprizorniki of the Dzerzhinsky Commune here.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

The original factory used physically-small orphan labourers of 13-16 (for reasons of manual dexterity, apparently) to assemble the shutters of the cameras. That was only the case with the original pre-war Fed 1/Zorki 1 cameras, though. Post-war production of photographic apparatus was massively rationalised into half a dozen "super combines", and the labour force was all adult.

Interesting detailed specific knowledge there VP. You should go on Mastermind with that as your specialist knowledge.

 

[brogdale]

The original factory used physically-small orphan labourers of 13-16 (for reasons of manual dexterity, apparently) to assemble the shutters of the cameras. That was only the case with the original pre-war Fed 1/Zorki 1 cameras, though. Post-war production of photographic apparatus was massively rationalised into half a dozen "super combines", and the labour force was all adult.

Yep, interesting stuff. The conditions in the early stages don't sound too great for the orphans:-

Discipline was provided by a quasi-military type of regimentation. Competition between work 'detachments', each with a 'commander' in charge, helped to create a needed sense of pride, achievement and community. Labour education was the combination of formal secondary education with some form of productive work, which at the Gorky Colony was mainly agricultural. Extension of the productive work concept eventually led to the production of the FED camera.
http://www.fedka.com/Useful_info/Commune_by_Fricke/commune_A.htm

 

[Puddy_Tat]

So much of a fan that when reincarnated....

 

[ViolentPanda]

Interesting detailed specific knowledge there VP. You should go on Mastermind with that as your specialist knowledge.

Nowhere near as knowledgable as stowpirate, though.

 

[rekil]

Bound to upset everyone but here we go - if it is too offensive I'll remove it.

Intersectionalism in Syria-Lebanon.
A Proletarian Democracy Conference Special Afternoon (and Evening and Through the Night) Session

I just put it up.

http://proletariandemocracy.wordpre...ia-and-lebanon-an-intersectionality-analysis/

It could do with a pic. If there are any intersectionality ones handy, stick it here.

 

[SpineyNorman]

You can still find them on Ebay. They kind of developed from a between-the-wars Soviet copy of the Leica II (known as the FED 1), and mutated from there. Excellent cameras in their own right, and the optics were all made on Zeiss plant taken from Germany after The Great Patriotic War as reparations, to Zeiss designs, so they're generally cracking too!

As you may have guessed, I own several FED cameras (and Zorki cameras too, tbh).

What are they called? So I can search on Ebay to buy one

 

[ViolentPanda]

What are they called? So I can search on Ebay to buy one

The one in the picture above is a FED 3 (that's a decent price, £35 all in).
My personal favourite is a FED 2. They both use a rangefinder system for focusing. FED 2s are a bit more pricey (about £50-ish), but because the rangefinder base is about 30mm broader than on the FED 3, the rangefinder is more accurate.

They're fairly easy to re-upholster if black vulcanite isn't your thing, and there are a fair few sites that sell new upholstery panels and/or give you instructions.

 

[SpineyNorman]

The one in the picture above is a FED 3 (that's a decent price, £35 all in).
My personal favourite is a FED 2. They both use a rangefinder system for focusing. FED 2s are a bit more pricey (about £50-ish), but because the rangefinder base is about 30mm broader than on the FED 3, the rangefinder is more accurate.

They're fairly easy to re-upholster if black vulcanite isn't your thing, and there are a fair few sites that sell new upholstery panels and/or give you instructions.

Nice one!

 

[seventh bullet]

Lenin was a great fan of teh kittehz, so I'm not surprised to see a Lenin kitteh pic.

 

[Streathamite]

But that would leave them lacking the time and energy for their real principle occupation of fighting each other.

True!

 

[andysays]

The one in the picture above is a FED 3 (that's a decent price, £35 all in).
My personal favourite is a FED 2. They both use a rangefinder system for focusing. FED 2s are a bit more pricey (about £50-ish), but because the rangefinder base is about 30mm broader than on the FED 3, the rangefinder is more accurate.

They're fairly easy to re-upholster if black vulcanite isn't your thing, and there are a fair few sites that sell new upholstery panels and/or give you instructions.

Revisionist tendencies noted...

 

[ViolentPanda]

Revisionist tendencies noted...

Not so quick, my Cheka-ite comrade! Some of the cameras were actually manufactured with non-standard vulcanite colours (I've seen burgundy, blue, green and an unpleasant baby-poo browny-yellow), so a precedent for modification has been set!

 

[andysays]

Not so quick, my Cheka-ite comrade! Some of the cameras were actually manufactured with non-standard vulcanite colours (I've seen burgundy, blue, green and an unpleasant baby-poo browny-yellow), so a precedent for modification has been set!

Fucking consumerism gone mad - say what you like about Henry Ford, he had the right idea about product standardisation (though not, in case anyone gets the wrong idea, about very much else).

 

[Nigel Irritable]

I just put it up.

http://proletariandemocracy.wordpre...ia-and-lebanon-an-intersectionality-analysis/

It could do with a pic. If there are any intersectionality ones handy, stick it here.

Intersectionality: Perhaps one of those old United Colours of Benneton adverts with the shiny super-diverse bunch holding hands?
Privilege: Definitely one of those "sorry" photos of the white people begging forgiveness for slavery.

 

[Favelado]

I love the Pro Dem Twitter feed.

 

[barney_pig]

I have missed a few issues, can anyone fill me in why the weekly worker hates Platypus so much? ( a group which hardly exists hating one that hardly exists)

 

[YouSir]

I love the Pro Dem Twitter feed.

It enlightened me to #guardiancoffee, although perhaps not in the way the Guardian hoped.

e2a: Also, George Galloways response to them was a good'un.

 

[brogdale]

I love the Pro Dem Twitter feed.

"Soup les pavés, la plage"

 

[Libertad]

Nous sommes tous indesirables.

 

[DotCommunist]

what % of the puns were recycled from the firebox thread?

 

[rekil]

101%

 

[rekil]

Bigtom just finishing off the poster. It's a cracker.

 

[BigTom]

Last call for any changes

 

[rekil]

Good job on working in some subtle masonic pyramid stuff.

 

[equationgirl]

Loving your work again BigTom

 

[frogwoman]

for some reason i keep thinking "intersectionality - young and warm and wild and free"