• Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          0·
          4 months ago

          I do see where organizing that would be tricky. Might have to just go sock hats, sunglasses, and voice changer to organize something like that.

          • _‌_反いじめ戦隊@ani.socialEnglish
            0·
            4 months ago

            Demolishing deathcamps require much less than that.
            But the political will is simply not there.
            Heck, if .world really cared about saving lives, they would have posted how the US demolished Al-Qaeda.
            And demolishing tools are plenty! Medical supplies even more!

            It’s the political will of 🇺🇲 that’s simply gone.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
      0·
      4 months ago

      People like you are entirely unhelpful to your own cause.

      A lot of people don’t really want to get involved because they think that involves essentially signing up to be a soldier in some hypothetical civil war. And comments like that just reinforce that belief.

      A general strike is the way you get progress in a non-violent method, (well actually the administration will probably make it violent but that will be on them) just ask the French.

      • _‌_反いじめ戦隊@ani.socialEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        Feeding people, sheltering the homeless, networking, and solidifying is

        unhelpful to your own cause.

        ? ? ?

        signing up to be a soldier

        Giving people the power to defend themselves isn’t enlisting to die for an authoritarian. Are you confused at who you’re talking to?

        A general strike is the way you get progress in a non-violent method

        If it’s done everyday, until fascists can’t function. Not a weekend festivity.

        just ask the French.

        Can’t tell if your banter is dated, or ignorant

        • xor@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          Feeding people, sheltering the homeless, networking, and solidifying

          Seems to me that not one of those is “demolishing deathcamps”, so by your argument those are all “just festivities”, no?

          The thing you’re arguing here is entirely different to your original comment that the above commenter was arguing against.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
          0·
          4 months ago

          Absolutely none of what you’re talking about here has anything to do with your own prior comment. I mean you are complaining that action is being taken against people that you think are authorian but apparently it’s not the kind of action you’d like so you basically dismiss it.

          Please explain how your negative attitude is helping anyone.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
          0·
          4 months ago

          They didn’t say what you said. They said that they think a general strike in a few days is unlikely to succeed.

          Meanwhile you were complaining that not enough murder in is going to be a happening

  • johncandy1812@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Even if the unions aren’t involved, this is a walkout/boycott, not a general strike.

    There need to be actual demands before life returns to normal for the government to feel actual pressure.

  • Sunflier@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Yeah, not going to be effective. Make it a week, and you might turn some heads a tad.

    • hector@lemmy.today
      0·
      4 months ago

      To be effective a general strike needs to be open ended, indefinite, until demands are met. We are not there yet, organizing some smaller ones is a good practice run perhaps, but just preparing for the real one.

      In 500 bc, then 350 bc or so, the plebians of Rome had general strikes, decamping to a hill and refusing work until demands were met. One was a written set of laws as the rich were just making shit up as they went. Another was getting tribunes, every tribe got one and they could veto the senate, offer sanctuary, were sacrosanct, elected to one year terms. The second general strike expanded the tribunate.

      The Peoples’ tribunes are the only reason their republic lasted for 500 years. Until the imperial boomerang came back on them as well, the tactics they used warring with other peoples were brought home by their own politicians.

    • Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world
      0·
      4 months ago

      Just saw a thing yesterday about what china calls the “kill line” it’s basically how most people are paycheck to paycheck and one expense can topple people into poverty and homeless. I’m thinking the tariffs goal was to move that line so less people can take action.

    • ameancow@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      I roll my eyes that these all are on Fridays 🙄

      I mean, it’s fine. Go ahead, it will help, but it’s not really a general strike. It’s a day of protest. Come on America, you don’t really get how this works. You can’t use your PTO to challenge authority. It’s the same as protesting a company by buying their product to destroy like MAGA does.

      • dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        Turns out it’s hard to orchestrate hundreds of millions of people spread out over 9 millions square kilometers isn’t exactly easy to do, but I’m sure you have a better strat

        • ameancow@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          Turns out it’s hard to orchestrate hundreds of millions of people spread out over 9 millions square kilometers isn’t exactly easy to do, who are blissfully unware of anything happening around them and are comfortable sitting at home consuming media and games and don’t want to risk their jobs because they don’t have the security of community, because everyone has embraced being rugged loners as personality traits and not an obstacle to better lives.

