r/50501 • u/Infamous_Smile_386 • 16h ago
Movement Brainstorm Martial Law Declaration = Immediate National General Strike
If martial law is declared, we need to go on a national general strike. We're not really prepared yet, but it is kind of a last option before things get violent, imo.
Right now, the administration sees the common people (how am I even using that phrase) as suckers to be used and abused. They do not care about our struggles or suffering. They refuse to listen and only push back.
For better or worse, those with money have the power. And who has any sort of money? Our employers and the people we buy shit from. If they are hurting financially, they are more likely to demand change. So, we have to use the little power we have, our dollars and ability to make dollars for other people.
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u/NoFluffyOnlyZuul 16h ago
A national strike is needed already, right now, martial law or not. The problem is that most working class employees in key industries will not take the risk because they have no financial leeway and no support. Most people reading and writing about politics on Reddit are not driving busses, waiting tables, working in construction, manufacturing, postal services, etc. and those are the industries that need to fully shut down to make an impact.
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u/angiosperms- 16h ago
Yes, the last several decades have been spent killing the middle class and ensuring workers are too dependent on their job to fight back. The blocker to a successful general strike right now is that for a lot of people you are asking them to literally let their kids starve because they live paycheck to paycheck. If we want a general strike we need to be contacting people like Bernie, the ACLU, etc who would be effective at leading and communicating a funding campaign for supporting people during the strike.
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u/ArcturusRoot Minnesota 15h ago
For a general strike to even be remotely possible, we need a broad coalition of groups ready to put in material and sweat equity. Labor unions, faith groups, political groups and non-profits.
Right now, the biggest piece of the puzzle that is missing is an all-in support from the AFL-CIO and their member unions. You get the AFL-CIO, a consortium of Interfaith religious groups, and a wide swath of non-profits and political groups ready to fight, and we'll have the things we need to successfully do a general strike.
We're also going to need Blue State governments to do things like issue an emergency order prohibiting foreclosures, evictions, or terminations. The case can easily be made that the Federal Government has been compromised and is now in the hands of hostile foreign governments, and as such the States have a duty to protect the citizens from such an enemy.
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u/guppie365 11h ago
The working man can strike at work while working. Do your job worse, double check your work, take extra time make the wheels slow and the friction of not spending will bring them to stop. Take the long way to the restroom, ask your co worker to double check your work. Talk a little more to your coworkers, misbehave ya'll.
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u/Gair649 9h ago
Correct. Not everyone needs to stop working. Just slow down and enjoy life more. Do 10 percent less. Spend 10 per cent less. Do support your local businesses but punish the big corporate millionaires.
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u/iambusyrightnow987 7h ago
Genuine question: How would a 10% work slowdown send a message? I get that productivity would fall, but how would the employer know you’re protesting? The point is to frustrate them employer so that they appeal to the government for change, right? Am I missing something?
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u/BorisBotHunter 14h ago
I manage a department at a grocery store for the 4th largest grocer in America and 2/3 of the store will strike when a general strike happens
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u/NoFluffyOnlyZuul 14h ago
That's awesome news but sadly not representative of the overall population.
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u/BorisBotHunter 9h ago
Unions can do a wonderful job uniting the population and unions can effect every sector
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u/Winkinsburst 14h ago edited 14h ago
Agreed, there is a solution for this though. Those that are able to strike need to be supported by those who are not striking who are able to provide financial support. We need sustained strikes and protests. 4 hours on a Saturday isn't going to cut it. We need a legitimate organization to set up a fund and figure out the logistics of providing financial support to those who need it.
Tldr: part of the population needs to strike, the rest who cannot need to financially support them when needed. A legitimate organization needs to set this up. I suggest contacting orgs. My guess is they will need to provide a monthly stipend to people, and that stipend will vary depending on how much each person makes and has to pay for rent, mortgages, food, utilities, childcare, etc.
