• Pennomi@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    General strikes don’t work if you are living paycheck to paycheck. Most people in America are in a bad situation financially.

    • SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works
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      6 days ago

      I interviewed old timers who were involved in the early unionization struggles of auto workers and other industries. Those folks really lived under the thumb of landlords and employers and segregation and so much more bullshit than people remember.

      Resistance to employer shit and abuse develops by people being neighbourly and helpful, by building bonds, by sharing their common outrage, and by connecting the dots.

      Talk about pay with coworkers, it’s illegal for an employer to restrict such talk. You don’t necessarily have to unionize, but you do have to organize. This means finding solidarity at work, even if the coworkers are boring or misogynistic or different.

      You know, apes strong together and all that. Build community around resistance to authoritarianism.

    • joostjakob@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      General strikes worked in 19th century Europe. I think y’all might have it a little better then they did. More to the point: union memberships are used at the time of strikes exactly to break the cycle of not being able to protest for being too poor.

    • DandomRude@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Then it will probably end up in a system like today’s Russia. Trump or Vance as the sole ruler above the law.

      That would be disastrous not only for US citizens, but for the whole world.

      • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        I don’t disagree, I’m just saying there are practical reasons why general strikes are hard to organize, compared to say protests or riots.