LOL no. Us Wobblies have been around a long time. You don’t need to guess what our historical actions have been, you can (in general) just look it up,
In early 1903, two thousand Mexican and Japanese sugar beet workers in Oxnard, California, collectively organized a large biracial strike, and then asked Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, for a union charter. Upon receiving the request, Gompers
replied, “Your union must guarantee that it will under no circumstances accept membership of any Chinese or Japanese.”, The American Socialist Party also endorsed Asian exclusion from American labor organizations…
Among labor and leftist organizations, the Industrial Workers of the World, the anarcho-syndicalist group, were the sole exception to this pattern of hostility towards Asian immigrants. The I.W.W. was the only major national labor organization of the period to open their door to Asian workers and consequently to remain consistent in a rhetoric of including all workers, regardless of race. In this, the I.W.W stood in stark contrast to all other labor organizations from conservative craft unions like the AFL to radical political groups such as the Socialist Party. furthermore, the I.W.W. developed their rhetoric of Asian inclusion during a period of intense hostility to Asians and, in so doing, they challenged dominant racial assumptions and hierarchies…
I started by saying this protest won’t work due to mixed messages. I was then accused of saying all protest doesn’t work and now that…Rosa Parks was somehow wrong? lol.
I’m suggesting a few posters on this forum, like sabo, doesn’t care much about the actual content of his teams positions just that he gets to scream about his membership. As long as he gets to call people idiots and liberals the fact that it’s in defence of anti-capitalism and not anti-immigration is of secondary concern to him.
In fact, the smaller he can keep the team, by calling anyone remotely outside the group, evil the better. All the more people to scream at.
I don’t recall Sabo predicting any huge success. He seems pretty resigned to it being a long and difficult effort.
The problem is you don’t want what he wants and you’re giving him advice? He’s not supposed to try to get what he wants? He can’t mention how covid relates?
And a lot of like minded people are doing things like distributing food and masks to homeless people with no mention of strikes. That doesn’t mean they can’t do both and can’t mention how employers putting people in danger is just in their nature and pointing to covid.
The problem, imo, is not that you think he’s wasting his time. Do you really care about that? It’s that he’s offending you.
Sure he can. I’m simply pointing out his strategy is a bad one. If the goal is to protest opening the country too early then target that message. No value comes from mixing it with a long failed mayday general strike.
How many failed mayday strikes do we need to realize that perhaps another strategy might be more productive?
What if instead of a general strike every employee went to their company and said we would like to volunteer today at the local food bank and organize a donation drive?
Or leverage the fact that the vast majority of the country doesn’t want to open too soon, including the vast majority of business owners and bosses, and organize a digital sit in where everyone writes letter and makes calls to their congressperson and governor telling them to stop listening to trump and start listening to scientists?
Might that be more effective than the 140th symbolic general strike sure to be ignored by 99.9999% of the population?
I’ve always thought orchard-life sounded pretty sweet. I could be wrong, but it seems like some periods of intense work, but also plenty of time in between to do other stuff.
This is a much bigger and more interesting discussion.
One we have been wrestling with a lot lately.
We have been talking about some pretty drastic things at my house lately including selling everything, keeping enough to buy a small place near the ocean, donating the rest and checking out of this whole mess.
I realize this is directly counter to my earlier posts about doing the hard work. In some ways, I hope we stick it out and join others in that work. In other ways, the appeal of just being selfish and checking out of it is very appealing.
Of course we are among the privileged to be able to even contemplate such things.
Uh, if folks do go volunteer instead of working, that’s a general strike. SMH.
First, is it just the words “strike”, “general”, and the day of the month next Friday lands on, that you have problems with? Is this all “optics” to you? Would a general strike, but just not called a general strike, starting like on May 2nd, meet with your approval.
Second, you’re a fool. Why would any sane person listen to your babbling about what ‘works’ and what does not. Please to be citing some research to back up your gibberish… or STFU.
Not having much stuff and living in a small place isn’t that hard. It doesn’t take much privilege.
I’m tempted to say the privilege is being able to do it and have it not be humiliating because you did it by choice, but I’m not sure how broadly true that is. It’s hard to tell from my bubble how much of the humiliation I’m supposing is just projection.
This is correct. If Sabo was just advocating a general strike for the good of employees or to achieve specific goals or for climate change perhaps there would be less objection itt. It’s when he compares us to hostages, slaves/slaveholders, cattle, especially in front of people that come from places that have experienced much worse than American capitalism, “liberals” then freak out and go wtf.
Any perceived humiliation hasn’t even entered the conversation. We have never cared what people think about us. Hell when I was running my company, I had 50 employees and I’d guess I drove a cheaper car and lived in a smaller house than 80% of them.
Stuff has never interested us much at all.
The privilege I mentioned is my ability to move anywhere I want and set up a home and not have to worry about how to pay for it or it’s effect on kids etc.
I don’t think people actually care that much about the trinkets and the trips to Starbucks. They care about dignity and respect. We are raised in a world where money is the way to dignity and respect. Making, having, and spending money. I think you’re too hard on people.
There already is a wave of COVID strikes happening, many of them wildcats. To build further momentum, unorganized sectors need to join in. At some point, a critical mass could be reached, and the conservative business unions would be forced by circumstances to start taking actions too.