Why do you think the cops have tanks now
this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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I was gonna say, we get shot for protesting now...probably gotta change that part first.
People got shot before too. Lots of people. The fight for worker's rights was long and bloody.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-union_violence_in_the_United_States
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_violence_in_the_United_States
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/theminewars-labor-wars-us/
I misspoke...er...typed, we get shot and have no real way to defend ourselves being wildly outgunned by police. Thanks for that PBS article btw. I hadn't heard of a lot of these happenings, and I'm still reading through it.
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Now? The pinkertons never left, and they started ages ago. Protesters got shot then too.
Strikers were bombed back in the day by aircrafts. Unionization was won through enduring warfare yet we just gave it away. Shows how powerful unionization is that the elites are completely terrified of it, and that they have surpressed the history of it so few will know how much blood was shed to get it.
“Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.”
― George Carlin
He was really wrong about voting though. If it didn't matter, the fascist GOP wouldn't be fighting so hard to prevent people from voting.
Working from inside a system that has been corrupt from the beginning doesn't work
Many parts of the system were designed to disenfranchise various groups. One of the most effective of those parts is the message that your vote doesn't matter.
Refuse to be disenfranchised. GO VOTE.
And that they're all the same.
They're not.
Voting is like taking public transportation, it's not going to take you to your exact destination but you get on the bus that gets you closer.
Not getting on the bus because it doesn't go exactly where you want to, or you don't like the bus driver is allowing others to take you in the exact opposite direction.
Voting alone might not but it's an important part of the process. You should agitate and organize, but also go vote and get your friends to go with you.
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He wasn't wrong. During this time the parties although different and Republicans being shitter, were much closer together. They were both pro corporate with differences on social issues.
Today.. The Republicans have gone full batshit trying to overthrow democracy. I guarantee you, if George was alive he'd be saying VOTE and vote for Democrats until we've gotten rid of the dangerous fascists.
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They're not the only ones who forgot. It's crazy how many people I know who shun the idea of any form of action beyond general protest in the face of corruption. I always ask them how they think change is going to happen when we have protest after protest and nothing to show for them, but they never have an answer. Things are going to get a lot worse before people realize we need to fight for our rights, and being angry on the internet - or even in person with a sign - is no longer enough to make a change.
When violence is used to maintain the status quo, announcing up front that you're unwilling to use violence in response tells those in power that they need not listen to you.
The sad thing is that we don't even need to use violence. We have the power to bring this country to a halt with nothing more than a well organized revolt.
Just stay home and play board games for a week, don’t spend any money.
Things would change quick fast and in a hurry if a hundred million people all just took the end of July off.
That's not possible for a lot of people unless they're fine with starving. Additionally, prisoner's dilemma or some variant of that basically makes it impossible to do something like that, herding cats would be easier. World peace would be achieved if all soldiers refused to fight and yet that will never happen for a whole host of reasons.
That’s not possible for a lot of people unless they’re fine with starving.
This is why a network of support and organization during a protest is vital. Because you're going to have a lot of people in this position, so having some sort of place for donations and distribution of food/funds and a team to coordinate so the protests can continue uninterrupted is important. How to organize such a support network is a problem for people other than me who aren't introverts.
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They got wise to that and called in the police and military to help them.
They did that back in the day too.
“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.” over the bodies of tyrants
and from which trees many fascists will hang
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Nah, too unreliable - the worst of the lot hired private armies to assault and murder strikers.
The Pinkertons literally became the FBI and CIA.
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I feel like it’s the working class who forgot.
The rich are well aware, which is why they put so much energy into making us think that isn’t an option.
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I love this sentiment but I hope we can keep lemmy a nice place.
Like I'm sure we all agree that a good billionaire lynching would be awesome, but I also don't want to crow on about it day after day. Escalate or bust.
Escalation takes build up. The French revolution was all murmurs and bitching until it wasn't
Not just build up, but actual conflict.
Revolutionaries aren't spontaneous creations. It takes decades of conflict between the population and the state to harden the people into what eventually becomes the revolutionary army.
Almost everybody here with their soft bodies and their soft minds is not capable of taking part in 6-48 months of revolutionary civil war tomorrow. You have to look at the conflicts of France over the last 10 years between its population and the state to understand what prolonged build up of radicals and radical forces looks like. Decades of a population actively doing battle with its state over various national things before ever reaching the point of "fuck it we ball".
It feels that at this point, the ruling class has gotten so good at giving us just enough to keep us from outright revolution. It's little bonuses here and there, it's providing just enough to keep us afloat long enough to get through the next election, it's information manipulation to have us arguing with each other rather than focusing our anger on them.
It's going to be extremely difficult to break that control.
Don't forget the endless money spent on propaganda, convincing people that companies are good and everyone fighting for workers' rights are evil, painting the latter as greedy and corrupt assholes with subversive intents
Yeah this is the case for any revolution. I've been reading "The Constitution and other writings of the founding fathers" and it's interesting to see all the rhetoric and mental preparation they took before firing even the first shot. The tension was palpable and the colonists were already resolved to fight a war they knew would not end quickly. Most notably over things we just bend over and take nowadays.
The average citizen today does not have the same sense of responsibility and duty to preserving freedom and democracy like they did back then. Sometimes I wonder if people in the west are too soft in resolve and dedication to really revolt in any meaningful capacity, beyond a few days of protesting. No matter what the issue/ideology at hand is.
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Look up why the christmas bonus became a thing.
I just got a subscription to the jelly of the month club. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
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"Here's your once-a-year appeasement sum. Don't spend all of that Bed Bath and Beyond coupon in one place."
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What gets me is:
If people have more money to spend, they buy more things.
The more things they buy, the more money goes into the pockets of corporations and the CEOs.
It's literally a win win situation that doesn't end in the Uber Rich being chased down by hungry angry mobs.
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I wish we could back to that other option. It seems quite reasonable.
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