Wishing for a general strike exactly to happen on May1 2026 does not in fact constitute planing there of.
Now all managers of all companies will be forced to stop using the word " planning " or risk being in some investigation.
Manager: I will pla…no no, organiz… No no…hey, can y’all just be here for the staff meeting on Monday?
- People every time a post about protests is made: “This will accomplish nothing.”
- Those same people when asked what they’re personally doing since they talk like they know what will and won’t work: “Also nothing.”
- (Bonus points for the ones who say violent uprisings are needed, but are not violently rising up themselves. Double bonus for “well I don’t live in the US.”)
Protests aren’t the solution on their own, they’re a step in the process of people getting to the point of doing something about the situation they’ve found themselves in. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t first acknowledge and accept that it’s a problem. Stop crapping on people for protesting. Instead, encourage them to use that energy to take things further. And if you know so much about what will actually work and are going out of your way to tell people what they’re doing isn’t going to work, maybe you should be doing the thing you claim will work so you can lead by example instead of armchair directing.
A term I’ve been using is ‘activation’ people who are in the early stages of activation attend protests - more often attendance is more activation. This eventually evolves into active participation in support networks, vigilante counteraction, or legal resistance like journalism and similar activities.
Protest attendance is the start of most individuals’ activation, and we can’t knock that starting place if we want greater numbers participating in the counteraction apparatus going forward.
Yeh the other step is actual violence. Not condoning or promoting it.
Just saying that has to be the next follow up if they’re not listening to he protests.
Why is it always a general strike? Why not a rent/mortgage strike?
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Not opposed to both, but I’d argue a rent/mortgage strike is more feasible. It could literally be started tomorrow if it was organized already. The only action for people to take at that point is to stop paying, and don’t pay until the problems are fixed. Could even weaponise our homeless population by encouraging them to take up residence in empty homes.
Where as a general strike takes time to build up resources, and generally requires a strong union backing, and the people actively putting effort into organizing. They also need to spend these resources for food, and generally living until the strike bares fruit. So it requires people caring about organizing, and saving, more than the rest of the stuff they have going on in there lives. It’s also a much bigger first step towards civil disobedience, which is a harder sell.
On the other hand, focusing on a rent/mortgage strike builds up our resources by keeping more of them in our pockets, and weaponizes apathy/greed for civil disobedience as all we have to do is *stop paying *. Making it a much easier selling and starting point. Bonus, it can still find a general strike as an escalation after a couple/few months and still help build up organization.
Remember, if your organization is big enough to organize a general strike, the feds are there and watching. Watch your back
recall that the FBI infiltrated the civil rights movement and more even before we had a police state empowered by the Patriot Act surveillance and AI data collection.
I have zero proof, but I suspect that they are actively disrupting all attempts at organization. This is based on the history of CIA and FBI; we never know what they are doing currently, we only know a tiny bit of what they have done in the past.
Maybe I’m paranoid.
Evidence is there that they are doing that, at the very least the consistent effort to not only divide but also demoralize through deliberate propaganda. It’s why you see so many people on Reddit, Lemmy, or any other social media being downright pessimistic about what protests can accomplish or build into. They’ve already lost to the propaganda, so what’s going on now immediately gets written off by them as futile. They are exactly where these orgs want them to be: at home, isolated, writing dumb little comments on the internet that only serve to pull the crabs back down into the bucket. That kind of stuff is infectious to others and makes people opt to view organizing as ineffectual.
Paranoid has proven to be downright reasonable
What was that one phrase again? Something like “there are two kinds of conspiracy theories: antisemitic woo and declassified CIA documents”
Yeah that’s the pot calling the kettle black. Infighting between groups who manage to effect 0 change.
no kings has no leverage and no power and no stamina and no guts. are the police attacking them in the streets? i personaly see these kind of protests as controlled off gassing. you have a large amount of people who would under other circumstances be pushed into actual action, thinking they make a difference doing this, allowing the system to functionally ignore them.
without the media on your side these protests do not work. and the media is captured, and neither side wants to see this stop
Are you recruiting there for an org that wants to do something that matters?
https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/40568556
Or are you gonna let the Liberals get all the photo ops?
‘actual action’ beyond protest tends to get nasty quickly. I’m glad the left wing isn’t lowering themselves to the level of, say, the capitol attacks.
The just way will take longer but it’s the only way to effect real change.
