piefed.nullspaceWhat a fun factoid with no lessons for the modern day!
PugJesushttps://media.piefed.social/posts/rW/z3/rWz3UCabbOlZ56n.jpeg
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Explanation: Not cities in general, but the city of Rome, specifically.
FauxPseudoSecessio plebis. The long translated name just looks weird.
Also it would be a lot easier to not think about ancient Rome if it weren’t relevant every day.
But mh netflix, and that new season of strager things and the nuggies from mkdezz and and and that lafuuufu and and I have work in the morning….
Legit, though, people are overwhelmed. Worse than that, we lack organizations of the sort which give workers bravery - even Romans had proto-unions called collegia in addition to this all taking place inside of a single city.
But I still believe that the working class has power, and bravery, within them.
cloudskaterThis is the most rational take I’ve seen on the possibility of a general strike.
I’ve seen the argument that people need to suck it up and just do it together, right next to the counterpoint that some people simply can’t. They, or perhaps their children or loved ones, could die, and that’s something you can’t just ASK of people (unless you’re a government, apparently). And if not enough people managed to participate in the strike then they would have died in vain.
Two things can be true at the same time, though, and I think a general strike is still a good idea, there just needs to be a decently large group of people (who know what they’re doing) to give it a kickstart. I’m sure more people would join as such a movement gained publicity.
Billionaires are worthless parasites who can’t do anything for themselves this would be hilarious or we could excommunicate them all to an island where they would have to fin for themselves. We could make it a reality show like the hunger games
Explanation: Not cities in general, but the city of Rome, specifically.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secessio_plebis
These secessions happened when Rome was still a single city rather than a massive, sprawling polity, so labor mobility was at a minimum. Lots of borders, both political and cultural. The seceding workers could not be replaced on short-notice, even at increased cost, or by temporary hires. No sending messages to a hostile neighboring city-state asking “Pretty please let us hire some of your filthy poors, even at double normal wages 🥺”; you have to work things out with the workers you have before the crisis devours the entirety of your wealth!
Secessio is a great start to a proud history of workers fighting for their rights, but history tends to clean up the details.
I always wonder how many scabs stayed back in Rome.
Just little reminders that fighting for our rights has always been possible, even if there may be… rather large differences in goals and motives over a vast gulf of time and culture.
Not enough, apparently!
Truly impressive that they managed to organize that! I wonder if it would be easier or harder today; I’d asumme that authorities would be quicker with arrests and beatings these days if you organized that, plus the “seceding plebeians” have to go somewhere - you can’t just hide an entire city’s worth of workers these days and wild camping is illegal in most places.
Might be different in less developed countries.