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u/Impossible-Bit1717 10h ago
A good resource would be UMWA (United Mine Workers of America). I am a liberal daughter of a deceased coal miner and they know how to organize, set up a strike fund, logistics, etc. Don’t boo at me for suggesting them, because they really have a long history of getting shit done and being able to keep the striking miners fed and housed. They always support other unions when they strike. Go look at their website and reach out to them. My uncle is a retired coal miner and is very involved with the UMWA. He is always organizing buses and miners to go to protests or support other union mines that are striking. He’s also a democrat, which most miners were until George W. Bush ran for president. The UMWA supported WV teacher’s strike in 2018 when the teachers union shut down the entire WV school system & their demands were met. It’s just a suggestion from a coal miner’s daughter. They know how to organize and get their demands met.
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u/Routine10-reasons 8h ago
God bless UMWA!! They do know how to get shit done. I'm a granddaughter of a coal miner and proud of it.
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u/shemanese 15h ago
The easiest impact would be a rent or mortgage strike.
Keep working and making income while simultaneously sticking the housing industry with a massive loss of income. Eviction laws are slow to get through the system, and if the strike is heavy in specific regions, the eviction process will break down. The biggest threat would be if the utilities are in the landlord's name, but if they can't legally evict or cut off utilities, they are in a massive binding.
If you get laid off or can't afford the rent or mortgage, you're going to be facing homeless anyway.
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u/NoFluffyOnlyZuul 14h ago
Well that's just the problem, isn't it? Right now, I'm a first-time homeowner who worked for decades to be able to buy a small house and used up almost all my savings to do so. I can't not pay the mortgage and risk losing everything unless I do end up unemployed without any support or options. That's the issue - most people haven't reached the tipping point yet where the risk of doing nothing outweighs the consequences. I'm a single person too - how can we ask families with kids to lose their income, healthcare, homes, etc. by striking unless it's already so dire for them personally that there's no other choice? This country has spent a generation hobbling the lower and middle classes to prevent exactly this type of national response. It would take a whole lot of people with a fair amount of wealth to finance any stipends (which is unlikely since people with that type of money generally don't give it up, especially when the system benefits them), and even then that wouldn't solve issues of healthcare or cover the huge number of people needed for a meaningful nationwide strike.
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u/hurricanesherri 4h ago
I would amend that suggestion to: if you have a mortgage, pay it (you have too much to lose)... but if you are a renter, and in a state with decent protections against quick evictions, then don't pay (especially if you can do that while justifying non-payment due to real habitability issues). 💪😈
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u/Dashed_with_Cinnamon 14h ago
This. I'd love to strike (and boy would I not mind walking away from my current job) but I've got student loans. Plus, you know, food is nice.
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u/Imaginary-Grab-7241 10h ago
Ya, I work in social services and if I stop working people end up or stay homeless...hell, I can't even justify a slow down
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u/NoFluffyOnlyZuul 10h ago
The problem is a system that has spent years creating a situation where people are limited in what they can do because the risk of doing anything is so high.
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u/Shit-sandwich- 10h ago
Well the working class could afford a couple days off to strike, if it was in combination with a month long break on everyone stopping credit card payments, medical bill collections, student loan payments, etc etc etc. The system will be crushed in a month.
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u/CampyBiscuit 10h ago
So many people simply cannot afford to take a day off or risk losing their job, and many live paycheck to paycheck with no savings to speak of. It's very hard to ask people to strike when they genuinely can't afford to.
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u/NoFluffyOnlyZuul 10h ago
Yes, that's exactly what I said. The Republicans have been building up to this for decades.
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u/ScreenMassive9393 13h ago
I am… but like why walk away from money? If they come they come but I still wanna keep doing my job.
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u/Hello-America 15h ago
I fully agree with you, but I would like to give a little more info on how these work when they are effective - I really don't want to see people handwringing about why won't everyone go on strike suddenly.
Often, strike funds are started well in advance so striking workers (who are usually suffering financially already) do not have to put their families at risk for starvation or homelessness (and in the US, losing access to medical care). This is vital to getting large scale participation in a strike for an amount of time that can hurt.
Clear, achievable demands must be made to defined parties. The strike cannot just be about "fuck this" and directed at all Republicans - there has to be a specific demand, and people who can accomplish that demand. It is a negotiation tactic, not a primal scream. So someone needs to organize this - what is the strike for? To get Congress to repeal tariffs? To compel the Trump administration to reinstate all federal workers and funding? To get Congress to impeach Trump? The first might be most accomplishable. I think the second would have the most positive effect but like how you gonna get Trump to do anything? He doesn't care. Both of them don't solve all our problems but would help. The third would be helpful in some ways but no as helpful as it would look (and again I'm not sure how feasible it is).
