I'm from France, few years ago we had the Yellow Jacket (gilet jaune) movement, one of the biggest national strike of our modern days. What started as a strike against gas rise (and you're left empty tank on the road, thus the yellow Jacket) transformed in a massive and general movement against decades of capitalist policies that killed our public services, sold industries to billionaires that closed right away and destroyed hundreds of thousands jobs over the years, so on and so forth.

We struck, every Sunday, up to 1.5 million people, each group had its method, some protesting on the streets, some sharing anar/commy pamphlets, au some point entire programs ranging from "decent demands even for bosses" to "outright dissolve the republic" were made up by actual left economists and lawyers. I'm early 20s and i went to some of them and i can say, it was a pointless slaughter.

France's police brutalities were infamous, we were tear gased for no reasons, rammed by the worst police section, "la BAC", anti crimanility brigade, known even among the law force for being the most brutals and degenerates members, an old woman in her apartment, 4th floor got killed, a tear gas bullet in the face, hundred of people lost their hands, blown off by "non lethal" shots, countless were injured, beaten up by BAC. To the point where fucking UN denounce all this unlawful brutality toward strikers, our dear president Lord Macron premier responded by dissolving the National bureau of human rights.

All this, all the tear gas, all the "non-lethal" shots, all the jobs lost, for a year and more, for what?

Nothing

Because people are tired, because people are scared, and nobody can blame them, because that's how those in power keep it, with fear and brutality.

So, people of r/antiwork, if you go on strike, don't repeat our mistakes, we were naive to hope peaceful strike can change something, get ready to get beaten, or worse, especially in US. But if you want REAL change in a large scale get ready to retaliate, never lose your objectives, and never forget that for those bastards you have no worth, neither in your office nor in a pool of your own blood.

The USA needs a general strike. The asks should be universal single payer health care, $24/hr minimum wage and forgiveness of all student debt.

The strike should occur simultaneously in several cities where it will make the biggest impact. It should include service workers (restaurants and grocery stores), health care workers and teachers.

In order to successfully stage a general strike, we would need to have regional groups who can provide money and support services to strikers. Is there an organization already in place that could help orchestrate this?

Edit: Lots of great comments - thanks!

Several people have commented that raising the minimum wage will just raise prices. To keep prices down, we would need price caps for the CEO and other positions at the top. Does any person on the planet need to earn $11 million in a year? Most of us will never earn that in a lifetime.

Several commenters have pointed out that people are living paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to strike. This is why we need unions to instigate and support this. The unions can fundraise and provide money for rent and bills for striking workers. Unions can provide food for striking workers, and childcare.

A strike like this cannot be undertaken lightly. It's not a one day deal. It would need to be planned and organized, with enough resources to support the striking workers for a week or a month, or however long it takes to get action.

I put the three asks in really as a starting point for discussion. Universal single payer healthcare is a necessity. Student loan debt? Sure, but why not medical debt, too. There are a number of things that workers in this country lack which are standard in most other industrialized country.

Thanks again for your comments! Viva la revolucion!

Can't afford housing. Can't afford food. Can't afford daycare. Can't afford Private health care. Government doesn't care.

I think it is time. We are currently being pushed into a corner that the average citizen cannot get out of. We're talking financial and mentally.

A general strike across Ontario protesting our poor wages, high cost of living, and ineffective governments. Is it time? I think so.

Have you been jerked around enough in the last 2 years? If you have then now is the time to talk. When where and how do we do this.

I think we should demand

1. the passage of FDR's Second Bill of Rights

2. the passage of a robust PRO Act, with the abolition of "Right to Work"

3. a LIVING wage indexed to cost of living where you live ($25 an hour by 2025 for tipped and untipped workers, indexed to cost of living by zipcode)

4. a universal, fully and publicly funded healthcare system

5. a Debt Jubilee for ALL debtors, a one time write off (call it helicopter money and reference Milton Friedman to troll the neoliberals)

Let's keep it hyper specific and massively popular and start the summer by seeing what we the people can do to rejuvenate the US labor movement!

Organize for a yearly #GeneralStrike4WorkersRights!!!

