cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24998458
If I missed 10 days of work it would take me a year to recover. The oligarchs are sitting pretty and they know it. It would take an army of Luigis to change anything.
this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
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- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
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In this political climate a 10 day general strike would be dealt with by deploying the army.
There’s also the chance that they’d just hunker down and outlast it. Giving them a definite timeline gives them a light at the end of the tunnel. After 10 days, it’s just business as usual again. A general strike without a posted timeline would lead to capitulation within only a few days. It wouldn’t even take all 10 days.
Kidney stones don’t suck just because they hurt. They suck because you don’t know how long they’re going to hurt for. They hurt until you have passed the stone, and you have no idea how long that will take. The pain is analogous to a muscle cramp. People can grit their teeth and bear it if they know it’s just a muscle cramp and will end soon. But when it has been six days and you don’t have any idea how much longer it will last, it makes you desperate.
So what, they gonna come to my house and make me go to work?
Or do they show up at my work and do my job?
Neither. The army joins the strike.
So what, they gonna come to my house and make me go to work?
Arrest you and toss you in a cell, more likely.
Ok, so they do that to everybody, and now the strike can’t end. This helps them how?
Ok, so they do that to everybody, and now the strike can’t end. This helps them how?
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They likely won't have to do it to everyone. Just enough people to make examples and frighten people into going back to work. Solidarity is not a magic word, but a state of enthusiasm that must be maintained.
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If they do have to do it to entire workforce-sized populations, we get a cozy GULAG style labor system.
"They can't arrest all of us" only works if there's means of resistance other than passive. In liberal democracies, that's typically protests, elections, and legal avenues; in less charming regimes, it comes down to internal dissent in the security apparatus or outright force from the oppressed. If you lack those means of negotiation, or the credible threat thereof, then they literally can arrest all of you, and will, given half a chance.
Would it though?
Firstly, the general population is stretched so financially thin that a 10 day strike is unaffordable for most
Now, ten days to bring everything to a halt sounds great. But unless it's coordinated in certain areas, then there's just a freeze on everything. Remember the COVID pandemic? Even if only certain areas strike, the situation is so bad that alot of jobs would be covered.
Secondly, do you honestly believe that the general population is selfless enough to not place any e-commerce, online services or any sort of digital product purchases within that 10 days? No.
Lastly, what happens after those 10 days? The whip comes out, there's catching up to do.
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One way to escalate such a strike is to have a limited, general, recurring and escalating strike.
So it's a day in January; two days in February; three in March, etc.
Its complicated, possibly too complicated for the typical worker, but it would give ramping escalation and allow for negotiation in process.
the problem remains the same: getting the general public to heed a strike. Short of people dying by hundreds of thousands, they don't seem motivated.
When a million Americans died of Covid people demanded to end Covid restrictions.
Sad but true.
Not all Americans called for it, just very vocal ones. The people that were fine with the lockdowns and restrictions were not represented in the debate because they were sheltering in place at home trying to keep more people from dying to the virus.
America's national identity is not around individualism. Other people dying it's less important than individual success.
That's why it's the economy that matters. a quarter of a percent of extra deaths isn't something people care about AI long as they aren't the ones dying. But evonomic turmoil hits everyone individually.
I'll do you all a favor and tag the people and voices you should not listen to. They want you to live in subjugation.
Edit: there are 350 million people in the USA. We do not need concensus.
Edit2: do not ask for your rights. Do not argue for your rights. Fight for your rights.
I'm blocking you, per your request.
Please!!!!
Don't interact with me. Don't respond to me. I get to talk to maybe 40 or 50 people at a time and it is wasted on you.
Get ready for 2028. That is the year, right?
US laws offers enough protections for legal strikes that unions follow the law so they can't do solidarity strikes. UAW is aligning their contract renewals for 2028, so it can happen then. But also if they repeal the nlra there will be little incentive to not start doing solidarity strikes.
You can not put an end date on it that defeats the purpose
The purpose is to discourage voting. Messages like this serve that purpose well.
Having conversations around how ineffective voting is, is not equivalent to discouraging voting.
in the minds of many readers, it is.
UAW is calling for all unions to align their contracts to end on May 1st 2028 and calling for a general strike to start that day. That gives us 3 years to get organized, set up local strike funds for our communities, and make sure we have representation at the negotiating table whether we're in unions or not.
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/general-strike-2028-unions-labor-movement/
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Who the hell can afford to go one day without pay, let alone 10?
Start saving now, start learning how to fix things, grow food, make do with less.
A whole lot of people may not have any choice about going without pay for awhile, much less one day, the time to start preparing is now. I tell people as often as I can, especially my trans and bipoc friends; now is the time. Get a couple guns (a long one and a short one) and learn how to use them. Learn some basic first aid, you really just need to know how to stabilize someone. Start networking with like-minded people in your communities, learn how to to grow food and repair things.
The police will not protect us, they’ve proven they’ll happily club senior citizens to the ground and shoot any protesters in the face with rubber bullets while escorting a rightwing murderer to safety. Iran was a secular, liberal state until almost 1980 when they (mostly legitimately) elected an Islamist theocracy; it could happen here.
