Beautifully coincides with May Day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers'_Day
We need to shut it all down for weeks before they realize we’re serious. But to foster change we’d have to shut it down for months.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. It’s cliché, but true and applies here.
“One day at a time” works for people who are recovering from addiction to substances. Why couldn’t it help people recover from addiction to capitalism? Consumption is consumption.
“Just for today, I won’t drink alcohol” can easily become “Just for today, I won’t consume corporate products”, “Just for today, I’ll hold the picket line”, “Just for today, I’ll tighten my belt and live off bare essentials.”
One day gives people a taste of what’s possible without being a major deterrent or barrier to folks who can’t afford to miss work for a week or a month. If it’s successful, it demonstrates proof of concept and makes similar future actions more likely. It also shows the structures of power what we’re capable of, puts them off balance a bit, and builds worker power.
People saying “what we really need is ______” are a bane to the movement that’s happening. I’m not saying you’re doing it on purpose, but don’t fall for that rhetoric. A lot of it is coming from plants attempting to discredit and derail the movement.
Actions being done now are always more effective than hypothetical actions that “should be done,” and they build towards greater action. Don’t expect immediate perfection, because you’ll always be disappointed. It’s necessary to start somewhere, and this is a great place to start. If you want to be part of it, grab ahold and run with it. Otherwise, stay out of the way, and above all don’t cross the picket line.
“Just for today, I won’t drink alcohol” can easily become “Just for today, I won’t consume corporate products”,
One-day boycotts don’t work. The corporate world knows it and completely ignores them.
You’re completely misunderstanding “just for today…”
It doesn’t mean “I’ll have a drink tomorrow.”
It’s about atomizing the process of sobriety. “Today, I won’t have a drink.” That’s all you need to focus on, because tomorrow is tomorrow.
Then tomorrow comes, and you tell yourself “Today, I won’t have a drink.” Repeat…
Eventually it becomes second nature. But when you’re first starting sobriety “Never drink again for the rest of my life” sounds like a huge hurdle. “Go a whole year without drinking” sounds like a huge hurdle. “Go a month without drinking” or even “Go a week without drinking” sound like huge hurdles.
Even “Go a day without drinking” is a huge hurdle for someone who’s been drinking every day for years. But it’s more manageable. And at the end of each day, you can say you accomplished your goal. Every day, it gets a little easier.
That’s what I meant when I said we can apply it to overcoming our addictions to capitalist consumption habits. And I stand by it.
You’re so useless. In every thread all you have to offer is “that won’t work”. Never giving anything constructive or helpful. Just whinging like a bairn.
Well, feel free to do useless things that you think will work. I’m not stopping you, just pointing out that you’ll waste your time.
I’m not stopping you, just
pointing out that you’ll waste your timewhinging like a mewling quim without contributing anything usefulWell you should stop doing that. It’s a waste of time.
That’s an opinion piece that literally says “does it work? Probably not” with nothing else to back the statement.
We have to start somewhere. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good enough. It starts with one day, then we try 2 or more. We can start with one day and the momentum can build and people can keep going.
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Ok let’s try one day first. You know, get our legs under us.
That’s why a Government Shutdown makes much more sense. Europeans are always pushing us for a General Strike, but that won’t work here. For one thing, many employers will just fire people for not showing up that day. The rest will just dock their pay. In Europe, workers have protections, unions, and worker friendly governments. We have none of that here.
Whatever economic impact will be minimal. Whatever people didn’t buy that day, they’ll buy the next.
A General Strike hurts us, and is intended to make the government feel empathy for us, and give us what we want. The MAGA government won’t budge after weeks of a government shutdown, you think they’ll budge after a General Strike of ONE DAY?
IN America, we have a mechanism that European nations don’t have - we can literally turn off the government a spigot, and EVERYTHING comes to a halt very quickly. We keep going to work, collecting our paychecks, stimulating the economy, but they stop their atrocities, for the most part.
We can do that, Europe can’t. General Strikes will work for them, they won’t work for us. Why hurt ourselves, when we can hurt those who are causing the problems?
MAGA isn’t going to act to alleviate our pain, exactly the opposite. They are sadistic, if they see someone in pain, their very first impulse is to increase that pain.
But inflict pain on them, and they scream like the cowardly little weenies they are. And nothing is more painful to these corrupt traitors that taking away their money. Let’s make them scream real loud.
As if a company will wire 100% of their staff when nobody is showing up.
Bullshit
COVID killed the economy in a couple days
That’s why nothing will change.
