67
submitted 3 days ago by WeUnite@lemm.ee to c/antiwork@lemmy.world

I'm really impressed by the courage of the Amazon workers who are going on strike. I was thinking what if one of the conditions of the strikers is that Amazon stops funding Republicans. Then I realized more broadly what if workers in all companies went on strike and demanded that the companies no longer funded Republican candidates. What are your thoughts on this?

top 20 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 58 points 3 days ago

What if corporations weren’t allowed to fund politicians to begin with? Corporations can’t vote, so why do they get such influence? This kind of funding should come out of voters pockets, not corporate cash that belongs to employees and shareholders.

[-] WeUnite@lemm.ee 6 points 3 days ago

That would be amazing! Yes, that's better than what I was thinking.

[-] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Citizens united?

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 3 days ago

In general, people have got to stop voting with just their wallets and start voting with their labor.

Guess what, if Amazon had no workers, it couldn't generate money to donate to Republicans.

[-] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I've been saying this for years and always get the "they're just people trying to get by!!1" responses, Literally one degree removed from "i was just following orders.". No dude, you're taking an active, voluntary role in building the most destructive machine in human history. The workers are not immune to criticism of the company they choose to work for

[-] Womble@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

The whole argument about why capitalism is bad is that it can arbitrarily remove your access to the basics of life by requiring you to sell your labour to survive and then by maintaining a reserve of people without work in order to keep the rest fighting for what there is.

With that in mind it is self defeating to chastise people for choosing to work at amazon over starving or losing their home,

[-] Eranziel@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Yes, this is the crux of the matter.

If you give a person a choice between starving or screwing over the rest of society, they will choose the food nearly every time. Change the first part to "starve their children" and it basically becomes an absolute.

[-] WeUnite@lemm.ee 4 points 3 days ago

I agree with you. Imagine if people built a mutual aid network designed to sustain people for maybe 6-12 months and the country just went on strike. People stop showing up to work everywhere in protest of the oligarchy.

[-] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, or close to it. A side effect of the top 1% holding 99% of the wealth.

Also a ton of Americans are scared shitless of anything that even sounds remotely like socialism or communism while knowing nothing about either. Like paying billions of dollars every year for insurance which is exactly that, just privatized.

[-] WeUnite@lemm.ee 4 points 3 days ago

Regarding living paycheck to paycheck that's why I mentioned the mutual aid network. I know most people can't stop working for very long, that's why there would need to be some kind of group to support this.

Regarding labels like socialism or communism, I'm not advocating for that. I just hope for better wages, working conditions and less corruption in politics.

[-] quixotic120@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

A mutual aid network kind of falls apart if people can’t work for 80% of companies

This is the problem with the dystopia. Where do an overwhelming number of jobs exist? Companies like walmart, amazon, target, mcdonalds, etc. you stop working for them en masse and all of sudden you have tens of millions of people unemployed. Mutual aid is great in theory but how do you overcome this? In practice it’s already terribly difficult to fund things like mutual aid networks because people don’t have much money they are willing to part with. Then you create an absolutely enormous demand on such a network? Doomed

Even if you coordinate and target one company, eg amazon, all that will do is cannibalize their business and allow another company like walmart to fill the gap

[-] WeUnite@lemm.ee 2 points 3 days ago

Your last sentence made me realize something. You're right that if you target one business they will go to another but that's a feature not a bug. The goal is it's a negotiation. Demand better working conditions and stop funding corrupt politicians and then we will return back to work. The company won't want to go out of business so hopefully they would agree.

[-] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

A mutual aid network is a type of socialism. It's no different than a union having a war chest to pull from for strikes formed from union dues, or a country having various social safety nets like unemployment for citizens. They're all the same idea, just a matter of size.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 13 points 3 days ago

You'd need the workers to not be Republicans themselves, in which case the GOP would never win an election.

[-] randon31415@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago

Even if they stopped funding Republicans today, they would be back to funding them in the run up to the 2026 elections.

Everyone company that stopped funding Trump after Jan 6th went back by November 2024.

[-] WeUnite@lemm.ee 1 points 3 days ago

For the demands of the strikers they could include a time period for example no funding of Republicans until 2034 as an example.

[-] rigatti@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

Probably about half of the workers are Republicans (even if it isn't actually in their best interest), so I doubt they would ever put up this condition.

[-] thoughtfuldragon@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

There's an effort to do a general strike with similar aims: https://generalstrikeus.com/strikecard

[-] K1nsey6@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

We need to stop funding capitalists.

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The difficult thing is that our entire society is set up to ensure that whatever we do, we end up funding capitalists. We'd need a complete alternate infrastructure to make it possible to survive without doing so. And any attempt to organize that will meet with resistance from the most powerful people. We have let it go very far before mounting any kind of resistance, and we've given the capitalists decades to put into place total surveillance and a very effective system of oppression to take down anyone who starts getting big ideas.

That's not to say we can't undermine it, but doing so will take time. We won't be able to simply pressure the capitalists into changing their ways, and any direct confrontation short of a mass movement will fail. A mass movement takes time and skill to build, particularly when all the organs of the state, in every country, are determined to stop you building it.

this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
67 points (97.2% liked)

Antiwork

3776 readers
1161 users here now

A community for those who want to end work, are curious about ending work, want to get the most out of a work-free life, want more information on anti-work ideas and want personal help with their own jobs/work-related struggles.

The new place for c/antiwork@lemmy.fmhy.ml

This server is no longer working, and we had to move.

Active stats from all instances

Subscribers: 2.1k

Date Created: June 21, 2023

Library copied from reddit:
The Anti-Work Library 📚
Essential Reads

Start here! These are probably the most talked-about essays on the topic.

c/Antiwork Rules

Tap or click to expand

1. Server Main Rules

The main rules of the server will be enforced stringently. https://lemmy.world/

2. No spam or reposts + limit off topic comments

Spamming posts will be removed. Reposts will be removed with the exception of a repost becoming the main hub for discussion on that topic.

Off topic comments that do not pertain to the post at hand may be removed if it is deemed they contribute nothing and/or foster hostility at users. This mostly applies to political and religious debate, but can be applied to other things at the mod’s discretion.

3. Post must have Antiwork/ Work Reform explicitly involved

Post must have Antiwork/Work Reform explicitly involved in some capacity. This can be talking about antiwork, work reform, laws, and ext.

4. Educate don’t attack

No mocking, demeaning, flamebaiting, purposeful antagonizing, trolling, hateful language, false accusation or allegation, or backseat moderating is allowed. Don’t resort to ad hominem attacks against another user or insult other people, examples of violations would be going after the person rather than the stance they take.

If we feel the comment is uncalled for we will remove it. Stay civil and there won’t be problems.

5. No Advertising

Under no circumstance are you allowed to promote or advertise any product or service

6. No factually misleading informationContent that makes claims or implications that can be proven false or misleading will be removed.

7. Headlines

If the title of the post isn’t an original title of the article then the first thing in the body of the post should be an original title written in this format “Original title: {title here}”.

8. Staff Discretion

Staff can take disciplinary action on offenses not listed in the rules when a community member's actions or general conduct creates a negative experience for another player and/or the community.

It is impossible to list every example or variation of the rules. It is also impossible to word everything perfectly. Players are expected to understand the intent of the rules and not attempt to "toe the line" or use loopholes to get around the intent of the rule.


Other Communities

c/workreform@lemmy.world


Server status for big servers http://lemmy-status.org/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS