This is inspiring & EXACTLY what I needed to read today. The list of resources at the end of the substack piece, along with books, well, here’s your boilerplate America, along with reasons why NOT TO GIVE UP OR CAVE IN! Do not settle. America is worth it & so are you!
This is a good start, but we need to nationalize our civic disobedience. For example, one day out of the week, which we all need to agree on, we don’t purchase anything. I mean anything. Get it all Tuesday night or Thursday morning, but not Wednesdays.
Another would be to shut down commerce in our towns by shutting down the biggest roads and means of transport in our general area. You’ve got to cost them billions of dollars for them to listen. Make it hurt or it won’t matter.
That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking about. Actual, significant dips in their revenues for a specific period and their impact on stock prices, for example, that might actually get their attention. Everything else, at this point, feels more like a way to diffuse and then flatten our energy; to take our passionate responses to crisis and atomize them, to make us disillusioned, to make us shut up.
Code Pink is working on a Maersk campaign, since that corporation is actually shipping the weapons Congress funds to bomb children in tents. Instead of breaking your heart by contacting Congress to quit funding genocide, this 3 week campaign is focused on phone banking to jam the lines at Maersk on specific days. Here’s the link for anyone who is interested: https://www.codepink.org/phonebankmaersk
Anybody, everybody! If you have links to any plans or campaigns to pull a meaningful stunt such as no shop Thursdays etc tell us, get the word out! If people only knew that their individual actions (or in this case, the non-action of not-buying) could really do something in concert with others, I think they’d be keen to give it up for a moment!
That’s great, Hannah!! I’m trying to buy a food truck so me and my people can feed the homeless in our town. We don’t have a name or anything, we just want to help. We need ALL of our causes to unite under one banner, if we are to stand a chance. They have an unlimited amount of resources, but we the people have the power. We just have to be willing to use it. Thank you so much!! This gives me great hope that people are awake to our new reality. Hope and actions, my friend!!
I think we can and should include the global Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement (including PACBI- the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) as an important part of this rising tide of resistance along with the labor union and tenant union movements.
These are just my thoughts, but conflating union organizing with class warfare felt off to me and a good way to sabotage a labor movement because it can easily be labeled as "extremist." Many civil rights pushes this century fizzled because the right wing successfully convinced large portions of America that it was extreme (even though they often weren't).
I would worry that using words like "class warfare," which brings to mind the French or Communist revolutions, is a poor strategy to motivate labor organizing that was mainstream prior to Reagan.
I think leaders in the labor movement should use the language that is most effective but never lose sight of the reality - it is class warfare. The more people who can accept and prepare for it, the better. So perhaps initially lighter language may be appropriate but making space for accurate language is also important.
Agreed - especially with the terrorism charges against Briana Boston & Luigi Mangione; it feels like we’re not that far from the feds criminalizing any anti-corporate &/or socialist rhetoric
This is all good news, and I agree a good start. But remember that a good chunk - close to half the work force - are employed by small businesses. I, myself, work for a company with only three other employees besides myself. And my boss is the owner. So, not much in the way of unionizing here.
This is inspiring & EXACTLY what I needed to read today. The list of resources at the end of the substack piece, along with books, well, here’s your boilerplate America, along with reasons why NOT TO GIVE UP OR CAVE IN! Do not settle. America is worth it & so are you!
This is a good start, but we need to nationalize our civic disobedience. For example, one day out of the week, which we all need to agree on, we don’t purchase anything. I mean anything. Get it all Tuesday night or Thursday morning, but not Wednesdays.
Another would be to shut down commerce in our towns by shutting down the biggest roads and means of transport in our general area. You’ve got to cost them billions of dollars for them to listen. Make it hurt or it won’t matter.
That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking about. Actual, significant dips in their revenues for a specific period and their impact on stock prices, for example, that might actually get their attention. Everything else, at this point, feels more like a way to diffuse and then flatten our energy; to take our passionate responses to crisis and atomize them, to make us disillusioned, to make us shut up.
Code Pink is working on a Maersk campaign, since that corporation is actually shipping the weapons Congress funds to bomb children in tents. Instead of breaking your heart by contacting Congress to quit funding genocide, this 3 week campaign is focused on phone banking to jam the lines at Maersk on specific days. Here’s the link for anyone who is interested: https://www.codepink.org/phonebankmaersk
Anybody, everybody! If you have links to any plans or campaigns to pull a meaningful stunt such as no shop Thursdays etc tell us, get the word out! If people only knew that their individual actions (or in this case, the non-action of not-buying) could really do something in concert with others, I think they’d be keen to give it up for a moment!
That’s great, Hannah!! I’m trying to buy a food truck so me and my people can feed the homeless in our town. We don’t have a name or anything, we just want to help. We need ALL of our causes to unite under one banner, if we are to stand a chance. They have an unlimited amount of resources, but we the people have the power. We just have to be willing to use it. Thank you so much!! This gives me great hope that people are awake to our new reality. Hope and actions, my friend!!
I think we can and should include the global Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement (including PACBI- the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) as an important part of this rising tide of resistance along with the labor union and tenant union movements.
Fantastic to see the working class flexing its muscles. This is how we create a better world together.
These are just my thoughts, but conflating union organizing with class warfare felt off to me and a good way to sabotage a labor movement because it can easily be labeled as "extremist." Many civil rights pushes this century fizzled because the right wing successfully convinced large portions of America that it was extreme (even though they often weren't).
I would worry that using words like "class warfare," which brings to mind the French or Communist revolutions, is a poor strategy to motivate labor organizing that was mainstream prior to Reagan.
I think leaders in the labor movement should use the language that is most effective but never lose sight of the reality - it is class warfare. The more people who can accept and prepare for it, the better. So perhaps initially lighter language may be appropriate but making space for accurate language is also important.
Agreed - especially with the terrorism charges against Briana Boston & Luigi Mangione; it feels like we’re not that far from the feds criminalizing any anti-corporate &/or socialist rhetoric
Thank you for this essay. And the links.
Look to the people for change, this government will not be our saviours.
What does that look like?
This is all good news, and I agree a good start. But remember that a good chunk - close to half the work force - are employed by small businesses. I, myself, work for a company with only three other employees besides myself. And my boss is the owner. So, not much in the way of unionizing here.