A strike would be a good middle ground though.
you say it will “takes longer” as things have been getting worse not better is a weird stance. these protests have been unsuccessful in their goals, not having a goal was the first failure. and there is a lot that can be done before the need to storm the capitol. but you are already poised to reject anything beyond protest. so you are in reality happy with the status quo
I’m not happy though I’m not directly involved as I’m not American (though I am affected of course). But there’s a limit to what you can expect here. The MAGA’s are a cult, protesting won’t touch their hard core and pushing them harder will cause escalation.
The only way these walls will come down is talking, not fighting. And they’re burning up inside now with this Iran war that’s deeply unpopular even with MAGA. Unfortunately they did manage their goal of making everyone forget the word Epstein though 😔
By protesting and being reasonable you chip away at their fringes, the people that are kinda on the fence. Anyway that’s my take.
And like I said, strikes are a good idea too, anything non violent really.
And are you actively organizing to change that? Or are you just providing an example of OP?
are you?
Yes. I’m a member of a number of local mutual aid orgs and other groups that I started working more closely with after my home state was invaded by ICE.
if that is true, then you should know better.
what concrete things have the no kings protests achieve?
If you’re writing off all liberals then your view makes sense. At our no kings the Brown Berets showed up to protect those you are spurning. Many years ago I attended a UFW march that was also protected by the Brown Berets and it shocked an out of town liberal white woman who compared the union march to the Nazis. These people tend to only see aesthetics so the march is a good opportunity to make unusual alliances. That’s the concrete achievement of my local Marxist-lennist org, but that probably doesn’t make sense to the terminally online.
here’s my comment from yesterday about this:
plus this is the perfect opportunity to organize to go literally talk to them. if not us, fascism will find a way to, like we’ve seen in the past so often. not all of these people are militant irreducible libs.
your condescending tone is definetly not convincing anyone.
I think liberals doing trust exercises with marxists and others from different political leanings is the effective part.
Your wallet is your strongest voice in the eyes of this administration. Think carefully about where you spend your hard earned money.
A single day of avoiding Walmart and Amazon is not meaningful if you give them your money tomorrow. Find local businesses that deserve your money and spend your money with them instead.
Buy less and buy better quality items that last longer. Reduce consumerism and give homemade gifts or experiences instead of more junk nobody needs. Use lending libraries, swap groups, and other methods to reduce your contribution to the economy, which is frankly the only thing the American government really is interested in.
And hats off to the person who successfully organizes a general strike. I’m cheering you on from Canada.
I remember how fast Jimmy Kimmel was back in the air once people starting attacking the bottom line. The biggest thing a capitalist society and its oligarchs fear is the threat to its money.
I’m not going to be first in line to start doing something that actually fucking matters, but you bet your ass I’ll be third.
protests and direct action present an opportunity for everyone to go at once. it’s just up to you guys to take it.
Why does a general strike have to be organized? All folks have to do is stop buying things or spending money as much as possible. The fucking country would grind to a halt. The amount of shit that we buy that we dont need is staggering… Probably daily you buy something (likely multiple things) that you dont need. And here’a the thing: you have to be ready to suffer. No change will come to us if we continue to prioritize comfort and convenience.
And if you have to go to work, do the bare minimum to stay employed. Some may say to actively sabotage, but i wouldnt say that or think it, so you should not actively sabotage the company you work at.
A general strike for one-day is silly. Any company can weather one day.
Why does a general strike have to be organized?
Because we have like, 350 million people here, and if it’s not organized, you just have a tiny insignificant percentage buying less and the economy doesn’t even notice.
If “buy less stuff” was all it took, well… I’ve been doing that for years, so why isn’t the problem solved yet? It’s because the vast majority of people aren’t. It needs an organized effort to get the word out, and to make people who otherwise wouldn’t engage understand the potential impact, and how to realize that.
There’s also the problem where a prolonged general strike would mean a huge number of people would lose their health care and wouldn’t be able to pay rent or buy food and that’s simply not sustainable. I’m not sure how to overcome that problem, and so far nobody else seems to, either.
we’ve seen no kings 1 & 2 change diddly squat, so obviously we’ll do the same thing a third time with the high hopes that nothing will change too!
Guy that is attending the useless no kings protest
You want actual change? Look at Europe on how to protest. I’m sorry for you Americans, but you got yourself in this, you gotta dig yourself out. Trump will NOT care about the o kings protest, and it’ll fade from the news within two days tops. It. Is. Not. Enough.
