cross-posted from: lemmy.ca/post/59378754
The calls for a nationwide (US) shutdown this Friday (Jan 30) are growing louder
That is a very short amount of time to organize a nation.
YSK that a general strike is one of the most effective ways to push for change. There is a general strike in the works across the US for this Friday.
Submitted 2 weeks ago by A_cook_not_a_chef@lemmy.world to youshouldknow@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/33880daa-9773-4a5d-9938-61c83275f89c.png
Comments
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 2 weeks ago
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
It’s also ineffective in the short term as a strike, because the rich will just wait it out. One day of slightly lower productivity isn’t going to grind things to a halt. What makes a strike powerful is that it continues until grievances are remedied. A true strike takes months or even years to organize, and it takes a lot of unionized money to keep people from going broke during an extended strike. After all, the strikers need to be able to wait out the rich and powerful. Those union dues are largely to allow the union to pay striking workers.
However, with all of this being said, this kind of thing is good for normalizing strikes. America largely doesn’t strike. But if you can establish a new normal for protests, it makes the larger things much much easier to organize in the long term.
mirshafie@europe.pub 2 weeks ago
This sounds like a wildcat strike to me. Not perhaps the most effective means to an end, but important when there’s no other outlet. A good outcome may be establishing better unions. The mere threat of a strike should have capital shaking in their boots.
saimen@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Yeah, I guess they have to start somehow.
fizzle@quokk.au 2 weeks ago
It doesn’t make sense to me, I honestly doubt retailers will even notice.
Everyone who does actually participate will just buy their stuff the day before or the day after.
An ongoing boycott of a specific vendor makes much more sense to me. Easier for everyone to do, and more impactful.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
This is what I commented elsewhere. We dont even need organized strikes. We need organized tech classes to get the general public out of the hands of the technofacist oligarchy. The reason they have power is 98% of the population is addicted to x, fb, insta, and being spied on their google phones 24/7 for ad revenue and surveillance, and people are fucking stupid about technology. They have no idea the billions corporations glean off them from their ignorant use of their phones.
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
If people keep striking every Friday it will be noticed. Sure, it won’t be as impactful as striking every day, but it starts a good foundation to build on while having some immediate impact.
somethingsnappy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Read up. Last Friday was no purchases, this friday is no work and no purchases. This is not a short term thing (unless we decide to have a general strike with clear demands soon.
saimen@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
I am happy to hear it’s supposed to be a regular thing. This can lead to great momentum. Reminds me of fridays for future which became a huge worldwide movement (sadly disrupted and essentially killed by Covid).
Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Oops, I didn’t realize last Friday was a no purchase day. I only spent $5 at a secondhand store, so the spirit was still there.
BeardedBlaze@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Ysk, this isn’t a general strike. It’s a protest, at best.
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s not a general strike if it doesn’t come from the Generél region of France. Otherwise it’s just sparkling absenteeism.
quips@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Obviously its both
ameancow@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
General strikes aren’t things you can use your PTO for to get a three-day weekend. That’s like protesting a brand by buying their product and then destroying it.
unspeakablehorror@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
honestly where the fuck r the unions? we need them
minorkeys@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They were captured decade ago, first by organized crime and then by the industries. Unions have never modernized for the digital age.
stickly@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There has also been a huge, prolonged campaign of union busting specifically to weaken their power in these political scenarios
dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
literally illegal in the US for unions to call for a general strike, its insane
unspeakablehorror@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
It is and I wasn’t saying this in expectation of them calling for a strike right out of left field like this but unions have political weight and i haven’t seen any union leaders stepping up and speaking out in a meaningful way.
sexy_peach@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Unions are made of normal people and the normal US citizen pretends to be a millionaire thus doesn’t need to be in a union.
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Also the ratio of people that want to be in a union to positions available in a union is like 1000:1
doingthestuff@lemy.lol 2 weeks ago
In my area the only union jobs are government employees and a few contractors that contract with the government. My wife has a union job but they’re almost impossible to get. I’ve never been able to land one.
MBech@feddit.dk 2 weeks ago
I’m curious what made US companies that much more successful at destroying unions than the companies in my home, Denmark. It’s not like companies weren’t trying their hardest to fight unions in the early 1900’s. People died at the strikes and protests.
sexy_peach@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
In my area the only union jobs
what you do is join a union independently of your job
fort_burp@feddit.nl 2 weeks ago
Good question. NLRB would be nice to have, too.
mech@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
They should strike on a Tuesday instead.
crank0271@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m all for this. My Tuesday meetings are the most annoying.
