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Electoral politics doesn't get the job done
Electoral politics doesn't get the job done
102 comments
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Our true power comes from mitochondria which is the power house of the cell. In this house we respect biology.
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And when the mitochondria rebel against the tyranny of the nucleus?
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Americans don't really do anything as recent times have proven. They just kind of sit there on their phones are their country gets overthrown.
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So, you think that the same people who couldn't be bothered to vote are suddenly going to organize themselves and go on strike? What makes you think this will happen?
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OP is not wrong, but both are important.
If the billionaires were not concerned by the potential threat to their existence posed by democracy, they would not feel so motivated to destroy it.
Democratic government is among the most powerful tools that can be wielded by the working class against the capitalists.
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I would like to know what this mythical democratic government exists alongside capitalism. As long as we have a society that's dominated by capitalism and capitalists, there is no such thing as a democratic representative government.
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I know this is just splitting hairs but for brief periods of time democratic principles did coexist with a capitalist system. For example, the post-WWII economic and civil rights booms existed inside of a capitalist system. It's just that they can't coexist for very long because they're based on competing ideologies. Plus if it takes a world war to accomplish a brief respite in the class struggle it's a very costly coexistence.
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We can't get people to vote. There's no way we're getting a general strike
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"getting"? It's a basic democratic right?.... You are a democracy, right? You bombed all those countries in the name of it...
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The cynic in me says there's a big overlap between the unemployed and the unrepresented, so to speak.
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There's a reason why for the longest time there was a lot of vagrancy (still are) and loitering laws. Was so that the unemployed and homeless couldnt have a voice without making themselves a target
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I tried organizing a board game night with 4 people. Literally impossible.
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The most difficult part of every Dungeons and Dragons campaign is getting five working adults in the same room at the same time.
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Well the difference here is that during the election, people had a hard time getting angry at Republicans because they were wrongly* perceived as not being in power due to Biden's presidency. I doubt a general strike is likely as long as people feel comfortable and employed, but that could change and then I wouldn't be surprised if there's some serious tremors.
*Because Republicans in Congress blocked any new legislation and the Republican supreme court blocked whatever options were left over.
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The owners would last 10 days, especially if the duration was announced ahead of time. Maybe a general strike that had no end date, once it went 3 months or so, would have the desired effect.
Going Luigi on a bunch of them would be faster, more effective, with stronger effects that lasted longer. Probably fewer total deaths.
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Exactly. They’d see 10 days and go “okay I can hunker down and outlast it.” But a general strike with no designated end? They’d capitulate after only a few days. Giving them a timeline only allows them to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Kidney stones don’t suck because they hurt; The pain is similar to a bad muscle cramp. Bad, but not unbearable. They suck so much because you don’t know how long they’re going to hurt for. It could be a day, it could be two weeks, it could be a month, and there’s no light at the end of the tunnel until you know it’s passed.
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No, 10 days is way more than enough, it's even overkill.
If the full country, all workers, stopped for one (1) day, the billionaire elite would loose their shit.
Because they would instantly know that they lost control of the narrative, and that the people realized that it's them who have the elite by the balls, not the other way around, and they'd come begging to the table.
Americans aren't at that stage yet, but there's a chance that this cabinet and their incompetence will finally go too far and break the camels back.
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I think their point is you can’t just commit for only 10 days. It might take less than 10 days, but if that’s your limit, they might try and tough it out.
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nah. the guy luigi killed was replaced instantly. i don't think they even cancelled that meeting he was going to.
it was effective to give them a good scare and brought a little bit of class consciousness to the people but it fundamentally wont change things.
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Same reason they freaked the fuck out when we all had to shelter at home because of COVID. Didn't last long because they needed meat for the grinder and forced a lot of back to work regardless of the risks.
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And only callex those essential workers heros while not doing anything that would actually help them. Like increasing pay or protections
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Ask any patient at a VA hospital. If the US calls you a hero, stop whatever you're doing and run away. Do not walk. Do not stop to help others. Get out of whatever situation they are calling you a hero for being in. They are doing that as a means of absolving themselves of responsibility towards you.
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Be prepared! A general strike is scheduled for Mayday 2028, with UAW and CTU.
SAVE AND PLAN WHAT YOU CAN!
So that you can strike yourself, and so that you can help your neighbors, your coworkers, your comrades strike!
We've got 3 more years to prepare for ~10 critical days. If we are all serious about it and spread the word, and are truly prepared for the event, our demands and thus our conditions will improve greatly!
It is up to us.
