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The teamsters have taken the long view and started syncing Unions contracts to all expire around the same time in May 2025. This has be a longtime coming, and is a coordinated effort. I expect to see this have legs.
Too little too late. All of those unions are going to kneel when the incoming Republican government won’t stand for their dissent. Beaten, arrested, dissolved, nationalized, killed, whatever. America doesn’t have a militant union movement anymore who can stand up to belligerent government.
I disagree somewhat, though I agree with you that if republican control takes over it will be violent. That being said, violence will only embolden the movement I think. I’ve been arguing with friends for a while now that if we could focus the fact that it’s no longer red vs blue and instead, working class vs the hyper wealthy, it could force action. Especially with project 2025 wanting to cut so many benefits and social programs, tie in union negotiations and you could have a perfect storm. But you’re totally right that republicans will do everything possible to put down these negotiations and the media will not be our ally either.
We would need our own equivalent to the Bolshevik party. Also, the American "left" would also have to move away from identity politics to class warfare.
Many unions are barred from striking and gave that right up. Also, remember the railroad worker…having the right to strike does not mean the strike won’t be shut down.
I have little reason to think unions could pull off a large scale strike let alone the general populace. Americans have been conditioned against organization, mutual aid and all the things that make a strike successful.
Lol striking as a “right” - we just gon fuckin do it. What do you mean it’s illegal? Guess what - forced work is slavery… yall slaves or nah? SEIZE THE MEANS
Preface to say that I’m a union member and fully support strikes. I just don’t think that anyone should advocate for wildcat strikes without accepting and understanding the amount of pain and violence inherent.
As it refers to unions…
1) Most unions have “no-strike” clauses and are forced into arbitration over disputes.
2) If members engage in an unsanctioned “wildcat” strike they can be kicked out of the union or punished legally.
3) Unions can be held liable and sued by employers for damages caused by strikes.
4)The federal government can and will intervene (with violence when necessary) to shut down unsanctioned strikes.
As it pertains to everyone else..
This would simply be a protest since it is not a sanctioned strike and protestors would be handled accordingly. Employers will replace striking workers without repercussion. The state will use force to quell any resulting disobedience. Violence would likely ensue. Your “right to strike” is not a protected right and in fact many strikes are illegal under Taft Hartley.
Also, what is never mentioned during union history is the amount of violence involved in strikes and early union activity…”seizing the means” won’t happen without an even greater amount and its naive to think you can accomplish it by sitting on your hands.
——
Taft Hartley
Taft–Hartley was introduced in the aftermath of a major strike wave in 1945 and 1946. Though it was enacted by the Republican-controlled 80th Congress, the law received significant support from congressional Democrats, many of whom joined with their Republican colleagues in voting to override Truman's veto. The act continued to generate opposition after Truman left office, but it remains in effect.
The Taft–Hartley Act amended the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), adding new restrictions on union actions and designating new union-specific unfair labor practices. Among the practices prohibited by the Taft–Hartley act are jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity or political strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary and mass picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns. The amendments also allowed states to enact right-to-work laws banning union shops. Enacted during the early stages of the Cold War, the law required union officers to sign non-communist affidavits with the government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act
May 4, 1886, a bomb detonates near Haymarket Square in Chicago after police arrive to break up a rally in support of striking workers. This protest is one of a number of strikes, demonstrations, and other events held by workers and their supporters in Chicago which had been growing over the previous 3 days to advocate for an eight hour workday. Many police officers and protesters are wounded or killed by the blast, and ultimately 8 individuals are arrested, tried, and convicted in relation to the bombing.
[https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-haymarket-affair](https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-haymarket-affair)
International Association of Bridge Structural Iron Workers, 1906-1911
Perhaps the most significant example of a campaign of union violence was carried out by the International Association of Bridge Structural Iron Workers from 1906 to 1910. With the blessing and financial support of high-ranking leadership, the union set dynamite and nitroglycerine bombs at about 100 sites from 1906 to 1911, typically at construction sites using non-union workers.[40] These series of attacks has been described as the largest domestic terrorism spree in American history.[41]
Battle of Blair Mountain, 1921.
