I hate it when revolutionaries oppose state benefits on the grounds that they would delay the revolution by making the poor ‘dependent on the state’. That’s not how reality works. 

If I’m unemployed without benefits, 99% of my day is spend on finding ways to get food, finding ways to pay the gas, finding ways to not get evicted, dealing with the legal consequences of the illegal things I had to do to get food and gas and a home, dealing with the emotional consequences of the things I had to do to get food and gas and a home, etc. Being overwhelmed. being hungry. being cold. 

If I’m unemployed with good benefits, I have food, gas, a home. As a result I have time and energy to go to organizing meetings and protests. I have energy to be a support system for others. I have some spare change to buy the tools I need for activism. If the tools of resistance that I chose are illegal, I have energy to deal with the consequences, to find legal aid, to take a few punches and get back up. 

Life without money is extremely exhausting to the point of killing people and you don’t magically grow a support system when you lose your benefits. Communities where most people are starving rarely grow strong support systems, they often fall apart because no one has the physical or mental energy to do the work of community building and there is not enough strength left in the community to uphold a support system.  

The revolution isn’t a desperate hurdling forward of starving masses using their last bits of energy to overthrow the state. Whoever told you that had a horrible romanticization of poverty and revolution stuck in their had. We fight better when we’re not starving. We build independency better when we’re not starving. And we can best throw of the last shackles of the state when our not starving hands have build an independent support system strong enough to keep us alive. It’s really that simple.