Shit’s bad guys.

  • InexplicableLunchFiend [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    8 days ago

    General Strikes are not serious unless you already have an established alliance of labor organization and unions onboard. If you don’t have that, you are just declaring bankruptcy by screaming into the void

  • DaMummy [none/use name]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    8 days ago

    I know things seem bad right now, but don’t worry, they’re about to get a whole lot worse. You will look back at today, and reminisce about how good things were.

    • Ambiwar [any]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      8 days ago

      Fuck man, so much damage is going to be done over the next 2 years. I was hoping there might be something to address the urgency of feds killing people in the streets but I guess not.

      • LetterLiker [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 days ago

        i know. i felt stupid commenting it because like peeonyou says (idk how to tag people anymore it’s been a while) two years from now feels like it might as well be two hundred thousand years from now. dimmer06’s point elsewhere about union density is also valid. but you asked. i even googled it and that jacobin article is from last month but it’s not based on anything new.

  • miz [any, any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    8 days ago

    imagine the font size on these gets smaller with every line:

    Is there any current effort to organize a general strike in the United States?

    Is there any current effort to organize in the United States?

    Is there any current effort in the United States?

  • MayoPete [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    8 days ago

    OK, I am a fed up yankee with a full-time job and obligations at home. I can’t lose this job.

    What is that next step? I know you’re gonna say “organize”… ok but organize what? My fellow atomized neighbors are also busy and they don’t trust us.

    How did the Bolshevicks do this?

    • Mardoniush [she/her]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      8 days ago

      The Bolsheviks did it by having a large cadre of well-paid, professional revolutionaries, funded by party dues. That way the main activists could devote themselves to full time revolutionary work.

        • Mardoniush [she/her]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          8 days ago

          In fairness the RSDLP basically charged a full Tithe (so 10% of net income) as dues. Which almost certainly isn’t followed by most orgs today except the most culty ones. Also they did a lot of crime. not just bank heists but protection rackets

            • Mardoniush [she/her]@hexbear.net
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              7 days ago

              Problem there is that for it to become that, you gotta pay it to the proto party ahead of time. And that means nine times out of ten you’re pouring your money not into the future Vanguard but into some tiny Narodnik split that embraced Blanquism-Willichism and were too ridiculous for the Okhrana or the Cheka to bother shooting.

    • Join the PSL action network or maybe even the party if you have time. We have a coalition thing going on with https://generalstrikeus.com/ if I’m remembering the page correctly. Your local comrades will train you up.

      Making acquaintances out of neighbors is hard. I’m naturally a friendly and social person so I do have OK rapport with my neighbors, but I’m still working up to getting them into serious political engagement. It still remains to be seen if our work looks credible to their eyes.

      • MayoPete [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 days ago

        That would be great and maybe when I get a better sense of the politics of folks that could happen.

        But it probably won’t happen here. This isn’t labor aristocracy but the jobs are comfortable enough and pay living wages. Safety is a non-issue for 99% of this workforce. There’s no incentive here to “rock the boat”.

        I’m afraid only blue-collar type shops can be organized in the first place. These people are numb or ignorant to what’s going on and they’re definitely paid off to be thos way. And I’m afraid if I stick my neck out too much I’ll just get fired.

        I don’t think I’m the right person to be doing this 😬

        • starkillerfish [she/her]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          7 days ago

          I thought you posted at some point about long hours? That’s a common issue to organise around. Of course if you don’t feel safe organising, then don’t do it. But when people say organise, they mean organise labour. If labour is not organised, there is no way to do a general strike or any type of pressure on the government. Maybe if by some miracle unions are more popular in the US it would be easier for you to join one.

          • MayoPete [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            7 days ago

            Fortunately for us the long hours are temporary. I might be able to catch up on sleep!

            But yeah I think the angle here might be more how we’re overworked and understaffed and how dysfunctional the place can be.

    • Ambiwar [any]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      8 days ago

      Idk man I’m just as lost as you, I just need a real form of resistance to support since it kind of feels like everyone around me is just going to watch this play out and I can’t live with that.

  • TheSpectreOfGay [hy/hym, she/her]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    8 days ago

    of course not. we can’t strike, we have to work. maybe we can do a protest on the weekend when we’re not working. i mean if nothing else we’ll vote in 3 years, so don’t worry about it

    death to america

  • sewer_rat_420 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    8 days ago

    Outside of May Day 2028 no. PSL was agitating for it, and there’s some “general strike card” thing that went around on Instagram that a few hundred thousand people signed.

    I saw that NYC is having a “no kings” type protest on Sunday, not sure if other cities will but the last NKD was the day the mayor of Chicago called for one. It might be an idea that is gaining traction among the masses but nothing concrete.

    The 2028 one isn’t really a general strike, but many large unions intentionally had their contracts end on that date so they would all be striking together. So that’s the only really large thing close to a general strike that has actual plans and organization around it.

  • Euergetes [none/use name]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    8 days ago

    redditors keep assuring me so doggirl-lol

    americans want direct action but very few are willing to engage in the organizing that makes them possible. the optimistic read is most those folks just don’t know how and there its just the job of the left to loop them in. not on reddit though

    • InexplicableLunchFiend [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      8 days ago

      Even on Reddit, YouTube, TikTok, etc. people are openly and widely saying “Use your 2nd amendment rights!” without really thinking that through.

      They want marginalized immigrants to get strapped and 1v10 ICE agents in death by cop scenarios? Everybody is clamoring for action though, which is a good sign, but their idea of that is shouting into the internet void “DO SOMETHING” at everyone else and the victims.

      Everyone is a toughguy on the internet, acting like they would totally fight ICE and kill them if they were being unfairly deported. It helps people cope, just like the “if I was there it wouldn’t go down like that” fantasies about dogpiling onto mass shooters. Coming up with absurd fantasies to avoid having to do anything to affect systemic change.

      • Euergetes [none/use name]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 days ago

        the yankee is a politically unsophisticated creature but this event has broken down great barriers to political consciousness–whiteness, citizenship. many of them are probably serious, but it’s hard to predict where that energy will go when productive directions are so heavily repressed

  • sewer_rat_420 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    8 days ago

    Also just adding this, I was at a PSL event and they are organizing a mass day of action for 1/20, asking people to call off work / walk out of school and stuff, they aren’t calling it a strike though

  • purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    8 days ago

    PSL is, in a coalition with some other groups. I think they want a general strike in 2028.

    I think it’s a very silly thing for them to put such a huge degree of emphasis on a distant and very uncertain prospect rather than more concrete and achievable goals.