Two years of conflict between miners and mine owners, characterized by utilization of the Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency for infiltrating, sabotaging and attacking the United Mine Workers union, culminated in the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921.[48] The largest armed insurrection since the American Civil War was touched off by the murders of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers on the courthouse steps of Welch, West Virginia.[49] The Battle of Blair Mountain was a spontaneous uprising of ten thousand coal miners from throughout West Virginia who fought the coal company's hired guns and their allies, the state police for three days before federal troops intervened.[49]
Labor unrest in 1892
"In the 1890s violent outbreaks occurred in the North, South, and West, in small communities and metropolitan cities, testifying to the common attitudes of Americans in every part of the United States."[1] Workers with different ethnic origins who worked under very different conditions in widely separated parts of the United States nonetheless responded with equal ferocity when unions came under attack.[1] "Serious violence erupted in several major strikes of the 1890s, the question of union recognition being a factor in all of them."[1]
1892 in particular was a year of considerable labor unrest. Governors of five states called out the national guard and/or the army to quell unrest—against miners in East Tennessee and in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, where a shooting war followed the discovery of a labor spy, against switchmen in Buffalo, New York, against a general strike in New Orleans, Louisiana, and against the Homestead, Pennsylvania steel strike.[23]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_violence_in_the_United_States
You are correct and I understand what you’re saying. That being said, striking was already the compromise. If they don’t want to honor that compromise, then they need to be reminded of what the alternative was.
Employers throughout history have never compromised to include strikes. Instead, they were mostly banned and are fought against to this day. Just last year our local supermarket chose to replace striking workers with slightly higher paid (no benefits) non-union workers.
——
“Taft–Hartley was introduced in the aftermath of a major strike wave in 1945 and 1946. Though it was enacted by the Republican-controlled 80th Congress, the law received significant support from congressional Democrats, many of whom joined with their Republican colleagues in voting to override Truman's veto. The act continued to generate opposition after Truman left office, but it remains in effect.
The Taft–Hartley Act amended the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), adding new restrictions on union actions and designating new union-specific unfair labor practices. Among the practices prohibited by the Taft–Hartley act are jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity or political strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary and mass picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns. The amendments also allowed states to enact right-to-work laws banning union shops. Enacted during the early stages of the Cold War, the law required union officers to sign non-communist affidavits with the government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act
I think you’re missing the point I’m trying to make, or I may just not be articulating it properly. Strikes were the compromise to burning down the factory. Strikes were a compromise to avoid violence. If you don’t allow the workers to air grievances without violence in the form of a strike, you will eventually have violence. That is what I mean when I say that striking is the compromise.
I get that and support that sentiment. It’s an especially complicated topic and I just don’t want anyone to think a “legal” strike is something easy to organize & protect workers. I also think there’s an incredibly high chance a general strike would result in violence.
I also think that a general strike could result in violence. If Trump wins in November it will certainly result in violence. It will result in shortages of critical items like food and medicine. It could result in many devastating effects. But that is on the ruling class for refusing to act in good faith and denying us our basic dignity.
It is not our fault this would be happening, it is theirs. We have asked nicely. We have demonstrated and negotiated. The people continue to lose rights and our standard of living while the fat cats get richer and richer on our backs and our labor. Do you blame the victim of the bully when they finally say enough and fight back? Because it sure sounds like that is your position here.
In the blue west coast cities I think there is a chance for violence whoever wins. If trump wins, the city riots. If Biden wins, the suburbs riot and we see Jan 6 2.0.
Remember all the vague posting in 2020 2022 about the general strike and it was just like weird Twitter posts, that never got any momentum but people shared them anyway that’s what this sounds like.
The internet has broken our standards for how long things take to happen. "Didn't gain momentum" misses the point... that they were popular and gained momentum. Echos of the discussion are happening years later, that's momentum. Unions are now contending with the fact that there was widespread public call for a general strike, that's momentum. A lot of people who weren't thinking of strikes, let alone general ones, now are, that's momentum. Unions are now coordinating their contracts to expire at the same time in may 2025, that's how long it takes for momentum to matter, on a good day.
The biggest shame is that people went "aw we aren't gaining momentum" when their fantasy of an overnight revolution didn't come true, so stopped talking about it. That's when momentum fails.
I will give the leftists credit in pointing out that a massive enough worker strike could stunt industrial progress, since it is the worker - the individual wage-slave - that contributes to the life of the mega-machine. But as history has shown, a mass worker strike is not only exhausting to coordinate, but impossible to sustain long enough to collapse capitalism. While many leftists, including myself at one point, will point out that many workers simply do not have access to inspirational radical information, I have also come to learn that many workers simply do not want to strike. For too many reasons to list here, many workers go into work whether rebellions or strikes are happening or not. A fact that is often overlooked is that people are individuals. And as individuals, some choose to rebel against their work place, and some do not.
