Tuesday, January 11, 2005
MSS: Boycotts... and general strikes
A man is trying to organize a general boycott on Jan 20, to mark Bush's Inauguration as a black day.
I think this is a good start, though to be sure, boycotts are seldom successful.
I have something a little larger in mind. Bush is threatening to privatize Social Security, and in the process, steal enormous sums from the trust fund---a trust held by the government on behalf of the people---and from working Americans. Democrats will be hard pressed to stop him in Congress, if Bush is willing to push through a bill to kill Social Security on a party line vote. Before we let that happen, we should consider a general strike. A large fraction of the electorate clearly hates the Bush administration, and we are concentrated in the economically vital Blue States. If we refused to go to work until Social Security was guaranteed, we could wreak havoc.
I should note this is a nuclear option and would be a Herculean task to organize, given the usual free rider problems and inevitable selective efforts at punishment by Republican employers. So I've marked this entry as Mad Social Science. But it's worth filing away---someday, it might not seem so mad...
I think this is a good start, though to be sure, boycotts are seldom successful.
I have something a little larger in mind. Bush is threatening to privatize Social Security, and in the process, steal enormous sums from the trust fund---a trust held by the government on behalf of the people---and from working Americans. Democrats will be hard pressed to stop him in Congress, if Bush is willing to push through a bill to kill Social Security on a party line vote. Before we let that happen, we should consider a general strike. A large fraction of the electorate clearly hates the Bush administration, and we are concentrated in the economically vital Blue States. If we refused to go to work until Social Security was guaranteed, we could wreak havoc.
I should note this is a nuclear option and would be a Herculean task to organize, given the usual free rider problems and inevitable selective efforts at punishment by Republican employers. So I've marked this entry as Mad Social Science. But it's worth filing away---someday, it might not seem so mad...
