It's time for a general strike.

[onecaliberal]

These corporate assholes and their flying monkeys in Congress need to understand we are done being their pawns.
We can’t have dental or vision insurance when we get old because rich people will have to pay taxes. Do they even hear themselves? I really need to get off this ride now. I’m in another universe.

[XanaDUer2]

1. I'm pissed too nt

[MontanaMama]

2. Boy howdy. I get it.

Billionaires don't pay their way and I pay $1800 a month for health insurance for my little family of 3...and that premium comes with a $4000 per person deductible (max out of pocket is $8000). So, I fork out $29,600 before insurance kicks in. We are self employed and hence insurance is super expensive...however, we actually employ people at our businesses. I'm a friggin' job creator!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Start organizing!

[inthewind21]

10. Will never happen

Because those who make 100K a year look down on those who make 50k a year as slackers not working hard enough and those that make 50K look at those who make 35K as slackers not working hard enough, and those who make 35K a year (which is the average salary in the good old US) look down on those who make minimum wage as slackers not working hard enough. And everyone in between, rinse and repeat. Meanwhile, the billionaires have that entire chain convinced they are are the "real hard workers" and doing well, it's just all those whining slackers down the line that are the problem. And as soon as a first term junior democratic senator, (as well as a republican one) enters the senate with a net worth of 32K and a year later is worth over 1mil. Well, rinse and repeat.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. I know. People love to say "general strike" but no one wants to organize for one.

[Hekate]

22. I don't know any Democrats who think like that, thank you very much. Not sure what region you...

… live in, but there are plenty of places along both coasts where $100,000/year does not make you able to afford a yacht or whatever other rich people accoutrements you think go along with that salary. It barely puts you in the running to buy a starter home.

DU has quite a variety of Democrats, and our demographic range runs from barely scraping by to personally quite comfortable, from unemployed to retired to working full time. And most of us know that what qualifies you to be a Democrat isn’t money or the lack thereof but empathy for others, and that good fortune in matters of health and wealth can change overnight.

Sigh. Hot button pushed here.

As far General Strikes go, write me when you find one. What we need to do is bring back union strikes, and boycotts that support them. But as far as I know America has never really done general strikes.

[brewens]

4. Working class people should have demanded we save as many lives possible without their losing their

asses! Especially TFG followers. That should have been the deal. In what was at some time supposedly the richest most powerful country in the world, we couldn't manage that?

[Dial H For Hero]

5. If I had a nickel for every time I saw someone on the Internet call for a general strike...

I’d likely have a few extra dollars in my pocket. It’s not happening.

[Fullduplexxx]

6. Not with that attitude

[Dial H For Hero]

7. If I devoted every waking moment of my life to organizing a general strike,

the chances of it happening would still be zero.

[Fullduplexxx]

11. It's ok it was just a joke

[onecaliberal]

16. The fact is there are a lot of strikes happening right now.

Maybe more than ever. Since the pandemic began people are waking up to the fact that we’ve been overworked and under paid by these people who have raked it in at our expense. When shit hit the fan for people in quarantine, corporations raked in record profits. More than 50% of republicans support taxing the rich and corporations.

[Dial H For Hero]

31. Sure, but a general strike? No way, no how.

[onecaliberal]

32. Maybe not for you.

[Dial H For Hero]

33. And certainly not for the overwhelming majority.

[onecaliberal]

35. The overwhelming majority are not union.

[CTyankee]

38. We don't seem to DO general strikes. It's more of a European thing, I think.

It's funny but the Europeans seem to like that kind of protest. We do strikes when we belong to a group or a union.

[Brainfodder]

8. Except for essential services, or that backfires completely, making things worse?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. Far too many people in this country, even if poor or working class,

have no understanding of the good that unions have done, and are mostly opposed to them. This is also a physically quite large country, so organizing an actual general strike is essentially impossible.

If you disagree, then by all means, start planning one. See how much support you actually get.

[hadEnuf]

25. The American people haven't been screwed hard enough yet. Dems have kept saving them from the GOP.

Clinton, Obama and now Biden. Each one of them has quickly and successfully cleaned up the Republican messes and disasters.

It won't be until the cable, dish or internet is being shut off and people can't get the bullshit propaganda from right wing media. Then they'll start to figure the GOP out. Not to mention job loss, evictions, foreclosures - hunger even?

