Paul Cantrell
This is exactly the groundwork we need to be laying right now, and I’m delighted to hear it coming from a US Senator (!):
If Trump tries to prevent a fair election from happening, then we need “a true national strike in the sense that, if they do this, if they try to overthrow our democracy, if you are allied with democracy, do not go to work . If you’re a pilot, do not show up. If you drive a train, do not show up. If you’re a teacher, do not show up. We grind the country to a halt.”
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Paul Cantrell
This part is especially important (emphasis added):
“If we have to destroy the stock market to save democracy, we need to accept that and, more importantly, •••the richest and the most powerful people in the world and in this country need to understand that that is a real possibility.••• There is no economic stability without democratic stability. If you take away our democratic stability, we will take away the economic stability.”
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Paul Cantrell
Lay the groundwork for a national strike, and lay it •loudly• so that the billionaires know — believe! — that it is a real possibility. Make them terrified of it.
It’s like the doomsday device in Dr. Strangelove: you have to tell them about it. And they have to believe it’s real.
How do we do that? It starts with talking to each other about it. •We• have to believe it’s real. We have to lay the groundwork.
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Paul Cantrell
I consider the Jan 23 general strike in Minnesota to be fairly successful. It didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t just happen because people posted about it a lot. There was a •lot• of consensus-building via social networks new and old. Unions got on board, lead the charge. Local businesses goaded each other into participating until •not• participating became a sort of black eye.
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Paul Cantrell
@GhostOnTheHalfShell
One of the lessons of Jan 23 is that “ASAP” is not a plan. You really have to pick something specific in the future — a data, or a trigger — and do sustained planning around it.
GhostOnTheHalfShell
Yes, I would be more aggressive and say let’s get to the business of a shut down right now. It seems like the work stoppage not long ago made corporation squirm
Paul Cantrell
@edwilk
That’s the wild thing here: not that someone is taking about it, but that a once-centrist-ish Dem is taking about it. This idea is becoming mainstream.
Ed Wilk antifascist
It seems like only yesterday that I was screaming at Sen. Gallego for voting for Trump cabinet nominees.
Paul Cantrell
@ELS
That’s the point. See downthread.
eswillwalker
@inthehands I’d rather that we find a better solution to this and that it happens BEFORE the election.
Paul Cantrell
You may be thinking of a boycott instead of a strike.
Here in Minneapolis, local businesses helped lead the charge — and I’d venture that they benefitted from it, from the community seeing them support the cause and feeling a sense of connection with the people behind them.
Pup Sniff
@inthehands So to the point about local businesses... Part of me thinks that those *shouldn't* shut down in a strike because if people use those businesses that's money not going to the billionaires.
I'm interested to know how other folks think about it though because I honestly don't know what strategies make the most sense toward the objective of pressuring folks with their hands on the levers of power to take action.
Shafik Yaghmour
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