703

#GeneralStrike2026

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] unfreeradical@slrpnk.net 68 points 1 month ago

Strikes are organized through unions not hashtags.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 49 points 1 month ago

We don't have unions anymore. Reagan busted them.

[-] unfreeradical@slrpnk.net 15 points 1 month ago

All we can do is rebuild.

[-] ryannathans@aussie.zone 6 points 1 month ago

Not an American, what happened? How does a president just remove unions?

[-] TheFlopster@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[-] aesthelete@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

General strikes don't require you to be in a union. They do require a larger amount of organizing than simply having a lot of the workforce in unions though so...

[-] unfreeradical@slrpnk.net 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Strikes require unity across a workforce.

If some workers in a local context work instead of participating in a strike, then the business is not pressured to acquiesce, and the sacrifice is in vain.

Striking in any case results in lost pay, which promotes fear and threatens survival. Solidarity improves morale and saves lives.

Fostering unity and solidarity is among the essential functions of a union.

[-] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago

Hashtags as a means of communication are still a viable method of organization.

[-] AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 62 points 1 month ago

Next nationwide 50501 protest is a national walk-out on Jan 20th.

We'll see you there, right?

[-] leftist_lawyer@lemmy.today 30 points 1 month ago

I'm my own boss. It's never an issue. Thanks for the tip. Just joined my state's 50501 group.

[-] rayyy@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

nationwide 50501 protest

That isn't all. There is the Tax Strike that many MAGAs are pushing. There are "Stop the Trump Takeover" events. There are also other actions to rein in the dictator.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] HalfSalesman@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago

Some leftists talk about a general strike like its the rapture. You need the ground work done. We've done none of the work broadly to make something like that feasible. Strikers need economic and legal leverage, they'd have basically none if they tried.

You have to walk before you run.

[-] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Anytime I see posts talking about a general strike I equate to "thoughts and prayers".

[-] HalfSalesman@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Yes, but also its worse. They are demanding people shoot themselves in the crotch and saying we're cowards for not shooting ourselves in the crotch.

[-] DomeGuy@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

A general strike would need to be huge to work. And yet we see folk bitching that the No Kings rallies "did nothing", as if.just getting America to stand up wasn't an accomplishment.

[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

It may have been a accomplishment, but it was not even nearly enough. Nobody was impressed, least of all the fascists. If you want to hurt trump, hurt the moneys

[-] chaonaut@lemmy.4d2.org 5 points 1 month ago

And it's sentiment like this that makes it clear that the people clambering for people to "just do a general strike" or "just take up arms" have given no thoughts to how to do that without wasting the resources or lives of the people they demand take action. If you take part in union organizing, you learn that you have to make all of your attempts count, otherwise you're blowing your chances and making it harder in the future by alerting the bosses. Yes, you have to impact their money, but just like "vote with your wallet" is an empty phrase if there's no mass movement around a specific product/company, to actually deal with the structural issues that billionaires and the companies they represent present, individuals have to band together to create structures that can contend with them. Otherwise, it's just proposing individual actions to address structural problems, and that plays enough into the hands of these tyrants that they'll say that's the "right" way to deal with the problems they cause.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] KiwiTB@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago

Or goto the capitol and kick them out... Vs wasting time.

[-] NoTagBacks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 month ago

While I wholeheartedly agree with both your sentiment of anger and who that anger should be directed toward, I must point out that what you propose is not realistic. We're just not at that point, nor is there sufficient political will to do so. Protests/walkout aren't a waste of time since they are actionable steps to growing movements that enact systemic change. The point of these demonstrations isn't to enact direct change, but to bring people together to organize.

Besides, how would you get enough people together to do as you suggest if getting people together to organize is "wasting time"?

load more comments (10 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

In the USA health insurance is tied to work; if you're fired "with cause" (like from general strike) you don't have health insurance or any "unemployment".

They don't make these laws without reason, they know what they're doing. The USA is a plutocracy designed to squash unions, and does a pretty good job of it

load more comments (7 replies)
[-] ameancow@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

As you look outside in the US on the first Monday after a holiday and see the countless millions of people driving to work, going grocery shopping, dropping off and picking up their kids, you need to ask yourself if you really think the bulk of the money-spending, child-feeding, bill-paying population of the US is ready to sacrifice weeks of services and food for an outcome that they don't actually want or understand.

You know it's not going to happen, but the next best thing is political organizing and getting social and making people more aware in REAL LIFE about issues in their community that impact them, and the people who represent them. Volunteer to get petitions, sign up for Progressive Victory, use that energy to help the systems already working to mitigate or even reverse damage being done to our nation.

We can still turn this boat around with traditional politics, but it takes actual humans getting involved with other actual humans. Since capital has successfully turned most of our socialization muscles to mush, it will be uncomfortable at first, but far easier to pull off than trying to get several hundred million comfortable people to break their own system.

