The most vulnerable people in America have started the closest thing we’ve seen in a century to a general strike.
In my view, we are so far from a general strike that this is a ludicrous claim. There is no centralism of demands, no unity of action, almost no comraderie (or even contact!) between all the people who quit.
Though the act of quitting is often individual, social media collectivizes it, creating community from an atomized and dislocated workforce
:doubt: just because someone spent .02 seconds to double-tap on tiktok and ‘like’ your walkout, doesn’t make either of you less atomized to any degree I can appreciate
People do still have money in the bank from the various COVID relief programs, including three stimulus checks and expanded unemployment insurance
This person is removed from the experience of the working poor and it shows. I cannot fathom believing that poor people still have money leftover after their jobs getting cancelled and only receiving, at most, like $22k over the course of 2 years.
I don’t think the author is pretending there is a cohesive movement but rather there seems to be something of a realization across a broad swathe of even the most downtrodden workers that may be a precursor to something bigger.
It’s still extremely individualized and localized but it may be a seed that leads to something in the future. Look at how quickly r/antiwork rose in popularity.
Obviously none of it matters if doesn’t translate to the real world and nothing replaces actual organizing. TikToks and memes are just propaganda and could have inspired some people to action.
Wrt people having money in the bank, the statement is true for different strata of the working class and you should include the full quote to back up the claim:
People do still have money in the bank from the various COVID relief programs, including three stimulus checks and expanded unemployment insurance. Combined with the forced savings of a lot of places not being open for months, it totals extra savings of roughly $2.4 trillion, giving people time to make career decisions.
Dayen is a left-liberal so I’m not going to defend him more than that I think this is an interest piece with which to get centrist libs/apolitical/nonfash republicans to think differently about employment by laying the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of capital.
Just sent this to my whole family. I am going to hammer this point home until they disown me.
