Perhaps the time is right to consider a general strike in the US

[kohodog]

We give billions for bonus payments to the "masters of the universe" and their underlings while millions lose their jobs and more lose healthcare. How long will we as citizens stand for it? An interesting article on NPR got me to thinking about this:


Europe's Economic Protests May Be Contagious

by Corey Flintoff

“It's amazing that people aren't more angry here . Our government is still looking out more for the banks and the people who caused the mess than the people who are being victimized.”
Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research


NPR.org, January 30, 2009 · As the global economic downturn sinks in, some people in Europe are expressing their economic pain in the form of strikes and protests.

Trade unions in France staged a daylong nationwide protest on Thursday to demand more government action to help ordinary people. In recent weeks, demonstrations have spread from the Baltic to the Balkans.

The protests come as world political and business leaders meet with top economists in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss the crisis...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100029099

How long will we stand for it? Wake up folks. Even if only for our kids.

[customerserviceguy]

1. While I share your feelings of anger

with unemployment as high as it is, a general strike is pretty much just a pipedream.

I'd be afraid of someone else taking my job.

[kohodog]

4. I think it will be spontaneous, not planned

If it ever happens, that is. But why is the US workforce so compliant? Why do we accept this amazing disparity in income? Why do we tolerate the loss of the middle class? Why do we allow the Republican meme of tax cuts for the rich to have any credence whatsoever? At some point we (the former and once aspiring middle class) may have had enough and throw open our windows and shout "I'm not going to take it any more!."

We are acting like middle age surfs imho.

[Life Long Dem]

58. On a rant?

:hurts:

[alarimer]

59. Because they will fire us if we aren't compliant.

Most states are "at-will" as far as employment law is concerned. Meaning they can fire you at any time for almost any reason. Walking out on your job would qualify as such a reason. We do not have the protections that people in France have.

[Donnachaidh]

15. and it doesn't matter that thousands have already lost their jobs?

As long as YOU and everyone else who is still working keeps the same attitude, the entire working class is well and truly screwed.

AND the CORPORATIONS know that. And staying cowed and frightened is not going to save your job - not if someone in management decides to cut *losses*. And that's what people are to them -- LOSSES.

[bread_and_roses]

2. It's long past time to at least take to the streets

...last night on National Propaganda Radio I heard a French woman (in the streets) saying to the reporter: "we're not Americans, we have rights!" - astonished that they played it.

Some epitaph for our shredded democracy and labor movement.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. I can't join a strike. I was laid off last year. At least I am available!

[kohodog]

5. We are all available

I'm not in a union either, and while employed I'm going backwards financially faster and faster.

[bertman]

6. WAAAYYY PAST time as far as I'm concerned. Sign me up.

Recommend.

For one day, every person who is outraged by the government doling out more and more trillions of dollars to the financial failure elites, should refuse to work, shop, drive. Except of course, those persons who are in critical medical and law enforcement and maybe utility positions (water purification, electrical grids).

[handmade34]

17. I'm there... the reason we are in this mess

is because in the past we as a people have accepted what is handed us by a few in positions of power... it is going to take more than one day, but we together can affect change and I see the masses getting angry enough to do something that really does make a difference (we HAVE elected Obama) ...now WE need to understand our power and continue to use it, whether by voting, striking, boycotting(my favorite),massive calling, petitioning, organizing, whatever it takes to make the United States work again. Help your neighbor, friend, family member be strong and refuse to take the exploitation. Deregulation and human greed and disrespect has gotten us to this point and so lets fight to make the changes needed. I called my congresspeople today. I refuse to use plastic bags (recycle cloth bags instead), I boycott inequalities and exploitation, etc, etc.... Do It! Whatever you can!

[safeinOhio]

7. Another idea to add to it

Pick a month, no one pay the bank credit card bill.

[defendandprotect]

29. You'll only make them richer in interest charges ---

[lib2DaBone]

64. Ya Know..I wondered about that..?

What if all American refused to pay their credit card bills? Would Wall Street care? Would the Corporate Media Care? What would Rush Limbaugh say? (We have to clear everyting with Rush)

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. Super Bowl sunday

Bread and Circus........ well the bread, not so much anymore.

