solidarity is how we win

originally published as a fedi post on Mastodon:

one of my friends told me that my union work (basically all volunteer) has had the most impact on ppl that i’ve ever had and i keep turning that over in my head,,,, our work (the team of us) benefited over 4000 nurses and their families, getting us an average 37% economic win over the three year contract,,, we only have the living wage we do bc of our union power and nurses who work at non-union hospitals in the south or east US have horrid conditions that put themselves and their patients at risk,,,

we have ppl from all over the US coming to us bc of our last contract

and here’s the thing,,, u can do this work too or search for unionized jobs or learn how to form a union

i highly recommend the book from Labor Notes “Secrets of a Successful Organizer” (they have free handouts [labornotes.org] that talk about how to do this work)

the decrease in labor power and union jobs in general is part of the reason we are in the mess we are in right now,,,

the ideas of solidarity and mutual aid (or a united front, big-tent leftism) are how we win

that solidarity also coincides with understanding oppression, history, and class struggle

we should never forget our biases, our privileges and our trauma responses

we must unite under a banner of having passionate, progressive, and unyielding hearts where we support one another, and believe that, no matter how bad it gets, there is always hope bc we have each other

workers of the world unite!