          FTFY

          • dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            0·
            4 months ago

            Yes that is part of the difficulty of organizing them—that and theres many millions of those people and they are spread out. How do you reach them over such vast distances and impact them? Would love to hear how you would have achieved it?

            • ameancow@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              4 months ago

              My original comment was only to clarify that a friday protest isn’t remotely a “general strike” so I wish that outlets, forumgoers and media would stop using the term because it’s reducing the power behind the word. Actual general strikes have been performed in our modern world and have crushed governments. This isn’t doing that, and I fear too many naive people are going to think that a couple friday marches on PTO are going to make anyone in seats of power cry.

              I never said it’s bad to march and protest, it IS having an impact, but by itself it won’t move anything because the people in power don’t actually care about the will of the people, if all you’re doing is saying you’re unhappy, well great. They WANT you unhappy.

              I don’t know how to get hundreds of millions of Americans to understand this, neither do you. None of us do, but we can keep trying and we can keep making sure that our language isn’t getting watered down because we want to believe in things that aren’t real. This is all going to get worse before it gets better, and people will point to it and say “See? General strikes don’t work!” when we haven’t even done one yet.

              • dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                0·
                4 months ago

                Are the semantics really a hill you are gonna die on? Alright guys, go get the organizers to change all the banners to reword it so this guy is satisfied—sorry but that’s what’s needed in this moment!

                I’m being snarky, but what’s your desired goal? What does success look like to you here, if people listened to you instead of calling it a 1-day general strike?

      • Krauerking@lemy.lol
        0·
        4 months ago

        Don’t ask for a Superman. They don’t exist.
        We do things as a community and a collective, its the only way it works.

      • Sunflier@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        Don’t get me wrong, it’s a Pretti Good idea/start. But, there needs to be more, like a definded list of demands. Otherwise, it’s just an ignorable protest.

        • Riverside@reddthat.com
          0·
          4 months ago

          Organizations like the PSL do have lists of demands and are actively building a movement around this to gain momentum. You should check them out :)

      • Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        It can start with any one of us. I’ve started, but seems easy for me, if everyone puts in a little effort, and some of us put in a lot, we can make an impact.

        It’s this, or bloodshed.

        Either way, our comforts are lost. I’d rather suffer on my terms, than theirs.

    • somethingsnappy@lemmy.world
      0·
      4 months ago

      Read up. Last Friday was no purchases, this friday is no work and no purchases. This is not a short term thing (unless we decide to have a general strike with clear demands soon.

      • Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        Oops, I didn’t realize last Friday was a no purchase day. I only spent $5 at a secondhand store, so the spirit was still there.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
          0·
          4 months ago

          I bet the second hand store owner used that $5 to go and buy a baseball bat to beat up puppies and seals. You’re a monster, I hope you know that.

      • saimen@feddit.org
        0·
        4 months ago

        I am happy to hear it’s supposed to be a regular thing. This can lead to great momentum. Reminds me of fridays for future which became a huge worldwide movement (sadly disrupted and essentially killed by Covid).

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      It’s also ineffective in the short term as a strike, because the rich will just wait it out. One day of slightly lower productivity isn’t going to grind things to a halt. What makes a strike powerful is that it continues until grievances are remedied. A true strike takes months or even years to organize, and it takes a lot of unionized money to keep people from going broke during an extended strike. After all, the strikers need to be able to wait out the rich and powerful. Those union dues are largely to allow the union to pay striking workers.

      However, with all of this being said, this kind of thing is good for normalizing strikes. America largely doesn’t strike. But if you can establish a new normal for protests, it makes the larger things much much easier to organize in the long term.

      • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        It doesn’t make sense to me, I honestly doubt retailers will even notice.

        Everyone who does actually participate will just buy their stuff the day before or the day after.

        An ongoing boycott of a specific vendor makes much more sense to me. Easier for everyone to do, and more impactful.

      • mirshafie@europe.pub
        0·
        4 months ago

        This sounds like a wildcat strike to me. Not perhaps the most effective means to an end, but important when there’s no other outlet. A good outcome may be establishing better unions. The mere threat of a strike should have capital shaking in their boots.

        • Elaine@lemmy.world
          0·
          4 months ago

          I wouldn’t expect many people in an actual union to take part in this because that _would _ be a wildcat strike.

