this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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This right here. The problems of an inherently individualist society. Or another way of putting it...
Fuck you, you got yours lol
The internet caused us to forgo our tight communities in exchange for being acquaintances with millions of people.
it was not the internet that did that 
Two paychecks seems optimistic.
Agreed. 2-3 paychecks for the union workers and skilled trades. 0-1 for most others.
Lack of worker solidarity. We're too atomized and stressed to support each other through a GS. Hopefully that is beginning to change. I just hope its not too late.
Lack of worker solidarity
In theory, the problem of "two paychecks" is solved (at least in part) by working people seizing certain critical means of production for the purposes of mutual aid. So, grocers strike not by closing the front doors but by shutting down the cash registers and handing out food for free. Landlord admins strike by refusing to collect rents. Teachers strike not by refusing to teach but by refusing to grade. Etc.
And if everyone knows this arrangement will be in effect, they can act together as a bargaining unit to threaten the control of the landlord class.
But if they aren't in close communication, because the public forms of media are censored and strictly controlled, then individuals can't express solidarity prior to the strike. And if they aren't in alignment, then you end up with the same "haves" and "have-nots" reproduced across the striking cohort, creating contradictions that landlords can exploit. And if they can't repeat this experiment of communication, trust building, strike, reap concessions, then they can't build momentum of numbers or expand the demands.
Hopefully that is beginning to change
I haven't seen much to suggest it has. Perhaps the soul is willing, but the body public remains weak and emaciated. We still don't have avenues of communication independent of the capitalist class. We haven't built trust between industrial sectors. There's little we can point to that's been successful, much less reproducible.
I just hope its not too late.
It's never "too late". All that changes is the players and the stakes at play.
But whatever comes next, you'd be foolish to believe you'll see both the beginning of it and the end. You'll be lucky to know what you're in the middle of.
nearly a century of coordinated, targeted anti-union operations by corporations and the federal government will do that.
More than a century honestly, that shit goes as far back as the 1800s
That's fair. I was mostly thinking about how coordination between the federal government and corporations really ramped up in response to the NLRA
Also, the average American barely knowing what a union is, much less being a member of one.
Fear and propaganda.
Generalstrikeus.com
Join your local chapter. Volunteer for mutual aid groups. Help establish a strike fund for your local chapter. Get. Involved.
Enough unions to organize it.
Keep the serfs destutute so they can't organize against the rich, disgustingly lavish aristocracy is a tale as old as time. We're literally seeing ruling philosophies Medieval kings used and people say this is the best system.
The other half of it is conditioning a society to be so dependent on convenience and little luxuries (yes, even poor people in US have luxuries compared to other parts of the world) that they technically could strike, but doing so would be so below their standard of living that it would not be sustainable.
Destitution didn't stop the French, it emboldened them.
Isn't that the entire point? lol
Imagine this conversation in 18th century France.
Peasant: Should we do a revolt?
Other peasant: Are you kidding? I'm down to my last loaf of bread over here, no way!
Lack of class consciousness and education in general
2? More like half a paycheck. Most people can't even afford to call in sick to work.
No universal healthcare for when they shoot you in the face with pepper balls or whomp you to a pulp with nightsticks...
No class consciousness, and americans are cowards. Next question
Only 10% of the US is in a union. Who's going to lead it?
The biggest of those unions I'd guess would be AFL-CIO, which I suppose did a okay job leading the Minnesota strike
Roughly one in four Minnesota voters either participated in the January 23 day of shutdown and protest against ICE, or have a loved one who did...Of those participants, 38% percent stayed off the job, either because they did not go to work, or because their employer closed for the day of action... 45% of voters “generally support the call for no work, no school, no shopping as a form of protest.” https://inthesetimes.com/article/labor-general-strike-minnesotans-ice-protest-trump-cbp
Keep in mind those numbers are voters in minnesota, not super great for a bunch of "progressive" people.
Even the national strike on the 30th wasn't terrible, but neither had any economic effect. There just isn't enough organization, especially in key industries. People aren't educated on unions, even in communist circles a ton of us are running around without a clue what good union organizing looks like.
Haha. Joke's on you!
It's the start of the month, so I have three paychecks to live. I'm going to celebrate with drive-thru coffee and avocado bread.
Debt servitude works better than any whip or chain.
Not hungry enough
how do 3 men in their 30's not have $500 between them?
This comment should be deleted soon
People in more precarious positions than now organized and that's how they got every concession ever. The conditions may be different, but it will only get worse without organizing and striking.
The main obstacle is the average American being brainwashed into thinking they are living the best life possible on the planet and that they too can be a millionaire if only they work 60+ hour weeks while sick.
Essentially same situation as North Korea, just less extreme (at least in some aspects).
American sees something American happening Americanly in America: "What are we, a bunch of ASIANS?!?!???"
Workers in DPRK actually have things like housing, healthcare, and retirement. The burger reich is nothing like DRPK.
I like the idea of a government shutdown, rather than a General Strike. A Strike hurts us, a shutdown hurts them. Strikes might work in other countries, because they don't have a mechanism to shut down the government , but we do.
I was all for keeping it locked down last Fall, and all through 2026, and making the Midterm Election Campaign a giant national Food and Health Care drive. Show the nation who really cares, while MAGA loses their minds.
But as soon as the shutdown hit the airports, and the Donor Class couldn't move their operatives around the country, the MAGA comedy act of Schmuck & Jeffries surrendered. We were winning that battle, but we got literally NOTHING in exchange. No wonder MAGA has such disrespectful disdain toward the weak cowardly Democrats. They deserve every bit of MAGA derision.
They aren't going to care if we go on strike and get fired from our jobs and go homeless. But they'll care if we shut down the MAGA government and hurt THEM.
A general strike absolutely hurts the owning class because the value their companies produce is created by the workers. When the workers stop working, then production stops and that is the single most direct way to hurt capitalist interests.
Again, workers take the hit. I don't want self-inflicted wounds, and hope that the Sociopathic MAGA government will take pity on us, and change. They won't change, they'll just laugh at our morality.
I want to hurt MAGA, not citizens, and the best way to do that is take away their money, which is the ONLY thing they really care about.
Like I said, most countries don't have a mechanism to shut down their nation's government, so they have to default to a General Strike. But we have an alternative strategy that truly hurts them where they care the most, with less damage to the Citizens. Shouldn't we start there?
We can always start with a Government Shutdown, and add the General Strike to it if we need to tighten the noose.
Again, you should read the history of the US because mass strikes and militant labour organization was precisely how workers wrestled concessions from the ruling class in the past. The idea that most countries don't have a way to shut down their government is also nonsense. That's just a strike carried out by government workers. Any country can do that.
Meanwhile, the type of a government shutdown you're talking about can only be carried out by the politicians and it's entirely out of the hands of the workers.
The labor strikes of the 30s were a almost a century ago, against a different kind of enemy, with different objectives. That was to obtain better wages, conditions, and workers rights. That has to be directed at the corporation that supplies those things.
But today, our first, and biggest beef is with the government. If we want to force them to react, we have to hit them directly. And remember, it's MAGA, and they are really stupid. They require a 2x4 across the face, just to get their attention.
The government represents the class that holds power in society, and that's been capital owning class both in the 30s and today. There's been no fundamental change in how the system functions.