Maybe we need a National strike? Boycott America. All of us shut the country down. Stop buying.

[pwb]

Fuck with business and you will see the pukes jump. That's what really hurts them when we stop buying the 1%s goods and services. After Christmas would be a good time to start, most of us are broke then anyway. Other than voting its the only way we have to fight these people. Trumps people. Stop Buying.

[mobeau69]

1. No thanks. I need to buy food and many other essentials.

[pwb]

5. Yea food we all need that?

Thats what you got out of this post?

[lunatica]

7. Boy did you miss the point!

[mobeau69]

15. There's a lot of that going around.

[lunatica]

18. Jesus! You did it again.

[Squinch]

2. Wait till tax time. It'll happen without us having to go through the bother of organizing it.

Lots of people will realize they've been screwed and stop spending.

That 1% that has been picking our pockets for two years will learn they have no customers left.

[TeamPooka]

6. yup

[mobeau69]

8. BINGO!

[workinclasszero]

54. Yep

Wait till the MAGAhats find out their fat white god screwed them out of their big tax return check to enrich his crime family and the 1%ers!

Hoowee there's gonna be millions of pissed off Dump voters!

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

3. 4 days before Christmas? Most everyones shopping is probably done for the year.

That dog WON'T hunt today I don't think, but, it's the correct kind of thinking, in my estimation.
The stock market is about to crash, best to let that be on the red testicles back as well as the shutdown/recession.
JMO.
And,...Before anybody asks...I do NOT have a link. Reference, 'my head/brain' I guess. Rock on.

[pwb]

11. Just putting it out there. We can fight back?

If we think outside the box.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

16. Oh trust me,

I said the same thing a month or so ago. I like the non-violent, protest w your pocket-book thing as our first wave of civil disobedience. I think boycotts work. Last honest boycott I helped w was in the mid 60s for fruit and vegetables. We picketed at the grocery store. Heh heh.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. If you have been really

paying attention,and depending on your local area,it is in full swing since October.. Anyone who has ever worked in retail will tell you,the item counts on the Tickets has shrunk.

[lunatica]

9. Maybe it will mean something bad for the 1%

Trump doesn’t want to piss off the rich corporations.

[violetpastille]

10. I'm into it. n/t

[Hermit-The-Prog]

12. been doing only essentials since the infamous (non) election

I have a backlog of stuff I'd like to buy but won't. Donated some for midterms, spent some on the backlog after the results of the midterm, and will spend a little more after January 3.

Mostly, I'm not buying. When it feels like my country again, my money will flow again.

[pwb]

17. Me too. I tighten my spending with every republican president.

Always feel uncertain with Republican Disadministrations

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

20. Gosh, me too.

Not really too hard though. Life seems to be a difficult purchase from groceries to gas just on a weekly basis. Has been (for me), since Bush.

[brooklynite]

13. Let us know when you've organized one...

...because nobody else will. The concept is completely alien to American society,.

[Hekate]

14. This again? Where does this perennial weed come from, anyway? Good luck getting Americans...

...to behave like Frenchmen.

[pwb]

21. Got it your out.

[Hekate]

34. Targeted boycotts work. Specific strikes work. Targeted marches work. In America. But...

Nationwide strikes have never worked here. Because our culture -- our labor culture -- is not French. It just isn't.

But you can try, if you want, to herd a couple of hundred million Americans with no concept of what you're talking about. It's just not going to start on this venue, where most of us are grounded in the possible and the likely.

[jberryhill]

37. I think it would work for me

I'm self employed. So, I figure, the moment I go on strike I'll probably cave in to all of my demands.

If it doesn't work quickly, though, I might have to get rough on myself.

[LanternWaste]

39. No mountain is climbable until someone climbs it.

The lack of precedent is an excuse, not a reason.

[Hekate]

43. This country can't even get half its citizens out to vote. Good luck.

[jberryhill]

52. It was climbable before it was climbed

But at least one knows, if one is attempting to climb to a top of a mountain, what the actual goal is and what will be accomplished by climbing it - i.e. that if things go according to plan, then the top of the mountain will be reached.

So, by a remarkable chain of events, this post on DU was picked up on Twitter, spread by news media, and met with universal agreement.

People are, right now, streaming out of workplaces nationwide. Turn on the news, it's happening!

Now what happens? We get everything on our Christmas wish list? Walk me through the next week or so.

[jberryhill]

32. Just for shits and giggles....

The last call for a national strike on DU was October 2018.

Throw this in yer Google - "national strike" site:democraticunderground.com

add to it: "general strike" site:democraticunderground.com

Or, mix and match:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029198423
Fuck this we need to call a national general strike


https://upload.democraticunderground.com/10022649907
You know that massive national general strike that's going to be needed soon?

^^^ - that one is from 2013!

[Hekate]

38. In my experience, some people live in fantasy-land

Now I'm off to check the participants in those threads -- for the aforementioned shits and giggles.

[elocs]

45. If you're looking for fantasy-land and indulging in wishful thinking,

DU is the place to be.

[Hekate]

49. Often wistful, but seldom wishful. Well, at least the people I like to talk to.

sigh

[elocs]

19. "All of us shut the country down." The problem would be there is no 'all'.

The country is too big and too divided and too many regular little people would be hurt by by a boycott.
This is not France, it won't work here.

[pwb]

23. History says it has worked?

[elocs]

25. History says it has been used, not that it has worked. n/t

[pwb]

29. History says it worked .

If it didn't many of us would be working twelve hour days seven days a week for what ever the 1% wanted to give us. No vacation, no health insurance, children had to work, come on? History goes way back.