Protest 24/7 for months on end until the fucker is gone
Have strikes everywhere, indeed, because that it the only way you’ll get his attention and get this administration to understand that it’s over
Yes, let’s look at Europe.
The USA is comparable to all of the EU in size, much larger than France, UK, Germany, etc. combined.
Has all of the EU ever been able to organize? France is smaller than California, one US state out of 50.
I’m sorry for you Europeans, but why do you keep supporting and enabling the USA? You continue to finance the very war machine that oppresses you (and us). Stop buying US products and stop using the US Dollar for international trade.
Go on strike yourselves and boycott, you are the experts eh? But you won’t bother, you will continue to provide our government with billions while saying “pity that”… and then complain when the USAs boot is on your neck.
Re people from the USA… MLK and peace only did so much. We need less peaceful MLK protest and more Black Panthers-style protesting. Peaceful protests are worthless alone
Has all of the EU ever been able to organize? France is smaller than California, one US state out of 50.
No, but you can’t compare the EU to the US that way. We’re not EU citizens in our minds. We’re French, Germans, Polish etc. There’s very few cases where we have such a need to protest together. We don’t view ourselves as the EU people (most of us at least). And yes there were protests here today too.
And yeah the French basically invented protesting. Hardly a day goes by that some union isn’t on strike there :) They invented the yellow vests too.
Go on strike yourselves and boycott, you are the experts eh?
If you’re talking about the French then yes I would consider them the experts for sure 🤭
Stop buying US products and stop using the US Dollar for international trade.
This is in fact exactly what is happening here. It’s a slow start but big ships need time to turn. Once they’re turned however the momentum is great. There’s lots of websites with recommendations for EU alternatives, and lots of people and businesses are making plans. It’s a growing movement.
It’s very easy to say but you need to understand there are no labor protections in the US. Any protest during work hours result in termination.
Then get fired, all of you.
A company can’t fire all their employees, just go all protest
They only have to fire a few and the rest will fall in line quickly. This is why retail workers don’t have unions.
Everyone is stuck in the consumer/labor loop. One missed check is all it takes to send you to the poverty hole. Even more challenging if you have kids.
I support general strike. But I understand why people aren’t ready to do it yet. Until starving is less scary than the alternative, it’s going to be hard for them to risk that.
also known as striking.
It’s not even about how you protest, it’s about what you use protests for. You can have the best protest ever, longest strike imaginable, whatever. If you don’t have the organisation to have coherent changes and then act upon them, nothing matters. No kings, huh? What if by a stroke of magic, Trump gets scared of your rally and tries to appease the public or whatever. What’s the terms? No kings. Well, he’s not a king, he’s the president. Problem solved, continue as you were.
They ain’t wrong though. And you arguing with them is no better than them arguing with you about this.
Just because the poster doesn’t take action, doesn’t mean they are wrong.
Sure, but do you see the hypocrisy in pointing one how little one form of resistance helps while participating in one that helps even less?
they are about equal levels of effective, tbh
No kings protests get media attention. How are your “nothing works” social media posts helping anything?
Wow, media attention! Perhaps they are gonna run a strongly worded letter on the dashreel at the bottom edge of the screen!
Newsflash: the media is in line, and in love, with the war.
Media attention is rarely a good thing
so what?
what kind of policy change did you accomplish last time with all that media attention?
take some criticism instead of straw manning.
Narrator: they aren’t
Sure, we’ll all voluntarily surrender our paychecks, and starve. I’m sure MAGA will show empathy, and totally change their attitude, and won’t just point and laugh at us as we starve, and scabs do our jobs for us.
I’d rather shut down the MAGA government for an extended period, deny them THEIR money, and hurt THEM. So the airports are out of control, who care? Almost everybody inconvenienced in an airport is upper middle class at the least. Most of them have money, and disproportionately vote MAGA.
So I’m sorry about the workers who get screwed, but I’m extremely happy to see people with money whining about missing their time on the slopes, or that big merger meeting that will unemploy thousands, or that AI training that will unemploy thousands, etc. Fuck them, make them wait for hours, as they ponder how voting MAGA has improved their lives.
Just pointing out, a general strike is not only self-inflicted. Per day it would cost the government far more than what a government shutdown does. We’re talking about a factor of 70.