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we’re going into summer. the time to plan and plant your garden is immediately. if you are serious about a general strike, goodbye grass hello garden. your entire yard. You’re Going To Be Living Off That Shit. I don’t want to be shilling a textbook, but i have a friend who wrote one in the 90s for explicitly that thing. There’s probably something more recent, but i like to support my friend.
Now you’re talking
I hope this is the tip of the iceberg for what’s to come.
Seize your country back!!
The first step is always the hardest after decades of oppression and misinformation!
oh now we are talking. and it’s for more then one day and with a list of demands yes?
They made mention of how the next protest would require action at No Kings this weekend. I was sincerely hoping this might be the case. It felt like enough people are showing up for these that action just might be possible.
I don’t know, but it was inspiring to see so many people, and the conversations going on are much more targeted and direct. I don’t have much faith left, but here’s hoping; I’ll do my part…
Much as I like this idea, it’s not going to catch on. You think the average non-union retail or office worker will risk being fired? We are locked into the system we have, and sadly, that’s that. Unless and until a plurality of workers lose the entire life they have.
Without existing strong organization you’re probably right, but it’s more likely that the wheels will come off and a general strike would happen naturally with rising inflation and unemployment.
The shitter things get, the less tight your social ties need to be for collective action. Everyone’s implicitly on the same page when you start missing meals.
Yeah, the average commuter will have to lose their house in the burbs (just 50 miles from work), the kid’s private school, and the Tundra. When Frank Freeway is living in a rented shipping container and eating slop from the church food bank, MAYBE a few years of that will wake us the fuck up.
Me? I’m retired. I could lose everything any time.
Well you have to remember that Franks house is on an adjustable rate mortgage and his Tundra still has 80 months left on the loan. If the income gets cut, the rug gets pulled on everything and people wake up real quick.
Would be too late
I’m average. I will.
Quit thinking like everything has to be 100% successful the first time or it’s a failure. We have been propagandized and beaten down over the course of years to get where we are now, of course it’s going to take more than one try to get this thing together.
Stay safe out there folks!
Hahahaha I’ll believe it when it happens. Americas response has been very lackluster. We well have to start calling the the land of the meek I hope this shatters their cowboy image they have of themselves. And they definitely have to stop calling the French cowards and should be looking at to them for how to protest.
How about we don’t plan them and just do them? Hold out for weeks, don’t buy anything and if anybody hasn’t filed taxes at this point, don’t file them?
Seems like planning protests just gives the opposition time to prepare and counteract protests.
So… your idea is to have an organized general strike that includes everyone while not informing anyone ahead of time?
A disorganized strike, if you will.
I think their idea is that the protest doesn’t end Monday as everyone goes back to work, which is why this didn’t even worry Trump and his group.
Yeah, it’s called doing real work.
Something no American wants to do or is intelligent enough in how to orchestrate. You all sit there in your little armchairs talking about revolution this and revolution that. Tell me, has anyone of you ever thought of the aftermath of said revolution? Like, how do we go about it if its achieved?
You’re not one to talk.
it’s called doing real work.
No, the subject of this post is doing real work. All you’re doing is detracting from the work being done while wishing for some magical solution.
Something no American wants to do or is intelligent enough in how to orchestrate.
Some americans are currently orchestrating it intelligently, and your complaint is that they “shouldn’t plan, just do.” So much for intelligent orchestration…
You all sit there in your little armchairs talking about revolution this and revolution that.
That’s just the stupid fucking tankies, who also complain about any real work being done, just like you’re doing.
Tell me, has anyone of you ever thought of the aftermath of said revolution?
Yes, that’s why most of us tell tankies to fuck off when they talk about that shit.
You’re not one to talk.
Mirror, mirror…
Doing real work would be going to Washington D.C in collective mass and occupying the white house (which is funny that conservative nutjobs did it before any leftist group ever could. funny that). Or you know, doing real work would involve actually tracking, following and routing every corrupt politician. Doing real work would involve getting up in Trump’s face personally, as he is too powerless to stop millions that’d theoretically approach him.
No american has the balls to, they just do whatever is convenient for them. The real work is stop supporting the regime that this country has once again, put itself in. No american wants to upset their life to do that, no, they’ll want to be cute and plan on an off-day to go out and raise a sign up and down. It is vibes of Occupy Wall-Street, that protest did nothing.
No, it isn’t just tankies. It is by observation, as to how many people I see online talking big and boldly about their revolutionist dreams, but keeping them as just that - revolutionist dreams. Keep assuming blindly.
I asked for a full plan, not a witty retort. You’ve demonstrated as to how little you’ve thought of actually running a country post-revolution would take. Proves me right.
You seem to resort to just spamming that word ‘tankie’ but I don’t think you absolutely realize what is being said to you. Man, you’re a lost cause. Fucking moron.