Zombie@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Why?
mech@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
- cause it’s generally the most productive day of the week
- to silence any voices claiming they’d only do it for the long weekend
FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
Taco Tuesday!
clot27@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
finally americans doing something that works
keep striking
krashmo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Let’s get it boys and girls. I’m ready
Krauerking@lemy.lol 2 weeks ago
The winter storm that pushed people inside for 2 days has more impact than a single day purchase blackout.
If a country can shrug of massive storms and fires… I just don’t know what message this is actually supposed to send.
We seem to want instant gratification to work in the real world, we want a lack of suffering and to make it as quick and easy as possible.If you have an addiction you don’t lose it in a day. In Shawshank redemption, Andy Dufresne doesnt get to leave out the front door, he has to crawl through a river of shit to come out clean the other side.
We have a river of shit to wade through, I think we need to come to terms with that.Tattorack@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
People are still ordering things online. Inside works (i.e. Warehouses, factories, offices) still go on.
Krauerking@lemy.lol 2 weeks ago
Yes, and the people that think its a good idea to order something with same day delivery from amazon in a snow storm are probably the same ones that will ignore the call for a strike.
We have to ignore the outliers we can’t get, but we nees to understand that The System at large will ignore our outliers as well. A one day strike that has less impact than a storm physically blocking streets will be seen as an outlier.
Not a dig, but just a fact.
Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yea I’m the same. I don’t understand how people think this is effective over other methods. There are just so many more options and awareness for spreading a message now. Protesting this way was born out of a time when we didn’t even have telephones. Information was entirely different. Plus with authoritarians controlling narratives, they can really control a lot of public opinion so methods need to be implemented to counter that. Just an example, I see people projecting images within cities. That’s amazing, why not organize that. Every city, projections of police executing Alex and abusing their authority. They’ll take one down but have 20 more at the ready to project it again.
Katana314@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
While I am pessimistic about this Friday, I also try to translate it into meaningful action.
I’ve definitely severely dropped how much “consumerist” spending I go with across the year. This includes lots of different kinds of common luxuries, and instead making use of farmer’s markets and libraries for food and entertainment. From what I have heard on a few anecdotes, the drop in spending around Christmas was significant to retailers, and should hopefully contribute to pessimism towards fascist ideology.
jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 2 weeks ago
Is it better to skip work entirely or go and just goof off? Probably the former?
Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
No call no show sends a stronger message if you’re privileged enough to be able to do that. If not, call in sick. Or go-slow all day. Do what you can.
Scrollone@feddit.it 2 weeks ago
privileged enough to be able
My European mind can’t comprehend this. Strikes are a right for every single worker, even the most unprivileged ones (with very few exceptions for public safety reasons)
JennyLaFae@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
People who can strike should also go to places of work that people can’t and contribute to sit-ins and slowdowns.
baller_w@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Yeah, I’m in.
foggy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Depends where you work, I suppose.
Riverside@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
Is there no union or organization locally that you can ask? Protest isn’t an individual action, it’s a social organized action, so you ideally should get involved with local orgs or your work’s union for this
jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 2 weeks ago
Oh, that’s an idea. Unfortunately my work has no union. Tech is full of rugged individuals.
ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Thank you for this. Sucks the local chapters are primarily organized on discord. Seems pretty risky that they could all be shut down in one fell swoop.
Valorie12@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I don’t think it’s a good idea to put any of your information in a “protest” form…
Aljernon@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
It’s planned for one day which sounds less than useless. Only sustained strikes and protests are effective.
OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
A one day general strike across the US would be an amazing achievement. If we can pull that off it’s a great place to start. Would a more sustained effort have to be planned? Probably, but being able to achieve this shows that the people are serious about this and the threat of a more sustained strike can be taken seriously.
kingofras@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This. Don’t forget how uncultured civil action is in the US. They literally replaced it by 2A. Buy a gun and ammo, and you never have to protest. A one day general strike would bring awareness to the OPTION of civil action to way more than we care to admit.
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Exactly. We need to build these muscles and demonstrate to other would-be protesters that acting en masse is possible. Otherwise, everyone new to this just feels like they’re sticking their neck out.
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
If it has a set end date then it’s a party not a protest.
Sunflier@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah, not going to be effective. Make it a week, and you might turn some heads.
hector@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
To be effective a general strike needs to be open ended, indefinite, until demands are met. We are not there yet, organizing some smaller ones is a good practice run perhaps, but just preparing for the real one.
