this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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United States | News & Politics

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[–] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 6 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Isn't that the entire point? lol

Imagine this conversation in 18th century France.

Peasant: Should we do a revolt?

Other peasant: Are you kidding? I'm down to my last loaf of bread over here, no way!

[–] Lenins_Dumbbell@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 59 minutes ago

Americans love making excuses because working class solidarity is pretty much impossible for them to even imagine. It's a settler colonial state to it's very roots.

It's the same reason you won't see socialist leanings in Israel. At best it'll be fascism pretending to be socialism. Remember ACP?

[–] DupaCycki@lemmy.world -2 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

The main obstacle is the average American being brainwashed into thinking they are living the best life possible on the planet and that they too can be a millionaire if only they work 60+ hour weeks while sick.

Essentially same situation as North Korea, just less extreme (at least in some aspects).

[–] orc_princess@lemmy.ml 3 points 33 minutes ago

American sees something American happening Americanly in America: "What are we, a bunch of ASIANS?!?!???"

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 3 points 57 minutes ago

Workers in DPRK actually have things like housing, healthcare, and retirement. The burger reich is nothing like DRPK.

[–] LowResBeer@lemmy.ml 8 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

No class consciousness, and americans are cowards. Next question

[–] etsy@hexbear.net -3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

reductive and unhelpful. next dumbass

[–] Lenins_Dumbbell@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 58 minutes ago (1 children)

unhelpful

Americans when they can't even help themselves and expect everything to be handed to them because "oh noooo what about my paycheck!?"

Like the rest of us didn't have to fight through much worse conditions to get even half a crumb

[–] etsy@hexbear.net 0 points 47 minutes ago* (last edited 47 minutes ago)

yeah idk what you're even talking about anymore. keep being delusional and blaming decades of systemic propaganda and decreasing education standards and material conditions on individuals with zero power or influence.

definitely a winning strategy

[–] procapra@lemmy.ml 6 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Only 10% of the US is in a union. Who's going to lead it?

The biggest of those unions I'd guess would be AFL-CIO, which I suppose did a okay job leading the Minnesota strike

Roughly one in four Minnesota voters either participated in the January 23 day of shutdown and protest against ICE, or have a loved one who did...Of those participants, 38% percent stayed off the job, either because they did not go to work, or because their employer closed for the day of action... 45% of voters ​“generally support the call for no work, no school, no shopping as a form of protest.” https://inthesetimes.com/article/labor-general-strike-minnesotans-ice-protest-trump-cbp

Keep in mind those numbers are voters in minnesota, not super great for a bunch of "progressive" people.

Even the national strike on the 30th wasn't terrible, but neither had any economic effect. There just isn't enough organization, especially in key industries. People aren't educated on unions, even in communist circles a ton of us are running around without a clue what good union organizing looks like.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 11 points 11 hours ago

Lack of class consciousness and education in general

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 13 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (2 children)

Keep the serfs destutute so they can't organize against the rich, disgustingly lavish aristocracy is a tale as old as time. We're literally seeing ruling philosophies Medieval kings used and people say this is the best system.

[–] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 1 points 1 hour ago

Destitution didn't stop the French, it emboldened them.

[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago

The other half of it is conditioning a society to be so dependent on convenience and little luxuries (yes, even poor people in US have luxuries compared to other parts of the world) that they technically could strike, but doing so would be so below their standard of living that it would not be sustainable.

[–] estrange_alien@leminal.space 67 points 20 hours ago (3 children)
[–] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 2 points 1 hour ago

This right here. The problems of an inherently individualist society. Or another way of putting it...

Fuck you, you got yours lol

[–] Infamousblt@hexbear.net 34 points 20 hours ago (5 children)

This is why my advice to everyone who is like "But what should I actually DO!' is "get to know your neighbors." Community together strong

[–] estrange_alien@leminal.space 24 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

get to know your neighbors AND learn how to trust and be trusted.

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[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 9 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The internet caused us to forgo our tight communities in exchange for being acquaintances with millions of people.

[–] estrange_alien@leminal.space 15 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

it was not the internet that did that

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[–] manuallybreathing@lemmy.ml 4 points 12 hours ago

how do 3 men in their 30's not have $500 between them?

[–] Unusable3151@lemmy.ml 41 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (2 children)

nearly a century of coordinated, targeted anti-union operations by corporations and the federal government will do that.

[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 8 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

It's really cool learning about stuff like the Mohawk Valley Formula and how it's been known about as an overtly articulated strategy for like a hundred years now and they still do the exact same shit to discredit and disperse movements against their interests

and even knowing their fucking playbook doesn't help us simply because a solid majority of the population is conditioned to have their eyes glaze over, seeing nothing, when told about the tactics that are literally at that moment being used on them

[–] TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world 9 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

More than a century honestly, that shit goes as far back as the 1800s

[–] Unusable3151@lemmy.ml 3 points 13 hours ago

That's fair. I was mostly thinking about how coordination between the federal government and corporations really ramped up in response to the NLRA

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 4 points 12 hours ago

Not hungry enough

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 41 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Two paychecks seems optimistic.

[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 29 points 20 hours ago

Agreed. 2-3 paychecks for the union workers and skilled trades. 0-1 for most others.

[–] humanamerican@lemmy.zip 42 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Lack of worker solidarity. We're too atomized and stressed to support each other through a GS. Hopefully that is beginning to change. I just hope its not too late.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 19 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Lack of worker solidarity

In theory, the problem of "two paychecks" is solved (at least in part) by working people seizing certain critical means of production for the purposes of mutual aid. So, grocers strike not by closing the front doors but by shutting down the cash registers and handing out food for free. Landlord admins strike by refusing to collect rents. Teachers strike not by refusing to teach but by refusing to grade. Etc.

And if everyone knows this arrangement will be in effect, they can act together as a bargaining unit to threaten the control of the landlord class.

But if they aren't in close communication, because the public forms of media are censored and strictly controlled, then individuals can't express solidarity prior to the strike. And if they aren't in alignment, then you end up with the same "haves" and "have-nots" reproduced across the striking cohort, creating contradictions that landlords can exploit. And if they can't repeat this experiment of communication, trust building, strike, reap concessions, then they can't build momentum of numbers or expand the demands.

Hopefully that is beginning to change

I haven't seen much to suggest it has. Perhaps the soul is willing, but the body public remains weak and emaciated. We still don't have avenues of communication independent of the capitalist class. We haven't built trust between industrial sectors. There's little we can point to that's been successful, much less reproducible.

I just hope its not too late.

It's never "too late". All that changes is the players and the stakes at play.

But whatever comes next, you'd be foolish to believe you'll see both the beginning of it and the end. You'll be lucky to know what you're in the middle of.

[–] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 25 points 19 hours ago (17 children)

The american people are cowards.

[–] NeelixBiederman@hexbear.net 18 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The American system rewards cowardice

[–] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 7 points 16 hours ago

It also makes bravery expensive (not that cowardice isn't expensive in the long run)

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[–] taktoide@lemmy.world 10 points 17 hours ago

Fear and propaganda.

Generalstrikeus.com

Join your local chapter. Volunteer for mutual aid groups. Help establish a strike fund for your local chapter. Get. Involved.

[–] JakenVeina@midwest.social 28 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Also, the average American barely knowing what a union is, much less being a member of one.

[–] Ildsaye@hexbear.net 16 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

And too many of the ones who do and are have accepted the paradigm of unions as a consumer service, rather than a place for rank-and-file organization. Union dues for collaborator leadership makes a union into a sort of absurdly cheap, shitty lawyer with whom you get what you're paying for, when it's not actively betraying you.

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[–] Triasha@lemmy.world 12 points 18 hours ago

Enough unions to organize it.

[–] Drewfro66@lemmygrad.ml 18 points 20 hours ago

General Strikes tend to be difficult to bring about in the United States because our only productive, profitable, material industry is in the reactionary sectors: oil and polymers, automobiles, weapons, and the production of raw materials for these industries (steel, etc.). These industries are either comparatively well-paid or staffed by immigrants who are in a precarious position.

Most of the wealth of today's billionaires is in intellectual property, speculative assets, and foreign production. These things aren't going to be affected as much by a strike in the U.S. as, say, a factory that makes boots.

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