"If voting made any difference, it would be illegal" -- Jello Biafra

[Taverner]

This was said back in the 90's, when another bright young star of the Democratic Party became president. There was hope all over the land and that mean old punkrocker had to harsh everyone's mellow.

Turns out, he was right. Some people are deluded into thinking their vote counts, and some people are deluded into thinking the candidates that claim to represent them do in fact, represent them.

Since Citizen's United and the recent 'kill the class action' ruling it's clear what they think of us. It's clear that we have no voice. No future Democratic or Republican rock star is going to save us all. In fact, chances are they will work against us.

But like God in Fight Club, that's ok - we don't need them.

Everyone in America needs to realize that they are the arms, legs and body of corporate America. And if those arms and legs suddenly stop walking, or stop keeping the Corproate entity alive, it dies. Usually in minutes, rather than hours.

Yes, what we need to do is have a Gerneral Strike. It needs to be massive. It needs to be executed quickly. It needs to put companies out of business. It needs to make Corporate America reel and think it's dying. It needs to make the X-level realize they cannot live without us. It must shock them so much to their core, that it will scare them away from seeking revenge.

The problem with most strikes are that even if they are organized enough, and solidarity happens - management knows the employees who strike will finish their work eventually. They know that no worker wants to sacrifice his professional reputation. They also know they can find scabs to work cheaply and effectively. We need to eliminate both.

We need to roll back all but vital services during that strike. Absolutely nothing should be sold, bought or traded. Absolutely no units must move. This is how you cripple capitalism.

And for the scabs? If a company hires scabs, we need to strike at their homes. We need to stop their cars from getting them to work. If a general strike is pulled of sucessfully, there will be no infrastructure that day to get scabs from a to b. But we must be willing to physically prevent them from de-clawing the general strike.

For the strike to work, it must be at least a week. Fear must set into the corporate mind. The rich should hemorage money.
The companies should stop doing anything. Everything from McDonalds burgers to insurance should simply stop.

Now, organizing this won't be easy - and I'd be a fool if I were to say I could pull it off.

But right now we only have one gun and one bullet - and the general strike is that bullet.

[RandomThoughts]

1. heh, I been on strike for years.

And many stop by to drop off coffee and breakfast while on the lines.

And I am due beer and travel money, and many experiences.

[Taverner]

2. Pehaps the way the unemployed can strike can be different

Someone needs to throw the shoe in the machine...

[Eddie Haskell]

5. Me too!

Can't hang on much longer.

[Taverner]

7. Well..

"If you can't hang on, then hang them"

Metaphorically of course

[Eddie Haskell]

29. I'm already buying less and less.

At first, it was a lifestyle choice, but it's not a matter of choice anymore.

[KamaAina]

3. Hardly original to him.

Old-line socialists have been saying that at least since the '30s.

[Taverner]

4. Agreed. But just because we're saying it, does not mean the volume level is set

I think the volume needs to go to 11, what do you think?

And by that I mean we need to seize the means of production.

What does that mean?

- Freeway blogging. Make it simple, something like "General Strike Now!" or simply general strik.

- Repurpose billboards to spread the message. I am not saying vandalize them, but put a sheet over the ad, spreading the news.

- Personal email signatures, websites, call ins, etc. Call into Rush Limbaugh or Hannity, act like you are a teabagger but when you're on the air, instead of saying "Bababooey" say "General Strike on Mayday!" or something like that

[KamaAina]

6. No one better to set the volume level to 11

than Jello! "Oh, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill the poor, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill the poor, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill the poor toni-a-hi-hi-hight, ni-hi-hi-hight!"

[demwing]

8. Delete

[Selatius]

10. I may be too old-school as far as socialists go, but when you say "seize the means of production ...

I typically understand that to mean actual factory/business occupations, "appropriation" of equipment that could be used to further the interests of strikers, confrontations with company enforcers/management, seizing news outlets to broadcast news of the strikes, etc. Basically, things we've seen happen in history when workers have been stomped on enough, and something caused the pent-up rage to become unleashed.

[Taverner]

19. Yeah I don't mean it in that sense

Although eventually...

[MineralMan]

13. How many people can you mass together in one day?

I mean, literally, you personally. Without a large group, and by large, I mean thousands, you're not going to seize any means of production. You can put a sign on your car and drive around the freeways, but you'll just be joining a group of other cars with signs on them. You can repurpose a billboard, but there are thousands of them. Who's going to repurpose enough billboards to accomplish anything? Unless you, personally, can rally a large mass of people to this task, you'll just be shouting into the wind, and nobody will hear you.