In 500 bc, then 350 bc or so, the plebians of Rome had general strikes, decamping to a hill and refusing work until demands were met. One was a written set of laws as the rich were just making shit up as they went. Another was getting tribunes, every tribe got one and they could veto the senate, offer sanctuary, were sacrosanct, elected to one year terms. The second general strike expanded the tribunate.
The Peoples’ tribunes are the only reason their republic lasted for 500 years. Until the imperial boomerang came back on them as well, the tactics they used warring with other peoples were brought home by their own politicians.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Some people are going to stock up the day before, completely defeating the purpose
PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Consider it practice.
ameancow@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I roll my eyes that these all are on Fridays 🙄
Come on America, you don’t really get how this works. You can’t use your PTO to challenge authority. It’s the same as protesting a company by buying their product to destroy like MAGA does.
Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Just saw a thing yesterday about what china calls the “death line” (i think that’s what it’s called) it’s basically how most people are paycheck to paycheck and one expense can topple people into poverty and homeless. I’m thinking the tariffs goal was to move that line so less people can take action.
brotundspiele@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
One day “general strike”, or as we in Germany call it: “Regular Sunday”
robocall@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I have a doctor’s appointment on Friday. But I can avoid going out for dinner or groceries.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
libs are starting to learn the basics
johncandy1812@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Even if the unions aren’t involved, this is a walkout/boycott, not a general strike.
There need to be actual demands before life returns to normal for the government to feel actual pressure.
WanderWisley@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Should also add to not use any social media platforms at all too.
Gorilladrums@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This won’t actually do anything.
In order for a strike to be a strike, it need to be organized and it needs to achieve a specific goal. If there’s no demands then it’s not a strike, it’s a boycott or a walkout.
Currently there is no movement, just a national level reaction. A movement requires leadership, a significant level of coordination and mobilization, very specific set of demands and goals, and an underlying message/philosophy that is backed by the general public. We currently have non of this.
In order to get to the point of a national level general strike, there needs to be a series of much smaller strikes that do all of the above, and have those localized strikes merge with each other to eventually have the size to pull of a national strike.
biofaust@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I am in the EU. There’s no reason why I should know this. Keep the US in the US-related communities, thanks.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
On the eve of government shutdown
drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There is no union in my industry.
LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Finally it’s on a day I actually don’t have to be at work. I can do this one.
Lucelu2@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I am a nurse and work at a hospital. I can’t even ethically participate in this as abandoning the sick is against our moral code. Imagine if there was no staff at your ER after getting clubbed, beaten and gassed at your General Strike Day Protest nor no one there for Meemaw who is half demented and needing hip surgery. I respect the ideal of a General Strike but this the US and we all live on a budgeting razor edge that has gotten more and more sharp since the morons elected this asshole.
pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
someone said: You can’t just pick a random day in the week to start a nationwide strike on.
AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 2 weeks ago
If the strike aint demolishing deathcamps, it’s a festivity.
✌️
Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
No
Flames5123@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
The no shopping seems weird to me when I mostly go to local breweries or friend owned bars or small independent coffee shops where the owners and workers are leftists (all my usual third places). Supporting local helps my community. If this lasted longer and many people did this, then it would have a financial impact on these places. If they closed, some corpo owned bar/brewery/coffee could come in and just take their spot.
Can someone help me understand if protesting and hurting local is worth it?
IEatDaFeesh@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
How does this affect anything?
Missing a day of work on a Friday is part of people’e schedule now whether they have a 4 day work week just take a day off. Same with school. This is minimally disruptive. The shopping one is the most useless imo. You could just do all your shopping Thursday and skip Friday.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I dont really get this. I actually like my workplace and my manager is an awesome guy. I’m supposed to just not do my work? Idg what that helps.
We need to cause pain to politicians and billionaires. I already dont use popular social media or shop at Amazon or Walmart. I dont have streaming. Im doing more than 98% of Americans already.
What would be FAR better than this are tech literacy classes to ween the idiot public off the techno corps. Get a few thousand people to quit streaming, using Amazon, and shutting all their phones off or at least all using vpns and ad blockers would be a huge revenue hit to corporations.
I guess I can work tomorrow then play video games at home after. I dont see how this helps.
teft@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I’m all for protesting in any way possible but a general strike in three days seems really ambitious. Most strikes take months to arrange since people will need to stock up on food and household items or they risk the strike ending before the strikers get their demands.
halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
These kinds of strikes are intended to be short term, it’s a single day strike. It’s not about stopping work until demands are met, yet. It’s about proving to those in charge that there are enough people in agreement that the next step will be much more costly if things don’t change.
