I thought a general strike was in the works for May 1st?
One-day strikes are the same as one-day protests. Good visibility and networking but no actual pressure on their own. Ideally a general atrike would be “indefinite until our demands are met” but the US doesn’t have enough class unity or social safety net for that right now.
And it’s no kings.
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.
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”
One of the organizers of Standing Rock was framed and turned in by their partner of like 3± years, iirc. The fbi offered them ~$2000 and so they planted a gun in their partners belongings before a camp raid.
Remember kids, anyone can become a tool of the state if put in the right position
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.
Just because the poster doesn’t take action, doesn’t mean they are wrong.
Also how do you know they are not taking action? Maybe they are not posting updates for the feds to screw over any work they’ve done.
Narrator: they aren’t
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.
You’re right. Better to be a keyboard warrior on a small reddit alternative.
Newsflash: No Kings isn’t about the war, but it’s interesting that the distraction is working on you.
Media attention is rarely a good thing
When you want public awareness of your movement it is.
Congratulations, everyone’s aware. Now what?
so what?
what kind of policy change did you accomplish last time with all that media attention?
take some criticism instead of straw manning.
what kind of policy change did you accomplish last time with all that media attention?
A number of substantive local policy changes as well as growing mutual aid networks as more people became aware of the movement. There is no magic wand to be waved here. It will take on the ground organizing in every city and getting that word out to grow the movement
What kind of policy change have you brought about by being a keyboard warrior?
Take some criticism instead of straw manning.
Physician heal thyself
What kind of policy change have you brought about
a full day’s reduction in our workweek over here.
enough about the strawman and deflection though, can you be specific about these local laws? what local policies have you improved with not one, but three earth shattering record breaking massive protests? what are the demands you are pushing for?
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 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.
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
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
also known as striking.
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.
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.
Stop buying US products (and using US services, I presume)
That’s… why I’m here (on Lemmy instead of Reddit), using Tutanota instead of Gmail, Vivaldi instead of Edge/Chrome, Linux instead of Windows…
But I understand your sentiment, and acknowledge I am not doing as much as I could.
A better point might be that we might have better labor organizations and protections in place that we at least partially take for granted, that need to be built, fought for, or their lack compensated for before Europe-style movements are viable.
And what better place to meet people near you who might be interested in organising and willing to put at least some time into it than the local Fuck This Government convention?
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.
Being part of march is already more than what many people would do. Seen too many times after the whole CEO execution last year people saying shit like “oh won’t somebody step up and do something”, “somebody should really try and change the system”, or “I would totally support someone stepping up”.
Buddy, that someone better be you. If not, be quiet.
- Sincerely, a union representative of my workplace.
To be fair the people vote for leaders who are supposed to show them the way forward we don’t have that for the most part.
Honestly we have no good community leaders at all (for white leftists), they are bad at organizing, they are bad at messaging, they seem to always want to take over and grift money, it’s always get out and march (if you can… that’s ok if you can’t) meanwhile the other side organized an attempted fucking coup.
Like we need someone at Obamas level saying don’t pay federal taxes while they deny your rights and plunge us into war and march on DC/mara lago and here’s the address to the homes they stole from top military brass would be a shame to bother them.
And maybe a little “HEY THEY FUCKING SHOT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS, VOTE FOR ME AND I’LL MAKE SURE THEY ALL GO TO FUCKING JAIL!” would be a nice fucking start or even a little acknowledgement the election was fucking stolen.
First thing you need to do is make America a representative democracy. Throw that first past the post bullshit in the trash.
Then maybe the electoral collage.
Then maybe gerrymandering illegal.
The way your system works is all sorts of fucked up. And it’s fine for us here in Europe if it didn’t effect us, but the tribalistic thinking of “left vs right” without any gradient or nuance is starting to effect us over here too.