I don't see it happening with Americans yet.

[Fire1]

11. It'll never happen.

[Greyhound]

40. K&R We're getting closer. n/t

[kath]

19. Plus the American Idol season is revving up...

[Ichingcarpenter]

24. And Dancing with 'Stars"

Bread and Circus for Rome

[bluestateguy]

9. Government should mandate a 90 day freeze on all layoffs

This would be similar to FDR's Bank holiday in 1933.

[Donnachaidh]

16. SIX MONTH freeze on layoffs.

And NO bailout money if you've laid anyone off in the past year.

[bertman]

21. What happens with small businesses who have no work or sales that have to continue

to pay their staff for three more months? Those businesses will die. The owners can't get credit now, so they will have to use up cash reserves that most small businesses don't have.

Tonight I was listening to a story of a retailer whose business was going under despite every maneuver he had tried. Nobody is spending money at his store. He's already exhausted his savings and can get no credit and is way past due on his rent.

While this layoff moratorium may sound like a good idea, I think it might end up being catastrophic for a lot of small companies that are barely hanging on.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. I think they're talking about companies that lay people off AND give their

executives bonuses.

[bertman]

27. Sorry. My bad. So is he saying that companies that get bailout money should have

the layoff freeze implemented? I could probably go along with that.

[defendandprotect]

30. It's a good idea . . . !!!

[Radical Activist]

39. exactly.

we need to create new jobs instead of expecting companies that are losing money to keep paying people to do work that there's no longer demand for.

[crimsonblue]

10. I'll join in

but first I gotta get my dark elf to level 80.

[Why Syzygy]

12. I'm down with it.

We need some immediate action! AGI didn't have to wait this long. The WS bankers didn't have to wait it out. God forbid citi can't buy a $50 million plane. We are people who need to eat and a safe place to sleep. Is that too much?

[deaniac21]

13. To the streets!!

[struggle4progress]

14. Gotta have more that one in eight workers unionized to do that, and it still wouldn't

happen spontaneously

Planning for the 1886 May Day strikes in favor of an eight hour took at least two years

[conscious evolution]

33. It took two years

because widespread communication required to plan some thing like that was a lot slower back then.
With the internet such an eevent can be arranged much faster now.IMO,if a general strike happens it will be spontaneous and probably fueled by some outrage or bombshell disseminated via the web.

[struggle4progress]

46. You underestimate both the organizing requirements and technology of the time

By the time of the 8-hour fight, the telegraph was well-established and was widely used: although one could not inform thousands of people at once, one could inform sympathetic individuals who had access to relatively low-cost printing equipment; thus, it was possible to distribute news through national organizations rather quickly. There was also an effective system of railroads, so materials could also be distributed reasonably quickly by mail -- and if sufficient funding was available, professional organizers could be sent to communities

A good example of that comes from several decades later: the Wobblies won "free speech" fights on the west coast by telegraphing friends nationwide to round up support; and large numbers of people from around the country hitchhiked boxcars to get arrested in whatever small town was currently the organizing target; the jails filled up; the small towns stopped arresting people for free speech. These fights had to be fought relatively quickly, and the technology of the time was not an impediment to organizing

Mass actions for major reforms only succeed with discipline and focus. The organized population cannot succeed, without a clear agenda and a practical strategy, both of which require an accurate analysis of the political situation: none of this arises purely spontaneously. Spontaneous actions, in fact, very frequently fail, as Tianamen Square illustrates, because the status quo is already organized and has every advantage when challenged

Although new technologies present new opportunities, they also present new risks. There was an interesting movement in east Asia a few years ago, that relied heavily on cellphone text messaging to quickly organize antigovernment demonstrations: the government response was simply to shut down the cellphone towers when demonstrations seemed likely to develop. You can imagine for yourself, I imagine, some limits to organizing by internet

[conscious evolution]

50. the status quo is already organized,...

This is a problem whether it is a spontaneous or organized action.When it comes to protecting the status quo moneys spent is never a problem for the masterclass.

Interesting tidbit about the Wobblies.Another example of untaught history.

