Shutdown 315
What is the Shutdown 315 Movement?
Edit: Because of the number of negative and discouraging comments that are counterproductive to the message of this post, I have decided to remove select comments that discourage organization. I apologize in advance if your comment is removed inadvertently.
I removed 32 comments.
720
Comments150
I doubt any of the conservatives will be participating.
It's not impossible. If you focused solely on economic concerns.
Listen to what? What are the demands?
Yeah, I mean look at what happened to Occupy Wall Street. You need clear concise demands, and shit that actually possible. And a general strike without major collaboration between unions and shite? Has there been any communication about this at all?
They have nothing to do with the image but Workers Strike Back is having a conference to organize into a body that can make demands and negotiate in a general strike situation. They're getting major Union leaders to attend (Amazon, UAW, etc) so the resulting org should actually have sway. But the conference is open to anyone and they're welcoming anyone to join them. Info here: https://www.workersstrikeback.org/events/feb-2025-organizing-conference
I'm not jazzed about that part either. I'm trying to support this simply for the potential it has for general strike. Nothing else.
Thank you for sharing. Know that at least one person has signed up for the livestream thanks to this :)
What is Shutdown 315?
Here are the demands from the site as of when I accessed it:
Protection and permanent guarantee of civil rights for all
Total government reform
Publicly funded health care
Adequate and accessible disability support and services
A permanent solution to Homelessness, hunger and the housing crisis
Respect and support for tribal Sovereignty and involvement with indigenous leadership for environmental action
Enhanced enforcement of constitutional rights
More power to american voters
Personally, I believe these are not specific enough. If I may be so bold, I'll rewrite them:
Improved laws at the municipal, state, and federal levels to include LGBTQ persons as protected classes under anti-discrimination law, including explicit punishments for owners and minimum damages award amounts
Replacing district-based voting with proportional representation for representatives at state and federal levels, first-past-the-post voting with either ranked choice voting or approval voting at municipal and state levels, and your state joining or better advertising if already joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact
Single-payer healthcare at the federal level, including coverage of preventative treatment and protection for pre-existing conditions
Clarified laws around enforcement of disability support, including failure modes to prevent dropping compliance and punishments scaling to the wealth of the offender, at the state level for physical locations and services and at the federal level for online services
Funding and development of government housing and support for the unhoused, including mental health services, training for entering the workforce, training in financial hygiene, and addiction treatment, be it chemical (e.g. drugs) or behavioral (e.g. gambling)
Clarified and improved enforcement of laws at the federal level for ensuring the sovereignty and support of indigenous peoples, including environmental protections in line with their beliefs, punishments for private entities including corporations that violate their sovereignty, and failsafes to prevent intentional lack of enforcement by government entities
Incorporating government ethical norms into the US Constitution, closing loopholes that enable abuse of power, strengthening ethics review committees' power to remove individuals using government power unethical, creating federal and state level departmental entities enshrined in law to ensure constitutionally granted rights
Explicitly excluding corporations and similar non-individual entities from contributing campaign funds to political candidates, outlawing lobbying, drastically increasing public political campaign funding based on a metric that scales with the economy, further limiting private funding for political campaign funding based on a metric that scales with the economy, defining independent entities for auditing and pursuing legal action against tampering with voting mechanisms including voters registration methods, ballot submission methods, and voter tampering methods - all via constitutional amendment
People can fix my grammar/typos. Yes, I know more specific demands are more difficult to acquire alignment on from broader audiences, but I think these would be palatable up most Americans.
However, I am realizing that my points above are too verbose for quick consumption. Via web media, maybe they could be hidden as expandable sections beneath the original bullet points
My friend, maybe edit the original post to include this? A lot of us remember how much support and visibility Occupy Wallstreet got and how ineffective it was due to lack of direction.
It's only my intuition, but I think it may be easier to get people onboard by listing demands/goals, even if they're only tentative.
With these kinds of things, we're asking people to do a lot of work. The lower we can make the initial barriers to entry, the more likely people are to consume enough info that they become more willing to put in effort. This means prioritizing headline information well, making graphics appealing, etc
All this said, I haven't organized this kind of stuff. I defer to those with demonstrable success in these things
Keep fighting the good fight <3
Thanks, I’ll do that.
Might be better off signing up here. They're trying to get commitments for a general strike.
They document working on narrowing their demands more specifically once they hit certain goals.
https://generalstrikeus.com/
That looks like a lot more practical approach.
I signed up and asked about 20 people to sign it. ✊🏻
I’ll Post It.
I like the fact that they have a trigger-point based on historical effectiveness. No offense to absolutely anyone that is willing to protest or resist in any way, but this organization is focused on a results-based strike, not merely "sending a message".
We protested Wednesday, and people complained that it wasn’t a weekend. I’m beginning to think some people don’t think there’s ever a good time to protest.
If this isn't going viral on mainstream social media, I fear there won't be much use to posting it here.
