The treats must cease, 10 Day General Strike starts Black Friday
While I hope maybe this time something happens, I am once again saying No More Fake Strikes . Getting a real general strike going will involve a lot of groundwork for several years and actually talking to people in real life. It will not just be announced on a subreddit.
However, I would love to be wrong :sicko-wistful:
I def agree with your thoughts and I'm taking the whole strike idea with a grain of salt. Some thoughts:
- A big problem w a general strike is the symbolic agreement / digestible marketability of a start date. One of the most recent that resulted in virtually nothing was October 15th. The problem? The date is arbitrary and doesn't mean anything to anyone.
Or even if you pick a date and attach some actual history, like May 1st, the attempts to try to reverse engineer symbolism are difficult. It's too much work to pass that on to the general population. Its obtuse. Its vague. It doesn't apply to everyone. Black Friday is pretty clear cut.
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Even if only a small portion of the workforce end up opting out, it can make a big difference. If only 10% of a big box store leave, it'll have a compound effect on the entire operation.
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Sure, there's not much of a coordinated bargaining plan to any of this-- but many of the working class are at least cognizant to the illusion of the economy-- so I think every time that hits the collective mainstream its something to get excited about.
I think "Black Friday" has enough negative connotations attached to it - angry mobs, bullshit sales, crazy hours, overworked staff - that it should be comparatively easy to polarize retail workers around it. People have grown to actively loathe the day, as it just feels like scams all the way down. Being press-ganged into facilitating that shit only furthers the resentment.
OWS was also a "fake strike" but one that galvanized protests and riots that shaped the discourse enough to allow for Bernie's run. This has the same potential. It's already been called, now the point isn't to ask them to stop, the point is to get in there and organize them towards action. That's 31,000 people who would consider showing up to a demonstration which anyone with a loudspeaker could turn into a blockade, an occupation (of a square or a factory or a university or... or... or...), a dance party, a mutual aid network meet and greet, anything you've wanted to make happen but didn't have the people.
My point (and the point of the article I linked, though it's been a little while since I read it) wasn't telling them to stop this action, but rather that we need to focus our energy on real organizing, and that real organizing takes a lot more work than posting on :reddit-logo:.
I would love to be wrong :sicko-wistful:
If this turns out to be real, I will be out there joining them and spreading class consciousness right after I edit my post here about how I'm wrong.
You can call for gatherings and direct them into action. This is potential energy you can harness to socialist ends. Whether or not you're wrong is, in part, up to you.
This is a context that can be organized in, and we need to seize the moment.
I haven't seen the op of the :reddit-logo: post once uttering the phrase general strike though, But yeah, apart from that it seems like reddit activism.
Reddit rabble rousing is ephemeral and capricious. But driving this sentiment is good. If you're at a company where people are taking this seriously, this'll put you in the right state of mind to join a walk-out or a slow-down or a sick-in or whatever. Sometimes people just need to know they aren't out on a limb all alone. This sentiment is good for galvenizing action, even if its bullshit at actually organizing it.
I'm filling out seasonal work applications just for the chance to be a part of this solidarity
Oh fuck yes. Now is an extremely fucking good time for salting
Here's a printable organizing guide from EWOC
Everywhere is hiring and everyone is pissed at their working conditions.
Hell yeah, I was just posting in that thread lol. It's one of the top 5 posts in r/all right now. :lets-fucking-go:
Alright Everyone, I'll try to find some potential resources for us to use, so far I've Found:
- https://libcom.org/organise
- https://iww.org/resources
- https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/kim-kelly-everything-you-need-to-know-about-general-strikes
- https://libcom.org/blog/take-power-back-breathing-space-friendliness-solidarity-work-08012017
- https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjdjev/how-to-get-away-with-doing-less-work-outsmart-boss
- https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/06/strike-back-review-joe-burns-teacher-strikes
- https://labornotes.org/2016/10/inoculate-your-co-workers-against-bosss-tactics
- https://workerorganizing.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ewoc-organizing-guide.pdf
- https://unionbustingplaybook.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRpwVwFxyk4
- https://organizing.work/2019/08/no-more-fake-strikes/
- https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1905/industrial.htm
If Anyone has any other resources they can find, PLEASE write them down below, and also consider radicalizing and talking to more r/Antiwork Libs about it.
Make this a post on c/labour and I'll pin it. We could use some sort of labor organizing wiki, if you want to curate it I'll make you a mod
Certainly Would Love curating, I'll also be sure to make the post soon.
During the most recent Quebec student strike, people would gather in squares to travel to an unknown location. Organizers would hand them bandanas and lead them to businesses to picket and educate them on their role in commodified education and oil extraction. Other times, they would travel to interstates to blockade them, or into the university to occupy it and teach classes on radical history or bike repair to anyone who showed up. Had they been machinists or farmers and not students, they might have picked up their tools and decided what to make and who to give it to.
This is something any one of you can organize.
Edit: PS, if you have cool coworkers, show them the reddit post. Mai '68 started when a student threw a banana at his professor, and walked out, and it escalated from there. To quote Chairman Mao, a single spark can start a prairie fire
Please take thirty seconds to read this. May change your life. : antiwork
I hear about the upcoming ten day strike starting on Black Friday and I hope everyone here is ready to seriously do it.
Personally I am sick of choosing between eating, shelter and DRIVING TO WORK even though I work 60 hours a week, have a bachelors degree and twelve years of experience. I know you are all sick of this too but it won’t stop unless we take this seriously.
They don’t care about us. They care about the number of zeros in their bank accounts.
This Black Friday, let’s hurt their bottom line.
They still believe that the rules were made for us, not them. In reality they depend on us. They need us.
They need you.
I need you.
We need you.
This Black Friday turn your phone off and spend time with your family. You only have one of them and you are doing this for them.
Stay strong brothers and sisters.
r/blackfridayblackout
www.blackfridayblackout.info
Get organized, boycott places that do black Friday stuff, be it online or in the store, and stay safe!
(Edit: we need to organize. Plan and execute. We need to do this right. Thank you)
(Edit #2: you see these people laughing at your misfortune in the comments? Calling you dumb and that you’re lazy? They are saying you are not worthy of a living wage. They say your kids are not good enough. We can teach these people that they need us. Get angry. Use it as fuel. Don’t let those plebeians get under your skin. You are too good for that.)
You have been visited by the hog with shit on its balls. All your replies will contain hogs with shit on their balls unless you fuck off.
:PIGPOOPBALLS:
So what are you losers gonna do, loot and steal from every business for free shit because there’s no employees on Black Friday?
:yes-comm:
