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Joe Hill's Passive Sabotage

Joe Hill wrote in 1914 about how to make work for the unemployed, which was about, “How to use new ways and tactics of carrying on the class struggle to emancipate the workers from wage slavery. The best way to strike is to strike on the job. First, present your needs or demands to the bosses. If they should refuse to grant them, don’t walk out and give the scabs a chance to take your place. “No, just go back to work as though nothing had happened and a new method of warfare, which is to slow down things [like accidently unplugging a refrigerator or copier, its passive sabotage] every way possible as not to give the bosses a good reason to fire you, and when things begin to happen be careful not to fix blame on any certain individual unless that individual is an undesirable from a working class point of view. “The bosses will soon find the cheapest way out of it (the slowdown) is to grant your demands. This is not a mere threat; it has been successfully tried more than once. Striking on the job is a science and should be taught as such. It is extremely interesting on account of its many possibilities. It develops mental keenness and inventive genius in the working class and is the only known attitude for the infamous Taylor System [mistreatment of workers for profit and gain]. The aim of the Taylor System was to work one half the workers to death and starve the other half to death” Does this sound like the fast food, Walmart, Home Depot, Target, K-mart, restaurants and most all big box stores and anti-union corporations? The workers could be the Trojan horse inside the business so just let your inventive genius. Figure out how to do what is needed to gain the $15 to $18 an hour minimum wage, pensions, respect, job safety healthcare, and full-time employment. This action will work worldwide. It will take each person’s genius so don’t set back and wait on the other person. It is your life and your family’s. Time is running out. The oligarchies billions are holding most of the money. We have to pry some of that money away from them to stop the scourge of inequality.

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