Politics Unionize Unionize UNIONIZE

[Lozjam]

This is something that is near to my heart, and something I have been thinking for the longest of times. The amount of people that waste their time with their appearance of which political party they represent. Also, with scores of people lamenting, and complaining about our late stage capitalistic hellscape. Which is true to a certain extent, things are bad.

But no politician is going to save you, and it's overall okay to be politically active and serve the people you think will be best. But I find that people put all of this effort, and are lambasted because voting in people does very little in people's every day life. Instead, we should really focus on one single thing, instead of putting all of our hopes and dreams in politicians that will either be relatively useless, or be blocked by the other guys.

Unionize
Unionize
Unionize

If you are in a union. Great, do all that you can to make sure your union is in power. Go get that bag.

But if you're not, make a union. It doesn't matter what field you are in, or how much you make. Make that union. Do you want to just complain about issues, or Do you actually want to solve issues like:

Having a living wage
Discrimination both for employees and customers?
Maternity and Paternity Leave
More time off
Having remote work options
Poverty in your community
Workers rights
Trans Rights

Then the solution is simple. Unionize. It not only benefits yourself, but an entire community that is your coworkers. You can tackle discrimination, workplace harrasment way easier too. It also brings more money and benefits for your community too.

And believe it or not, but this also, is way more better politically too. You have a Union who can vet local and federal initiatives of each candidate, making it so much harder for anti work politicians to pull wool over your and your coworkers eyes. Socialist policies and laws like Minimum Wage, 5 Day Work Week, and Workplace Safety did not exists until Unions were able to use their political power.

So please, consider instead of volunteering your time, and your voice to politicians, let's focus on unionization. Instead of liberal policies like UBI, let's focus on unionization. That's really what we need for a better standard of living, fixing greedflation, income inequality, you name it. Unionize. It will not just benefit you, but your coworkers too, and everyone else in the future.

 

[Mekanos]

I don't think any socialists would disagree with saying unionization should be a focus

Recent events have certainly solidified how useless even "progressive" American politicians are when it comes to international events, at any rate

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

I have no idea who this is aimed at, every socialist I know loves unions to the point of fetishizing them. Who are you talking to?

 

[Ramune]

“Don’t be left wing, join a union” feels like something you would say to a robot to make it explode.

 

[PixelKnight]

This does feel like a bit of a disconnect between the thread title and what you’re saying, Lozjam, which is that starting or joining a union is likely more practical and immediately effective than voting. Which isn’t the same as ‘being a socialist is absolutely useless’. It feels like what you mean in the OP is ‘being a socialist that only takes part in politics by voting in the existing system isn’t effective when you can see results through union activity too’ instead. Which feels pretty reasonable.

 

[Lozjam]

I don't think any socialists would disagree with saying unionization should be a focus

Recent events have certainly solidified how useless even "progressive" American politicians are when it comes to international events, at any rate

I completely agree. Most members of the democratic party are astonishingly anti union, while making fake promises that widespread unionization would inherently solve.

I do think most socialists do not focus on that, it's more about lambasting the current democratic party, and deservedly so. However, I feel thats the huge ploy in terms employer power. We often blame our corrupt political system, are electoral college, our outdated systems. But in reality, the majority of our economic and even social issues steam simply from a lack of unionization.

I have no idea who this is aimed at, every socialist I know loves unions to the point of fetishizing them. Who are you talking to?

Billions of dollars are spent, and millions of man hours are spent volunteering for political candidates in the promise that things will get better. I myself, donated a ton of my time for Biden administration. When in reality, if I put the work in for myself and my colleagues to unionize, the same thing would have resulted. Honestly, I think political activism is quite useless, when that time could be used for union activism. And considering how many politics threads we have here, and how much traffic, but very little about resources for unionizing. I think it's quite needed.

 

[Linkchidori]

Maybe the definition of Socialist differs depending on the region, but the Socialists i know are completely in favour of Unions. In fact, Unions are one of the defining traits of most socialist movements.

 

[Clov]

Ah yes, the famous union hating left wing...

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

Things that make me go....
What da!?
Also, have you ever met a leftist/socialist? They are generally pro union, anti "just vote" kinda people.