The problem is that even doing that isn’t simple. Both parties are captured by and cater to capital’s interests. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party both have 0 interest in changing away from first past the post because first past the post gets them elected and in power. It’s incredibly difficult to get anyone elected that is outside of either of those two parties because they will do everything in their power to challenge it. We’ve seen this most recently in the 2024 elections when the Dems were challenging Green Party candidates’ rights to even be on the ballot by taking them to court to contest their signatures and other procedural challenges. The Greens don’t have the pocket book to handle lawsuits, so this can effectively kill any local and bottom up candidate initiatives. It takes time to contend with these structures, which is why we’re just now seeing gains being made by Democratic Socialists like Mamdani in NYC. His election required years of organizing on the DSA’s part to build a party structure in NYC. Sometimes their best route to office has been through the Democratic party itself, like Mamdani, which comes with its own issues as well.
A union rep. So you only protect certain people, and only if they pay? We need to get rid of that divisive union bullshit as well and level the playing field for all workers.
Okay, let’s make everyone unionized then. The other direction is bad, very fucking bad.
Haha ha hahaha ha.
No.
A rising tide lifts all boats. When negotiating pay raises, better parental leave, pensions, vacation days, overtime, the results don’t merely apply to union members. They apply to everyone.
To manage all the paperwork the union employs full-time office workers. Who pays their salaries?
If a company starts throwing some shit that needs to be taken to labour court, who pays for the lawyers?
What about when a strike is necessary? Where does the money on the warchest come from?
How can the union cover unemployment benefits when people get laid off?
You sound just like the Marx textbook I read back in the 70’s. Even the trite, popular phrases. It’s no laughing matter though. People are dying and suffering all over and all you can talk about is meaningless money of questionable value. A guy once shoveled my snow for me and didn’t charge me anything. He did it to feel a part of the community. How does that fit into your money calculations? It’s a human/ecological issue, not a fiscal one. You can look down and laugh at us from your protected collective perch however. Have fun!
You sound just like the Marx textbook…
Almost like that movement was a result of overbearing oligarchs literally working people to death.
Must be a funny coincidence.
How does that fit into your money calculations?
Doing someone a favour is all fine and dandy, but favours don’t pay for lawyers when you’re going up against a corporate entity.
How does shovelling snow for you neighbour fit into that?
You can look down and laugh at us from your protected collective perch however.
The only reason I’d look down on you is because you’re somehow, unironocally, using “collective power” as a bad thing.
As I said previously; a rising tide lifts all boats, and when I sit at the negotiating table I’m not merely demanding special perks for union members. I represent the needs of the entire work environment.
Ouch! Based on the downvotes it seems you only want to help yourselves and those in your club, not all workers everywhere. No wonder the billionaires are winning.
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?
getting arrested is a good sign. the news talking about it on wensday would be more of a good indication
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 what’s effective and what isn’t.
what concrete things did the no kings protests achieve so far?
‘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.
incorrect. reasoning with a cult does not work. protesting will not effect their decisions in the slightest, and worrying about escalation has always been a moot point. they manufacture escalation at their pace. they do not need a reason. but forcing escalation it’s the point. the iranians have been more effective at changing the heart of magats by making life for magats directly harder. not a single protest has changed their mind. and so in order for this to stop, life has to start getting harder for everyone.
They ain’t wrong though. And you arguing with them is no better than them arguing with you about this.
Oh yeah, lets argue amongst ourselves. That always works.
This person could be French. They know how to bring the state to heel, and they share their experiences for those clearly in need of learning Americans. But they have to leave organizing to the people who are actually involved.
I don’t know why people have this illusion surrounding French people when they’re actively electing fascists and calling antifa a violent group of terrorists, while having their government give a minute of silence for the death of an actual nazi (like, actually posting on twitter that he loves Hitler -kind of nazi)
French people know nothing, they stopped understanding protests and revolts after Napoleon started shooting civilians with cannons and have been licking the boots of dictators since then. It’s no wonder that a bunch of them collaborated with the nazis back in ww2, and it’s no wonder they’re collaborating with the new nazis now.
The French people brought down three monarchies after Napoleon fired those cannons.
Yes, and that didn’t revive democracy. Or prevent king macron
Yeah that’s the pot calling the kettle black. Infighting between groups who manage to effect 0 change.
Hes right though.
