this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2025
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Late Stage Capitalism

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

There aren’f enough Pinkertons and cops to make everyone go back to work.

[–] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Even if there were, I'd refuse.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 7 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

please make the libs understand because i cant for the life of me

[–] K1nsey6@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

They're so full of arrogance and hubris to be reasoned with.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 32 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

We can't get people to vote. There's no way we're getting a general strike

[–] rational_lib@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] C126@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 hours ago

I tried organizing a board game night with 4 people. Literally impossible.

[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 12 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

The cynic in me says there's a big overlap between the unemployed and the unrepresented, so to speak.

[–] Zirconium@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago

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

[–] MeatPilot@lemmy.world 31 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

And only callex those essential workers heros while not doing anything that would actually help them. Like increasing pay or protections

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

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.

[–] loon@sh.itjust.works 8 points 7 hours ago

My strike started a year ago. No longer unemployed. I'm on hiatus and on strike. Work doesn't even seem worth it anymore.

[–] Maiq@lemy.lol 25 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] sudo42@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

We can either take a week off from work now or die on a battlefield in Greenland.

[–] ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip 67 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 31 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Shiggles@sh.itjust.works 12 points 8 hours ago

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.

[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 21 points 10 hours ago

Workers unite! A general strike is solidarity with everyone, except those delinquent bastards who do no work: Boards, CEOs and upper management.

[–] EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

They're not mutually exclusive, do both

[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 23 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] sudo42@lemmy.world 11 points 6 hours ago

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.

[–] cAUzapNEAGLb@lemmy.world 34 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

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?

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Maiq@lemy.lol 4 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

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!

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

It needs to be this year, this summer

[–] Xanthobilly@lemmy.world 27 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

In 2028. The fuck? Now, my person. Now!

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 12 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] Xanthobilly@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

At the very least, take the political cycle and midterms into consideration, otherwise what’s the point?

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

The timing has to do with major union contracts expiring for renegotiation iirc. There are a few really big ones set for the same time which gives a good opportunity for coordinated bargaining across industries

[–] Xanthobilly@lemmy.world 9 points 9 hours ago

Coordinating with unions 👍 Waiting three years 👎

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 9 hours ago (2 children)
[–] cAUzapNEAGLb@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago

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

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

May 1st. What should have been labor day in the US, but the government moved it to September. Because they can't have us organizing with the rest of the world.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Something of comedy that pilots call out for a day off when their plane is going down. That was the first mayday that came to mind.

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

I hate that this made me laugh. Thank you, tho.

[–] ShareMySims@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

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).

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 9 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

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

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

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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[–] blakenong@lemmings.world 9 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

They have enough money to hold out for 10 days. Your rent is still due, and you’re broke—as intended. Good luck.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

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.

[–] ShareMySims@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

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

[–] BeefPiano@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago

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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