General Strike with Kim Kelly

possibility of a general strike. Now if you the listener have somehow missed this discourse. In short, a general strike is when instead of one union of workers from one industry striking, everybody strikes at least, you know, a very

significant chunk of the labor force strikes. And this is you know, it's the kind of thing people on the left have dreamed about four years as like this is what could you know, turn things around, reduce income inequality, force action on climate change, the military industrial complex, and kind of as a result, you've had feels like every year for the last few years since people started reading about general strikes, which have occurred in a number of

places and times, there's these like someone will get on Twitter and be like, we're all doing a general strike in two weeks, you know, everybody get ready, and folks will be like, that's not really how you do a general strike, and they'll go like, well, if you weren't saying it's not, it could happen.

And it's like I love the energy, I love the vibe, you know, I love the idea of a general strike. I think it would be incredible if we actually pulled it off. But the biggest thing in there is the if followed by the pulled it off part. And one of the biggest misconceptions I think is that a general strike is akin to a big protest. Like you can absolutely plan a big protest in a few days if you really want to. I mean, look at the incredible work that Jewish Force for Piece has been doing in

New York and other places. They're going to be doing in Philly this week. I mean, it is possible to build on existing relationships and networks to create a big fucking deal of a protest. But a general strike is a different beast. It is a specific thing. It has a definition. A general strike, as you said, is when workers across various industries go on strike at the same time, and that is not the same as filling the streets

for a protest. It would be sick if we can kind of meld those movements like the radical radical organizers who are already in community, already building protests infrastructure, and people in union labor world that are kind of beholden to contracts and more legal constraints. But it's going to take a little bit of time. It's going to take some dialogue, maybe even some fruitful discourse to get on

the same page. Like they're like, there are laws. We live in a society, unfortunately, and it's it's not quite as simple as just declaring a general strike when you're like, for your friends call out sick.

I don't know, man. There's people who got kids. They have other responsibilities than being a part of your revolution. Which is not to say that I don't think I Like, again, we're about to talk about an achievable plan for a general strike, but one of the reasons why you can't can't pull it off in a couple of days is that you have to set you have to have some sort of plan for how you're going to take care of the people striking, right, like so they don't starve and shit.

You don't have any protections there, Like one of the reasons that and I know it's not as much fun. It's just going out and saying fuck it and bring it all down. Trust me, I would love to see that type of shit, but unfortunately, again we live constrained by laws and like logic when it comes like the reason that you see big labor strikes and big picket lines and all this cool stuff that's happening, like there is part of a process. Those unions are negotiating contracts,

these legally binding documents. They're collective bargaining agreements that have expiration dates. You know, the UAW didn't just pick you didn't just say all right, right, now we're mad, we're going to go on strike. Like no, their previous agreements had expiration date. They hit the expiration date, so they start bargaining again. Bargaining didn't go well, they went on strike. That is how it works when you're in a union. That's like just part and parcel of the push and

pool of leverage that workers have against the boss. And it's like a century's old system, Like there's laws, there's protections, there's a lot that goes into it. And I think we're saying before we hopped on the call officially, like I think a lot of people haven't had union jobs or didn't don't have a deep understanding of unions and how they work. So of course they wouldn't necessarily know when the expiration dating is for this contract or what

goes into bargaining union contract. But there's there's a lot of moving parts.

Sean Fain, who is Big Sean, Yeah, Big Sean. And he's like the he's the he's the head of the u a W. Right or he's like the guy negotiating for the ua W.

like they've won on a lot, which is great. And Sean is is not just a you know, a union man, but is very much a t talking blatantly about the class war of the rich against everybody else that's occurring

in this country. And he made some statements about two days before we recorded this where he was like, I think, you know what, we need to be setting the date, the expiration date for our contract in twenty twenty eight, and I want to implore all other you know, unions that are negotiating and can do this, to set that with their next contract expiration date, so that in twenty twenty eight we have the option to do a general strike in order to redress some of this, to make

inequalities as a result of this war of the billionaires against everybody else. Very much framed it in those kind of stark terms, and you know, we're going to talk about why. But I think that's a workable plan potentially.

it's illegal. And I mean, of course, you know, laws aren't real, but when you're doing this kind of thing and operating within these constraints, it is helpful when you're not actively breaking the law, because that helps you get more shit done. Right, So what Sean is proposing is saying, Okay, we're gonna set our contract to expire around this time, and we want a whole bunch of other big ingers

to do the same thing. Now, if all of their union contracts happen to expire around the same time, and then their negotiations happen to break down and they happen to go on strike at the same time, creating an actual general strike, the government can't really do shit about it. I mean, you mentioned before the sympathy strikes, solidarity strikes. They are illegal because of this nineteen forty seven law

called out the taff Hartley Act. Essentially, that means if say you're your warehouse, you're part of the teamsers, you go on strike, and then the coffee shop next door is like, oh, yeah, we support you, We're going to go on strike too. They can't do that, that's breaking the law. But in this different hypothetical, if they their contract was up at the same time as your contract, you both want to strike at the same time, that's legal, and it's also very disruptive to that little corridor you're

working in. And imagine doing that on a national level. Imagine if the flight attendants, the teamsters, the UAW, Starbucks fucking the air traffic controllers, the longshoreman, like all of these incredibly important infrastructure wise jobs happened to go on strike at the same time. That would shut down the whole fucking country. Yeah, and it would be legal, which is so fun. I'd love to see it.