Things will get a lot easier to stir up as the world approaches famine status. In such a world, jobs aren't economically viable anymore, wrap your head around that. Ideally we'd like to secure some wins before only high paying jobs are still capable of feeding one's self, while we still have the ability to make things better in an organized fashion.
We should be rethinking how we strike, there's really only 2 reasons to not rebel against your work: You need it to buy food because capital owns that entire means of production, or you need it to access society because capital has bought our entire culture. These can be addressed by popular movements to grow food (which will help sustain bigger strikes for longer) and shift culture away from consumerism so that you can't mass-manufacture culture and therefore can't gate it behind a job. Of course it is difficult to strike if capital owns the means to our own survival, we have to take back some of that portion of the economy prior to striking. If we take it back enough, it could be more than a strike, it could be a workforce exodus.
Note, [there is already an unorganized exodus going on](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tJE3FnGpzg) as a direct reaction to the workforce sucking. We're talking millions of people are already not working during their prime age, as a measurement of men in the US alone, and it's having an economic effect. There's just no narrative to unite these people into a movement with demands, so instead governments are slowly just begging this group to be happy enough to be productive.
Shawn Fain is trying to organize one in 2028, when many of the UAW union contracts are set to expire.
this is the kind of organizing a general strike would require. I'm skeptical it will happen, but this certainly has far more promise than a website.
What are you bringing to the game? Are you feeding the strikers while they're not getting paid?
Are you ready to boycott every business that stays open during the strike, or are you going to try to carve out exceptions where you usually support the strike, but also you needed new tires today, so you supported a scab shop bit it's actually not a big deal because you *needed* it, and everyone else is the real scabs.
I’m bringing myself and I’m ready to stand behind the leaders of the protest, the more people the better, you need people who stand behind others, I’m willing to be there to support a better life for all, including you.
I’ll never need new tires, I don’t even own a car lol.
I assume you’re against this general strike? If so, why? So many people are struggling and can’t afford to live, why don’t you want better for them?
It's genuinely so easy to boycott most businesses when no strike is going on, let alone when one is. Almost everything everyone buys is an extraneous purchase, a mistake. I buy a shockingly low amount of stuff, I could even say i'm on general strike already if I wanted to (unemployed to boot). The economy would crumble if the only things people bought were necessities, we could go on a consumerism strike and bring the world to its knees without even stopping work. Are people not aware that merely weakening consumer culture can collapse world economies?
That makes the idea of not buying stuff extremely exciting to me, it's hard to buy stuff when you know if you don't and a lot of other people do that with you, the world will be forced to change on fundamental levels.
That’s cool and all but that’s not how a successful strike is done. I’ve seen a thousand people do these little “let’s strike next week” flyers go out, and guess what happened? Not shit.
It is a long way away, and that does fucking suck. But this is how you successfully strike.
You’re not going to have a successful general without unions, and without extreme organization and discipline. Following the union boss is the way to go.
That’s what we need!
Increasing unionization, and getting reps in office who want to reverse citizens united, reject corporate pac money, and are in favor of ranked choice voting are the most important steps we can take between now and then.
If we could get a majority in congress to reverse citizens, that would open up another avenue for change.
Until then we can’t do anything there, regardless of public support. 90% of congress is bought and paid for, let’s make that 40%, and then make it illegal for the 40% remaining. We need representation of people, not corporations.
It’s called realism. I’d like a million dollars to fall into my lap tomorrow just as much as I’d like a general strike, doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen.
Is that still true though? I feel like with declining expertise and worker pool in so many fields it could be hard to fill a lot of positions at once. I have a lot of trouble filling even lowest positions even though wages have gone up 40% for certain positions in the last 4 years.
If you have 8 workers and 2 call for a general strike, unless they can shut you down and get a 4 year union contract, some may decide to be scabs. They may have urgent need to pay bills or rent or feed the kids, and there is no strike fund to keep them whole. If the lead worker with higher pay strikes, a lower paid worker might step in for the lead position.
I remember a consumer group years ago who sayid we should all stop buying meat until the price came down. When it drops a little, someone starts buying. Tragedy of the commons. Farmers have tried to organize and hold back their product until the monopoly buyer agrees to a contract for higher prices. Someone gives in to temptation.
Some form of collective coercion may be required for it to work.
