By Mike Wilson.
FROM PROTEST TO RESISTANCE.
GENERAL STRIKE
COMMENCES JANUARY 20th, 2017
#j20 #turnyourback #unitedweresist #disruptj20 #notmypresident occupyoakland.org @occupyoakalnd Facebook: Turn Your Back
Washington DC, New York City, Oakland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Portland, Seattle, Denver, Detroit, St. Louis, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Austin, San Jose, Orlando, Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Milwaukee, Albuquerque, Minneapolis, Charlotte, Cleveland, Cincinnati and more…
In recent days, you may have sensed fear and hopelessness from acquaintances. “What do we do to resist the success of neo-fascism in this country?” Real resistance to this increased threat means injuring our oppressors in ways they find intolerable. Violence against them is not the way to begin, because injury to persons or property will only galvanize them into a more efficient machine for processing the stillrich reserves they retain for punishment.
The strike, and particularly the general strike, is the best way to begin organized resistance. Like artillery in conventional warfare, the general strike softens the enemy’s resistance by depleting their reserves. And it is a peaceful form of direct action in which everyone can participate.
Three Reasons to participate in a general strike:
1. Preparing for the strike requires that we organize with our friends and neighbors and make plans for sharing and distributing the resources available among the strikers. Doing this makes it possible for us to withdraw from commerce and, thus, starve the fascist oppressors. Do you have a skill to share? This may not be something you do for work. It may be something you’re good at outside your work life. Ask yourself: what can I do to help? You don’t have to ask for any kind of authorization to help. Just start, and keep an open mind for ways to do it better.
2. The general strike is a denial of labor and commerce. Even if you have a good, sympathetic boss, each
hour of labor given to commercial enterprises contributes to the Gross Domestic Product and sends a message of compliance with the neo-fascist regime. By refusing to work and buy with money, we knock the foundation out from under the economic system that has heavily invested in ever stronger tools for exploitation and fear-based compliance. A massive one-day general strike will startle them. With each additional day, more of the plutocrats and their hired officials will question their methods.
3. While organizing and sustaining strikes, we will – at the same time – be refining models for post-revolutionary communities. We will establish greater and deeper connections with our neighbors. Those connections will facilitate tolerance and consensus among us, after which comes responsibility and accountability. The final product of these preparations is real autonomy – direct access to what we need to survive and thrive.
We don’t need a class of professional authoritarians.
We got this.
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