We should focus on priorities similar to these every year. No more "calling" a strike. Let's build one! Consider some of what I think are some

Immediate Priorities for the Labor Movement Revival in the USA

1. Establish committees in a) union locals, b) pro-worker organization chapters, and c) communities and small scale jurisdictions with the strongest support and most interest.

2. fundraise at least $10,000,000 by March only and explicitly for a strikefund and a way to responsibly and transparently organize, allocate, and distribute these funds. Let's first see if we can raise $1,000 for 10,000 workers to distribute during a 10 day strike, organize local pantries for striking families, provide a funnel of donor dollars to local committees and mutual aid orgs. Reassess in March, consider scaling up or down or remodeling and reorienting our efforts. Do this yearly for a #GeneralStrike4WorkersRights!

3. threaten to "#BoycotttheDuopoly" if they do not agree to our demands. Take that "new FDR" rhetoric to the bank. We are not picking between the elites' offensive or defensive lines. Labor is building our own offense and defense.

We are the offense.

Build and prepare the 2022 #MayDay #GeneralStrike4WorkersRights!

What am I missing here?

We're required to isolate if we have symptoms, but there's no testing anymore so it's just the honour system. Teachers and parents are talking about not feeling safe with school starting back up next week. What's to stop people from just.... not going?

Similarly for people who feel like they're being put in an unsafe situation in other work contexts. Just say you're having symptoms and need to isolate. There's literally no way for them to verify it.

I realize that's not an easy choice for all of us, but surely there are enough of us that could do it that it would send a message.

Please see r/ nursing if more context is needed. Staffing ratios are horrid right now and very unsafe. Hospitals are prioritizing profits over everything else and it’s hurting patients. Nurses are leaving the bedside in droves. I know things aren’t going well for physicians either. Would it be possible for us to come together for a general healthcare worker strike? Thoughts?

What do you guys think? It's independence day in the US. Taking back our independence from corporations and their lobbies. We could start the strike a little early (July 1?) To disrupt fireworks/bbq/holiday sales. Thoughts?

EDIT: wanted to surface this comment where folks are organizing a general strike: https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkersStrikeBack/comments/rs7rv2/july_4th_2022_general_strike/hql3nu1?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3

As the title says, a mod recently posted a vote on what direction would the community like to take in regards to a planned upcoming boycott.

They didn't include an option for A general strike (that a lot of people seem to believe was the original plan) as they don't believe the infrastructure is in place to facilitate that,l.

The user base is not pleased with this and they are being very vocal with accusations and demanding this mod ( and maybe all) be removed.

the original post

other post accusing the sub of being "compromised"

Edit: A post on the black Friday blackout sub about the anti-work subreddit, some of the anti-work mods have got involved in the comments.

more anti-work compromised posts

Alright, to keep it simple, there are calls for a General Strike in 2022 floating around on Reddit. However, it's been a disorganized mess, and scattered among several subreddits such as /workersstrikeback and /antiwork, buried above memes that mean well and comments about The number one rule a General Strike is organization, so we are off to a rough start. I've deliberately chosen /Antiwork as home for this post because I believe it will receive the most traction here and get everyone on the same page.

So I'm making this post as an index of good info and SOLID steps we can take to get the ball rolling in a more organized fashion. I'm going to copy over relevant information from other postings, and start housing it here, for myself and others to stay organized. Let's start with the basics:

ORGANIZATION IS THE ONLY WAY, WE NEED TO ORGANIZE ON ONE SUBREDDIT.

• For this purpose, I created /r/General_Strike_US . I love what all of these collective subs are doing, but this movement needs consistent legs to stand on, and it's not going to happen if we are trying to organize on different forums. We need to move forward together.

The CDC has said 10 day quarantines would tank the economy, so a 10 day strike might be all that’s needed.

• As pointed out by u/loveinvein This seems like a good starting point to give people some context on timeline. I think a lot of people hear general strike and aren't sure if it's one day or ten.

THE TENANTS OF STRIKE ORGANIZATION: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The absolute tenants, as compiled by /u/docterBOGO :

Each step serves as a structure test, leading into the next step (which is more difficult).

A) Education!

1. Learn and talk with those around you about Organizing
2. Learn about organizing and unions – and educate those around you. Advocacy vs Mobilizing Vs Organizing. Learn as much as you can - so you can appreciate other organizers as well as explain organizing and unionizing to the uninitiated. https://workerorganizing.org/resources/organizing-guide/ and Jane McAlevey, world-renowned organizer: Deep Organizing, Building Power to Win
3. H

This doesn't feel like a movement as much as it feels like people just bitching.

https://www.adnkronos.com/manovra-cgil-e-uil-adesioni-a-sciopero-alte-con-medie-85_5yUM5w2h8iUTcAMKzRlNHu?mc_cid=4aa95aa418

Context: during the pandemic a populist Right Wing Government (M5S + Lega) lost a confidence vote and was replaced by an elitist center right Government with ministers positions filled by hard line neo-liberals and even old farts from earlier Berlusconi's cabinets. All this in a constant jubilant coverage by press because no doubts must be raised while the Codiv relief funds are yet to be spent (and also there were major press conglomerate acquisitions by industrial groups).

This is going as well as you can expect:

• Business Safety regulation were lowered
• Public employees were shamed and forced to get to office work
• 75% of new employment is for temporary, low protection positions
• The vast majority of relief help went to businesses (something north of 110 billions for 5 years) and to construction, where also checks and permits were decreased in a country where organized crime infiltration is endemic.

This situation detonated with a newly unveiled tax reform that obviously lowered taxes for the richest so that unions (that here are national) declared a general, national 8 hour strike. The most enraging thing is that this IS NOT the opening news on national newspapers but I think is something you want to know.

The strike was a MAJOR SUCCESS, don't let them divide us, solidarity forever.

Edit: if you want more information, photos, history or analysis i will happy to answer at the best of my knowledge

This sub and online spaces like it, r/antiwork etc. are all well and good, but they are not places where actual organising can happen. They are spaces where mobilising can happen, yes. Not organising.

Organising is when we bring people onto our side who were not before, and get them actively involved in collective action—in this case, the General Strike.

Mobilising is when we draw from our existing base of active supporters to coordinate direct action that we have planned to achieve a concrete goal/s.

How Do We Organise to Win?

I have written a very general overview of what organising is and how to do it safely. My union, the Industrial Workers of the World offers an extensive and free training taught by experienced, seasoned organisers who have been there, on the ground during real campaigns.

Organising takes time. It takes patience and care. Done wrong, it creates division. Done correctly, it builds power, a strong, unified base of active, engaged people, and democratic structure capable of leveraging the power we built together.

Addressing Common Fears, Misconceptions

"I can't afford to strike, I'll get fired."

The point of organising carefully and safely is to avoid the dangers involved with getting fired. Your job can fire you at any time, for any reason or no reason at all. If you do nothing, then nothing will change.

Yes, if you, all alone, by yourself call in on May 1st and say "I'm going on strike!" they'll fire you. Absolutely. Yup.

If everyone at your work calls in on May 1st and says, "We're on strike. These are our demands. Comply or close the business." Then you have just leveraged worker power.

Together we are unbeatable. That is what solidarity is. That is why HR always insists on speaking with workers one at a time, individually. If your whole store marches on the boss and demands together, "The air conditioning has been broken for a month and it's 100 degrees in here. Fix it now or we walk!" That actually gets the point across. That air conditioner is getting fixed.

Good organising is the only thing that can build that kind of solidarity. We need that to win.

"I'll just use my vacation/sick time on May 1st!"

That is not a strike. A sickout is indeed a useful tool of an organised workplace committee, when it's coordinated properly. A high enough percentage of a job's workers all calling

Since the older generation seems to think we are making up how sh*tty Aspen has become… let’s see if they take this seriously? Workers of Aspen need to go on strike during these absurd times, so we can finally get what we deserve! If you are sick of putting on ski boots for some rich asshole for $12 an hour, if you have had anti-vaxxers make your job incredibly stressful and miserable, if you got kicked out of town so billionaires could treat this beautiful town like their own Disneyland, if you have seen housing absolutely sky rocket ($7,000 a month for a 1BD), then let’s do what finally needs to be done! Let all the workers who are working 3 jobs just to get by, show how valuable our work is! We all worked through the worst pandemic in history, just to make these ungrateful tourists happy and what did we get in return? I can’t name one good thing I got for being an essential worker and putting my life on the line. I know what Aspen and all the corporations got… they got the busiest times in ASPEN HISTORY! I’d be happy for the locally owned places, but how many do we actually have? Aspen is a corporatocracy!