Trump was crashing the economy and the GOP spent billions to artificially prop it up. Now they want to crash it on Biden's watch and blame him for it. And if a Republican POTUS gets in next election it won't matter anyway because it will be near impossible to vote Republicans out of office in the future, thanks to voter suppression, gerrymandering and laws that allow states to reject results out of hand.

Now that's real fascism.

[brooklynite]

13. Let us know when you have it organized...

Apparently nobody else has been able to in the past decades.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. The COVID-19 pandemic

essentially triggered a near-nationwide work stoppage (or more accurately, a huge work disruption) over the past year and it triggered some changes from some businesses.

[ashredux]

15. I think you might be correct.....it WILL happen sooner to later

[ancianita]

17. A TAX STRIKE.

Ready for that?

They want to nullify the vote but still tax us? Hell, no. No taxation without representation.

[Evolve Dammit]

18. Excellent idea. Tired of being on a greased rope. It is unsustainable. American Dream is gone.

[The Jungle 1]

19. In 81 we should have walked!

Reagan busted the air traffic controllers union.
If we had walked we would not be here!!!!!!!!
I was a young man in 81.

[crud]

24. I was there too, and since trickle down started

my whole working life, wages didn't go up, 2 and 3 income families became the norm. I trace it back to Reagan too. No one thought he could bust that union, and the news media at the time was making it all about politics. Unions became the republican straw man against working people to this day. The thing that I don't get is why people who are my age and have lived through all of this are still falling for the same crap.

[The Jungle 1]

27. They were called the Reagan Democrats.

I still say Reagan sold democrats by using racism the same as trump did. Remember the Welfare queens he always talked about? He hammered that issue. Along with saying he would cut taxes, increase defense spending and balance the budget. It was a LIE. No reasonable American believed that lie. Kinda like how Mexico was going to pay for the wall. Trump copied Reagan's play book line for line.
I worked in union shops for 35 years and it was stunning how many republicans there were.
Republicans bait us with racism. This is not a new game it has been used forever.
When the coal mines in Pa organized the companies just hired different nationality and got the two groups fighting. Irish fighting the Polish,it was all immigrants. Trump used the Mexicans the exact same way.
There is nothing more important to this nation than ending the stupidity of racism. The oligarchy will win if we do not unite.

I also remember when a single wage earner could easily be part of the American dream. Democrats didn't take that away. Why don't kellogg workers have a 40 hour work week?

[crud]

36. I had a summer job working in a brewery

when I was in college in the 70's. Yeah I know... great gig for a college kid. Factory work, Brewery and bottle workers union. I made 18 an hour and could drink beer for lunch and on breaks. Average wage today according to this website is 15 per hour.
https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Brewer/Hourly_Rate

[The Jungle 1]

37. I shoot pool in a league with a lot of young folks.

They are all thrilled to be making 23 per hour. I just shake my head. I give all the young guys the same advice. Go to the city and join a trade union.

[Mr. Evil]

20. I'm all for it.

Plus, I only buy store brands (even though most of them are made by the giant corporations purchased in bulk) so I'd also love to see as many and as much name brand shit festering on the shelves. Fuck 'em all!

[onecaliberal]

21. I started doing this in the pandemic because for some products it was all we could get.

[IbogaProject]

23. There is actually a Federal Law against it

There is actually a Federal Law against both general strikes and affinity strikes. Since the 1940s.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act

I am in favor of breaking that anti labor anti freedom of association law.

[onecaliberal]

26. I have forced employer healthcare. The cost has increased

So much year after year that despite receiving modest bumps in pay, my take home is 12 dollars more today than it was 5 years ago. I’m working my tail off 10 plus hours a day getting farther and farther behind. But, hey, I know, I need to think of the billionaires. How ever will they get by.

Fuck Republicons for thinking this is okay.

[MineralMan]

28. Hmm...Have You Begun Organizing This?

Do you have a website? What's the URL? What is the Twitter hashtag for your plan?

[Patton French]

30. I share your frustration

But wreaking havoc on the economy will not help our prospects going into the midterms and beyond.

[mathematic]

34. The anti-vax covid walkouts are the closest thing we'll have to a general strike

And that wasn't to protest corporate anything. That was to protest perceived government overreach. It was to protest mandating free, live-saving healthcare. LITERALLY OPPOSED to free, lifesaving healthcare for themselves. And you think people are going to strike for senior's dental? Why do you insist that "workers" have your values and priorities when, clearly, they do not?