THOUGHTS FROM AN OLD ACTIVIST ON HOW TO ORGANIZE A NATIONAL STRIKE AND SHUTDOWN
There is more activity and interest in a strike and shutdown than I have seen in 43 years, but as of today, it is still not enough. The percentage that you hear of needing- 3.5% of the public to strike, or 12% of the population to make a policy change- are both based on historical events.
In other words, those aren’t hard and fast rules. It may be that a strike of fewer folks would be like tinder and spread quickly. Or it could burn out and cause disillusionment.
It maybe that waiting for a large group of people might delay us from meaningful action until it is too late, or difficult to gain momentum because Trump’s actions have created too much instability. But maybe by waiting we get more than we demand. It is hard to know. Things will keep shifting and we just need to be as prepared as we can.
The most important thing is to start organizing in your community, among the people that you will be interacting with while you strike and/or shutdown. You need to talk to people at work, home, school, family, etc.
And we will need as many people as possible supporting us even if they aren’t striking themselves. That includes schools, jobs, businesses, landlords, mortgage lenders, and banks.
Unless there is a large enough group of middle- and upper-class people with lots of resources striking, there are going to be people that will not be able to participate much or at all. Or for the duration that may be needed to accomplish our goals. (And more on that in a moment.)
Just as during the covid shutdown, the people who can least afford to strike will be the most essential. The executives and bosses won’t be missed, but the janitor will be. (I think the US could be crippled by a general strike of janitors and orderlies and cleaning crews.)
And indulge me here for a moment- one thing I hope is becoming clear to everyone is how important unions (which would pay us to strike from our jobs), decent wages, Medicare for all, rent control, and paid time off are to a healthy republic. When the population has the resources to strike, the balance of power doesn’t get so lopsided.
These European countries that have strong safety nets and good quality of life for their citizens have that because the people fought for these rights and fight to keep them. They keep tax brackets high so that rich people don’t get too rich. They stay involved in their government and courts so that neither become corrupt.
But we don’t have that here. So, we need to talk to everyone that agrees about this state of emergency, or that is at least sympathetic. And we need to identify specifics on how they can help. That includes logistics, make up classes, covering missed shifts, and allowing or covering missed payments.
Because we may need to strike for a month. And all those folks I mentioned- the landlord and the lenders, the bosses, the teachers- the more they will donate, excuse, delay, take an IOU, etc., the better.
And if we can build up a network with a pool of funds for emergencies that will really make a difference. We need to be prepared for dirty dealing. MAGA landlords raising rents or evicting people. Private utility or other contractors raising rates, etc. Even people getting arrested for “trumped up” charges. (Sorry lol)
Organize and then be the link to the larger 50501 and or General Strike leadership groups. Let’s make sure we have a network of 4 or 6 or 10 that link us all together nationally.
For example, I have my community and then 5 (or 3 or 9) people outside of my community from 50501. And there is an established order in my community to replace me if I need to drop out or something happens to me.
About organizing at this stage: Seek those that are most interested and receptive. If you talk to someone and they aren’t interested, move on. They may come around later. Don’t spend too much time arguing with people unless they are really vital to you being able to do it. And even then, don’t push too hard. Not everyone is aware of how serious things are. At least not yet.
And do tell each person about every other event you know of- the various boycotts, especially the one on the 28th, the women’s strike on March 14th, the protest Robert Reich is calling for on April 19th, and any others that come up as we go.
Do call on every elected official, community group- anyone with any power or a large following- to call for a strike and shutdown. “Hello, Representative, we are in a state of emergency, the government has been taken over by a coup, and I believe the most effective action we can take is a national strike and shutdown. We need your help and support organizing it. Please spread the word.”
It would be best if we had some lawyers or legislators to assist in drafting our demands once we decide what they are. Ask if they will do that.
WHAT ARE WE STRIKING FOR? WHAT ARE OUR DEMANDS?
Three to five demands that are easily achievable and address the greatest damage. And this needs to be part of the conversation. Among organizers and among recruits and supporters.
I personally do not feel we can yet discuss removing Trump’s regime from office altogether, but it might become a possibility later.
