Irony, it’s what’s for dinner. Heh, how funny is it that a story about declining American automotive groups (for the unions and GM are both technically in decline) is opened with an ad by one of their more insidious competitors. That made me giggle.
More seriously, you should pay attention to the strike. You’re going to see more of this sort of thing, and it could even someday include you and the people you work with. The bottom line is the question of which promises are going to be kept. In this case, it’s health care benefits for retired workers who probably thought working hard all their lives meant something. Bush is squawking about raiding social security again, and the two are not unrelated or dissimilar.
I am a radical for many reasons, and a big one is because I think capitalism as we have it really sucks. And is totally unfair. It’s not our fault, the Little People didn’t really have that much say in the making of the various financial disasters that our beloved rich ruling class is struggling to absorb. But because of “the way the markets work,” I think we can expect to see pension fund after health care program raided, schools and prisons shut down, old and sick people tossed out on the street, all because the investor class went along with Bushism, and its drunken-sailor spending habits, and they don’t want to pay out of their own pockets for their stupid mistakes.
Strikes aren’t always exactly “good” things, but they can be. To me, this particular strike is the Opening Strike of the Long Recession. I think it’s a good, in that now is a good time to remind people what they must do to protect themselves from the machinations of those who aren’t really part of their world. GM could’ve avoided this crisis, but the geniuses there preferred to play games with the unions, and take short term solutions over long term ones. Indeed, many of the people who made those decisions have moved on, and the people involved today have to clean up after their legacy. That’s how life in the Ownership Corporate Crony society works- just make it to the top and you can run away with a lot of other people’s money and never be held accountable for so much of the damage you caused. Disaster Capitalism indeed.
The time is coming to relearn the power of sustained action and noncooperation. It’s not ironic that the UAW chose to do this now. Many others are going to be making similar choices sooner than you may think.
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A Call For A General Strike. It Starts With One Day...
While I am hoping that the Teamsters, and the other Unions involved with GM will honor the UAW’s strike, we are calling for a very simple General Strike on October 17th, 2007.
http://shutitdown101707.blogspot.com/
It must start somewhere, and it might as well begin on a very good day for a strike.
Call in sick, stay home with your family/pets/friends.
They simply will not listen any other way.
I’d love to see the support of the Mighty Corrente building behind this movement. Please click the link!
Solidarity!
—Monkeyfister
From High Atop The Mighty Corrente Building… Comes Wisdom.
monkeyf: the key word for me is "sustained."
heh, you could make a lot of larry craig type jokes about it if you wanted to, but that would be a wide stance.
ahem, anyway, what i mean is that one-day actions are good, but many-in a row-days actions are better. that’s the sort of thing that doesn’t happen overnight. i don’t know if the unions are politically ready to get behind a “general strike” idea. that’s way out there in the overton window sense. i agree with it, of course, but it isn’t effective if it’s just us. or even if it’s “us” plus the unions.
what we need is an organization, and one or more figurehead leader types. that’s what seems to be most missing to me these days. i don’t know how to do that, but i can sense that people are sooooo ready to follow leadership that is honest about our problems and direct with their solutions. i think there are a lot of underemployed and increasingly angry people who would be willing to devote time and money, should they believe that it wasn’t wasted or futile.
but i like the idea of a general strike day, and i’d love to see people discuss it more.
We're Calling This "the Start"...
It MUST start somewhere, SOME day, and we’re pushing as hard as we can to push this up every organization’s ladder that we can find, contact, and motivate. I’ve written dozens of Unions— both Headquarters and Locals. We can only hope— and DO.
You say:
“what we need is an organization, and one or more figurehead leader types. that’s what seems to be most missing to me these days.”
Ummm. Hello! Here we are— wanna join and blog with us? Did Cindy Sheehan say, “Gee, my son was killed for an unjust cause. I sure would like to get an answer from George Bush, but, I need to wait until I’ve got a major organization and thousands of dollars to start?” No. She simply did it.
Further— money is simply not required for this first day of action— all we are asking is that bloggers put the link and a graphic up on their blogs, and help push it. It’s really quite simple. Viral marketing. Do you want a Localized slogan for the graphic? I’ll make it for you.
In a matter of hours, the Left Blogosphere has been able to raise HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars for candidates and campaigns— we’ve affected election outcomes in just a day or two of pushing an idea.
Instead of saying, “what we need is,” or “what we should do is,” just do it. Here we are, getting organized, publicizing, asking for help, support, and a bit of action. Get past a certain critical point, and suddenly it is everywhere. We’re already in the top 50 Google links for “Shut It Down,” It won’t take much more to get over the hump.
It STARTS with one day. At the blog, we are VERY clear about this being a start. Sustaining after that is easy. However, there comes a point where we can actually hurt those we’re trying to help— wage laborers cannot go too long with no pay. The San Francisco General Strike of 1934 crippled that City but, only lasted a couple of months. It started with ONE DAY.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_West_C…
In San Fran, there were marches and riots. We’re pushing for simple, quiet absence. No signs, no fists, no marches, no confrontations— just absence.
All we’re asking for is a sidebar link, a mention, and for folks to stay home.
—mf
From High Atop The Mighty Corrente Building… Comes Wisdom.