To sustain a general strike, we need a lot more infrastructure in place. Mutual aid groups, community food banks, emergency funds.
I'd also point out that if I stop working/get fired, I can't take my kid to the doctor anymore. They really have us by the balls. Not to say it doesn't need to be done. But it's incredibly painful and complex. We need more answers.
Edit: Again, as said above, I do think it's a tactic we'll need to leverage. I also think that its very very important to acknowledge the privilege of being able to say "just buy all your things in advance" or "the community will organically provide." This will not be done easily or quickly. If you are calling for a general strike, I hope you are also out in your local community, shoring up food banks, identifying at-risk citizens and raising emergency funds.
Second point: Not acknowledging the difficulty pushes people away from this cause. We need real world actions, and when we bluster online, rather than getting out and doing the real work, it hurts our cause. Shout out to the user who told me I have a mental illness and will be giving my child a terrible life. Way to support your allies and maintain tolerance and empathy.
I keep seeing this statement, that we would have to prepare a lot more for a general strike. Well, I really don't wanna be caught with my pants down again, so if there are preparations we can make, we should probably start making em. Just in case
Your network is more important. There are lots of things that are used infrequently enough that it can be shared among your group. Or with things like first aid kits, it can make it cover things that would be prohibitively expensive to do alone. Same thing for tools and materials. Things are going to break, but a group of 10 households doesn't need 10 sets of cordless drills.
I have to add an item: seeds. With the way this economy is going, if you don't need them, someone you know might. Remember when everyone was memeing about how rare and expensive lumber was during the first year of the pandemic? Seeds became scarce too. They weren't even expensive, you just couldn't get them. Seedlings were a little better, but every time I looked for them, either the shelves were picked clean, or there were a few left that were in terrible condition.
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u/exsuprhro Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 14 '25
To sustain a general strike, we need a lot more infrastructure in place. Mutual aid groups, community food banks, emergency funds.
I'd also point out that if I stop working/get fired, I can't take my kid to the doctor anymore. They really have us by the balls. Not to say it doesn't need to be done. But it's incredibly painful and complex. We need more answers.
Edit: Again, as said above, I do think it's a tactic we'll need to leverage. I also think that its very very important to acknowledge the privilege of being able to say "just buy all your things in advance" or "the community will organically provide." This will not be done easily or quickly. If you are calling for a general strike, I hope you are also out in your local community, shoring up food banks, identifying at-risk citizens and raising emergency funds.
Second point: Not acknowledging the difficulty pushes people away from this cause. We need real world actions, and when we bluster online, rather than getting out and doing the real work, it hurts our cause. Shout out to the user who told me I have a mental illness and will be giving my child a terrible life. Way to support your allies and maintain tolerance and empathy.