[Hekate]

42. Really? You can cite (from good sources) US labor history that supports this assertion?

A century ago there were indeed labor strikes -- bloody ones. But they were specifically-targeted, such as coal, or steel mills -- not nationwide, not "shutting the country down."

[elocs]

44. Then why in your previous post did you pose that as a question? n/t

[jberryhill]

33. The last national strike in US history being, uh, when?

[LanternWaste]

40. The lack of precedent is an excuse, not a reason.

Let's at least pretend to be objective...

[jberryhill]

41. The poster referred to "history"

This piqued my curiosity to ask what particular historical national strike the poster had in mind.

I realize that history will record my post on DU as a pivotal event which prevented a national strike and brought on the downfall of humanity as a consequence. I'll just have to live with that.

Thank you for your encouragement.

[pwb]

47. So do nothing?

Got your point. You straightened us all out.

[jberryhill]

50. How many of you are there?

I did not realize that the only means of effective change are:

(a) national strike
(b) nothing

Nor did I realize that I had the power to "straighten out" the millions of otherwise strikers.

Please, carry on.

I was just curious about whatever "history" you meant to refer.

[pwb]

53. You can just watch then.

Good talk.

[Hekate]

59. In other words, you've got nothing. No goals, no strategy, only random question marks...

...and "historical" assertions you can't or won't back up with citations.

Thanks ever so for your contribution.

[pwb]

61. I am not going to lock horns with you over a fucking question mark.

I plan on slowing down my spending. Maybe you could just double yours and cancel my effort out then we both will be doing what we think might create change. Try googling American labor movement and you will fined your historical request. Do your own thing and i will do mine.
The question mark i sometimes use to ask people to think about something too instead of it being a question. like what do you think?

[lunatica]

22. Hopefully the 3 weeks after Christmas when

There are millions of shoppers who go to the stores to exchange their gifts for what they really want. Hopefully most will just demand their money be returned and leave.

[Whiskeytide]

24. So what would be our "demands" ...

... to end the boycott? Are we all on the same page concerning that?

And the first thing companies would do to weather the boycott would be to reduce labor expenses. Are we all ok with mass unemployment? Would a CEO suffering because he has to give up a second home in the Hamptons be worth the suffering of the families of the 100 employees he fired?

Let’s crash the stock market. So 1%s lose 50% of their investment value. But retired people also lose 50% of their investments. Who is going to survive that storm better?

Grinding the economy to a halt would have quite a few unintended consequences. Voting is still our best weapon, and causes much less collateral damage.

[pwb]

26. CEOs, the 1%.?

The demand is to leave our government alone. Stop tearing us apart.
My circle isn't invested in the stock market. And strikes are painful always have been but that didn't stop people before us from fighting for what we have.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. How are you going to measure "leaving the government alone"?

Remember, "the government" at the moment is headed by the orange nightmare. Leaving it alone means allowing him to run it further into the ground.

[jberryhill]

36. What is the condition on which the strike ends or continues

I don't see that in your answer.

[Whiskeytide]

56. We are a capitalist society. Some...

... interaction is between government and business is necessary and fundamental to running things. Do I think there are problems with the defense contractors relationships with pentagon officials? Sure. But that doesn’t mean we don’t need planes, tanks and bullets for national defense.

So who decides what is enough “leaving alone”?

What about “good” businesses? Like Ben & Jerry’s. Good liberals, right? Do we make a list of good companies? Who decides who gets on that list? A lot of businesses are kinda good and kinda bad.

And even if your circle isn’t invested in the stock market, you do realize that a lot of us are, right? A lot of good democrats have worked for years for a retirement that is in market products. I don’t think starving them is worth sticking our finger in the Koch brothers eyes.

Look. I love the enthusiasm, and I appreciate thinking outside the box. But shutting down the economy to punish 10,000 1%s but also harming tens of millions of Americans just isn’t a solution, regardless of the impossible logistics of such a thing.

Get 20 people to vote in 2020. If we al do that we can reset our government much more effectively.

[jberryhill]

57. Agree on voting

The majority of adults in this country can’t bring themselves to vote, but someone thinks they are going to strike?

[Bucky]

27. What is this, "Think global, but shop loco"? No, don't punish business owners for Trump's treason

[Hotler]

28. Kicking because I agree, we need a national strike. Our greatest weapon....

as a worker and a consumer is our wallets and pocket books. Shut the spending down to nothing but bare essentials for 6-8 months, boycott all corporate chains and shop mom and pop only.

[elocs]

48. A national strike in the U.S. is simply delusional.

Besides, lots of little people work in those chains and depend upon their jobs to take care of their families.

[Hotler]

60. Well bless your heart.

You have a nice day sweetie.

[MissMillie]

30. Not a problem here

We're broke.

[standingtall]

35. Yes we do but will never happen we cant even get half the population to vote

let alone go on a national strike.

[pnwmom]

46. And push the country into a depression? No, thanks. n/t

[pwb]

51. No welcome.

Depression? Recession comes first. Predictable.

[Perrenial Voter]

55. Buy local - locally produced products from locally owned

businesses. This deprives the Wall Street wealth stealing machine of some of the revenues from which it skims an increasing share for the 1%. We need to build a new economy from the ground up anyway--one that is not owned and run by and for the wealthy.

If we can move our personal investments (for those of us who have them) off all Wall Street into local businesses, that would also help.

[Kaleva]

58. Few think things are bad enough to warrant such actions.