If this thread takes off, maybe 1000 people will read it. Of that thousand, how many do you think might join you in this General Strike. I'm guessing less than 5. Where's it going to begin? Where you are? How about DC? You can join all the other small protests that go on there every day.

I'm sorry, but this country is not even close to being ready for a General Strike. Not by a long shot.

[Taverner]

18. I wasn't thinking today - but I assume you already know that

A thousand mile journey starts with one step...at the risk of sounding cliche, it's true

It has to start some place

It has to start some time

What better place than here?

What better time than now?

[Eddie Haskell]

27. Do you really think we control production or market?

There may be a few items that still have to be made in the USA, but not many. And, the new markets are large and growing faster than ours. Still, may be our last best chance.

[Taverner]

28. We control enough to make an impact

Let's just say at Bank of America 25% of their employees don't show up for a week

There are so many vital functions that would stop, they would start losing money

[MineralMan]

30. Well, good luck with it. Lots of people have tried to

create some sort of mass action. Maybe you'll succeed where they have not.

[Taverner]

33. If we were to have a mass action of any kind, where would one start

I guess I should start by example?

Freeway blogging is easy, cheap and it gets the message out. Do you think that would be a good start?

[MineralMan]

41. Sorry it took so long to reply to this. Somehow I missed it.

Sure. You could do freeway blogging. It's not very efficient, but you could do it. Whatever you do, though, you need a place for people to come to get more information. Stuff seen in passing disappears from memory with the next thing. One way is a blog or website. Blogs on blogger.com are free, so that's an easy way to do it. If you're going to be putting a message out that will be seen only briefly, keep it very short and make sure people can find more information easily, like on a web site or blog. Look at how freeway advertising is done and follow those methods.

You can do almost anything you want. Just don't set your expectations too high. People are scattered, and it's hard to get and hold their attention. That's why millions of dollars are spent advertising everything. It's not easy to build awareness and interest. Truly. Twitter. Facebook. Whatever you do, make sure that wherever you go, online or anywhere else, you're getting the word out and showing people where to get more information.

Most things fail because the person starting them doesn't work hard enough to bring people in.

Other things fail for reasons that are almost impossible to describe. They fail from too much competing noise or too little interest in what's being offered. There are a million reasons. It's hard to get the interest of a lot of people. Lots of competition out there. So, don't expect miracles. But don't let the difficulties keep you from trying, if that's what you want to do.

The one thing that's certain is that nothing will happen if you do nothing.

[demwing]

9. What I think is that people will tease you about your idealism

and post whimsical one offs in this thread, if they post anything at all. Why?

Because the methods of self medication are still available, and because people are afraid to risk what little they have left.

First, find a way to shut off the things that numb us to the pain.

The pain will quickly replace the fear, and you'll have an activist country in no time at all.

[Taverner]

20. Amen

[MineralMan]

11. I think you're going to need a much louder voice than a

post in GD on DU to get your General Strike started, somehow. Lech Walesa managed it, but that was a different place and a different time. I don't see a clear mechanism that would generate such a strike right now. Folks who have jobs aren't interested in risking them, and those who don't...well...they don't have a job to strike from.

I'm afraid it's not going to happen. It would be great, but I don't see it.

This is not a smart-ass post. It's just my look at your suggestion.

[Taverner]

21. My proposed mechanism is all of them

Eventually, one of them is going to take

[annabanana]

12. k&r. . . . .n/t

[MineralMan]

14. What percentage of the US population knows who Jello Biafra is?

What's your guess? I'm guessing it's a small fraction of 1%. Sorry.

Now, I know who he is. I even have a vintage Dead Kennedys T-shirt that I wear on occasions that call for such a shirt. I alternate it with my Dead Milkmen t-shirt. I'm unusual that way. Not many of those T-shirts around. How many remember that he tried for the Green Party nomination in 2000 for President? Not many.

Not many people have any idea who Jello Biafra might be. Why would they be interested in a quote.


No, I think you need a much more recognizable person to hang your General Strike on. Jello Biafra won't cut it. And, if you use his real name, even fewer will know who you're talking about.