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 1 month ago

They've cultivated this culture where nobody can afford to do any kind of direct action like a general strike. There's a reason why nearly everyone in America works paycheck to paycheck and has essentially zero savings.

[-] NoTagBacks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago

But that's exactly the point, isn't it? If people are struggling to get by and have no time for anything outside of work, sounds like ripe grounds of radicalization if only someone else were to reach out. If the system is directly failing someone, it wouldn't take much to energize them to join a movement to enact change.

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 month ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago

I'm gonna end up committing sui before the general American populace does a gen strike.

No one should be buying from Amazon. Start with one big company, simple yeah? No, because post Christmas season now, the amount of people who still use amazon has not changed at all. For me sure, the general populace? They're fucking morons. Consume consume consume. I'm gonna consume myself from the inside out. These rat bitches only care about themselves. American individualism is a cancer.

I'm struggling to exist in this. I cannot tell you how much these assholes don't care.

[-] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This isn't corporate social media, you can say suicide there's no algorithm to punish you.

[-] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago

Fair. I didn't write it like that for algorithm sake or whatever. I'm just so familiar with the term I shortened it lol "to commit the sui". It's just dark humor/play on words. Fuck the algorithm

[-] Syndication@lemmy.today 5 points 1 month ago

I'm struggling with the same type of thoughts and feel suicidal every day now. Every headline I read is another reason I dont want to live anymore. You're not going crazy, the world is. I know it might seem counter productive to not stay in the loop of things, but I try to take a break from all social media and news every once in awhile to keep my sanity. I love lemmy and the progressive ideas that are shared on here on a daily basis, but the news you read can make you feel powerless and over these big societal issues that don't have an immediate solution.

I really hope you feel better soon, your hearts in the right place. The fediverse is the only real place where I can reliably find empathic people looking out for one another. I wish I could have offered more sound advice as I can barely keep it together myself too, but make sure you have people you can talk about this in your life. Unfortunately I can't afford meds or therapy so I've been depending on my friends and family to help keep me sane. Stay safe!

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[-] slappyfuck@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 month ago

General Strike? My friend, we aren’t even in unions right now! It will take years to build that kind of power.

Let’s focus on building a new mass political party that does not exist in the wilderness, then we can work to that point.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Naevermix@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

A general strike requires organization, but US society is completely atomized.

[-] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

I’m all for it but I feel that a large population of the country is just not gonna care enough to get activated. I would love to be proven wrong, this needs to be massive to the point it makes the no kings protest look like a farmer market.

[-] Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

If anyone thinks a strike is actually happening with the state of things then they are incredibly naive and do not understand just how much foundational effort and structuring needs to be in place first for that to even be considered a possibility, much less actualized.

[-] silentjohn@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago

The bourgeoisie have the ability to ride out a strike for weeks, even months. Can you? How long can you go with no pay? We are nowhere near organized enough.

[-] Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

My big question with a grassroots general strike is who negotiates for us? We'll all have different "good enough" goals that would get us back to work. Seems like we'd need a strong central leader speaking for everyone....

[-] Formfiller@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

That’s easy Bernie and AOC

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Hermit_Lailoken@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

I work in the care industry, my clients need support 24/7 and there are only so much staff around. Should I leave my clients to their own designs‽

[-] orioler25@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

"The most vulnerable should pay for the revolution." People aren't just stupid, liberals have spent the last century implementing anti-popular-labour-action measures. A general strike would require people who cannot afford to survive to risk what little they have, mutual aid networks and consequences for those in positions of power must exist in order for that risk to be minimized.

[-] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Oh, we're declaring random general strikes on social media again, are we?

This shit takes a very high level of labor organization, class consciousness, and coordination.

The UAW is already pushing other Unions in the US to align their contract negotiations in 2028, to instigate a kind of general strike. Are you helping organize that? Because you sould be

[-] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 5 points 1 month ago

Doesn't help that one of the other heavy hitters(the teamsters) supported trump. Fuck Sean O'Brien to hell and beyond.

[-] svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 month ago

These kinds of things tend not to happen until people are starving and have nothing left to lose.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] gmtom@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Well you would need strong unions and a non apathetic population to pull off a general strike.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] aesthelete@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

After the holidays would be a hilariously well timed general strike.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
703 points (97.2% liked)

Political Memes

11080 readers
2521 users here now

Welcome to politcal memes!

These are our rules:

1) Be civilJokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.

2) No misinformationDon’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.

3) Posts should be memesRandom pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.

4) No bots, spam or self-promotionFollow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.

5) No AI generated content.Content posted must not be created by AI with the intent to mimic the style of existing images

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS