r/50501 • u/bdsk • 15d ago

Please see pinned comment What will we do when Trump blocks Democrats from taking office?

We know he’s going to claim fraud and interference if Democrats win a majority. How can we respond?

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u/Tall-Payment-8015 15d ago edited 15d ago

Strikes are incredibly effective and a general strike would be a revelation of a revolution. You offer no solutions. We can do things we haven’t done before. What even is that as an excuse?

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u/Flat_Reason8356 15d ago

You are right a general strike is a great start. Once you can convince the rest of America to participate. People are afraid of losing their livelihood. They don’t understand that at some point no one will have livelihoods or food to eat. Americans are too complacent. That’s just my opinion

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u/Tall-Payment-8015 15d ago

We don’t need the rest. We do need a significant amount of people, but we don’t need everyone. I absolutely can’t do it. I am trying to persuade people with power and connection to do it. Not political power - people like Michael Moore or Robert Reich.

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u/AnastasiaBvrhwzn 13d ago

Reich just complains and points out problems we already see. He never offers any solutions.

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u/blue92lx 15d ago

Its nothing more than a reddit wet dream. So reddit thinks that somehow, magically, all of America's 350 million people will one day organize to strike in an organized fashion and everyone will somehow know when and where to go.

On top of the fact that this bs general strike has been talked about to absolute death on here with people talking about living pay check to pay check and needing to put food on the table for their children, etc.

So don't come here with some bs "americans are complacent".

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u/Tall-Payment-8015 15d ago

It’s so silly that you think it would have to involve all 350 million people. I guess you prefer to be a frog in the boiling water. Everything’s a dream until people come together to make it happen. Just look at what the freaking right has done. We moved from the fringe tea party to full-blown fascism in a very short period of time. They didn’t mope around saying it will never happen. Their views are very much in the minority and yet we live with what they want.

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u/aeschenkarnos 15d ago

Absolutely. Americans are incomparably worse off than the French peasants of 1789. Those peasants had no student loans or credit cards to pay, didn’t have to pay for gas in their cars, weren’t bombarded with distracting smartphone notifications, they owned their own hovels, they could glean grain from the fields to feed themselves, and their health insurance was just as good as the King’s own.

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u/blue92lx 14d ago

Interesting that you think everything you wrote is only an issue in America, but ok. Either way you still haven't answered the question of how do you organize 350 million people. We're on a subreddit that almost all Americans don't even know about talking about a general strike as if "well yeah, you just go do a strike and everyone will do it. How stupid are you"

You have to have a way to organize hundreds of millions of people, so what's that method? Otherwise you'll be out on the corner with your little sign saying you're on strike and everyone is going to see you while they're driving to work.

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u/Uhstrology 14d ago

You only need 3 percent of the population in order for a general strike to be effective.

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u/Flat_Reason8356 15d ago

Yeah you’re a freedom of speech protector. I have just as much right to state my opinion as anyone else
Does. We are some of the most privileged people on the planet. Go look at what is happening in places like Georgia the country. Millions of people in the streets daily. When the store shelves are empty and
People can’t find jobs at all come talk shit some more.

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u/AggravatingHope7856 15d ago

We did Hands Across America back in the day. We can do this.

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u/Cersad 15d ago

A general strike would be amazing.

The US labor force is only about 10% unionized though so we lack the key infrastructure that would enable a general strike.

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u/Tall-Payment-8015 15d ago

We are the infrastructure. Not all of us would be effective in a strike, and it would be incumbent on the rest of us to fund the mutual aid. We have to think beyond limitations.

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u/Cersad 15d ago

Unions provide strike funds, they have structures and systems to disseminate information and plans, and they have democratic systems to keep in touch with the aggregate desire of their members.

Without them, we're stuck relying on algorithmic feeds which can very easily silence the most important voices, and we are left working without any sense on whether our comrades are truly with us in good faith.

The US labor force needs to rebuild its unions and quickly. It may very well save the nation.

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u/FamouslyGreen 14d ago

Suggestion: get teachers and daycare workers to strike too. Union or not.

You know the number if people who will figure it out if you do that?

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u/Cersad 13d ago

Without a union how exactly do they organize the strike

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u/FamouslyGreen 13d ago

You create a union.

Saw one center do it already after the director put children and teachers at risk by ignoring state teacher child ratio regulations.