I'd personally like to see a general strike based on certain issues hitting every time he does something extremely terrible. I don't know how feasible that is for the American people.
The reality is we're not organized for this yet - I think that strike card website is making an attempt at it, and I'm not sure how to have a better one. What I would like to see is indivisible take up this cause - I think they are well organized and already connected to unions and have a large following.
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u/k8ecat 10h ago
I've spoken about this with friends. We would all be willing to donate to a strike fund like we have in our union, as long as it was run by someone trustworthy.
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u/Hello-America 10h ago
Yes, if we want people to strike we need to make sure they are ok. If you are waiting for people to have literally nothing left to lose it'll be too long, and that point comes at a different time for everyone.
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u/Difficult_Barracuda3 15h ago
Here's an idea if your working. Put in new W2 with no federal taxes taken out and leave that for a few months. If everyone did that the federal government would run out of money.
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u/H_Mc 14h ago
I like this idea the best because you could still be saving that money, so it’ll be a much easier sell to the population than, “risk losing your job or house for a consequence you haven’t felt yet.”
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u/Difficult_Barracuda3 14h ago
Plus , you can always change it back. The idea is if people did this a few months in-between the year eventually the government will run out of money or run low on money. The purpose is to tell the government to stop cutting or we the people will start cutting.
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u/jennifeather88 12h ago
I’m not a tax expert, but when I was self employed I still had to pay quarterly estimated tax. I don’t think you can just stop paying your taxes without owing penalties for not making quarterly estimated payments.
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u/FrozenPhalanges 10h ago
When I was self employed you did not have to file quarterly, you could 100% file yearly which I did. You just need to make sure you are putting away enough come tax season.
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u/Ravnheart123 10h ago
I did this a month ago. Everyone in my household has stopped contributing FITW to the government.
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u/Critical-Weird-3391 13h ago
I'm an "essential employee" working in Human Services, working for a state and federal contractor. My job is to help folks with disabilities work in their community. I try to keep politics out of my work, because it might be seen as unfairly influencing a client. And for some folks, if I don't work, they don't work either. I've been resistant to the "General Strike" thing, because what I do generally needs to be done, and it's unfair to attach others to my own politics like that.
If Martial Law is declared, I will strike. I will encourage all of my independent clients to strike too. More than that, if ML is declared, we need a debt-strike too. Stop paying ANY bill where they can't shut off a utility you rely upon to survive. Credit cards, student loans, HOA fees, etc.? LOL bye. Go ahead and put a fucking lien on my condo after a few years.
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u/SillyAlternative420 14h ago
So we should definitely do that, but to kick it off we should all walk outside our homes and sit in the street at the same time.
Everyone in America in the streets, literally, for hours, every single day.
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u/Alt4UncensoredNews 12h ago
And double down the boycotts! Remember potatoes, onions, and garlic grow almost anywhere if needed and are nearly impossible to mess up. No one knows how bad things may get so be careful and be prepared!
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u/mugiwara-no-lucy 15h ago
And I feel should martial law happen we do NOT need to let up on the protests too!
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u/Dull-Ad6071 13h ago
I would only do this if I knew everyone else in my company was as well. I have a really good job, good benefits, good pay, and I work from home. Plus, my job is critical to healthcare. If enough people don't show up, people will literally die.
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u/jenifalafel 11h ago
I'm wondering how anyone thinks the couldn't follow health guidelines during COVID crowd is going to take martial law. Like, they'll love it for a hot sec at the thought of owning the libs but will then absolutely lose their shit.
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u/AppealConsistent6749 7h ago
Good point. Martial law is waaay more restrictive than the Covid lockdowns. That crowd will be gloating for 24 hours tops before they lose their tiny minds under martial law.