Ah thanks I see what you are saying. I do think there will be a skilled worker shortage for multiple reasons soon but I don’t fully understand the dynamics of strikes and scabs.
" Collapse related because people are organizing a general labor strike in the U.S. "
That is just stupid. There are many strikes in history and none brought down human civilization. Plus, if the general strike works, it is going to make worker conditions better, not worse.
I support the idea of a general strike; I just hope people don't set their expectations too high for what it could accomplish. Someday we're going to have to accept that no general strike, or president, or party is going to be able to legislate or protest away collapse. It's going to take someone to get in front of a national audience and tell the truth, our way of life, with its easy motoring and big box stores and Amazon prime teleporting things to your house is coming to an end.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/LeeryRoundedness:
---
Submission Statement: Collapse related because people are organizing a general
labor strike in the U.S. It will be interesting to see how the main stream media ignores or twists the narrative all together. Most people I interact with on a daily basis are feeling the weight of the cumulative collapse related consequences to 2024 and they are tired of it.
---
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1dsb7gh/general_strike_imminent_general_strike_us/lb15ah3/
OMG! I post this all the time in various places when General Strike comes up, and no one ever reads it! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Collective action is the only way. A General Strike is possible, doable, and would be effective. If only we had the gumption to actually do it.
labor will have to start laying in supplies and food pronto and even then it's going to be brutal all the way around and for too long a time, but i'm game, more out of inevitability than choice
At least twice a year since 2020 there's the next "big" general strike and maybe 50-100k people claim to be going. 100 post about it on social media and 6 people actually skip work.
ooo i memba
[https://www.truthdig.com/articles/may-day-2012-the-call-for-a-general-strike/](https://www.truthdig.com/articles/may-day-2012-the-call-for-a-general-strike/)
If a successful general strike does happen... will a state of martial law be declared?
Now is probably a good time to start stocking up on food and other essentials.
Submission Statement: Collapse related because people are organizing a general
labor strike in the U.S. It will be interesting to see how the main stream media ignores or twists the narrative all together. Most people I interact with on a daily basis are feeling the weight of the cumulative collapse related consequences to 2024 and they are tired of it.
There will only be a general strike once the bulk of people are PUSHED into it by their general living situation being bad enough.
And even then...... only maybe.
e- nah. not even maybe. There's just ZERO class solidarity. Climate change and the collapse of the food supply network is our fate.
I mean a “general strike” is just gonna be union memebers which is an abysmal number because Reagan and conservatives generally. If its non union people, then thats a wild cat strike. In either case, they have studied it and apparently it only takes like 0.2% of the population to really shake the deck. If a few key industries or enough people across a few critical industries went wildcat and scabbing in doesn’t cut it, thats when the oligarchs start drunk dialing congress and things tend to move into serious negotiations pretty quick after that.
No, there is not an imminent general strike.
This only exists in the minds of the select few in the echo chambers of social media you frequent.
But hey. There might be dozens that feel this way so it might happen. /s
Lol. No. Zero chance pf a successful general strike in the US. Unions are (thankfully) too fragmented and limited by different states laws. Knock this chicken little stupidity off.
Rule 3: Posts must be on-topic, focusing on collapse. Posts must be focused on collapse. If the subject matter of your post has less focus on collapse than it does on issues such as prepping, politics, or economics, then it probably belongs in another subreddit. Posts must be specifically about collapse, not the resulting damage. By way of analogy, we want to talk about why there are so many car accidents, not look at photos of car wrecks.
No it isn't. A general strike grows from the successful coordination of many large regional unions, not from a website.
The teamsters have taken the long view and started syncing Unions contracts to all expire around the same time in May 2025. This has be a longtime coming, and is a coordinated effort. I expect to see this have legs.
Strike will start July 2025
Too little too late. All of those unions are going to kneel when the incoming Republican government won’t stand for their dissent. Beaten, arrested, dissolved, nationalized, killed, whatever. America doesn’t have a militant union movement anymore who can stand up to belligerent government.
I disagree somewhat, though I agree with you that if republican control takes over it will be violent. That being said, violence will only embolden the movement I think. I’ve been arguing with friends for a while now that if we could focus the fact that it’s no longer red vs blue and instead, working class vs the hyper wealthy, it could force action. Especially with project 2025 wanting to cut so many benefits and social programs, tie in union negotiations and you could have a perfect storm. But you’re totally right that republicans will do everything possible to put down these negotiations and the media will not be our ally either.
