The Russian general strike of 1905 is mainly a result of defeat in a foreign war combined with the bloody Sunday. So people spontaneously started to strike, with little to none organization.
In fact, at the start of the general strike, most socialist parties were taken by surprise, and only after they realized that the revolution was happening, did they try to enter the scene and steer the movement.
There were a few in Ireland. The one generally referred to in recent times was a 1972 massacre in Derry’s Bogside district (the city has the Waterside, historically inhabited but unionists and descendents of English-backed colonists, and the Bogside, historically inhabited by native Irish). During a march to protest the internment without trial of Irish Republicans, British paratroopers opened fire, killing 13 (another later died of wounds) and injuring another 12.
This was an inflection point in the history of The Troubles, escalating the conflict. Despite multiple investigations showing the actions to be unjustified and unjustifiable, none of those implicated have yet stood trial, though one is set to, after years of prosecutors trying to avoid it, additionally, all of the soldiers’ names remain redacted.
There were at least 3 others in Ireland as well. One of the others with major conflict implications being the 1920 massacre of civilians at Croke Park in Dublin. In reaction to a morning assassination of British Army intelligence officers by the IRA, the Black and Tans (Royal Irish Constabulary; British occupational force) drove armored cars to the football pitch and opened fire, without provocation, on the 5,000 spectators and players of a Gaelic football match, killing 15, including three children and a young woman (the latter I mention primarily as it was even more impactful at the time), and wounding 80, all civilians.
This significantly damaged the perception of British authority intentionally and with the indigenous population of Ireland, and garnered increased increased support for the IRA.
This is why as a business you should ABUB, Always Be Union Busting. Once you let your workers unionize you’re screwed, they’ll start making all sorts of ridiculous demands and if you don’t cave their every whim they could strike and lose you millions.
I like to send in a plant who talks about union stuff, sniff any real employees that react positively to it and shitcan 'em before they can cause any trouble.
Sarcasm can’t be conveyed well through text on the internet, especially when someone could say similar messed up shit unironically. Even if it was explicitly stated, fucked up jokes are disgusting. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad or can’t be funny, just that they’re nasty jokes.
They’re boiling the frog right now and hoping the Big 3 will back down before they shutter transmission or engine plants. For a group that won’t endorse Biden, they’re sure doing a lot of the legwork for him.
Like, yes, this is the part I like, but it’d be really cool if we didn’t repeat the 20th century. As funny as it is to imagine boomers in purgatory in a hundred years annoyed that gen z is considered the greatest generation, it’s equally tragic.
We’re mostly too old to fight the wars though. Like, the main pool of soldiers for WWIII would be gen z, not millennials. Millennials get to be the lost generation though, how fitting
From what I understand East Palestine was unrelated to the union’s demands. It still really highlights though just how shitty the companies are and how little they care.
I’m not thrilled with how everything went down either, but I do think it was the least worst option. The rail industry is “too big to fail”, and the CEOs were perfectly willing to tank the economy and delay crucial food, energy, and water shipments. All for just some more money.
I firmly believe now that the industry needs to be nationalized. If a strike will cause more harm to the public than to the owners, those workers are essential for our everyday lives and the government needs to take control. And by causing harm, I don’t mean “oh no the gifts will be late for Christmas” – some of the issues with this would’ve been places running out of water treatment chemicals or heating in the winter.
The way I see it, the rail CEOs took the entire country hostage. They need to be ousted and their businesses taken over.
Its a damn shame it isnt nationalized. East Palestine wasn't exactly related but yeah, it did highlight. Not to mention it failed because of regulaions those business leaders rallied against. The UK is worse with this stuff and have a more gross history with their rail ceos and strikes.
We should at least push to nationalize the rails and sell access. Give the public interest more control over quality of the infrastructure, actually give Amtrak scheduling priority, force more strict regulations on safety equipment and procedures that would have prevented East Palestine.
Rail workers are still on-call 24/7, the raises they got are below inflation, and I’m pretty sure Biden’s legislation only grants one additional day of leave with various rail companies granting a handful of additional days on top of that, with unused days not carrying over from year to year. Rail workers had leverage to demand more than this — rail networks are critical infrastructure — but the government struck down that leverage and then awarded them a concession prize that was less than they wanted. I see it as a blow to the power of unions, not a victory. It sends the message that the government can destroy your strike and then arbitrarily choose to give you whatever concessions they feel are appropriate. Biden could have chosen to give them nothing, they didn’t win this. And at the end of the day, their bosses can still call them in at 4 in the morning and they still lose their job if they don’t show.
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