Start saving now
Saving what?
grow food
How do you do that in a small apartment?
make do with less.
You sound like you've never lived in poverty. Unfortunately, millions of Americans do.
Saving what?
Anything you can. Rice and beans.
How do you do that in a small apartment?
In small planters I guess.
You know shit about me Squid, I grew up dirt poor in the ozarks. Don't lecture me about poverty while you flee the country. Wtf are you gonna do when the SS comes knocking on your door? Buy a plane ticket? You're poking a lot of holes but I don't see any action plans from your safe haven in England, just a lot of flak for people with skin in the game.
Ya'll acting like you can discuss your way out of a camp are playing with your own lives (and those of your families). Maybe you don't have anything at risk, that's great disregard what I'm saying. But if you're a trans/queer/non-Christian "other" maybe it's a good time to look into protecting your and yours.
Or you can listen to the... idk, are they supposed solutions? And ignore what's happening in our country. Personally I'd recommend getting some protection before they decide you have a mental illness and aren't allowed to have one.
I didn't lecture you about anything, but if you grew up "dirt poor," like you claim you did, then I would think that you would understand that people in poverty do not have anything to save.
Also, the idea that you could feed yourself and your kids with what you grow in small planters in an apartment (before they kick you out for not paying rent because you lost your job due to being out protesting) is not how the universe works.
I assume you are now going to make the suggestion I saw someone make the other day and let their kids eat out of dumpsters.
Also, I am sorry, but this is fucking stupid:
Or you can listen to the… idk, are they supposed solutions? And ignore what’s happening in our country and get some protection before they decide you have a mental illness and aren’t allowed to have one.
You do not automatically come up with good solutions which are beyond criticism and people who criticize them aren't people who are just ignoring things.
Sorry, you're not a god.
My dirt poor aunt has a closet full of canned goods, she saves her excess.
Do you think Trump is a risk? You fled for that very reason right? Would you have suggested Jews disarm in the run up to the Holocaust? Not all of us have the resources to flee dude, despite your implication that I have some sort of wealth, which is rich coming from someone who legitimately was able to relocate.
You do not automatically come up with good solutions which are beyond criticism and people who criticize them aren’t people who are just ignoring things.
The only criticism I saw was "no that won't work!" from someone who's already ensured his safety. I'm all for sharing ideas if you have any Squid but maybe all you have to contribute is "no!" maybe you could lurk more and let the people facing the risk face it.
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A gun is going to be at least what - $500?
If I had $500 lying around, that’d be a down payment on an apartment in a place where they can’t fire you for being a tranny.
Get a couple guns (a long one and a short one) and learn how to use them.
This is a pretty intense topic to get involved with.
I dithered a little bit about getting a firearm. I still do not have one. I know how to use them, in a cursory kind of way.
Part of why I've held back on getting one is this: Imagine playing a board game for the first time, and if you lose, you're going to die. Or sitting down at a poker table to play for the first time in your life. How well are you going to play? Are you probably going to win? Also, the game only lasts for fifteen seconds.
Having a gun sounds like not a bad idea for what's coming up in this country. Having a gun and no experience at all in the types of situations you might get yourself into, if you have a gun, sounds almost worse than just not having one. People freak out, they fuck up, they take the wrong decisions. It's what naturally happens when you're playing an adversarial game for the first time in your life. After a while, you learn the game, and you start making generally good decisions a lot more of the time. But the first time...
I'm not saying having a gun is a bad idea. There are days when I think I'm being stupid for not having one. But also, you need to know what you're doing, and if you don't have some kind of military or other professional training, you're not going to know what you're doing, and you can walk yourself into situations there's no good way out of if you don't know what you're doing.
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A strike that has a scheduled end date is a strike that's has scheduled its own failure. A ten day strike would achieve nothing except the suffering of it's participants.
Yes, the economy would grind to a halt, yes people would likely die, yes it would financially hurt the powerful people in charge.
But do you really think those powerful people will give a shit? They know after ten days the gravy train will resume, but only for them and not the people who lost their jobs, got arrested, were injured, etc. The rich and powerful can afford to be patient, meanwhile everyone who sacrificed for ten days is going to have to question whether they can survive doing it again.
No, we're way past the point where our society can afford another failed effort to affect change. We need a general strike that doesn't end until the government capitulates to the needs of the people. It's all or nothing, now. ☹️
Reddit protest be like. Huffman literally said 'You only protest for 2 days? Sure, we'll wait'.
That's not always accurate. A strike where people sit at home and watch TV might have this result, but a 10 days of people on the streets talking and hyping each other up, can easily grow revolutionary, especially if during those 10-days people use direct action for their mutual aid to cover their needs
1-day strikes and random marches on the other hand are practically useless
We need a general strike that doesn’t end until the government capitulates to the needs of the people
Many cannot afford to strike but that is the way the system was set however we only need 10% participation to send a powerful message - any more is icing on the cake. Those who cannot fully can participate by cutting back 10% or more. Everyone should be able to cut back to some extent. Yet, expect the corporate controlled MSM to NOT report on the effects or participation of a general strike. Look for your news on independent sites, some reliable foreign sources and the Fediverse only.
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