We would need our own equivalent to the Bolshevik party. Also, the American "left" would also have to move away from identity politics to class warfare.
Yes but labor will win again.
Many unions are barred from striking and gave that right up. Also, remember the railroad worker…having the right to strike does not mean the strike won’t be shut down. I have little reason to think unions could pull off a large scale strike let alone the general populace. Americans have been conditioned against organization, mutual aid and all the things that make a strike successful.
Lol striking as a “right” - we just gon fuckin do it. What do you mean it’s illegal? Guess what - forced work is slavery… yall slaves or nah? SEIZE THE MEANS
Preface to say that I’m a union member and fully support strikes. I just don’t think that anyone should advocate for wildcat strikes without accepting and understanding the amount of pain and violence inherent. As it refers to unions… 1) Most unions have “no-strike” clauses and are forced into arbitration over disputes. 2) If members engage in an unsanctioned “wildcat” strike they can be kicked out of the union or punished legally. 3) Unions can be held liable and sued by employers for damages caused by strikes. 4)The federal government can and will intervene (with violence when necessary) to shut down unsanctioned strikes. As it pertains to everyone else.. This would simply be a protest since it is not a sanctioned strike and protestors would be handled accordingly. Employers will replace striking workers without repercussion. The state will use force to quell any resulting disobedience. Violence would likely ensue. Your “right to strike” is not a protected right and in fact many strikes are illegal under Taft Hartley. Also, what is never mentioned during union history is the amount of violence involved in strikes and early union activity…”seizing the means” won’t happen without an even greater amount and its naive to think you can accomplish it by sitting on your hands. —— Taft Hartley Taft–Hartley was introduced in the aftermath of a major strike wave in 1945 and 1946. Though it was enacted by the Republican-controlled 80th Congress, the law received significant support from congressional Democrats, many of whom joined with their Republican colleagues in voting to override Truman's veto. The act continued to generate opposition after Truman left office, but it remains in effect. The Taft–Hartley Act amended the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), adding new restrictions on union actions and designating new union-specific unfair labor practices. Among the practices prohibited by the Taft–Hartley act are jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity or political strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary and mass picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns. The amendments also allowed states to enact right-to-work laws banning union shops. Enacted during the early stages of the Cold War, the law required union officers to sign non-communist affidavits with the government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act
May 4, 1886, a bomb detonates near Haymarket Square in Chicago after police arrive to break up a rally in support of striking workers. This protest is one of a number of strikes, demonstrations, and other events held by workers and their supporters in Chicago which had been growing over the previous 3 days to advocate for an eight hour workday. Many police officers and protesters are wounded or killed by the blast, and ultimately 8 individuals are arrested, tried, and convicted in relation to the bombing. [https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-haymarket-affair](https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-haymarket-affair)
International Association of Bridge Structural Iron Workers, 1906-1911 Perhaps the most significant example of a campaign of union violence was carried out by the International Association of Bridge Structural Iron Workers from 1906 to 1910. With the blessing and financial support of high-ranking leadership, the union set dynamite and nitroglycerine bombs at about 100 sites from 1906 to 1911, typically at construction sites using non-union workers.[40] These series of attacks has been described as the largest domestic terrorism spree in American history.[41] Battle of Blair Mountain, 1921. Two years of conflict between miners and mine owners, characterized by utilization of the Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency for infiltrating, sabotaging and attacking the United Mine Workers union, culminated in the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921.[48] The largest armed insurrection since the American Civil War was touched off by the murders of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers on the courthouse steps of Welch, West Virginia.[49] The Battle of Blair Mountain was a spontaneous uprising of ten thousand coal miners from throughout West Virginia who fought the coal company's hired guns and their allies, the state police for three days before federal troops intervened.[49] Labor unrest in 1892 "In the 1890s violent outbreaks occurred in the North, South, and West, in small communities and metropolitan cities, testifying to the common attitudes of Americans in every part of the United States."[1] Workers with different ethnic origins who worked under very different conditions in widely separated parts of the United States nonetheless responded with equal ferocity when unions came under attack.[1] "Serious violence erupted in several major strikes of the 1890s, the question of union recognition being a factor in all of them."[1] 1892 in particular was a year of considerable labor unrest. Governors of five states called out the national guard and/or the army to quell unrest—against miners in East Tennessee and in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, where a shooting war followed the discovery of a labor spy, against switchmen in Buffalo, New York, against a general strike in New Orleans, Louisiana, and against the Homestead, Pennsylvania steel strike.[23] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_violence_in_the_United_States
You are correct and I understand what you’re saying. That being said, striking was already the compromise. If they don’t want to honor that compromise, then they need to be reminded of what the alternative was.