You do have a point about shutting cell towers /internet down.I remember that happening in Burma during their recent uprising.But I have to wonder if such a tactic would backfire in this country.After all,Americans have had the concepts of free speech and press drilled into their brains by the indoctrination machine sinse birth.Such blatantly outrageous behavior could be the kind of thing that sets people off.People complain now if they loose net access for a few hours for any reason.Imagine the outrage that would build if it was a deliberate shutdown.

I pretty much agree with you that spontaneous actions do tend to fail.Look at the 1917 Russian revolution for an example.
The key to ensuring they succeed,it seems to me,is for groups to set in place contingency plans beforehand in such a way that they can be ready to spring into action.
That or engineer a situation so that it appears that it is spontaneous.

[struggle4progress]

51. During the Great Depression, unions were overwhelmed by spontaneous calls

from previously unorganized shops: "We've started a sitdown -- what do we do next?" And of course many of those succeeded -- but the scale is entirely different from the scale of a national strike

The problem with spontaneous action is that the participants are likely not to have thought matters through in detail: a spontaneous protest action, that I observed closely from the margins, led quickly to a law enforcement showdown lasting nearly a week that required extensive political lobbying work from a number of experienced and dedicated people to defuse; all's well that ends well, I suppose, but there's really no substitute for really thinking things through

[SnoopDog]

18. Unlike our founding Patriots, 'modern' Americans are...

... a bunch of wimps. You, me, and the rest of the 300 million of us.

They have stolen our treasury.

They have ruined my country.

They have polluted our home.

We get cancer and asthma and everything else and take our homes to pay for health care.

We are RULED by the rich and they crap in our face.

They keep us ignorant and unhealthy.

They cheat us and lie to us.

And we do nothing...

[bdamomma]

20. 2 million came out for inauguration but we won't come out to defend ourselves.

[Hannah Bell]

41. someone was paid a lot of $$ to organize the inaugural; there was something

to come *to*.

if you have that kind of $$ to organise an action, they will come.

unfortunately, no one's organizing for such things.

people won't "come out" by themselves.

are you organizing your neighborhood or workplace? no? then why the blanket condemnation of "we"?

[FatDave]

22. Perhaps it's time to storm the gates of their mansions.

Forget going to the government, they're not going to help. Take it straight to the obscenely wealthy.

[Irish Girl]

32. what was it our ancestors did to the tax collectors?

...recall stories of our people being so angry when the tax collectors hid in their houses, we began dismantling their mansions brick by brick with our bare bruised and bloodied hands. I guess we weren't such obedient colonials then?

[Radical Activist]

34. More recently

anarchists in Chicago did this roughly 100 years ago. They would have parades in rich neighborhoods and engage in vandalism. It did scare the crap out of them but I don't know how effective it was.

Protests outside the mansions of CEO's are always fun and make a good media event. I went to one and they have no idea how to react. It gets results sometimes when you publicly shame them personally for what their company is doing. They spend so much of their life surrounded by the business world that they have no concept of what normal people think.

[Hawkowl]

23. Constitutional Ammendment

Make the right to a general strike a constitutional ammendment like free speech. It is about time working people got some leverage on the m***f**rs that wrecked this economy.

[Hugabear]

25. American Idol, Super Bowl, Lost, Jessica Simpson, Xbox, etc etc

Americans are too wrapped up in entertaining themselves to really go for that.

[Le Taz Hot]

55. They may change their minds

when they can no longer afford a TV, much less cable.

[defendandprotect]

28. I'd say it past time --- homelessness for almost 30 years now/Reagan's gift to America --!!!

Unemployment is huge --- they've been lying about this all along --!

Poverty/children -- huge --

All our jobs shipped elsewhere ---

Yep --- seems like a good time!!!

Maybe it should have been pre-bailouts --?

Capitalism is corrupt/criminal and has NEVER agreed to bail out anyone ---

Why in the hell are we bailing them out????

[Radical Activist]

31. Americans are too docile.

Even the left is dominated by religious pacifists who are more passive than resistive. And the rest of the left has mostly been silenced in the press or self-silencing about their real ideals. If Americans had any balls like other countries do then we wouldn't have allowed Bush to steal the election and take office in 2000.