It's more use posting it here than not posting it here. People here can see it and share on traditional social media.
However the question is if there are any labor organizations officially participating in this. If not, this seems a bit weird. And what are the actual demands? Change to what? These are the bigger problems than the location of the post.
I suppose that's fair, there are just a lot of people here who are here because they quit traditional social media.
On Reddit.
It’s on blue sky, there’s a discord. It may not happen, but that’s not the point. It helps us to organize, which is the point. It’s time to be part of the solution, and not the problem.
Please understand that I was not highlighting the size of this movement just to be cruel or a downer.
A critical mass of participation is necessary for something on this scale to work. If this gets buy-in from only a few tens of thousands of people, they are just going to be harming themselves by participating on 3/15, rather than effecting any real change. It's not feasible to set a date eight weeks out without first having specific demands in mind or some kind of broader organization.
I have to echo other commenters who are boosting https://generalstrikeus.com/ (which you have thankfully also reposted to this community.) For this kind of mass social action unity is really important, and it makes sense to back a movement that already has greater support instead of fracturing the landscape by starting a new one. You can think of it like the spoiler effect in US politics.
Every movement has to have a beginning. AFAIK, this movement started this week. I am not affiliated with the movement and have no input in its organization. If you have constructive criticism, contact the organizers on discord or blueSky.
One critical comment is acceptable, but repeated negative and discouraging comments from multiple users can kill a movement in its infancy. I didn’t enjoy removing the comments, and hope everyone can understand and no one takes it personally.
As President Musk’s regime unfolds, and resistance groups activate; I couldn’t in good conscience do everything I can to help them succeed.
The first sentence in their Substack post you linked:
It kind of seems like you reshared this image uncritically, without actually looking into the movement. To be clear, I absolutely support this kind of mass action, but for the reasons I outlined in my earlier post, I think it's very dangerous for something like this to be fracturing support. I would hope that, if you are also in support of this kind of mass action (even if you are not affiliated with this specific movement), you would be tuned in enough to have run into the larger ones first, and it would have precluded you from sharing this here.
Regardless, thank you for hearing me out. I appreciate that you've shared GSUS here. It has more than 250x the support at present and as far as I can tell is the frontrunner in the effort. (Their SEO is good enough that they're the second result on Google and the first result on Bing at the time of posting.)
"You can't pick a weekday, the poors can't risk missing a day off from their second job!"
Low-wage workers work on weekdays too. And they will often get fired for missing work for any reason, not just protesting.
Everyone bickering in this thread needs to just repost this image somewhere and shut up. That's how these things spread, via small communities. The only reason I saw it was this post, the only reason someone else might learn about it is my post. Unless you already have a better idea, and are organizing and trying to promote it, the least you can do is try and spread the word. The only way we win is together, so either bring a better solution to the table or get in line and help us fight.
Thank you.
A 10 day general strike would get their attention but I doubt US voters have the stomach for it.
Source: am US voter
Big reason they keep us so poor and vulnerable.
People quarantined for longer in the not so distant past. You have a month to get ready and don’t have to do shit when it’s time. Seems like a no brainer, even for those who don’t want to come out and protest.
I don’t disagree at all. I don’t live in the US but the ones I keep in touch with that do tell me their peers seem apathetic and unengaged. Which says a lot about how we got here.
People would have to be willing to pool their resources for that.
Maybe you should join the organization and let them know.
Shout out to
https://generalstrikeus.com/
Take charge then.
Every journey begins with the first step, put your shoes on.
So, no one can protest for better living conditions, because you can’t? Sorry about your situation, but that is exactly why we are organizing. If you are not able to participate, that’s fine. You may be resigned to defeatism, but please don’t discourage others from wanting to improve the conditions in which we all live. If you have a better plan to resist, I’m sure others would like to hear it.
Every time someone encourages action there's always someone to step in and say "it won't work."
You sound like you have a lot of great ideas, you should try to link up with people and join in and try to help organize! A lot of it can be done whenever you have a bit of time, everyone is valuable and capable of contributing in someway.
People are freaking out right now, I bet there are social circles/groups in your town that are very concerned and would be open to setting up secure communications with like-minded people. It really is as easy as going to the local coffee shop or gay bar and leaving/reading a flyer, get involved.
https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/
https://socialistra.org/
https://www.dsausa.org/
https://www.cpusa.org/
Then contact your Democratic representatives and get the ball rolling.
Then try the DSA.
I mean, it's a Saturday. I'll already be doing nothing.
You can always contact the organizers and constructively offer help, I’m sure they would welcome it.
Then contact them and help them organize.
The substack link for Shutdown 315 is at the bottom of the post.
Yeah. If you believe in it make a better graphic for them if you can. Or anyone reading this. I don't have the skills personally but. They could use it lmao
Loved you in that movie
I like how so many of your comments have exactly two down votes. Even when they're just objectively funny and have nothing to do with the topic at hand.