          In my experience with CWA it was like the ending of Animal Farm - could not see much difference between them and management. There are so many things that must happen before you would even hear the whispered hint of a strike.

  • Krauerking@lemy.lol
    0·
    4 months ago

    The winter storm that pushed people inside for 2 days has more impact than a single day purchase blackout.

    If a country can shrug of massive storms and fires… I just don’t know what message this is actually supposed to send.
    We seem to want instant gratification to work in the real world, we want a lack of suffering and to make it as quick and easy as possible.

    If you have an addiction you don’t lose it in a day. In Shawshank redemption, Andy Dufresne doesnt get to leave out the front door, he has to crawl through a river of shit to come out clean the other side.
    We have a river of shit to wade through, I think we need to come to terms with that.

    • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
      0·
      4 months ago

      Yea I’m the same. I don’t understand how people think this is effective over other methods. There are just so many more options and awareness for spreading a message now. Protesting this way was born out of a time when we didn’t even have telephones. Information was entirely different. Plus with authoritarians controlling narratives, they can really control a lot of public opinion so methods need to be implemented to counter that. Just an example, I see people projecting images within cities. That’s amazing, why not organize that. Every city, projections of police executing Alex and abusing their authority. They’ll take one down but have 20 more at the ready to project it again.

    • Tattorack@lemmy.world
      0·
      4 months ago

      People are still ordering things online. Inside works (i.e. Warehouses, factories, offices) still go on.

      • Krauerking@lemy.lol
        0·
        4 months ago

        Yes, and the people that think its a good idea to order something with same day delivery from amazon in a snow storm are probably the same ones that will ignore the call for a strike.
        We have to ignore the outliers we can’t get, but we nees to understand that The System at large will ignore our outliers as well. A one day strike that has less impact than a storm physically blocking streets will be seen as an outlier.
        Not a dig, but just a fact.

    • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      While I am pessimistic about this Friday, I also try to translate it into meaningful action.

      I’ve definitely severely dropped how much “consumerist” spending I go with across the year. This includes lots of different kinds of common luxuries, and instead making use of farmer’s markets and libraries for food and entertainment. From what I have heard on a few anecdotes, the drop in spending around Christmas was significant to retailers, and should hopefully contribute to pessimism towards fascist ideology.

    • bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      Thank you for this. Sucks the local chapters are primarily organized on discord. Seems pretty risky that they could all be shut down in one fell swoop.

      • Scrollone@feddit.it
        0·
        4 months ago

        privileged enough to be able

        My European mind can’t comprehend this. Strikes are a right for every single worker, even the most unprivileged ones (with very few exceptions for public safety reasons)

        • geelgroenebroccoli@feddit.nl
          0·
          4 months ago

          To elaborate on the situation in The Netherlands: You can only strike when certain conditions are met. In short, you use it as a final measurement to force your employer to change something if other less radical measurements were ineffective.

          In this case, most employers have absolutely no influence over whatever ICE does, so I’d highly doubt a strike would be ‘allowed’ for something like this over here in The Netherlands.

          • hector@lemmy.today
            0·
            4 months ago

            It’s illegal not to show up to work? I mean on the picket line maybe. But a general strike is more about not showing up than demonstrating. What are they going to send soldiers house to house and force you to go to work at the point of a bayonet?

            • geelgroenebroccoli@feddit.nl
              0·
              4 months ago

              Employees striking illegally or unauthorized can first of all have their pay withheld (which sounds obvious, but is very rare in The Netherlands). Second of all, they can be forced to pay damages to their employer. And as an extreme measure, their employment contract may be terminated without being able to collect government unemployment benefits later.

              • hector@lemmy.today
                0·
                4 months ago

                That does all seem rather plausible ways to get fucked. If the strike was really general they couldn’t do that to everyone, but if it fizzled out they could. At least your government is not trying to create the fourth reich at the moment, albeit they are sucking enough that the 4th reich aligned far right can run as reform on fake populism and win, then all bets are off.

        • saimen@feddit.org
          0·
          4 months ago

          But even in Europe you can get backlash for it especially in a very small business. That’s why it only really works when its organised and everyone is participating.