Well have fun with that. Now run along and play, the grown ups are demonstrating.
It is by observation, as to how many people I see online talking big and boldly about their revolutionist dreams, but keeping them as just that - revolutionist dreams. Keep assuming blindly.
How is that not exactly what you’re doing?
I asked for a full plan, not a witty retort. You’ve demonstrated as to how little you’ve thought of actually running a country post-revolution would take. Proves me right.
More projection. Is that your only card? I’ve offered plenty of intelligent input on this thread and others, but your comments aren’t worth the effort because they don’t stimulate productive discussion. Don’t blame me that the only valid response to you is to point out how unhelpful you’re being.
You seem to resort to just spamming that word ‘tankie’ but I don’t think you absolutely realize what is being said to you. Man, you’re a lost cause. Fucking moron.
No, I understand exactly what’s being said. And I only use the word “tankie” to refer to “tankies.” You’re complaining about keyboard warriors who advocate for their revolution fantasies. Those are literally tankies. Are you offended by the word ‘tankie’? What’s a matter, are you a tankie or something?
So far in this thread you’ve called people ‘retards’ and ‘morons’, so don’t accuse me of spamming words without understanding the conversation being held. You’re the lost cause here, not I.
Yesterday was the largest protest in US history. Shut the fuck up you pompous counterproductive troll.
Have you done any of the things you listed?
This is something that I always think about when people mention guillotines and why the example is so stupid to me. The aftermath of the French Revolution was bad for the Feudal Monarchy, but also wasn’t good for Robespierre and the Jacobins. If you recall, he was also beheaded by the guillotine after shooting off his own jaw and the sans-culottes were repressed by the bourgeoisie after the revolution “stabilized”. It’s critical to have a well-developed plan in any power vacuum or there will be far more bloodshed, instability and other bad guys will just take over.
Fail to plan, plan to fail.
Whoosh.
I feel like planning is less the problem moreso the length. A day is basically nothing. We’d have to go back to Covid length shutdowns for even the smallest impacts to happen.
Organized resistance is a muscle. The reason you see so much shit like this in France is because they exercise theirs regularly. The US does not. You can’t go from years of a desk job straight to running a marathon. You need to build up. Get people used to doing this stuff.
No Kings started by getting people to show up to protests. Lots of people. More than ever before in US history in fact. Now they’re just asking those people to go one step further. You manage a one day general strike, maybe you can do two. If you can do two, maybe four. If four, maybe a week. Build those muscles. Build people’s confidence. Build the movement.
This is what resistance looks like. It’s not some happy little fantasy where everyone just spontaneously rises up and removes all the bad people from power. It’s not Hollywood. It’s slow, and it’s hard work, but it’s real.
This is one of the biggest problems with a general strike these days. The wealth inequality between them and us is such that even a year long strike will only ruin most of us, meanwhile they’ll get a government bailout even though they never missed a payment on their yacht. You might be able to destroy a MAGA supporting small business, but you’ll wreck yourself and your like-minded neighborhood small businesses along the way. I don’t have a solid solution, just throwing this out as food for thought.
Thing is there are no like-minded small businesses around me. Pretty much all of them either openly support Trump or try to hide their beliefs until you walk in when the right customer is chatting up the manager. If they all went down, I wouldn’t shed a single tear.
Well you’ll still need to organize mutual aid networks and logistical infrastructure to produce and distribute food year-round, every single day. Because if all the grocery stores shut their doors and all the shelves are bare, what are people going to eat?
That’s not so easy, is it?
What do you do when the majority of farmers in the US are trump supporters and corporate conglomerates who won’t donate crops even when they have a surplus that they can’t sell?
Even if you have the crops, how do you process them and package them large-scale without industrial facilities and labor? How do you transport them without vehicles, fuel, and drivers/conductors?
In order for the movement to achieve a complete and total success, without resulting in a complete and total disaster, you need to have these details hashed out. And that means getting everybody onboard: the farmers, the millers, the packers, the drivers and the conductors, the warehouse operators, the grocers, and the clerks.
And that’s just for food. What about medicine? What about education? What about mechanics, manufacturers, tech support, social work? It all needs to be in place, and that means everybody needs to be onboard. Without that, you have an immanent failure.
Small steps build the momentum. Every step in the right direction is a net positive.
The hell does this have to do with small businesses run by MAGAts in my area of Missouri?
Are your grocery stores run by maga small business owners, or by corpos?
Either way, if you want to run them out of business, something needs to replace them.
If you can’t see the connection, then you’re too shortsighted and ignorant to be allowed anywhere near the decision-making levels of any movement underway.