This town doesn’t owe us anything, but we also don’t owe the town anything, either. These tourists have gotten worse and worse, but my pay has stayed the same for the past 8 years, with no raise in sight! This corporatocracy is ruining Aspen and we need change! If you are with me, please just message me!

None of these are final. I am just writing this as a rough draft: We will be asking for higher minimum wage, better working conditions (no more 12-16 hour work days), not be contacted by our bosses on our days off, companies hiring from within instead of bring in people aka giving us a chance to prove ourselves, lowering of ski passes for locals, opening up places that locals can afford, stopping the corporatocracy, kicking the god forsaken Mark Hunt out of Aspen, we will also ask for better healthcare and most importantly better programs for our kids, capping how many freaking private jets can come in (they are adding so much CO2 to this planet and it’s all because they want to IG it, I guess. We can add or take away anything, at all. Those are just ideas

The workers run this town! Let’s show them what it would be like if we just started not showing up for our miserable 10-16 hour shifts! The Government is trying to help, but during that time every local got kicked out of Aspen, so we don’t even have a say in who represents Aspen anymore. I think

#AmericaGoesOnStrike

UPDATE #1: I want to thank everyone for their commitment and feedback. I want to throw out the idea of a single-day protest, a "call out sick day", but nationwide in every occupation,rather than a general strike that puts many people in financial and logistical danger given enough time and inaction.

Obviously, a single day would not be enough to get all of the things we need, or maybe even some, but it could be easily repeated as many times and as often as needed, provided it is communicated.

Getting a full general strike together is obviously very risky without the social net that this protest/strike is calling for.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how to make this feasible and effective and I thank you all for your enthusiasm and honesty.

UPDATE #2: Thank you all for the support to get this ball rolling! I'm regrouping based on your feedback and suggestions, consulting with peers and will be back with Phase 2. Watch this space and get ready for Black 2sday!

PREMISE

On Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022, ALL WORKERS will go on AN INDEFINITE GENERAL STRIKE until we can reclaim our country from the savage CAPITALISTS who are running our great country into the ground for their own GREED.

Whether retail worker, fast food worker, gig worker, artist, craftsman, tradesperson, bus driver, blue collar worker, white collar worker, generalist or specialist, Democrat or Republican, WE DO NOT SHOW UP FOR Work until Congress passes THE FEBRUARY 2ND ACT that will transfer power back to the average American!

THE FEBRUARY 2ND ACT

This legislation includes (AT MINIMUM), but is not limited to:

• a $20 per hour minimum wage effective IMMEDIATELY (For reference thanks to u/Anon420691010101, GDP per worker is $65/hour RIGHT NOW)
• A $30 per hour minimum wage effective in 5 years with all further increases tied to productivity implemented automatically every following year without Congressional approval.
• Modification of Medicare to include all Americans of any and all capability of disability regardless of age.
• Complete forgiveness of all public student loan debts and full legal protection from any private entity that attempts legal action to collect private student debt.
• All public colleges and universities are free, effective IMMEDIATELY.
• Climate action as outlined by the Green New Dea

Ford won't let us test. He's not counting cases. He's not providing test kits. He's not supporting health care staff. He's not providing realistic sick days. He's messing up the school thing... He's hiding the federal support money. He is literally on vacation.

Since a lot of people were unhappy with the proposed date of the strike (the 4th of July 2022). We have decided to make a poll for choosing a better date for the general strike.

View Poll

Before I get into this post I want to affirm a few things. Workers rights and the exercising of those rights should always be supported, strikes are an effective tactic and this post is aimed at the folks who are always "organizing", proclaiming and making graphic posters for general strikes. The inspiration for this post comes from tweets like this and the previously "planned" October 15th general strike.

