• @simplymath
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    23 hours ago

    Right. So it was a 50 year long struggle led by the working class and groups like the Wobblies and your solution is to vote harder?

    To what extent can we credit colonial nations like Portugal and the UK and the Netherlands for extending this right exclusively to white people with political capital?

    Is it really a “pass” if the comfort of the homeland was predicated on slavery and/or empire elsewhere?

    • @[email protected]
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      111 hours ago

      Not ‘harder’. Smarter, better and more consistently.

      And yeah the US is the only country that never meddled in or abused other countries for economic gain, or benefitted from slavery in any way, so that’s the only one in the world where workers’ rights really count. Right

      • @simplymath
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        11 hours ago

        I’m not saying that at all. I’m just saying that crediting the the UK for progressive politics while they enslaved half the world is a weird take.

        I would make the exact same claim about the US, considering that neo-slavery (indentured servitude/whites only towns) wasn’t abolished until after world war 2.

        In fact, one of the most violent events in US history was a white mob that murdered an entire town of black people for trying to unionize.

        Those white folks sure understood the power of working class solidarity and it’s fundamental threat to capital.

        That’s also probably why MLKJ was assassinated during the poor people’s campaign that sought to unite the grievances of the civil rights movement with the concerns of poor whites.

        • @[email protected]
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          110 hours ago

          You sound more concerned about the extremely racist history of the US than how many other nations were able to cement many a workers’ right in their legislation through voting for the right policies

          • @simplymath
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            110 hours ago

            You have failed to list a single example of legislative change that didn’t have the backing of a mass mobilization and credible threats to capital. I have presented several instances that support the claim that legislative change is dependent on working class organization.

            • @[email protected]
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              19 hours ago

              Lots of legislative changes are enacted without mass mobilization, bomb attacks, ‘threats to capital’

              You can study the evolution of paternal and maternal leave in Sweden as a nice example. The Swedes didn’t have to bomb any Ikeas - they just consistently voted for the right politicians.

              • @simplymath
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                7 hours ago

                You mean the country with basically universal union membership and literally 0 legislation around minimum wage?

                The one where worker’s rights are guaranteed by union negotiations and the threat of a strike rather than national legislation?

                  • @simplymath
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                    17 hours ago

                    I didn’t change the subject. I’m saying those right were earned by unions and not gifted by politicians.

                    As somebody who lives and works in Sweden with a PhD in computer science, I had more disposable income when I washed dishes in NYC. So, yeah, I would say wages are pretty low.