I’m not signing up for anything you’re promoting, if you’re that hostile towards the mere suggestion that we need to exercise foresight and think about what comes next.
My solution would be a mix a ethanol and Styrofoam in a glass bottle, applied to any business that you think should be participating in the strike.
Whatever you do, just don’t draw any association between your kristallnacht and the movement, because it doesn’t need that baggage.
Its strength is in widespread public support, and all you would accomplish is taking the wind out of its sails.
That’s cool as long as you make sure you’ve cleared the building of any non-human persons prior. Start lighting up pets or livestock willy-nilly and I’ll give you a taste of your own medicine, personally. ✊🐾
It demonstrates proof of concept, knocks the owner-caste off balance, and encourages future action. It’s not a wasted effort. It’s strategic.
🤦♂️
Something tells me if that actually happened, you’d complain about how impromptu protests don’t work because people need time to prepare and they’re too disruptive.
It’s something, but more importantly, they’re actually doing it. If you wanna do better, do it. Don’t just bitch on here about how they’re doing it wrong
I was gonna say the first couple no kings protests people complained that they couldn’t go because they weren’t communicating ahead of time.
Now they communicate ahead of time and people complain that it’s too far out. They can’t win.
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I advocate in protesting smarter
No you fucking don’t! You advocate for no planning and some spontaneous, disorganized, and magical “just do.”
How about we don’t plan them and just do them?
This you?
too bad nobody listens because everyone like you, seems to have it alllll figured out, don’t you?
You’re the one who seems to think you have it all figured out, so quit projecting. Why should anyone listen to you when you’re only point is “everyone’s wrong but me, everything the organizers are saying during the ‘planning’ stage is invalid, people shouldn’t listen to them, they should listen to me!”
Well, unlike you, the protest organizers are actually creating and maintaining a movement and taking tangible actions. So I’m not surprised no one listens to you when you’re trying to detract from that.
Fucking retard
I’m sure this will make more people listen to someone like you lol
Nobody listens to anybody anyways unless it’s a stupid echo chamber followed by a vague message for everyone to get cozy with. Because Americans don’t know how to protest, they’ll only do whatever is most convenient and comfortable.
What if I am due a refund. Should I file my taxes to get money from them?
You’re an idiot.
You’re the idiot. The IRS already has the money. It gets withheld from every paycheck. Filing taxes is just how to get the excess money refunded.
The only people who owe money from tax refunds are the ones who opt out of tax withholding, and people whose primary source of income is investment interest.
We owed money the last couple years. We definitely didn’t opt out of withholding, and we don’t make any income from interest. It’s as easy as just not having your paperwork done correctly. Or even when it is, as it was in our case, the default withholding is an estimate which is why most end up overpaying (hence the refunds). I ended up putting an additional $50/check for taxes so we’d at least be getting close to owing nothing. This is the first year in quite a few that we actually got some money back.
Yeah, generally you want to owe. Otherwise you are giving the gov an interest free loan. And losing out on any interest you might get on that money. This year I had some wonky job stuff go down, and they significantly over withheld on a chunk of my money. Not sure I had any say in it at all. So big refund from the feds. Oddly, as always seems to be the case, my state return was a tiny refund. High state income tax and no sales tax will do that.
Imagine needing to pay a third-party service just to file to collect the money you’re owed on an interest-free loan…
Oh wait, americans don’t have to imagine…
You don’t “have” to. You pay for the convenience and time savings. So really it should be, “imagine the gov making taxes so complicated just so an industry to help you file them can exist”.
That’d be ideal, but Americans don’t have the organizational infrastructure to go on strike on a moment’s notice. Building that would be step 0.
This. The infrastructure to take large scale labor action has been systemically dismantled over the past 50 years. We need to focus on networking and building up institutional infrastructure for large scale collective action. It’s not a fast process, and you can’t coordinate the logistics for this kind of collective action in a year or two.
The civil rights movement took decades to achive anything. The union labour movement took generations to build enough legitimacy to have an impact. Organizing on that scale is not something you can do in weeks or months.
and if anybody hasn’t filed taxes at this point, don’t file them
Oh shit, are the american people about to go there?
Because that is some rad 1773 shit lol
Not filing taxes isn’t the way to do it. They’d have to request that their employers stop withholding taxes on their paychecks. Filing taxes is just how they get their excess tax withholdings refunded.
Motherfucker, you’re right. Everybody should only buy what they NEED as much as possible. And they should seek out secondhand before buying new if they absolutely must buy something. And they should do only the minimum to not get fired at work, maybe even a tad less here and there. If everybody did that, it would make a huge impact. But that would be uncomfortable and inconvenient, so here we are and here we stay until people get serious.