It makes it easier to get critical mass. And if at a later date, you know, the state were to take a legal action that makes it impossible for you to continue legally, well, then you've got that critical mass behind you and potentially probably radicalized, you know.

all times. But getting shit done is way more fun and way more satisfying.

You can't defend going out and busting a bunch of windows and then getting locked up super easy, because you do you have responsibilities. You've got people to care for, you.

at their beck in call. So that's you know, this is still a frightening and potentially pretty dangerous thing, but it is a workable plan that has infrastructure behind it, and that crucially, you know, the downside is that the bosses know that people are talking about this and they have time to prepare. But the nice side is that like, well so do we, and that's generally positive.

we need. They need to sort of work out the timing for you know, this plan only works if we can actually maneuver away for a lot of these big contracts that big powerful unions to expire at the same time, if someone's contract, if the team SERTs, next contract expires in twenty twenty seven, like okay, I think they're not gonna be able to play ball, and you really want the teamsters if you want to play this type of game.

And then another hurdle that I think it's it's unfortunate is that you know Sean Fame, Big Sean A what a man. He's very out there and very outspoken about opposing capitalism, about this being class war. He's on the level, but he is a rarity among major labor union leaders. Like there are some leaders that would be down to clown, you know, like Sarah Nelson's out here, like Mark Diamondstein

with the postal workers. Like there are some very cool, very progressive, if not radical union leaders out there, but there's also a lot of conservative or just of wishy washy Democrats style union leaders too that would not want to have any part of this, and a big part of convincing them to get on the level and become involved in this kind of effort that's going to come down to what the rank and file have to say. That's going to come that that pressure is going to

have to come up through the ranks. I mean, the reason we have Sean Fain and we have Sean ol brien and the Teamsters, and we have this kind of newer wave of more progressive mills that union leadership is because of what the rank and file have done, Like Teamster's for Democratic Union organized for years to get that reform slaid in, to get Sean O'Brien in there to

take on ups. Sean Fayne is the first ever democratically elected union leader in uaw's history because of a lot of organizing around reform that came from the rank and file that took years to get him there. We would not have Big Sean if people had not invested years

of their life towards organizing for this goal. And so now we have this four to five year span where we can push our own union leaders in that right direction to plant those seeds, to try and really build something that they can't refuse to get on board with.

But that's going to take time too. I think people need to really recognize that, like, unions are not unfortunately they're all like these magical progressive silver bullets, Like there are no previ shitty people in union leadership across the country, and we got to do something about if we really want to get people on board.

to what people want. They've also had, especially if you go back to like you know, the mid century, last century not short history of corruption, right, that's been a problem you needs have dealt with in the past. Two These are issues you don't have as much with autonomously organized you know, small groups of activists on the street. The thing that makes them a lot stronger in many ways is the fact that they have more resources to marshall.

They have ways of addressing grievances other than like kind of just personal conflicts that are built into the system, and ways of kind of pushing for change that if you get enough people on board with you can make And then you have the weight of this organization with a degree of power and social cachet behind it, And so I think the ability it's much harder to steer these things, but when you get them pointed in the right direction, they have more daying power than kind of

small autonomous groups usually do. And I think there's a lot of potential power in that, which is why I think this is a workable plan.

talk to people not online in person. You got to go talk to people who are different from me, who might have different politics, and try and get them to see why this is something that we could do that could help them, that could help everyone. This is something I emphasize a lot because I'm like, I'm an anarchist too, even though i know it's not like a big old Debbie downer right now talking about all this legal stuff.

But I'm also practical and I've also spent a lot of time talking to union members who see the world a lot differently from me. Like I think a lot of my most recent impactful work is, you know, stuff I've been doing in the Deep South and an Appalachia, and no one there is impressed with my guillotine tattoos, but they do see the need to deal with this situation where all the rich people have all the stuff and they're getting screwed. That is a good starting point

for a lot. Yeah, and it's yeah, it's easy to say join a union, Like, not everyone can do that, but everybody can find a way to talk to somebody who's connected to a union, who's part of a labor movement, part of a labor organization, Like we need everyone to get involved however they can.

solidarity march. And at both of these marches that had large thousands of people, the corkers and the security were all kind of the same folks, and they were all folks that were like came out of the Portland radical scene. We're there in the twenty twenty protests a huge because corking, if you're not aware, is like going ahead of into the sides of a protest, like close traffic briefly as people walk by, so folks don't get hit by cars.

