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Antiwork

Everyone calling for strikes in America: Striking is good, but it’s not what we need (yet).

Yes, the US needs workers to strike. Absolutely. For a lot of reasons, and it would do a lot of good. But we've got a ways to go before we even can. There are other things that need to happen first because the reality right now is: WE AREN'T CAPABLE OF IT (yet). Striking is a literal impossibility and is, without exageration, near or actual suicide for too many. And that is the bigger problem at the moment. Most people, the ones who really need the results of a strike, can't because of 5 combined reasons: 1) Much of the US is employed in such a way that if we strike, we WILL lose our job. And findng a new job is A LOT easier said than done these days. 2) health insurance is tied to your job. Lose your job and you lose your health insurance. Can't get meds…


Yes, the US needs workers to strike. Absolutely. For a lot of reasons, and it would do a lot of good.

But we've got a ways to go before we even can. There are other things that need to happen first because the reality right now is: WE AREN'T CAPABLE OF IT (yet). Striking is a literal impossibility and is, without exageration, near or actual suicide for too many.

And that is the bigger problem at the moment.

Most people, the ones who really need the results of a strike, can't because of 5 combined reasons:
1) Much of the US is employed in such a way that if we strike, we WILL lose our job. And findng a new job is A LOT easier said than done these days.
2) health insurance is tied to your job. Lose your job and you lose your health insurance. Can't get meds that your family needs to actually live. And many hospitals/doctors won't even accept you at all if you don't have insurance.
3) The people that need help the most are also living paycheck to paycheck. A couple days off work can mean being unable to pay rent, buy food for your family, pay for your car and related expenses, medical bills, etc.
4) It is physically risky: There is a history of violence to the point of murder against those who strike in the US. And for those who have a family, the risk of your own life is a very heavy thing to put on the line.
5) The US is huuuuge. In somewhere like France, you can get 10,000,000 in the street, you have a massive percentage of the country not working. Everything will shut down. And it looks impressive, calling more attention and the sheer volume of people in one place striking makes it impossible to function otherwise. In the US, if you get 10,000,000 people, it'll make for an interesting news day, but be forgotten in a week. You'll get a few inconvenient marches in some major cities, but scattered across the country, it still won't be enough to shut everything down to the great degree of smaller European countries. It also makes it physically harder to organize. You want to strike in the capital of France, you'll have (at most) a 10 hour drive. You want to strike in the capital of the US, you might have a week long drive ahead of you.

There are other reasons as well, many of them personal and unique to each individual.

As long as these circumstances are in play, striking is an actual impossibility within the US. Many of these may have a solution, but you've got to overcome at least the other 4 points as well for enough people to have a general strike.

So please, stop calling for immediate strikes (for now).

Strikes just can't happen yet, at least not without a cost that is too high to pay. Instead, the first thing we need to do is find solutions to these problems (unionizing being one possible solution). We have to be able to take care of workers first and foremost. Then once people are safe, and their literal lives and their families aren't in jeopardy of homelessness, starvation and dying by striking, then we'll have the ability to make additional drastic changes by way of striking.

One step at a time. And we have a lot of steps to go still.

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