In my most recent edition of the #SolutionsWatch podcast on “Stopping the War Machine,” I soliloquized about the possibility of coordinated strikes disrupting the functioning of the military-industrial complex war machine.
To wit:
You and me and the people watching this, living at the bottom rung of the economic ladder, are the lifeblood of the economy. They depend on our support, our cooperation, our labour, our consumption, etc. We really are the deciding factor in whether they are able to continue this war machine functioning. All the other garbage they have built on top of this phony-baloney economy rests on our productive labour. And so, that really is our bargaining tool. It has been for a very long time.
Interestingly, recognition of that fact has been drummed out of us. When was the last time that you saw a serious, genuine, concerted attempt in the developed world to actually withhold or withdraw labour? When have you seen organized strikes for a specific purpose, like, “We are not going to fund this war on Iran! And, until that war stops: general strike!”
I know there were those in the audience to whom that sounded like pie-in-the-sky, wishful thinking. “Get real, James,” I heard you say. “No one’s ever going to go on strike to end a war. No one cares that much!”
Well, guess what? It’s haaaaaapppening! …