The next step is to have successful strikes and direct action wins in states with friendly elected officials like the Republic Windows sit-down strike in Chicago. Do it when and where it makes sense and it will spread.

[leftstreet]

35. Poor people are docile, but are the Limousine Liberals?

The whole point of systemic poverty is to provide a downward pressure lever for control by the 'middle' classes and pretenders to the Ruling Class. Shame, humiliation, dehumanization, all those things contribute to assuring the poor stay poor.

We don't really know what would happen if, overnight, whole 'other classes' of people found themselves 'poor.'

That's why I'd almost like to see the whole fucking system collapse. The way the Ruling Class does it now we're slowly, slooooowly eased into poverty over time, to begin the indoctrination that leads to being docile.

[Radical Activist]

37. I have a hard time believing

the economic system is set up with that much cunning manipulation. A lot of people want to get rich and don't give a shit about anyone but themselves and maybe people who can help them get richer. I have a hard time believing that corporate CEO's are having meetings to talk about how they can make sure poor people are humiliated this year. Humiliation and dehumanization is the usual result of long term poverty without any additional effort by economic overlords.

[leftstreet]

38. No, the Ruling Class doesn't do it. They get us to do it.

But then I think you already know that.

[Hannah Bell]

43. economic overlords are the cause of "long term poverty"

the correlation is perfect, & universal.

great wealth never exists without its twin: great poverty.

[Radical Activist]

44. OK

So I guess you're agreeing with me?

I would change your statement. Great concentration of wealth leads to great poverty. America had great wealth in the 50's but we also had the largest middle class the nation has had.

[Hannah Bell]

47. i believe "economic overlords" captures that dynamic just fine.

[Hannah Bell]

42. poor people? docile? nah, the middle is docile, they're paid to be.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

36. I can't go on strike.

[kohodog]

52. Just grab a pitch fork or torch and head to Wall Street!

[cynatnite]

45. How will a massive strike change the economics of the country?

The world governments, including ours, know the economy is on the rocks. It's obvious in a variety of different ways. Unemployment numbers, rising applications for assistance, layoffs and so on.

It seems to me that a strike like this would only worsen matters. It would add to the fear and uncertainty. We lived under a government for eight years that used fear to keep themselves in power. This would turn into a storm for another version of bush/cheney.

A massive strike is a very bad idea, IMO.

[1]

48. it would make the powerless feel good for a day or so...

booya! we stuck it to the man!

it would probably get a few thousand workers fired.

it would further our economic problems.

it would benefit no one.


but hey. we would get to feel good for a day...

[leftstreet]

49. Do you have any idea how afraid THEY are of US?

:shrug:

[Hubert Flottz]

53. We'll take care of our kids after American Idol goes off!

We don't have time right now...

[kohodog]

54. Wait! Isn't 24 on after Idol?

Scrap the whole thing. I can't miss my tv.

[Hugabear]

62. Don't forget "Lost"

That's another day you gotta scratch.

[Retired AF Dem]

56. The Govt wouldn't give a shit

90% of the people was against the bailout. They knew what would happen with their money. Why should President Obama act so surprised? Didn't he listen to the fears of the people who put him in his Senate seat? We have not had a representative Govt in quite awhile.

[earth mom]

57. It's pathetic how little people care about what their government has done to them. nt

[alarimer]

60. I am not willing to risk my job for this.

As a state employee I am barred from unionizing and from striking. Instant job loss. No thanks. You all can lose your jobs if you wish (there are plenty of people out there willing to take them) but I am not.

[blues90]

61. I understand people are afraid to lose their jobs

But then if you look at the big picture no jobs is secure then it goes back to the saying , my job was not threatened so I said nothing but then when they came for me there was no one left to speak for me.

That happened with the white collar workers allowing the blue collar workers to be out sourced a then it becaome the white collar workers who were outsourced and it continues on and may reach the point where there are no jobs with no one left to speak for them.

I realize this is not France , we have 350 million in the US and all sorts of reasons to sit back and do nothing but then what will you say when you become a statistic?

I guess with each step down the ladder the idea or rather the definition of hope changes from I hope I keep my job to I hope I have food to eat.

[wroberts189]

63. It will happen soon enough ..we simply have not felt it yet. nt