Sometimes they are smart enough to get the message, other times they either think they’re smarter because they are narcissistic or inherently will win because of money.
At this level though if you actually manage to coordinate an effective strike day, what you usually end up with is hundreds or thousands of smaller organizations that can’t survive and prolonged strike siding with the strikers and getting changes made, because the cockweasels at the top still rely on the smaller companies they stepped on to get there.
A_cook_not_a_chef@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s how I see this as well. It’s a shot across the bow much like the one day strike in MN.
Many people in the US have no experience participating in this sort of thing. I hope that this is a wake up call for the citizenry as much as for the corporations and oligarchs running the country.
saimen@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
As far as I understood it’s supposed to be a one day strike but repeating every friday which is a great way to build up the necessary momentum.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
How much food do you need to eat in 24 hours that this is a concern for you?
teft@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
That’s not the concern. A 24 hour strike isn’t a strike. That’s a protest. Most strike last for days or weeks because you want to get something out of the strike.
parricc@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
General strikes are illegal in the US. The people coordinating them could be arrested. Also, jobs can fire workers on the spot for participating in them, even if the workers are part of a union and the union want to participate. There are no protections for this. Not to mention, national guards have been sent in to shut down general strikes in the past. There’s a reason they never happen. The likelihood of one ever succeeding is highly unlikely considering the current situation. Doing it multiple days? You realize most people live paycheck to paycheck? Nobody wants to tell their kids they’re going to be homeless.
AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
It’s not illegal to strike on a date with other people. It’s illegal for unions to call for a “general strike” because it’s considered them calling a strike on behalf of other non-union employees for other businesses.
Not always, (though yes, it would probably be likely for many people) since they can use things like sick/vacation days conveniently timed right, or if they’re backed up by a union, they might have a contract that helps to prevent at-will firing without certain specific causes, excluding striking.
However, if enough people strike, it’s kind of hard to enforce coming into work via firings, as it’s similar to if an entire unionized company goes on strike. What are you gonna do? Fire every single worker and shut down for good the next day because the only person running every single operation is the remaining CEO?
As long as the union doesn’t say “this is a general strike” and just says “we are striking on this date for better working conditions”, and that date happens to be the same day other unions are striking, it’s legal. There is no law preventing different unions from striking on the same dates, and it would take very long for any legal process to try and make that claim before the strike has already occurred.
This is the most likely outcome in my opinion. However, it’s still kind of hard to actually enforce the end of a general strike. It’s one thing to arrest someone, or to stop them from doing a given thing, but it’s another to forcibly remove people from their homes and make them work no matter their condition or reason.
Essentially, I’m saying it’d be messy.
This is the biggest hurdle, though there is a degree to which it can be mitigated, at least for a little while. For example, there are a lot of people with backyard and community gardens, small businesses with stockpiles that are willing to support their community as we’ve seen with the current situation in Minnesota, not to mention that if the situation got bad enough you’d probably just see people stealing from their nearest billionaire-owned store because fuck it, why not screw them over more?
To clarify, I’m not like, disputing your actual overarching thesis here, or saying a general strike is easy or likely to succeed, I’m just saying it’s not entirely impossible :)
saimen@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
People have to realize the alternative is having their kids growing up in a fascist regime, where they can be murdered on the streets without consequences simply because some “regime official” is having a bad day.
I am not saying its easy but it won’t get easier when people don’t act now. In the end stage people trying to resist the regime will be insta killed or worse. Now you still can talk to like minded people and organize. Tell them you want to strike but are afraid of the consequences, maybe they will offer help.
Scrollone@feddit.it 2 weeks ago
This is fucked up beyond belief. Strikes should be a right for every single worker
teft@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Yes, that’s why it takes months to organize a normal strike, let alone a general strike. A one day strike isn’t a stike, it’s a protest.
Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Going homeless at the same time as many others opens the possibility to make communities helping each other out (food, protection, communication).
I know, it is wishful thinking, but building such communities in a peaceful way during a general strike with enough time is better than a sudden brutal civil war scenario, I think.
You won’t get food easy if you have to fear getting shot as soon as you leave your house and they can’t run companies efficiently only with AI and MAGA workers.
Abundance114@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
What’s the point? Anything you delay doing that day we will made up with spending in the future.
PokerChips@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
These strikes don’t really work. If you’re stocking up in anticipation then you’re not really striking because you still contributed a day earlier.
A better option would to just go local.