21st Century General Stike -- A Modest Proposal

[DaveT]

In the October issue of Harper's Magazine, Garret Keizer put forth the idea of a general strike to take place November 6, 2007. Here are his opening paragraphs:

Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust.
—Isaiah 26:19

Of all the various depredations of the Bush regime, none has been so thorough as its plundering of hope. Iraq will recover sooner. What was supposed to have been the crux of our foreign policy—a shock-and-awe tutorial on the utter futility of any opposition to the whims of American power—has achieved its greatest and perhaps its only lasting success in the American soul. You will want to cite the exceptions, the lunch-hour protests against the war, the dinner-party ejaculations of dissent, though you might also want to ask what substantive difference they bear to grousing about the weather or even to raging against the dying of the light—that is, to any ritualized complaint against forces universally acknowledged as unalterable. Bush is no longer the name of a president so much as the abbreviation of a proverb, something between Murphy’s Law and tomorrow’s fatal inducement to drink and be merry today.

If someone were to suggest, for example, that we begin a general strike on Election Day, November 6, 2007, for the sole purpose of removing this regime from power, how readily and with what well-practiced assurance would you find yourself producing the words “It won’t do any good”? Plausible and even courageous in the mouth of a patient who knows he’s going to die, the sentiment fits equally well in the heart of a citizen-ry that believes it is already dead.

"It won't do any good."

He is right on the dime with that description of where we are as a nation. We look at our government, and discover that the people running it simply do not care what we think or do. We can post our angry polemics on the internet and we can gripe to each other in isolated personal conversations. But nothing we do "works."

I think his idea of a General Strike is exactly what it will take to make a change. Unfortunately, November 6 is too soon. It takes a while for a national consensus to build. So how do we get to the end point of nationwide mass action from the infinity of isolated starting points in front of our millions of individual computer screens?

Here is my suggestion:


The basic concept in the 21st Century version of the General Strike would be sort of a nation-wide Flash Mob. We would not even have to miss an entire day of work to make our point.

I propose every first Wednesday of the month, starting in December, as National Flash Mob General Strike Day -- at 2 PM Eastern time, we all walk off our jobs and go out to the pavement for 10 minutes. The next month it is 20 minutes. Then 30 and so on, until the Government removes Bush and Cheney from office, restores the Constitution and ceases combat operations in Iraq.

This scheme MUST NOT depend upon TV, radio or newspaper communications to get the message across.

Personal, interactive communications, yes. Heirarchical, one-way communication, no.




If you glance at this post and determine that this idea is as unworkable as every other scheme you've heard, would you at least do yourself the favor of posting how you think we will ever restore the rule of law?

[DaveT]

1. kick

I hope somebody will post a better idea, if this one does not seem to be the way to organize.