This right here. The problems of an inherently individualist society. Or another way of putting it…
Fuck you, you got yours lol
The internet caused us to forgo our tight communities in exchange for being acquaintances with millions of people.
it was not the internet that did that
I’d say the internet is also a well defining feature of the neoliberal era, certainly not the sole blame for the destruction of communities but definitely a tool (probably unintentionally) in the belt.
Two paychecks seems optimistic.
Agreed. 2-3 paychecks for the union workers and skilled trades. 0-1 for most others.
Lack of worker solidarity. We’re too atomized and stressed to support each other through a GS. Hopefully that is beginning to change. I just hope its not too late.
Lack of worker solidarity
In theory, the problem of “two paychecks” is solved (at least in part) by working people seizing certain critical means of production for the purposes of mutual aid. So, grocers strike not by closing the front doors but by shutting down the cash registers and handing out food for free. Landlord admins strike by refusing to collect rents. Teachers strike not by refusing to teach but by refusing to grade. Etc.
And if everyone knows this arrangement will be in effect, they can act together as a bargaining unit to threaten the control of the landlord class.
But if they aren’t in close communication, because the public forms of media are censored and strictly controlled, then individuals can’t express solidarity prior to the strike. And if they aren’t in alignment, then you end up with the same “haves” and “have-nots” reproduced across the striking cohort, creating contradictions that landlords can exploit. And if they can’t repeat this experiment of communication, trust building, strike, reap concessions, then they can’t build momentum of numbers or expand the demands.
Hopefully that is beginning to change
I haven’t seen much to suggest it has. Perhaps the soul is willing, but the body public remains weak and emaciated. We still don’t have avenues of communication independent of the capitalist class. We haven’t built trust between industrial sectors. There’s little we can point to that’s been successful, much less reproducible.
I just hope its not too late.
It’s never “too late”. All that changes is the players and the stakes at play.
But whatever comes next, you’d be foolish to believe you’ll see both the beginning of it and the end. You’ll be lucky to know what you’re in the middle of.
nearly a century of coordinated, targeted anti-union operations by corporations and the federal government will do that.
More than a century honestly, that shit goes as far back as the 1800s
That’s fair. I was mostly thinking about how coordination between the federal government and corporations really ramped up in response to the NLRA
Also, the average American barely knowing what a union is, much less being a member of one.
Don’t forget that unions and strikes are unamerikkkan commie inventions that takes away our freedom.
Keep the serfs destutute so they can’t organize against the rich, disgustingly lavish aristocracy is a tale as old as time. We’re literally seeing ruling philosophies Medieval kings used and people say this is the best system.
Destitution didn’t stop the French, it emboldened them.
The other half of it is conditioning a society to be so dependent on convenience and little luxuries (yes, even poor people in US have luxuries compared to other parts of the world) that they technically could strike, but doing so would be so below their standard of living that it would not be sustainable.
Fear and propaganda.
Join your local chapter. Volunteer for mutual aid groups. Help establish a strike fund for your local chapter. Get. Involved.
Enough unions to organize it.
The american people are cowards.
Oh yeah? Where are you at in your worker’s paradise praytell?
My country is not bombing others at will.
You are powerless to change anything in your own country, admit it! We need a new system, something something.
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Isn’t that the entire point? lol
Imagine this conversation in 18th century France.
Peasant: Should we do a revolt?
Other peasant: Are you kidding? I’m down to my last loaf of bread over here, no way!
Americans love making excuses because working class solidarity is pretty much impossible for them to even imagine. It’s a settler colonial state to it’s very roots.
It’s the same reason you won’t see socialist leanings in Israel. At best it’ll be fascism pretending to be socialism. Remember ACP?
Lack of class consciousness and education in general
No class consciousness, and americans are cowards. Next question
2? More like half a paycheck. Most people can’t even afford to call in sick to work.
No universal healthcare for when they shoot you in the face with pepper balls or whomp you to a pulp with nightsticks…
General Strikes tend to be difficult to bring about in the United States because our only productive, profitable, material industry is in the reactionary sectors: oil and polymers, automobiles, weapons, and the production of raw materials for these industries (steel, etc.). These industries are either comparatively well-paid or staffed by immigrants who are in a precarious position.
Most of the wealth of today’s billionaires is in intellectual property, speculative assets, and foreign production. These things aren’t going to be affected as much by a strike in the U.S. as, say, a factory that makes boots.
