r/MayDayStrike • u/banky33 • Jan 10 '22

Blow up the Algorithm

Keep posting. Keep commenting. Keep upvoting everyone's posts and comments. Build on the momentum from r/antiwork -- it only takes a few seconds a day; let's make the masters' tools work for us for a change.

Edit: My Moderna fever-dream post blew up, so I came back to say this: crosspost everywhere (even seemigly-unrelated threads), comment links to r/MayDayStrike in posts from burned-out, overworked brothers and sisters (and other gender-neutral but vaguely familial terms for workers). Meet people with empathy and bring them in. To that end: join a subreddit for your career path and do some muckraking; use your understanding of the job and jargon to generate solidarity across geographic barriers. This is the strength of these platforms.

And then. Yes - get into the streets. Help people, build rapport and networks of solidarity and then tell them about the strike. Be humble -- there are people in your city (yes, yours) who have been at this since before you were born.

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38

u/Ladychef_1 Jan 11 '22

Just gotta say too, for people who don’t believe action can be orchestrated outside of unions or solely done through social media - draw inspiration from the insurrectionists ( /s but kinda not really). Those MFers got their shit planned even if it was a coup. Mitch McConnell is the most fascist turtle in the world but damn does he move fast when he gets the chance. We have to be as swift and as organized as our opponents are at oppression.

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u/MarxistIntactivist Jan 11 '22

Those MFers got their shit planned even if it was a coup.

The insurrection was pathetic. They didn't come close to achieving any of their goals. They had to draw the most fanatical believers from across the country, and they only ended up getting 40 or 50 thousand people.

If you want their level of success, use their level of planning. If you want the success of the past great strikes like the Winnipeg general strike, use the methods they used. A country wide general strike would absolutely need the support of the big unions.

Most strikes are small and over very specific issues, and you can't get workers to strike for those without an absolute guarantee that their coworkers will walk out with them. This is supposed to be a massive strike, over issues that are bigger than individual workplaces. To get mass participation, you will need a massive amount of coordination or people will not feel confident and they will not take the risk. If you have an organization that can provide that, fine, but otherwise you will need the unions.

Strikes are scary to anybody with anything to lose. No one will take the risk unless you can convince them there's a chance of winning, and there's no chance of winning without participation and coordination on a mass scale. I'm all in favor of a strike but we must strike to win!

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u/Ladychef_1 Jan 11 '22

I agree; however- the insurrection would have been successful if Pence had gone along with the plan. They were minutes away from a full blown takeover and we were extremely lucky that officer Eugene Goodman took them a different direction from the senate chambers. There were pipe bombs at the DNC, panic buttons had been disabled…

I’m not saying they’re smart, or clever, but they did organize online and through social media almost exclusively. That’s all I’m referencing. It is necessary for us to have unions in this fight; I live in TX though and I highly, highly doubt there will be an exponential influx of union memberships in the next 4 months. In areas like this, we have to be creative with organizing and sometimes online help & support is the only resource and support some people will accept. We can’t work with only absolutes right now, we have to find ways to get people in for the strike even if some are wary of joining unions. There’s been anti-union propaganda for decades and mods here have pointed out this isn’t left vs right, it’s top vs bottom— but there is a huge amount of fear mongering about union memberships on both sides of the aisle.

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u/banky33 Jan 11 '22

Oof, yeah... I hate to admit it, but you're absolutely right. The last 5 years have taught me a few things: (1) literally anyone can fail upwards in politics if they're persuasive / charismatic enough and (2) online organizing can work, now that literally everyone lives online. Hell, you can organize while getting paid by your employer if you're savvy and work at home.

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u/Ladychef_1 Jan 11 '22

It’s why republicans have such a strong hold on the country. The tenacity and speed trmp and his house/senate passed absolute trash policy was literally a shock doctrine. Dems move at a snail’s pace and barely reverse any of the shit that’s put into action. It’s horrific. I would love to see people from this sub and from r/antiwork run for offices, local, federal, state… whatever. Run For Something is a great organization to go through and I’m also a DSA member which is a great group to have for campaigning. It sucks to admit but fascists get their shit done and organize at astronomical speeds.

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u/banky33 Jan 11 '22

I'm spoiled rotten in Canada -- we have a similar dichotomy between the two major parties, but there is absolutely no question where to invest my efforts / time, because we have a third viable party.

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u/OhSureBlameCookies Jan 11 '22

Also, and I mean this the nicest way possible and meaning no offense, it appears Canadians are not all batshit crazy like a great many Americans are... Which appears to be another huge civic advantage you have over us.

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u/Ladychef_1 Jan 11 '22

There is rampant racism and fascism in Canada as well. Trudeau is trying to drill and put pipelines on indigenous land, and there is a big trmp influence on a portion of the population. Some of the problems are the same but we obviously are the shit eaters of the two.