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.
Our Philosophies:
Our Goals
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24998458
In a world where the average household has <$500 worth of savings, you'd have problems implementing a general strike for 2 days, never mind 2 weeks. Good luck ya'll, I think the time for action was a while ago and I don't see this being feasible right now.
You can try to prove me wrong, but explain how these households are going to make it two weeks.
Need a spokes person, else it is a waste. Maybe we could vote on a small number of people to represent us? Maybe by region, maybe by industry.
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.
We can't just say "General Strike" on the internet and expect anything to happen.
This is why unions collect dues: so they can pay part of workers' wages and people won't lose their homes. We need to organize enough people in your workplace that your boss can't just fire you and hire someone else.
I am pro strike, but these pictures on the internet are just silly.
In the UK we missed the gernal strike because there are too many people making decisions for unions with egos. :(
With unions we can change things little by little. A 10 day strike isn't long enough to be effective though....
The goal of the strikes is to stop 10 days from ruining a person, because it never should take a year to recover that
It’s the best way to let them know what issues concern us most and what policies we like.
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?
No, they declare your not working illegal, and imprison you into a forced labor camp. Where if you don't work you are tortured. And probably where you work until the terrible conditions kill you.
Take a look at Musk's Twitter feed to see exactly where this is going.
"This is the way" on a post about how labor for prisoners is a good thing.
"You committed a crime" for people opposing DOGE.
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.
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/
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. ☹️
Once you have built the list of demands and the political alliance for a one day strike, the infrastructure stays around. So the next one day or longer strike is easier to execute.
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.