          • Scrollone@feddit.it
            0·
            4 months ago

            That’s why it only really works when it’s organised and everyone is participating

            So like… a general strike? :)

          • Scrollone@feddit.it
            0·
            4 months ago

            I’m from Italy. Here general strikes are common. I know that France also goes strong on strikes.

            I’m surprised they’re illegal in Germany. You should fight to change that.

            • hector@lemmy.today
              0·
              4 months ago

              They should have a general strike demanding the right to general strikes.

              I don’t see how it’s enforceable, you don’t have to picket, just no one shows up for work at that same time, what are they going to do?

            • philpo@feddit.org
              0·
              4 months ago

              Technically they are not illegal here - they are just not protected under the (very strong) strike protection laws.

              So workers in Germany could go into general strikes but they would not be covered by strike law and therefore just absent from work. Which of course is an issue - but in case of a proper general strike, what are they gonna do, fire everyone? Especially in times when there are countless positions open?

              So one would only get into trouble work wise,but not otherwise - one would not get arrested, cannot get sued (besides a very limited scope worklaw wise),etc. Only certain kind of civil servants (similar but not as common as the Pubblico Impiego in Italy) will get in trouble if they go on strike. E.g. cops, fireman, teachers, municpial clerks (but not muncipial workers and not all kind of clerks),etc.

              Which I find somewhat fair as our strike protection laws are far reaching (afaik even a bit further than in Italy) and the employer is often as fucked by politics as the staff. So it’s a somewhat tradeoff I personally can live with. (Seen from my time as an employee. These days I am a small employer,but as left as ever,and from a employers point of view wouldn’t care to much - but the nature of my business supports it.)

        • mirshafie@europe.pub
          0·
          4 months ago

          exceptions for public safety

          Like nurses, firefighters… but that’s exactly fucking why you have multi-industry unions. So when nurses need a raise, engineers can strike on their behalf.

    • Riverside@reddthat.com
      0·
      4 months ago

      Is there no union or organization locally that you can ask? Protest isn’t an individual action, it’s a social organized action, so you ideally should get involved with local orgs or your work’s union for this

        • Riverside@reddthat.com
          0·
          4 months ago

          Good moment to join a union by yourself (and/or a socialist org like the PSL) and ask or directly organize yourself together with such orgs!

  • PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.world
    0·
    4 months ago

    My Chinese noses would fire my ass so quick. I’d have to take the day off. But I can’t even do that because of how much business I’m on.

  • IEatDaFeesh@lemmy.world
    0·
    4 months ago

    How does this affect anything?

    Missing a day of work on a Friday is part of people’e schedule now whether they have a 4 day work week just take a day off. Same with school. This is minimally disruptive. The shopping one is the most useless imo. You could just do all your shopping Thursday and skip Friday.

    • Riverside@reddthat.com
      0·
      4 months ago

      How does this affect anything?

      It’s a momentum thing. one general strike won’t change the world, it’s the start of a much larger movement to get people to organize in socialist organizations like the PSL (remember socialism has always been fascism’s greatest enemy) and in unions. A one-day general strike is not a “perfect is the enemy of good” logic, it’s simply materially impossible to get everyone to rally in one week, or one month, or likely one year. It’s just a start and a show of strength.

    • tamal3@lemmy.world
      0·
      4 months ago

      Sorry, but can we just try to succeed at this small step before we build to larger actions?

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
        0·
        4 months ago

        Because you need coordination and organization. If you don’t reach a critical mass of participation then the handful of people involved will just be handled as if they were skipping work for any other reason. And if it only lasts a day it can simply be waited out.

        Strikes require funds, funds require dues, dues require unions. You have to ensure that striking workers will have some form of security in order to reach a critical mass. People have families to feed. Striking without funds or organization could only work if everyone was really dedicated to the cause, and if that was the case, then what’s stopping them from forming a union and collecting dues in order to do it right?

        You can’t lay down the sort of moral “line in the sand” that you need if participating means, “I didn’t show up to work, all of my coworkers did, and now I’m unemployed and will be on the streets if I can’t find a way to make rent soon.” These “General Strike Now!” calls happen basically every other week, with no coordination or thought of strategy.

        Strikes involve inherent individual risk for a collective benefit. It’s a collective action problem, which can only be overcome by an organized structure mitigating the risks and inspiring confidence in the outcome. A “wildcat general strike” isn’t really a thing.