A government shutdown costs are an estimated 500 millions a day.
If we only shave of half of the daily GDP due to a general strike, we are talking about 38 billion.
You are right in saying it would hurt you as well, but a general strike is a lot more effective.
Edit: Btw, Americans daily shopping contributes only about a third of daily gdp.
That number is ridiculous on the face of it. Perhaps the POTENTIAL is there, but the reality is that when people don’t shop for a day, they just buy what they need the day before or after, so that number isn’t real.
As for workplace impact, there’s a bit, but just like shopping, whatever work needs to be done will be done after or before, and if you don’t, you’ll be fired. American workers have literally no job security protections. After a one day general strike, many Americans would find that they are the victims of a permanent Employer Strike. That’s something that European workers simply don’t understand. You won’t get fired for a strike, but we DEFINITELY will. Many, many employers will fire EVERY worker who doesn’t show up on strike day.
And this isn’t all about the MONEY anyway, that’s a particularly Capitalistic perspective. The current shutdown, which isn’t even a full shutdown, is making them crazy, all day, every day. They are constantly asked about it by journalists, it is on every single news broadcast, and it clearly focuses the entire nation, and more importantly, the MAGA Government, on the problem. This shutdown isn’t about money, it’s about morality, and MAGA has a very difficult time defending themselves on the morality front.
We can agree to disagree. Just pointing out the facts.
You are not agreeing to disagree.
You are calling them a liar.
I wouldn’t say they’re calling me a liar, and they’re not even wrong, it’s just that the employment environment in Europe that makes General Strikes successful is far different than in America. They generally can’t be fired for any reason at all. Unions are common, and powerful, even in lower level jobs like retail, and even the governments are worker friendly.
That’s the exact opposite where any worker can be fired literally on a whim. Your boss hates your socks that day? After 20 years of loyal work, you’re fired, get out. Seriously, that’s totally legal.
OTOH, Europeans don’t have a mechanism where they can literally shut down the government they hate. We do, and it works every time (if our elected representives have have a backbone).
What works over there, doesn’t work here, and vice-versa. Criticizing Americans for not doing a General Strike is just as dumb as criticizing Europeans for not doing a Government Shutdown. We’re going to use the tools that work in our specific Political-Economic Environments. Doesn’t that make sense?
Thanks. At the end of the day I’m on your side and want the same thing, which is not having fascists at the helm of the United States. If that goal is achieved in a different way than I (or Europeans) would have done, that’s okey.
Good luck and fortitude in your fight for democracy.
Thanks, we’ll be okay eventually. We were raised on fables about Revolution against the most powerful military in the world. We don’t tolerate tyranny in America. MAGA will never win. When it finally blows, it’s gonna blow BIG.
I’m not. Just disagreeing with their take. Calm down.
Calm down? We’re gunna circle back around to that.
But I’m what world is half of a percent of 500m a day equal to 38 billion? So not only are you incorrect in your turn of phrases, but you also don’t understand math.
And I was calm, just pointing out that the phrase you used was incorrect. You so casually dropping that phrase is pretty fucking misogynistic, it really reads like guy talking down to a woman. You should really work on that about yourself.
A government shutdown costs are an estimated 500 millions a day.
If we only shave of half of the daily GDP due to a general strike, we are talking about 38 billion.
You misread. Those numbers are not connected. Daily gdp of the United States is roughly 77 billion. Half of that is 38 billion.
I was thinking about the airport stuff. Even that isn’t what it may seem. For the upper middle class it is an inconvenience. But those below that who either fly for work, or to see family when they can afford it, it is much more than an inconvenience. So even that hits the “worker” harder.
C’mon, it doesn’t hit the average worker NEARLY as much as those with money, that’s just common sense. It widely disproportionately hurts the middle rich. The truly wealthy have their own planes. It’s the UPPER MANAGEMENT Class that gets hit, the bosses and C-Suite Sociopaths. Fuck them, let them stand in line at the airport while the rest of us relax at home. We’ll either drive, or contact the other relatives by Facetime. That’s what we all usually do, anyway.
This isn’t the year for a visit. Don’t like missing your grandchildren, Grandma? Maybe you should stop voting MAGA.
I meant more like to any specific individual. Not the group as a whole. The upper middle class person is just inconvinced. Someone of lesser means may not make it to see a dieing relative or what not.