Musk and DOGE immediately removed from all government interactions, after proper investigations into how much damage they have done we can discuss whether they can come back, but they would have to submit to full background checks and be required to follow protocols and not have unrestricted access or authority
A freeze on all actions that have been initiated illegally or irresponsibly, including the freezing of funds
No more overreach or Executive orders, the President and his administration must follow all protocols and rules
All audits must be performed by auditors and the findings released to the public. Any wasteful or fraudulent spending should be eliminated, but we need detailed financial reports, not tweets from a billionaire businessman that bought a President
A class action lawsuit against Musk on behalf of every American whose data was exposed in the Treasury hacking
#50501 has given me so much hope at such a hopeless time. It is exactly what we need right now. A “group” that is made entirely of individuals, each protesting on behalf of their own issues all while fighting this nightmare regime.
The government and the courts should work for us, for we the people, and not for a bunch of politicians and billionaires. We can continue to make changes this way after we deal with this coup d’etat.
Maybe what we need is to have protests and strikes more often, as preventative measures. We will need to stay this involved, at the local, state, and national level for the next four years, at least.
I think this sort of grassroots movement is the foundation we needed to stop this madness and to make lasting changes. I am so thankful for this!
ABOUT ME (if you are interested):
I’ve been an activist for over four decades, since September of 1981. The Heritage Foundation was 8 years old and had only just published their first Mandate for Leadership. Reagan was President, and even though I was only 15, I felt and saw the change from the four years of Carter. Abortion was legal, but still new, and the anti-abortionists just seemed like stubborn old people. I never dreamed that in my late fifties, we would be moving backwards so swiftly.
But in the 1980s the Democrats were still liberals, although that had begun to change. (Carter is considered one of the first Neoliberals, because of the many deregulation policies he continued from Nixon’s administration.) We call New Deal liberals “progressives” now, because since Clinton most party Democrats and the leadership has ceased to be Leftists. Although there are still many liberals among blue voters.
I spent my first ten years with a radical revolutionary group. My first event was in the fall of 1981, trying to get two El Salvadoran political refugees speaking engagements at my mid-western high school. In a student body of about 2000 I got 1200 people to sign a petition. It caused a big uproar, and when I delivered the petition, the school refused to host the event.
I convinced the local college to host the event there. I never looked back. Until March of 1992 I spent time organizing in the poorest neighborhoods, the ones you are always warned to avoid, and at colleges and universities around the country, although mostly in the Midwest, and then in California, where I had moved in 1985. We also attended events and actions by other groups, in solidarity but also to recruit. And always fundraising, constantly, eternally, unceasingly fundraising.
By the time I was 25 I had attended hundreds, probably thousands of demos, marches, rallies, conferences, workshops, fundraisers, tribunals, court room trials, vigils- you name it. And I had organized every one of those, many times. And I talked to thousands of people of all walks of life about their lives, their hopes, their dreams, the world they lived in and the world they wanted to live in.
I left the revolutionaries during the uprising around the verdicts in the Rodney King beating trial. I helped three different groups organize demos and rallies around the verdict and began organizing around funding issues at my community college.
I’ve since worked on my own or joined groups on community and issue-based campaigns including things like delivering Project Angel Food and Meals on Wheels, Friends Outside, racial justice and civil rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA, AIDS, anti-war protests, and anything else I saw in my community that I thought needed doing (street safety and maintenance, unfair taxes or fines or fees, public transit, rent control, tenant’s rights, and my current activity, community emergency preparation and planning .) I usually focus on people that are not politically active at all, and local issues that affect me directly.
I’ve organized events at a national level, but on very low budgets and before the internet. In some ways it was more difficult then and in other ways it is much easier now.
EDIT***************************
Someone said I should mention Ferguson. In the months before Ferguson, I was living 4 miles away and riding the buses, and often with many of the people you saw or heard about, including Michael Brown. They were just people on the bus with me though, at that point, and I was trying to organize actions against the awful, awful public transit here.
(Incarceration through lack of public transit. To get most places in St Louis a 15 minute drive will be at least one hour and probably one transfer or more. There are no restrooms, etc. In areas like where I lived and Ferguson, the jobs are often 2 or three hours one way.)
Ferguson was not a surprise to me because that is what people wanted to talk about. When you talk to people, if they do not respond to the issues you are organizing for, suggest they apply these same tactics to whatever they want to see changed.
No action is wasted right now!
#EconomicBlackout #SHUTDOWN315 #shutdown228 #shutdown #economicblackout228 #economicblackout315 #strike #strike314 #generalstrike #operationiceland314 #womensstrike314 #50501