[Taverner]

22. Why use any name?

It's the idea, not the person

[MineralMan]

31. Ideally, that's true. However, almost every major mass

action is connected with one or more leaders. Raw ideas aren't very good by themselves in getting people to do stuff. Leaders created excitement and get people to join the movement. At least that's what history teaches us.

[Taverner]

32. I think tying it to a name would do more damage than good

Everyone makes at least one mistake in their lives, and these days that mistake will be recorded and played on Letterman

So why tie the movement to any name?

[MineralMan]

34. I cannot remember a single major action that was not connected

to leaders. I've been trying to think of one, but cannot. To get the support of enough people to make a mass action effective, you have to also get people who need more motivation than a raw idea to join you. Doing that takes leadership. That's why I mentioned Lech Walesa. He's an excellent example of a movement that actually produced results. Much of the success can be tied to his leadership.

If you know of a leaderless movement that has achieved an important goal, tell me. Maybe I missed one.

[Taverner]

35. Does it have to be a positive one?

One might argue the fall of Rome was leaderless...but I'm not sure its a good example

Still, the leader is what kills us in the end. Leaders are ego driven, and in the end it is that ego that is the leader's downfall. How many leaders were taken down by scandal? It also makes a movement vulnerable to COINTELPRO like programs.

[MineralMan]

40. I'm not interested in failures and collapses, I'm afraid.

The fall of a society is not a good I'm interested in pursuing. It's not actually a good at all.

There are those who believe that a collapse is needed before something new can be built. All too often, though, they forget about that period between the collapse and the rebuilding, when people starve and people die and people kill each other over bread. History is important to learn and to understand. The collapse of a society may result in improvement, but it more often results in utter devastation. I believe you should review history and look at societies that have collapsed before wishing that on your neighbors in this country. It's not a solution. For many of them, it would be an end, a fatal end.

I'm into solutions that provide the most benefit for the most people. There isn't a perfect social structure or government. Never has been, and never will be. So, the society that provides the most benefit for the most people is likely to be the most stable society. We haven't gone far enough away from that to engender the sort of uprising you're envisioning. If we had, and such a thing occurred, you would not live to see the rebuilding. It would take just that long.

Sorry. That's how I see it.

[Myrina]

15. ... I hope he credited Emma Goldman for his sentiment ...

n/t

[Taverner]

23. Was that originally a Goldman quote?

Love her - and it sounds like her too!

[tblue37]

16. The Republican governors and legislators across the

country are doing their very best to make voting illegal for all of the constituencies that usually vote Democratic.

[Scurrilous]

17. Yep.

If voting doesn't make a difference, why are the Republicans trying so hard to suppress the vote?

[Taverner]

25. They're tying up loose ends right now

They've redistricted out the last vestiges of Democracy, and either airplaned or scandalized the rest.

[LeftyMom]

24. At a show last year he told the crowd to go vote.

I mean, this was before the gubernatorial election, so who would they be voting for?

I was surprised, and more than slightly amused.

[kestrel91316]

26. I'm game.

[hfojvt]

36. one thing about DU

there's always room for Jello



I don't know why people would have had hope in 1992. Clinton basically ran as a moderate Republican who accepted Reaganomics. http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/74 Voting certainly doesn't make much difference when you only have a choice between three blind moderate Republicans - Bush Sr, Clinton, and Perot.

[Taverner]

37. Because a Conservative Democrat was better than a Conservative Republican

Although in the end, I guess it's a bit like having to choose between three days of torture and then death over five days of torture and then death

[JoePhilly]

38. Sure ... just as soon as this episode of WipeOut is over.

[The2ndWheel]

39. I don't think you can force people to join

"This is how you cripple capitalism."

I'm not sure capitalism is monolithic enough for that.

You have to buy less. You have to work less. Other people need to choose to do the same. You start forcing people to stop their cars, or doing whatever it is that your plan involves, and that's just going to create division. You try to quell that diversity, and you're going to create more stress.

You'd probably have enough trouble organizing this sort of solidarity with people on any given block in America for an hour, and possibly even within any given house, depending on the particular situation. Let alone something as large as some sea to shining sea strike for at least a week.

You have to buy less. You have to use less. You have to work less. You have to do without. You can't force that choice onto other people, as that's what the system you wish to cripple does. You have to show there is an alternative to that system.

[snot]

42. "Nothing is inevitable, except defeat for those who give up without a fight."

-- "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1961), script by Irwin Allen & Charles Bennett