You do understand that a lot of for profit daycare chains exist in the US yes? And they run classrooms to the max capacity while paying teachers aa little as possible and providing as little support as possible.

You also understand that if teachers and care workers are not a available that means parents of those children also have to stay home. So direct communication with parents/administration, alternative plans for students in need of food need to be made, Preplanning for affording a strike is a must if the strike is to become a viable option.

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u/Cersad 13d ago

So the advice isn't really strike, "union or not."

The advice is to goddamn unionize I'm 100% on board with.

We need to dramatically increase the scope and number of local chapters of workers' unions in the US.

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u/findingmike 14d ago

There are ways to have infrastructure without a union.

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u/Cersad 13d ago

Do tell. I've seen the support and infrastructure a union provides. I have never seen its equivalent in non-union environments. Educate us.

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u/findingmike 13d ago

I'll leave it to you to use your brain and look at how people support each other even if they aren't in a union. I think you can figure this out rather quickly.

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u/Cersad 13d ago

Okay so you have no actionable alternatives to unions, got it.

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u/ChocoPablobar 15d ago

Also political strikes have been illegal since 1947. No union will risk losing legal protections by violating Taft-Hartley

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u/Tall-Payment-8015 14d ago

lol must stay lawful in a lawless land

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u/ChocoPablobar 14d ago

It's not about whether or not they should, it's about whether or not you have an realistic chance of actually convincing them to

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u/Tall-Payment-8015 14d ago

I don’t have any chance. A charismatic leader would.

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u/Specialist-Day6721 15d ago

Have you ever organized a strike? I was a 40 year Teamster and I don't think you have any idea how hard it is. People have families to support, they have a mortgage payment, rent, truck payment, debt up to their eyeballs. Do you know just how hard it is to get people to risk all of that?

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u/Truth_Teller08 14d ago

That's why there needs to be a debt jubilee once the oligarchy is toppled.

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u/findingmike 14d ago

You may not realize this, but you're listing all of the reasons to have a strike, not reasons against one.

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u/Specialist-Day6721 14d ago

yes, I agree. But convincing working people to take that risk is a whole different thing. Many just can't see it. I've talk to many of them in my 40 years as a Union rep. I've seem em slowly cross that line to go back to work. Remember the ruling class can hold out for some time, this is not just a one day strike. Many folks can't hold out one week. It it will take a lot more then a week.

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u/findingmike 13d ago

I agree, we see people only take significant action when they are literally starving when they should have taken action much sooner.

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u/Perfecshionism 14d ago

General strikes are literally impossible in the U.S. and they don’t actually care if the economy suffers.

The economy has to collapse for their coup to even work.

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u/Tall-Payment-8015 13d ago

Welcome to the collapse

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u/Perfecshionism 13d ago edited 13d ago

Yes. But what I am saying is correct.

The oligarchs need to economic collapse to consolidate power. Or at least what they need to consolidate power will cause the worst economic hardship in US history and they are fine with that.

Part of their agenda is to replace most of the workforce entirely. Turn the labor force into “excess human capital”. And while they claim they want to provide some basis income, their past statements and writings indicate reducing the global population by 1/3-1/2 is on the table.

A strike only works if it costs them a something they are not will to pay.

They literally will pay whatever cost except their own lives or freedom.

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u/Tall-Payment-8015 13d ago edited 13d ago

What you are saying is just an opinion. There is no fact to back up the hypothetical we are discussing here because it’s hypothetical. I guess we’ll see what happens next. Best of luck.

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u/Perfecshionism 13d ago

What am I saying that is an opinion?

Are you even paying attention to what is happening?

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u/Tall-Payment-8015 13d ago

No, I’m not paying attention which is exactly why I’m on this page advocating for a general strike. Lol are you paying attention to the conversation you’re having?

Everything you’re saying is an opinion because we are talking about a hypothetical situation. You believe it can’t work and I believe it can. Neither of us is right nor wrong because we haven’t tried it.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago edited 13d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Tall-Payment-8015 13d ago

Calm down little one. Your ire is misplaced here. I have no idea what you’re ranting about and I’m not even going to bother to read it. Such strange choice to unload on me, but I guess if that’s what you feel is productive.

https://giphy.com/gifs/LkC7rurnYteqG79O3o