It's a safety thing, right, and so people were kind of like the people who were doing that are radicals. Our members of generally like these autonomously organized groups who are very useful in helping these because you know, people have experienced, you know, unions, there may be experience striking, but a lot of unions haven't struck in a long time, right,

because it doesn't happen all that often. And even if they have, most of these guys, especially these older guys and ladies and other folks, these these older union members probably have not participated in a large march in the modern era of protests where there's dangers like getting rammed by cars and stuff. And so the people who have these the straight medics and stuff, who have that kind

of experience hugely useful. Not the only thing. People who are striking often need stuff handwarmers or are always appreciated water warm food, things that like keep people's morale up, organizing like sympathy demonstrations like alongside strikers, and whatnot to help them keep their numbers up. All of that stuff can be really useful ways for these autonomously organized, kind of smaller groups of radicals to participate in a meaningful

way in something like this. That's not the only degree to which that's possible, but like, those are just the examples that come to mind.

all that is all important too. I mean not every I've been on some pretty wild picket lines, and not everyone there is really that concerned with what the law has to say about certain things. Once things get a little heated, I mean there are points, I mean and things I've covered and we've seen this continue to happen where people try and drive into the picket line and or trying to attack people in the picket line. Yeah, that is I mean, that deserves a variety of responses,

I think. And also something to note is that when when these are strikes called by union leadership, they follow They tend to follow a set of rules because predominantly, like like generally speaking, union leadership doesn't want their members to go to jail. They don't want them to get

in any kind of situations like that. So they'll say, you know, okay, well you stay on the sidewalk, or oh the cops said to move, so we move, or this has to be non violent, or you know, there's there's kind of a set of circumstances there that union

members are required to follow. But if you're there to support and you're not a member of that union, as long as you have the consent and support the people there you're you're there trying to stick up for, then you have a lot more leeway than someone that has, you know, a union leader to answer to. Like, there's

a lot of creative ways you can get involved. And one thing that I think hasn't really been discussed as much in like the online discourse or whatever, but I think it's important to think about even if you're not a person who is able to participate in that on the street type of way, if there's a huge strike going on in your city and you're not part of a union, but you want to get involved. Sickouts have

a very long, illustrious history in a labor movement. If you happen to get sick that day, what's your boss going to do? You know, assuming you have those kind of protections. If you don't, then you have to make

your own you know, caveat, caveat, caveat. But if you're in a position where you can take off work that day or for a couple of days, and it just happens to coincide with that massive strike that's shut down everything else, And if you convince all your coworkers that you're a shocked to do the same thing, you're not breaking the law. You're protected, but you're also part of

the shutdown effort. Like sickouts. One of the reasons that people were so spoofed around twenty nineteen when the government shutdown was looming, before Sarah Nelson really brought out the big Gs wars that we're seeing sickouts at airports and flights are being canceled in New York and I think la and that was starting to spook the people in charge because if enough people don't show up for work

at the airport. Nothing's going to happen at that airport. Yeah, And there are a lot of different workplaces where all of their workers not showing up could be a potential problem. So I just encourage people to think creatively about the ways they can get involved, even if they can't necessarily like get involved on the formal union side. Like, there's so much we can do from each according to his ability to each, courting to his means. You know that, I'll chestnut.

legally there's nothing stack them from doing that. If you have a bunch of ground workers call in, right, or a bunch of stewardesses, you have to replace them with people who are qualified groundworkers. Like there's a whole process, there's like a serial Like there's a lot that they have to know how to do, a lot of compliance that has to be done because thousands and thousands of lives are at stake, right, same thing with medical workers.

Right when when you've got a job where like they can't if like a bunch of nurses go on strike, well you have to replace them with nurses, right, And there's a very limited supply, so there's a lot of leverage that these organizations have.

talking amongst ourselves about it. But to have the head of a union who has four hundred thousand members, who just whipped the shit out of the Big three automakers, who's getting all these headlines to talk about a general strike in a meaningful way like, yes, maybe he's not out here throwing Molotov cocktails the way we perhaps would want to see someone doing that, But it still a

huge deal. And even if you know, the mainstream organized labor movement isn't as radical as a lot of us within it would like to see it, we have a lot of time now to try and pull things in direction. I feel like a damn has burst in a way. And if anything, this is a moment of opportunity and of working together and trying to see different perspectives in a way that gets us all closer to the point we really need to be. Absolutely we take all this shit down, all right?