Do we choose to accept the working situation we have become entangled in, or are we willing to sacrifice for something better?
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In 2028. The fuck? Now, my person. Now!
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Random people posting "General Strike Now!" on social media has been happening for years and nothing ever comes from it. A coordinated action like this, asking people to risk their jobs and go without pay for a period of time, is not going to happen overnight, especially when most people have zero experience with strikes. It's more important to take the time to do it right so that it has a higher chance of success than to rush into it. This is particularly important as this strike has the potential to serve as a "proof of concept" further down the line. Collective action is always an uphill battle, and for it to succeed requires careful planning, preparation, and patience.
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Planning it for further out gives people opportunity to organize and save for missing 10+ days of paychecks. It does feel like if we wait that long though we'll be in a hopeless situation. Maybe organizing smaller general strikes like state or city wide in the meantime would help prepare and buy time for the big one
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2028 is far too late. Climate, forced deportation, and widening inequality will have all of us so weak and poor we won't even survive the 10 days due to malnutrition.
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That and it gives them three fucking years to prepare for our strike. If the rich do a pump and dump and crash the economy before we do then we're the ones who get fucked. It also gives them time to prepare the national guard and military which might have clearance to murder Americans domestically by then.
The sooner the better!
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When is Mayday?
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May 1st
Aka international workers day
It was partially coined in remembrance of the Haymarket massacre when the government and capitalist elites deployed armed forces against workers during a general strike, and also after othet strikes around the world and in the US that gave us the standard 40 hour work week.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day
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If we could wipe a few trillion dollars out of existence in a few days all the rich would freak the fuck out.
People like musk have so much invested in the market and live off those investments by borrowing against those investments. They pay a fraction of their taxes that way through capital gains being taxed at a lower rate. The 1% have so much invested and all they care about is money!
If we held out long enough someone might just push trump out a window.
People are fucked either way, might as well go out on your own terms. That and its our last option outside of armed revolution.
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We can either take a week off from work now or die on a battlefield in Greenland.
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Workers unite! A general strike is solidarity with everyone, except those delinquent bastards who do no work: Boards, CEOs and upper management.
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There aren’t enough Pinkertons and cops to make everyone go back to work.
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Cyrus is the One, man.
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Even if there were, I'd refuse.
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Isn’t that part of what made the Occupy Movement so threatening to capitalists? The problem was however that it had no direction. The point was disruption, but there wasn’t a clear goal or demand till the end.
I’m all for memes, but what specifically would a general strike accomplish other than the governing class using every method, including police violence and fear, to immediately try to suppress the opposition?
In a society where the majority of people live paycheck to paycheck (by design) a 10 day strike will never happen. You’d be lucky to get 5% of the populace to participate.
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Occupy refused to point out leaders knowing that Fox News would assassinate them in the media. Since they didn’t hand over leaders to assassinate, Fox News ginned up the story that the movement was directionless.
P.S. Please don’t “akually” about “Fox News” vs “The Media” in this context Its now a distinction without a difference. They’re all owned by the side winning the class war.
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General strikes are outlawed and illegal under the taft-hartley act. Fight at the polls to overturn it.
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Kinda. Mostly. Sympathy strikes are outlawed, but one of the major unions is trying to get all contracts to end on May, 1, 2028. That would allow for a legal "general strike."
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No, electoral politics won't ever get the job done, however we're also long past the point of a general strike being enough on its own.
Fascism has been here longer than people are comfortable to admit, but it is going in to full blast mode now, and the masks are well and truly off, those in power will not hesitate to use whatever force they need to to maintain it, and that requires full forced self defence in return, not playing nice (which is what a strike is).
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the american government has ariel bombed its bombed its citizens before. they will do it again. and i will point out the workers who got bombed last time knew that was a possibility. they were storming machine gun emplacements for the right to only work 40 hours a week. our ancestors fought to the death to make our world more survivable for us
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Meanwhile, people today don't have enough gumption to quit their shit job and try another one.
Last two perfectly good jobs I left was because they annoyed the fuck out of me. Got a 30% and 50% pay bump both times. Hell, even if you can't do that, you can at least move laterally.
Quiet quitting is for losers. QUIT
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They have enough money to hold out for 10 days. Your rent is still due, and you’re broke—as intended. Good luck.
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It's called solidarity and community, look it up, in fact go learn some actual labour history before you make any more assertions about a subject you clearly know nothing about
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This reply is a great way to alienate people who are interested enough in a general strike to get in a thread and point out questions that literally everyone will have.
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Sounds crazy, but that's irrelevant. Understand the cost of shutting down a just-in-time economy. You're thinking like an individual, not a corporation.
You're out of work for 10-days, you're out of 10-days pay, that's it. Shut down, say, Walmart, and the logistical boondoggle would reverberate like a fucking shockwave. It would take months to resume normal operations.
FFS, look at what COVID did. Semis backup up for miles, for days, ships delayed for months. And that was with all of us trying to work and muddle through. After shutting down I-10 for a measly 2-days, I drove past 24-miles of backed-upped trucks once it started again. (There was plenty more, but I was at my exit.)
The scale of our economy is hard to grasp from an individual perspective, but the owners sure as fuck grasp it. There are factories and plants where stoppages cost millions per hour.
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10 isn’t enough for long term change. It’s enough for them to realize they need a backup plan.
If you cut me on the arm I’m going to be shocked, and wear protection next time. But if you shove a knife in my gut and twist, something needs to happen now or I’m going to bleed out.
We need to stab them in the gut.
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please make the libs understand because i cant for the life of me
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They're so full of arrogance and hubris to be reasoned with.
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someone got through to me, so there is a way, as hard as it might be.
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Yeah, let's take this message and sow division instead! Great work!
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You'll have to define what you mean by sow division. If you're talking about it from a liberal point of view, one that's defending the duopoly, they are the ones helping create that division.
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what makes you think that?
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Cancel your amazon and cancel your health insurance. Everyone same time. Then watch the freak out begin.
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My strike started a year ago. No longer unemployed. I'm on hiatus and on strike. Work doesn't even seem worth it anymore.
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Now you know why they own all the media.
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Rich people spreading propaganda to advance their interests is the origin of media, and its reason for still existing. There has never been a time when they haven't owned all the media.
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So there's no media, either now or in all of human history, that hasn't existed specifically to advance the interests of rich people?
Really?
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They're not mutually exclusive, do both
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Electoral politics can get the job done but the populous is apathetic for various reasons.
What makes anyone think that people will instead decide to put their livelihoods in peril to accomplish the same thing?
Vote people!!
Don’t get suckered in by identity politics and wedge issues.
Don’t ever vote for a populist with dictatorial tendencies. Especially when that person is a convicted felon, a known liar and a narcissist.It is so obvious!!!
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Vote people!!
They did. For Trump.
What makes anyone think that people will instead decide to put their livelihoods in peril to accomplish the same thing?
Assuming enough people do it, it's been tremendously successful historically. Hell, we saw what one week of diminished capitalism can do in March 2020.
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You're talking as if liberals didn't lay the groundwork for everything Trump is able to accomplish.
You're also trying to conflate apathy for people refusing to vote for someone that does not represent their best interests. People that say 'vote' are usually looking out for their best interests and demand that everyone else support their best interests.
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Liberals laid the groundwork to prevent Trump from doing far worse. Without courts and checks and balances, Trump would never have left power after 2016 and women, trans people, and minorities would all be literal slaves.
I agree a general strike will do far more than voting, but don't lose the plot of what's realistic and possible in pursuit of your idealism. It's a problem of scale. A general strike is many orders of magnitude more difficult than winning an election.
I'll be there to strike when the general strike is supposed to happen, but until the general strike happens, if it ever happens, you calling for a general strike does zero material good.
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Billionaires will never let you vote away their money or power.
Never.
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the populous is apathetic for various reasons.
Typical lib, refusing to actually look at the core of the problem (like trillions spent on propaganda, state and capitalist indoctrination since birth, people being deliberately kept too busy and burnt out trying to keep their head above the water, people being deliberately taught a whitewashed version of history and deprived of critical thinking skills, and the list goes on and on and on, but sure "various reasons" so easily dismissed and ignored), and instead expects individual to "solve" systemic problems (and I put solve in
bracketsquotation marks, because liberals, eternal guardians of the status quo, don't actually want to solve anything, hence the insistence of repeating the same mistake over and over, playing by the oppressor's rules, and pretending to expect a different result).
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electoral politics DOES get the job done, just not to the same standard as the popular vote.
The problem is that the people who WANT things to change for some reason, don't seem to vote.
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Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.
Lucy Parsons
Not a single one of our rights has ever been won via electoral politics, they have been won with a great deal of violence against the state and capitalism.
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violence just happens to be alongside most of the electoral politics, i'm pretty sure we still voted for shit like, womens suffrage, and civil rights. Shit like gay rights as well.
Activism is an important part of politics no doubt, but to say that not voting and killing people will magically make legislation get passed is just fucking mentally deranged.
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