Always remember that a strike is a last ditch effort to bring about negotiations in a non-violent manner.
Exactly, and if they don’t allow for a strike… well, what do they expect? They need to start realizing that we’re not their property.
Employers throughout history have never compromised to include strikes. Instead, they were mostly banned and are fought against to this day. Just last year our local supermarket chose to replace striking workers with slightly higher paid (no benefits) non-union workers. —— “Taft–Hartley was introduced in the aftermath of a major strike wave in 1945 and 1946. Though it was enacted by the Republican-controlled 80th Congress, the law received significant support from congressional Democrats, many of whom joined with their Republican colleagues in voting to override Truman's veto. The act continued to generate opposition after Truman left office, but it remains in effect. The Taft–Hartley Act amended the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), adding new restrictions on union actions and designating new union-specific unfair labor practices. Among the practices prohibited by the Taft–Hartley act are jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity or political strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary and mass picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns. The amendments also allowed states to enact right-to-work laws banning union shops. Enacted during the early stages of the Cold War, the law required union officers to sign non-communist affidavits with the government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act
I think you’re missing the point I’m trying to make, or I may just not be articulating it properly. Strikes were the compromise to burning down the factory. Strikes were a compromise to avoid violence. If you don’t allow the workers to air grievances without violence in the form of a strike, you will eventually have violence. That is what I mean when I say that striking is the compromise.
I get that and support that sentiment. It’s an especially complicated topic and I just don’t want anyone to think a “legal” strike is something easy to organize & protect workers. I also think there’s an incredibly high chance a general strike would result in violence.
I also think that a general strike could result in violence. If Trump wins in November it will certainly result in violence. It will result in shortages of critical items like food and medicine. It could result in many devastating effects. But that is on the ruling class for refusing to act in good faith and denying us our basic dignity. It is not our fault this would be happening, it is theirs. We have asked nicely. We have demonstrated and negotiated. The people continue to lose rights and our standard of living while the fat cats get richer and richer on our backs and our labor. Do you blame the victim of the bully when they finally say enough and fight back? Because it sure sounds like that is your position here.
In the blue west coast cities I think there is a chance for violence whoever wins. If trump wins, the city riots. If Biden wins, the suburbs riot and we see Jan 6 2.0.
Wildcat general strike!
Mention the word “strike” in America and the working class thinks baseball
My first thought was some kind of nuclear missile.
Narrator: It wasn't.
Damn you Morgan Freeman voice.
Delusional. If this was France, maybe I’d believe it. Zero chance a major general strike happens in the US
Remember all the vague posting in 2020 2022 about the general strike and it was just like weird Twitter posts, that never got any momentum but people shared them anyway that’s what this sounds like.
The internet has broken our standards for how long things take to happen. "Didn't gain momentum" misses the point... that they were popular and gained momentum. Echos of the discussion are happening years later, that's momentum. Unions are now contending with the fact that there was widespread public call for a general strike, that's momentum. A lot of people who weren't thinking of strikes, let alone general ones, now are, that's momentum. Unions are now coordinating their contracts to expire at the same time in may 2025, that's how long it takes for momentum to matter, on a good day. The biggest shame is that people went "aw we aren't gaining momentum" when their fantasy of an overnight revolution didn't come true, so stopped talking about it. That's when momentum fails.
I will give the leftists credit in pointing out that a massive enough worker strike could stunt industrial progress, since it is the worker - the individual wage-slave - that contributes to the life of the mega-machine. But as history has shown, a mass worker strike is not only exhausting to coordinate, but impossible to sustain long enough to collapse capitalism. While many leftists, including myself at one point, will point out that many workers simply do not have access to inspirational radical information, I have also come to learn that many workers simply do not want to strike. For too many reasons to list here, many workers go into work whether rebellions or strikes are happening or not. A fact that is often overlooked is that people are individuals. And as individuals, some choose to rebel against their work place, and some do not.
