Hey, I will be flying Delta later this month. Any idea where I an get my hands on a pro-union button or such to wear at the gate and on the flight? Wouldn’t it be fun if passengers started advocating for the union?
2 Likes
The US Labor Movement had symbols. Do none of those apply? How about abolitionist symbols, or civil rights, etc. Every labor and social justice movement has had their own symbols; are none of them as apt as a guillotine? Besides the poor example of how the French Revolution turned out, I have to question the wisdom of having the symbolism of a movement be entirely based on the movement’s opponents. Most of Il Douche’s most ardent supporters hate “elites.” The symbolism of the guillotine is distressingly ahistorical and serves to define any social movement as merely opposed to something else, rather than to define ourselves.
Think of the most successful movement symbols from recent years. The black power salute. The rainbow flag. The “punk” anarchy symbol. The peace sign. People who used these symbols were often fighting the same opponents; but they were not defined by who they opposed.
Ooh, thank you for finding that. I’m flying them soon, too. (Best choice of bad options)
I’ll print that out as a sticker and wear it.
3 Likes
I always found it to be not wishing for the guillotine but warning against it. With reforms everyone can win. With peaceful political revolution you lose, but keep your head and probably enough of your money to swim in. But if you block avenues to peaceful change, you make violent change inevitable. And, of course, the thing about violent change is that it goes not the way of the people with the best ideas or the most legitimate grievance, but to those most apt to do violence. These are, by and large, not likely to be nice people.
Guillotines are a potent reminder of this dynamic, I find.
12 Likes
I asked @MachinistsUnion on Twitter if there’s a way to get a t-shirt or button, and they replied “Working on this 
Stay tuned.”
3 Likes
Yup.
9 Likes
I’d say what @LapsedPacifist has already said, but with the addition that we have tried being nice and polite and it got us to where we are today, with Trumpism and Brexit.
You cite the black power salute, but would white people have considered Martin Luther King Jr a more moderate voice without Malcolm X? The black power salute was controversial in the 60s and considered to be threatening to the status quo.
You give the Rainbow flag as an example, but I would remind you that the first pride was a riot.
The ‘punk rock’ anarchy symbol is an example of capitalist recuperation, not success (and I say that as someone who has a lot of respect for genuine anarcho-punks). Besides that, anarcho-punks are not pacifists.
I have read Tolstoy and his writings on non-violence and civil disobedience (the same book that influenced Gandhi and MLK), but I disagree with him. While non-violence should always be the starting point of protests, it should not be a rule set in stone. This is especially true when people are dying as a result of the actions that we are protesting against.
ETA: And since I have just mentioned Gandhi, let me direct you to another national hero of the Indian Independence Movement
Bhagat Singh became a popular folk hero after his death. Jawaharlal Nehru wrote about him, “Bhagat Singh did not become popular because of his act of terrorism but because he seemed to vindicate, for the moment, the honour of Lala Lajpat Rai, and through him of the nation. He became a symbol; the act was forgotten, the symbol remained, and within a few months each town and village of the Punjab, and to a lesser extent in the rest of northern India, resounded with his name.”
7 Likes
It seems the root of the problem is lack of government regulations that would require companies to put their employees’ well-being over shareholder profits. Instead of clamoring for more unions, why aren’t we clamoring for better government?
8 Likes
Web sites are considered apps now? Very confused.
1 Like
Violence is and must be the last resort. But it is a resort. It’s always on the table and there it must remain. The trick with violence is that, if not very, very, very carefully aimed and applied in sufficient concentration to get the job done what it ends up doing is ‘electing’ the very worst people there are to power.
2 Likes
5 Likes
The one begets the other.
2 Likes
Well I was going to quip, “Good luck with that.” But my post got zero likes, and yours got 9… so… uh… Good thing I’m a working pleeb too? (checks ammo fort again)
To be fair, they probably were talking the commercial strength ones that stand up to repeated daily use. Ikea is more for the occasional hobbiest.
1 Like
True. But you could buy a couple of IKEA guillotines (and use them in rotation), and a couple of bits & bobs plus tools to soup them up a bit, and still spend a lot less than $1200.
Which means: enough beer money for the crew.
3 Likes
No. Here’s a whole topic for you and others to discuss Cory’s use of the guillotine image without derailing threads:
5 Likes
Both sites also have what I assume are wrappers that are available in the iOS and Google App Stores. I’d be willing to bet good money that they’re also being pushed onto corporate-managed phones through MDM.
1 Like
