Last year my workplace went into a (non union) negotiation with our boss. We do service work and like a lot of retail and customer service jobs didn't quite have enough support for a union because of the trauma and scars from a failed attempt to unionize a few years ago. Like clockwork the cashiers and phone workers were shamed and guilt tripped because “it's really disrespectful to the warehouse and the farmers int he third world who don't make as much as you all do right now”. I went ahead and looked more into where our bosses were even referring to. Turns out a lot of the places have VERY low wages and it made me think of some political education I got 2 years ago economic sanctions as a cause of lower wages in the underdeveloped.
A lot of folks talk about economic sanctions as an abstract concept that seems like an ideal alternative to violence because it punishes the bad guys without done bombing a city.
BUT in reality economic sanctions are a weapon used primarily by the U.S., NATO, and other imperial powers to punish average working class people or peasants in hopes that their suffering will collapse a government the US, NATO, etc. doesn't like.
The sanctions which get the most attention in western press are the ones which are very hard to disagree with. It's hard to disagree that Putin or some Oligarch in some other part of the world deserves to have their bank account hit for horrible violence, oppression, and exploitation. But the sanctions which are rarely discussed in western press are the ones which made it harder to basic medical supplies harder for working class and poor people in Iran, Cuba, Zimbabwe or Venezuela at the start of the covid pandemic. Sanctions like that (and there are a LOT of sections like that) make life much much harder for hundreds of millions or even billions of people around the world! Sanctions that make it harder to order replacement parts for a tractor or modernize a hospital are almost always issued along with ones which freeze banc accounts or outlaw investment by some billionaire or corrupt politician.
This is going to sound evil as hell and unbelievable for folks who have faith in western liberal democracy but the stated goal of these broad sanctions on workers and peasants is to increase the suffering and misery of the masses in hopes that it sparks a domestic uprising which topples the target countries government. Personally I see this as utterly despicable considering most people don't want war, even in richer imperial countries like the U.S. or France. The popular drive or war is even rarer in the underdeveloped world. People understand that dropping bombs on a hospital as always wrong but the silent deaths of making it difficult to buy bandages, beds, and sanitizers get a lot less attention.
On top of the horrible human toll there's the simple reality usually don't collapse a regime and when they do the new regime is rarely better for the workers even if the new regime is better for France, or the U.S. or other imperial countries.
So what does this have to do with r/antiwork besides sanctions killing working people around the globe? =Simple. Besides the hope of causing enough suffering through what amounts to blockade in hopes of starting a popular uprising sanctions make it easier to keep workers DESPERATE around the world. Desperate workers keep wages down EVERYWHERE. Sure, we can pass labour laws in the imperial core but even those higher wages are always an election or two away from being rolled back in a crunch economy because no matter what there's millions or billions of distressed workers somewhere in the world to use as a threat to keep workers everywhere in line. I want want Haitian garment industry workers to make good wages. I want Bolivian Cocoa growers to make good wages. I want Black Zimbabwean farmers to make a good living. I want this because it helps me as a worker and because like most people I don't want other folks to suffer at the hands of anyone especially the people who profit off of my stolen profits as well as theirs.
So in conclusion antiwork is anti sanctions. Sanctions hurt working class people and make it easier for our bosses to keep the fear of god in people who otherwise know we're worth a whole lot more than minimum wage.