The short war illusion comes about when the leaders of an army refuse to consider any possibilities other then a total, outright, decisive and immediate victory for there side. This can happen for a number of reasons, nationalistic pride, a refusal to consider defeat, misunderstandings / ignorance of history and so on. Now we can look back and see some great examples of this illusion at work, The big hits are the first world war with everyone being "home for Christmas", The French, German and Japanese plans in world war two. Even more recently the invasion's of Iraq and Afghanistan. When we refuse to consider all possible outcomes, question are own plans, learn from history and let some form of ideological or nationalistic dogma run the show it tends to always turn into a muddy quagmire that ends up worse then we ever thought. And right now I see the same mistakes being made when it comes to the supposed general strike that someone or other online is saying is always about to happen.

So with that tweet its claimed that a 9 day general strike would result in "we could demand anything we wanted". Lets go through a few facts of the matter.

• Pretty much every successful general strike has taken months and months of direct action.
• I could only find one example of a general strike under 2 weeks being successful and that was the 1998 Spanish General Strike which should get an * next to its name as it happened under a social democratic government who conceded to them
• There is a ton of short term and longer term general strikes that have failed and failed miserably to the point where in the 1926 UK General Strike they gave up after 9 days and the next year trade union rights were severely impacted. Both the 1972 Quebec and 1976 Canadian General Strike were unsuccessful at acc

I've seen a few posts about people scared and worried about managing food during the strike.

As a survival and bushcraft instructor here are a few emergency survival tips that could help towards that end.

Stock up on non perishable foods and water over the next few months.

This is a good article here on how to do it cheap: https://readysquirrel.com/cheap-emergency-food-stockpiling-on-a-budget/

And a good explanation of how to do it with water here: https://www.artofmanliness.com/skills/outdoor-survival/hydration-for-the-apocalypse-how-to-store-water-for-long-term-emergencies/

My tip, you know the bottles your soda, milk and water come in. They are all food grade. Recycle!!.

Next there is a chance you are going to be without income for a bit. Reducing outgoings helps to alleviate some of that.

Tea light Candles and matches, can help you reduce your lighting bills.

Campfires are great to cook on and BBQ charcoal is pretty cheap. (Free wood is cheaper if you can get it) They also boil water in a pan and put out alot of warmth.

My tip pallets burn really well.

As you may have noticed alot of this is prepping style. But its not just for apocalypse's it can also be to get you through a couple weeks of no pay :) check out more prepping and survival stuff for more ideas of what you can do to make sure there is food and water on your table.

We don't stop untill our demands are met.

Simul in tyrannide.

Be sure to join the Discord!

Our goal is to force legislation to support workers and their families with universal healthcare, paid parental leave, free college/trade schools, higher minimum wage, and stronger worker protections.

We've collectively agreed on these demands:

Guaranteed Income - Ensure that all people have access to basic needs. For example full time family caregivers or people with disabilities who can't work

Living Wages - Minimum wage tied to the living wage in an area and indexed to inflation

Healthcare - Access to healthcare decoupled from employment

Universal Higher Education - Free college; Loan forgiveness

Board Seat for Employees - Requiring companies above a certain size to have voting representation on the board for non-executive employees

Redefinition of the Work Week - No Mandatory Overtime; 4 Day, 32 hour Work Week; Virtual work incentives; Limiting contact outside of work hours (Both virtual and in person)

Paid Parental Leave - Give parents the opportunity to spend early critical months with their children

Path to Citizenship - Remove businesses ability to take advantage of undocumented workers

There is a subreddit that opened up today, and is growing rapidly with 4,000 members already. This subreddit, r/MayDayStrike , is attempting to organize a major general strike on the American workforce and its downright unlivable wages and work conditions. This cannot come into action without people being informed. The poverty issues and struggles of today's generation are HEAVILY unfair and are setting us up for failure and wage slavery.

General strikes are single handedly the biggest weapon we have against the tyrannical practices of the government and corporations. Join us in striking, May 1st. Let's make this happen for the future of our lives, and the generations to come.

r/MayDayStrike