I’m afraid it’s nothing that immediate or glorious (not yet anyway, but really, probably not for my generation… I’m 30. Maybe by the time the current youth are 30 we can have a shot.)
Americans are too disorganized to effectively exercise working class power, and too exploited to effectively organize. So you have to attack that reality from every front, many of which are mundane but essential.
Fighting exploitation primarily entails making things less expensive. The legal system will not save us, nor will electoral politics, though local politics are often worth the time. You can make it less expensive for people to raise children by watching their kids for them. You can make it less expensive for people to eat by growing food for them or cooking for them. You can make your own existence less expensive by buying used goods wherever possible and viable, and generally buying less consumer goods. I’ve had the same laptop for like 13 years, the same sunglasses for 15 years, the same shoes for 5 or 6 years, the same car for 5 or 6 years (with no plans to replace it).
All that money I didn’t need is time I didn’t need to spend working, which in turn frees me up to organize and just fuckin exist a little bit, which makes life more worth living, which makes you more motivated to fight for it. Add a little compassion / empathy to that mix, and it makes you more motivated to fight for other people too.
Then organizing looks different for everyone, but a good place to start is with (especially non-religious) organizations dedicated to feeding or otherwise serving the homeless, or environmental cleanup groups, or if none of that exists, just getting some friends together and doing something to improve where you live. Literally anything to make things better for those around you is how it starts.
You’re skipping ahead, which is fine, we’ve all been there and we all wish we could accelerate things. But if we had the power to take over corporate offices to any level which would cause a real economic impact or actually threaten the safety of shareholders / executives, then they would already fear us too much to be fucking us over the way they are.
True. So what would you suggest? Taking over corporate headquarters and places like Wall Street?
I’m afraid it’s nothing that immediate or glorious (not yet anyway, but really, probably not for my generation… I’m 30. Maybe by the time the current youth are 30 we can have a shot.)
Americans are too disorganized to effectively exercise working class power, and too exploited to effectively organize. So you have to attack that reality from every front, many of which are mundane but essential.
Fighting exploitation primarily entails making things less expensive. The legal system will not save us, nor will electoral politics, though local politics are often worth the time. You can make it less expensive for people to raise children by watching their kids for them. You can make it less expensive for people to eat by growing food for them or cooking for them. You can make your own existence less expensive by buying used goods wherever possible and viable, and generally buying less consumer goods. I’ve had the same laptop for like 13 years, the same sunglasses for 15 years, the same shoes for 5 or 6 years, the same car for 5 or 6 years (with no plans to replace it).
All that money I didn’t need is time I didn’t need to spend working, which in turn frees me up to organize and just fuckin exist a little bit, which makes life more worth living, which makes you more motivated to fight for it. Add a little compassion / empathy to that mix, and it makes you more motivated to fight for other people too.
Then organizing looks different for everyone, but a good place to start is with (especially non-religious) organizations dedicated to feeding or otherwise serving the homeless, or environmental cleanup groups, or if none of that exists, just getting some friends together and doing something to improve where you live. Literally anything to make things better for those around you is how it starts.
You’re skipping ahead, which is fine, we’ve all been there and we all wish we could accelerate things. But if we had the power to take over corporate offices to any level which would cause a real economic impact or actually threaten the safety of shareholders / executives, then they would already fear us too much to be fucking us over the way they are.