Of course there will be the inconvenienced regular person, but airport inconvenience will hit higher income people to a far more disproportionate rate than the average person.
With any problem, even the best case scenario solution isn’t going to please everybody, and that’s too bad. The best way to handle that is to anticipate it, and be ready with a plan for those who are inconvenienced by the new solution. The worst thing to do is to abandon a good solution that helps the vast majority, because a few have an issue with it.
If striking for 1 day means starving, then you got one more good reason for a general strike.
Best regards from Europe
LOL, are you serious? A one day strike in America wouldn’t change a single thing. Everybody would just get docked a day’s pay. Or fired.
Europeans have no choice but to strike, but in America, we can literally shut down the government for as long as we can force our elected representatives to comply.
Why should we hurt ourselves, when we can hurt them?
When you’re willing to start hurting them, let us know- I don’t see any sign that any Americans are willing to do what is necessary.
And when do you plan to “hurt them”?
“No king protests” are covered by the media here today… A government shutdown isn’t.
The only government shutdowns I remember from the USA are the ones where a million people got no payments for a few weeks (and didn’t starve?). Most of them were probably not ultra rich.
Who cares what gets covered in the European media? Of course they are going to cover No Kings, its a big story, and it resembles the kinds of protests they have in Europe. It’s relatable, and European news is no different from American news - they just want eyeballs.
But in America, No Kings gets one mention on the evening news, and that’s it. But a Government Shutdown is the FIRST story on EVERY American newscast, EVERY day, morning, noon, and night. THAT’S what gets attention in America, and America is where we are fighting the battle.
How do you figure that MAGA is going to respond positively to a self-inflicted wound? You are GREATLY underestimating how Sociopathic MAGA is as a fundamental characteristic. They will only respond when THEY feel the pain.
Who cares what gets covered in the European media?
I’m just telling you, because ->I<- am from Europe and because ->I<- have not heard about any government shutdown plans, only about the “No king” stuff… I can only tell you about what I observe. I don’t watch American media. I thought, that was obvious.
You are GREATLY underestimating how Sociopathic MAGA is as a fundamental characteristic. They will only respond when THEY feel the pain.
We have far right AfD here… One of them was recorded saying that it’s good good that our country is doing bad in the short run, so they can take power in the long run. We are all living through the idiotic revolution and it’s unfortunately an international thing.
Exactly my point. You are telling us to do something, because your media isn’t telling you that we ARE doing something, it’s just something that Europeans have no experience with. So your media shows it from your perspective, and you think we’re doing nothing.
I’m trying to explain to you, and the many, many other Europeans calling us stupid for not having a General Strike without understanding that 1) It won’t work in America, and 2) We are already doing something that is unique to America, and is a past proven winner in getting the government to respond.
many other Europeans calling us stupid
I’m not calling you stupid btw. I’m calling those stupid who vote against their interests without realizing it.
something that Europeans have no experience with
I think, the the newspapers in Europa are capable to understand basic US politics without having to experience that MAGA shitshow themselves and without having the same laws.
Anyways… Good luck stopping the orange manic, however you do it!
But… who watches the news really. Not the worker who is working multiple jobs to pay the bills. And really, how does the gov shutdown hurt them. They have ensured that the things they most care about aren’t affected. Like air force one isn’t affected. All the upper level government officials are on private or government owned jets and by passing normal security. After this shut down, they will probably add tsa to the always gets paid anyway list.
I haven’t figured out if a general strike would really bother them either. After it was done, they could probably have layoffs “because of the economic impact of the strike” and get rid of people they felt were organizers. Plus people who are old or cost too much and all that. And of course a general strike would be nearly impossible to make happen. There are of course laws against union leadership backing such a thing. So they have taken the most likely organizers out of the process.
Seems a no win scenario.
But… who watches the news really
One of the dumbest statements ever. TV media runs news programs every morning, noon, and night. Entire stations are devoted to it, as are many websites, radio stations, publications, books, etc. clearly, a LOT of people are following the news. If that’s your opening premise, you’ve already lost the debate.
You should probably check you facts before spewing how dumb a statement is. https://www.thecurrent.com/tv-networks-historic-ratings-drops-nielsen-big-data-panel-vab-reports
People get thier news from facebook, x, instagram, reddit… TV media is dieing. The big players will survive a while longer. But mainly because old people aren’t ready for the internet. And the same old people are gullible.
Start building guillotines, please!