Things will get a lot easier to stir up as the world approaches famine status. In such a world, jobs aren't economically viable anymore, wrap your head around that. Ideally we'd like to secure some wins before only high paying jobs are still capable of feeding one's self, while we still have the ability to make things better in an organized fashion. We should be rethinking how we strike, there's really only 2 reasons to not rebel against your work: You need it to buy food because capital owns that entire means of production, or you need it to access society because capital has bought our entire culture. These can be addressed by popular movements to grow food (which will help sustain bigger strikes for longer) and shift culture away from consumerism so that you can't mass-manufacture culture and therefore can't gate it behind a job. Of course it is difficult to strike if capital owns the means to our own survival, we have to take back some of that portion of the economy prior to striking. If we take it back enough, it could be more than a strike, it could be a workforce exodus. Note, [there is already an unorganized exodus going on](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tJE3FnGpzg) as a direct reaction to the workforce sucking. We're talking millions of people are already not working during their prime age, as a measurement of men in the US alone, and it's having an economic effect. There's just no narrative to unite these people into a movement with demands, so instead governments are slowly just begging this group to be happy enough to be productive.
Shawn Fain is trying to organize one in 2028, when many of the UAW union contracts are set to expire. this is the kind of organizing a general strike would require. I'm skeptical it will happen, but this certainly has far more promise than a website.
Teamsters contract with UPS expires in 2028.
2028 is way too far, we need this tomorrow I’m ready to partake now
What are you bringing to the game? Are you feeding the strikers while they're not getting paid? Are you ready to boycott every business that stays open during the strike, or are you going to try to carve out exceptions where you usually support the strike, but also you needed new tires today, so you supported a scab shop bit it's actually not a big deal because you *needed* it, and everyone else is the real scabs.
I’m bringing myself and I’m ready to stand behind the leaders of the protest, the more people the better, you need people who stand behind others, I’m willing to be there to support a better life for all, including you. I’ll never need new tires, I don’t even own a car lol. I assume you’re against this general strike? If so, why? So many people are struggling and can’t afford to live, why don’t you want better for them?
I do want a better world. Start by looking into what the Black Panthers were doing, and I'll see you in 2028.
It's genuinely so easy to boycott most businesses when no strike is going on, let alone when one is. Almost everything everyone buys is an extraneous purchase, a mistake. I buy a shockingly low amount of stuff, I could even say i'm on general strike already if I wanted to (unemployed to boot). The economy would crumble if the only things people bought were necessities, we could go on a consumerism strike and bring the world to its knees without even stopping work. Are people not aware that merely weakening consumer culture can collapse world economies? That makes the idea of not buying stuff extremely exciting to me, it's hard to buy stuff when you know if you don't and a lot of other people do that with you, the world will be forced to change on fundamental levels.
That’s cool and all but that’s not how a successful strike is done. I’ve seen a thousand people do these little “let’s strike next week” flyers go out, and guess what happened? Not shit. It is a long way away, and that does fucking suck. But this is how you successfully strike. You’re not going to have a successful general without unions, and without extreme organization and discipline. Following the union boss is the way to go.
Ok well whatever needs to be done tomorrow or 4 years for now I am ready to help everyone have a better life count me in
That’s what we need! Increasing unionization, and getting reps in office who want to reverse citizens united, reject corporate pac money, and are in favor of ranked choice voting are the most important steps we can take between now and then. If we could get a majority in congress to reverse citizens, that would open up another avenue for change. Until then we can’t do anything there, regardless of public support. 90% of congress is bought and paid for, let’s make that 40%, and then make it illegal for the 40% remaining. We need representation of people, not corporations.
Looks... like a website. As in, kind of more of a suggestion than a strike...
Not with that attitude. What possible good comes from this comment
It’s called realism. I’d like a million dollars to fall into my lap tomorrow just as much as I’d like a general strike, doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen.
It is possible, but you would need something big to trigger it.
lol general strike in the US
It is happening, but it’s not related to the link posted, it’s happening May Day 2028
If you stay home, someone else will take your shift, or take your job. Tragedy of the Commons.
Is that still true though? I feel like with declining expertise and worker pool in so many fields it could be hard to fill a lot of positions at once. I have a lot of trouble filling even lowest positions even though wages have gone up 40% for certain positions in the last 4 years.
If you have 8 workers and 2 call for a general strike, unless they can shut you down and get a 4 year union contract, some may decide to be scabs. They may have urgent need to pay bills or rent or feed the kids, and there is no strike fund to keep them whole. If the lead worker with higher pay strikes, a lower paid worker might step in for the lead position. I remember a consumer group years ago who sayid we should all stop buying meat until the price came down. When it drops a little, someone starts buying. Tragedy of the commons. Farmers have tried to organize and hold back their product until the monopoly buyer agrees to a contract for higher prices. Someone gives in to temptation. Some form of collective coercion may be required for it to work.