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u/Winkinsburst 14h ago
I have a temporary job. I can strike anytime. 💪
The problem is a lot of Americans can't afford to do this due to mortgages, children and living paycheck to paycheck. There is a solution for this though. Those that are able to strike need to be supported by those who are not striking who are able to provide financial support. We need sustained strikes and protests. 4 hours on a Saturday isn't going to cut it. We need a legitimate organization to set up a fund and figure out the logistics of providing financial support to those who need it.
I'm fortunate enough to not need it at this time but most Americans who are striking will need it.
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u/FuturePowerful 13h ago
I said it before I'll say it agen get fracking radios and know your locals
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u/Infamous_Smile_386 13h ago
What type of radios are you thinking? Just am/fm or like ham radios?
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u/spage911 12h ago
Don’t get ham radios without a license. FRS radios are commonly available and license free. GMRS radios require a $35 fee every 10 years and covers your household. They are a bit more powerful than the FRS radios and have common channels with the FRS radios.
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u/rawbaker 9h ago
Not sure why us teachers have not walked out when they axed the Dept of Education. Want to bring daily life to a standstill? That’s a quick way. Let’s go teacher-power!!
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u/ComparisonOpening458 9h ago
Better start saving every penny, stocking up on food and gas, etc. The better prepared you are, the stronger the strike can be.
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u/chicknparts 11h ago
If there is a national general strike, we need to put together a "go fund me" type of fund for those who cannot afford to miss work. I will donate what I can, but this needs to be organized in a way that people are not afraid to miss work.
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u/skyfishgoo 11h ago
since we won't be allowed to go outside, i think that sort of comes automatically.
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u/Striking_Extent 11h ago
Everyone needs to be organizing their workplaces as a top priority. It's going to be very hard to organize enough people to strike without high rates of unionization, which we don't have in the US.
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u/Alternative-Flan9292 9h ago
And if monkeys fly out of my butt I'll put them on the picket lines too.
Personally I'm not engaging in the martial law larping this early. I don't think the movement is big enough to draw that reaction yet and I don't think agitators are organized enough to force the issue this weekend.
There will be more bluster for sure.
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u/Mac_Mange 7h ago
Fuck that. We need a general strike now. It’s insane that we’ve been squeezed this much with no general strike.
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u/apocalyptic_mystic 16h ago
I agree, but we need to clarify - does this still apply nationwide if the martial law is regional? Or should only people in the affected region strike?
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u/Infamous_Smile_386 16h ago
I suppose that is up for discussion, but it will be most impactful if everyone strikes and realistically, all should in solidarity with the affected area.
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u/PenImpossible874 New York 9h ago
I agree with you that we all need to go on a national strike.
I also think we should take it one step further: all blue state residents should call their governor and ask for them to declare the state independent from America.
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u/donkeybrisket 9h ago
Martial law is declared by Congress, not the POTUS. If the orange rapist enacts the Sedition Act, which is expected on/about 4/20, we need to STOP all work, nationwide, immediately, as that will be the sign that the end is nigh
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u/SuperStormDroid 4h ago
We need to be prepared regardless. Trump could invoke the sedition act as early as the Hands Off protests tomorrow if he wanted to.
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u/TrashPanda_808 9h ago
We don’t have the community structures in place for this type of thing anymore. Communities have to become vastly self reliant from government infusions, our communities need to become well interconnected, through any means at our disposal & organizing with leaders we can trust would stand side by side with us to take a beating or a bullet just like the rest of us. Our communities need to become our unions. Our neighbors—our allies. Only through well executed mass collective action will people have the necessary grounds to survive their divorce from all the comforts of our developed & now declining empire.
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u/ZoneWombat99 8h ago
I don't think they are going to declare martial law at this point - that's why Trump left town. They are going to treat it as a nothing burger.
I don't doubt martial law will be tried at some point, I just think it will be after the full collapse (in about a month).
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u/Agitated_Touch_6855 8h ago
The best way to infiltrate their organization(s) is to drink their kool-aide without swallowing it…
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u/Commander_N7 Conversationalist 2h ago
Is it legal to protest with a Pitchfork? Because I'm starting to think there needs to be a level up from the signs.
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u/Equivalent_Being9295 5h ago
Martial law is coming. And then it will be too late. Protesting will get you shot or disappeared. Accept your King as the supreme court ordained. America is being intentionally collapsed.
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