Organizing is the first step, the groundwork. This is exactly what I’m talking about when I bitch about people wanting immediate action without placing the groundwork.
Because the only thing I’ve heard Bernie saying in the past five months in the way of concrete action is “vote and call your representative”.
“Join your local unions, form local unions, support strikes”
Short of calling for illegal action (based but probably not realistic to expect from a sitting member of the legislature who will probably be hindered more than helped by a stay in jail) or a general strike (see: above comment about groundwork), again, as mentioned at the start of this, I’m not sure what you want him to be saying.
Did he do so at any time after Trump’s inauguration? If so I’ll take back my statement, but I remember a conspicuous lack of such rhetoric during the oligarchy rallies, for instance.
Fucking hate the enshittification of search engines, finding a set of transcripts or simply searching tweets is a fucking Herculean task. I’ll get back to you on this if I find more than fucking two transcripts.
Certainly true, but what you’re organizing for is also important, because organizing can be the groundwork for anything from negotiating better wages to starting a revolution. My point was that it’s very possible that the sort of organizing we’re talking about is very different from what Bernie is calling for. It’s still useful advice, but not “fighting words,” so to speak.
Fucking hate the enshittification of search engines, finding a set of transcripts or simply searching tweets is a fucking Herculean task. I’ll get back to you on this if I find more than fucking two transcripts.
Certainly true, but what you’re organizing for is also important, because organizing can be the groundwork for anything from negotiating better wages to starting a revolution. My point was that it’s very possible that the sort of organizing we’re talking about is very different from what Bernie is calling for. It’s still useful advice, but not “fighting words,” so to speak.
I would argue that organization is a tool - unions have long been used for much broader ends than just the welfare of the workers in the individual union against the individual employer they are formed around. Being organized is, itself, a means to coordinate action on much broader issues - being organized to negotiate better wages puts you in a better position to start a revolution as well, even if that’s not your initial intent. I mean, that’s why unions have been at the forefront of nearly every major leftist revolution.
More broadly, it’s why fascists (and, before fascism as a mass movement arose, late 19th century imperialists) co-op things like sports clubs, and why, historically, guilds and public fellowships were often suppressed or coopted by the reigning authorities - a tool may be made with a single intent, but it invariably has many uses if people become motivated to apply them.
Uh… good luck, you’ll need it.
Yeah, I’m… not sure that I have the motivation or morale to continue much more on that account.
Normally I’m an enemy of nostalgic thinking, remembering quite distinctly what the mid-late 2000s were like, but fuck, man, at least the search engines worked.
being organized to negotiate better wages puts you in a better position to start a revolution as well, even if that’s not your initial intent. I mean, that’s why unions have been at the forefront of nearly every major leftist revolution.
Of course, which is why it’s still good advice, but to follow up on that example I’d argue that the unions at the forefront of major leftist revolutions were a lot more aggressive than anything America has now, because for instance they were the ones who (sometimes literally) fought for essentially everything modern workers have. Compare to modern unions who won’t even strike if it’s illegal and you’ll see two completely different mentalities at work; unions back then were already predisposed to forceful direct action, which is at least part of why they were such important revolutionary actors. It’s still better to have the organizational infrastructure (assuming it’s not captured by capital) than to not have it, but the mentality shift needs to happen for anything near what 19th and early 20th century unions were doing to take place and so far almost nobody with nationwide prominence is even trying to have that conversation. This gets us back to my original point: The people best positioned to hasten this mentality shift such that it happens within a reasonable timeframe are all in denial. I’m not asking for people like Bernie and AOC to call for anything illegal, but the fact they’re not out there actively calling for active resistance to the regime is a problem; someone needs to fill that hole and fast.
Organizing is the first step, the groundwork. This is exactly what I’m talking about when I bitch about people wanting immediate action without placing the groundwork.
“Join your local unions, form local unions, support strikes”
Short of calling for illegal action (based but probably not realistic to expect from a sitting member of the legislature who will probably be hindered more than helped by a stay in jail) or a general strike (see: above comment about groundwork), again, as mentioned at the start of this, I’m not sure what you want him to be saying.
Fucking hate the enshittification of search engines, finding a set of transcripts or simply searching tweets is a fucking Herculean task. I’ll get back to you on this if I find more than fucking two transcripts.
Certainly true, but what you’re organizing for is also important, because organizing can be the groundwork for anything from negotiating better wages to starting a revolution. My point was that it’s very possible that the sort of organizing we’re talking about is very different from what Bernie is calling for. It’s still useful advice, but not “fighting words,” so to speak.
Uh… good luck, you’ll need it.
I would argue that organization is a tool - unions have long been used for much broader ends than just the welfare of the workers in the individual union against the individual employer they are formed around. Being organized is, itself, a means to coordinate action on much broader issues - being organized to negotiate better wages puts you in a better position to start a revolution as well, even if that’s not your initial intent. I mean, that’s why unions have been at the forefront of nearly every major leftist revolution.
More broadly, it’s why fascists (and, before fascism as a mass movement arose, late 19th century imperialists) co-op things like sports clubs, and why, historically, guilds and public fellowships were often suppressed or coopted by the reigning authorities - a tool may be made with a single intent, but it invariably has many uses if people become motivated to apply them.
Yeah, I’m… not sure that I have the motivation or morale to continue much more on that account.
Normally I’m an enemy of nostalgic thinking, remembering quite distinctly what the mid-late 2000s were like, but fuck, man, at least the search engines worked.
Of course, which is why it’s still good advice, but to follow up on that example I’d argue that the unions at the forefront of major leftist revolutions were a lot more aggressive than anything America has now, because for instance they were the ones who (sometimes literally) fought for essentially everything modern workers have. Compare to modern unions who won’t even strike if it’s illegal and you’ll see two completely different mentalities at work; unions back then were already predisposed to forceful direct action, which is at least part of why they were such important revolutionary actors. It’s still better to have the organizational infrastructure (assuming it’s not captured by capital) than to not have it, but the mentality shift needs to happen for anything near what 19th and early 20th century unions were doing to take place and so far almost nobody with nationwide prominence is even trying to have that conversation. This gets us back to my original point: The people best positioned to hasten this mentality shift such that it happens within a reasonable timeframe are all in denial. I’m not asking for people like Bernie and AOC to call for anything illegal, but the fact they’re not out there actively calling for active resistance to the regime is a problem; someone needs to fill that hole and fast.