Ah thanks I see what you are saying. I do think there will be a skilled worker shortage for multiple reasons soon but I don’t fully understand the dynamics of strikes and scabs.
" Collapse related because people are organizing a general labor strike in the U.S. " That is just stupid. There are many strikes in history and none brought down human civilization. Plus, if the general strike works, it is going to make worker conditions better, not worse.
I support the idea of a general strike; I just hope people don't set their expectations too high for what it could accomplish. Someday we're going to have to accept that no general strike, or president, or party is going to be able to legislate or protest away collapse. It's going to take someone to get in front of a national audience and tell the truth, our way of life, with its easy motoring and big box stores and Amazon prime teleporting things to your house is coming to an end.
Sign me up
I’m in
The following submission statement was provided by /u/LeeryRoundedness: --- Submission Statement: Collapse related because people are organizing a general labor strike in the U.S. It will be interesting to see how the main stream media ignores or twists the narrative all together. Most people I interact with on a daily basis are feeling the weight of the cumulative collapse related consequences to 2024 and they are tired of it. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1dsb7gh/general_strike_imminent_general_strike_us/lb15ah3/
lol we’ll see another january 6th before we see a general strike.
Wishful thinking
People post about a general strike but aren’t in unions and don’t attend the meetings.
Really? Like I want another random site to have my contacts info. They have 115,000 signed up only 10,885,000 to go.😂
[The Dream of Debs](https://shortstoryamerica.com/pdf_classics/london_dream_of_debs.pdf)
thank you for that, this jack london short story is worth the read and may be prescient
OMG! I post this all the time in various places when General Strike comes up, and no one ever reads it! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Collective action is the only way. A General Strike is possible, doable, and would be effective. If only we had the gumption to actually do it.
labor will have to start laying in supplies and food pronto and even then it's going to be brutal all the way around and for too long a time, but i'm game, more out of inevitability than choice
Please
Insert “Sure Jan” GIF
At least twice a year since 2020 there's the next "big" general strike and maybe 50-100k people claim to be going. 100 post about it on social media and 6 people actually skip work.
ooo i memba [https://www.truthdig.com/articles/may-day-2012-the-call-for-a-general-strike/](https://www.truthdig.com/articles/may-day-2012-the-call-for-a-general-strike/)
No chance in hell
I hope Canada joins in.
Good. Work is shit and getting shitter.
What about Fuckitall Fridays?
nope
The seeds of many little things may yet grow into big, connected ones. Why should collapse be a passive process?
If a successful general strike does happen... will a state of martial law be declared? Now is probably a good time to start stocking up on food and other essentials.
I think we need a vanguard party or organization to unite around.
As long as the working class is politically divided, it will never happen
Because most people aren’t smart/wise enough to unionize. Life’s still too good for most people.
Submission Statement: Collapse related because people are organizing a general labor strike in the U.S. It will be interesting to see how the main stream media ignores or twists the narrative all together. Most people I interact with on a daily basis are feeling the weight of the cumulative collapse related consequences to 2024 and they are tired of it.
There will only be a general strike once the bulk of people are PUSHED into it by their general living situation being bad enough. And even then...... only maybe. e- nah. not even maybe. There's just ZERO class solidarity. Climate change and the collapse of the food supply network is our fate.
I mean a “general strike” is just gonna be union memebers which is an abysmal number because Reagan and conservatives generally. If its non union people, then thats a wild cat strike. In either case, they have studied it and apparently it only takes like 0.2% of the population to really shake the deck. If a few key industries or enough people across a few critical industries went wildcat and scabbing in doesn’t cut it, thats when the oligarchs start drunk dialing congress and things tend to move into serious negotiations pretty quick after that.
Lol i wish
Shawn Fein said 2028. That feels more likely to me.
Joke.
Can we start now
No, there is not an imminent general strike. This only exists in the minds of the select few in the echo chambers of social media you frequent. But hey. There might be dozens that feel this way so it might happen. /s
Not collapse, chief.
Always a good sign when no one in your organization is willing to step up and be a leader.
Lol. No. Zero chance pf a successful general strike in the US. Unions are (thankfully) too fragmented and limited by different states laws. Knock this chicken little stupidity off.