 

[Raccoon]

Billions of dollars are spent, and millions of man hours are spent volunteering for political candidates in the promise that things will get better. I myself, donated a ton of my time for Biden administration. When in reality, if I put the work in for myself and my colleagues to unionize, the same thing would have resulted. Honestly, I think political activism is quite useless, when that time could be used for union activism. And considering how many politics threads we have here, and how much traffic, but very little about resources for unionizing. I think it's quite needed.

respectfully, forum posting about politics and forum posting about unions have the same impact which is nothing

 

[Weiss]

I preferred "Arkham Asylum is a retro game" for Loz takes tbqh

 

[neil]

So you mean "don't just declare your political position, actually do something." That's always been good advice if you want change.

 

[KingWaterChicken]

Most lefties are pro-union so you're sort of preaching to the choir, here in the U.K there are even right wing sects that are pro-union. But yes, unions are based.

 

[Lozjam]

I preferred "Arkham Asylum is a retro game" for Loz takes tbqh

It's even more a retro game now, it's over 15 years old now. People who played it when they were a teenagers are now in their ancient 30s.

Things that make me go....
What da!?
Also, have you ever met a leftist/socialist? They are generally pro union, anti "just vote" kinda people.

I just honestly think it's a messaging thing to be completely honest. I know leftists are trying to make ground on legislation. Stuff like UBI, Rent Control, universal free Healthcare. But honestly, a lot of America is a bit cagey about that. For a lot of reasons, but really look at the shit show of our government, due to decades of dealing with their sheer incompetence, malice, and stupidity I don't blame them for not believing in legislation that is good for people. When people think socialism, a lot of people rebuke a little bit.

But if we took all of that energy, and brought it into education and energy for forming unions. And it can be done in as a small or large of a scale as can be. In the end, it will still benefit Socialist policies, and it can help create greater political awareness for actually good candidates.

I think if the leftist or Socialist movement went 100% in advertising and educating about unions, America would be an infinitely better place, and it would get results far quicker pace than continuing to reach towards nigh impossible legislation on the federal level.

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

I think if the leftist or Socialist movement went 100% in advertising and educating about unions, America would be an infinitely better place, and it would get results far quicker pace than continuing to reach towards nigh impossible legislation on the federal level.

Again, I'm not sure how leftist could be more vocally pro union. Its a problem that goes deeper than "they aren't advertising it enough". Maybe look into the history of unionization in the US and state laws about unions. Its pretty complicated. Also, just out of curiosity, can you give me an example of a leftist?

 

[ngpdrew]

It's even more a retro game now, it's over 15 years old now. People who played it when they were a teenagers are now in their ancient 30s.

Shit. First I'm catching strays for not caring enough about unions, allegedly, and now this? That's just not nice!

 

[Zellia]

Your basic point, that action is better than electoral hopium, is sound and I agree wholeheartedly with it. But the framing here in your thread title is profoundly unhelpful to your message.

 

[Barry Burton]

I feel as if the idea that Socialism doesn't cater towards Unionization is a misnomer, because it's a huge part of what many far left beliefs focus on. That aside, I do take grievance in the idea that Unionization will fix most problems, because it assumes that everyone who is affected by inequalities caused by our governing bodies is able to function and work in the various environments out there. Unionization is good, general public support is good, and obviously any left-leaning group supports them, but we need to be mindful that the fact is that many people who cannot work would not be able to benefit from said just focusing on Unionization. We leave our disabled brothers and sisters behind that are stuck with low-income, questionable access to decent insurance, etc., if we just use this as a focus.

Unionization is one of many things, but it is in itself not a total solution. And to just focus and fixate on this topic, leaves a group of individuals behind. I'm among one of these people, so please keep us in mind when discussing these matters. Disabled people need help and support and unfortunately, Unionization would go only so far to help us who are unable to work. If we are to discuss workers rights, we also need to discuss disabled rights in the same breath. This entire premise is bogged down by ignoring the needs of the disabled and honestly, I wish this wasn't my first post here of all things, but that is the reality of having to constantly remind able-bodied and able-minded people the issues that affect us.

It's honestly a shame.

 

[Dusa]

I say this in the nicest way possible, you need to read up more on these subjects.