Are we starting to get downvote bots or are there just two real humans who really don't like you? A question for the ages...
It’s been that way for a while. Thanks for the encouragement, I needed it after reading so many negative comments today.
You just delete anything you don't like anyways just like that president muskrat and the orange fucker. Nothing progressive about that. I'm sure you'll delete this too and prove my point.
No. I’m gonna leave it. So everyone can see how petty and jaundiced you are. Go ahead and delete it, and prove my point.
Sweet, sounds great! 👍👍👍
Also known as a general strike. All the best for you!
"Most things."
Really just 9-5 offices, schools, and places they support. And that's a benefit because the corporate folks will be able to join as well. People will be able to bring the kids. College students won't miss class.
Basically you're taking away the "oh I have to work" excuse from folks who want to get involved. And if folks like that start to join, this thing is going to get big.
Bring the kids to what? Be involved in what? I think the point is to stay home and not travel or spend money or work.
White collar places are. This is asking mostly blue collar workers to make a sacrifice.
So? Gotta start somewhere. Blue collar are the guys that are gonna take the first hits, after all.
And then nothing ever changed
The end
sounds like you sleep all the time I doubt you'll keep your job like this anyway
Look at the 50 protests in 50 states that just happened. A couple thousand people showed up out of hundreds of millions. And that's much less of a sacrifice than risking your livelihood.
Wow look they're all still in power and ripping shit apart.
Almost like they don't fucking care if people stand around wirh signs.
Maybe we should try another strongly worded letter.
Oh i know, lets do a big petition in bold font!
I'm saying Americans are too lazy and domesticated to do what's necessary when peaceful protests inevitably fail
How would you organize?
Poorly because I have a family to take care of, and bills to pay.
Good luck, he would probably win another election today. Cant save a democracy where the electorate is stupid.
We should probably try though, because of the implications.
How do you think fascism arose in Germany? Was it a complex process set forth by the treaty of Versailles, embarrassment after WWI, rapid technological advancement by Germany, instability from the great depression, instability in the Weimar republic, etc...
Or do you really think fascism just comes out of the aether when somehow millions of voters become "stupid" all of a sudden?
Ya know eveytime I see these I wonder, "how did the Arabs do it?" They actually did something in Egypt. We can't even agree to take the same day off.
materialist differences
Significant organizational differences, as well. Egypt has a much more nationalized economy. Also, a lot of these movements are managed at the grassroots level through networks of mosques.
Americans - particularly the terminally online liberals - hate religious organizations. They're mostly corporate hacks or gig workers. And they think half the people in their social media channel are either cops or tankies or cops posing as tankies.
How do you organize on those grounds?
I fear by mid March we'll already be screwed.
ITT: Losers whine about why they don't want to get off their ass to improve their lives.
We're all losing our jobs and becoming homeless if this shit continues
Just a ray of sunshine 🌞
Hitting capitalists in the wallet is the only way to get them to change course.
Doesn’t matter what our ‘demands’ are or what they need to ‘listen to’ and we don’t need a perfectly written manifesto to protest these fucks destroying lives and our country’s support systems.
Don’t fall for the whiners saying it won’t do anything. If the wheels stop turning, even for a couple days, it will hurt the things they care about (money) and send a powerful message.
I will re-iterate for anyone that has the misfortune of reading through the dialogue below: Do not let anyone talk you into apathy. All they have to do is sit and type about how everything is a waste of time. Ask yourself why they would bother to do that? Why are they so afraid of people trying to make things better without having a perfect plan (when there's no such thing)? The answer is pretty obvious when you think about it for a minute.
Give 'em hell.
Thank you, you should be top comment had to scroll way to far to find someone with real grit.
Seriously, I'm so sick of this "let's all just give up" attitude that people post whenever anyone brings up resistance of any kind to the US 'government' shenanigans. Some of it is from propaganda mills and trolls, some of it is just people who want to do absolutely nothing and then later say how they were right all along. It's lazy, self-defeating, and actively harmful.
If they want to give up, then the first thing they should give up is posting their drivel. They can go sit on the couch and watch Fox while reciting their favorite slurs to themselves.
You have to ask, if it's all so futile, why do they bother?
Roll over and die then while the rest of us fight.
Just block these people. They aren't worth it. We could prove them wrong 100x and they would never concede how much of a pussy ass bitch they are.
Take your patronizing elsewhere. I'm almost 50 and a military veteran. I have no time for weak minded people or propagandists trying to get everyone to lay down and accept what's going on.
In fact why are you even posting in this sub if you just want to do nothing? Suspect.
Being a veteran isn't a 'credential'. Just like you being on my block list isn't. Good luck with your pathetic trolling.
Well, that's a Saturday so I won't be doing anything anyway.
What are they protesting? Its completely vague about why.
What is the Shutdown 315 movement?
While the full list of demands is still being added to, discussed, edited and submitted to a legal expert, some of our basic demands are as follows:
Protection and permanent guarantee of civil rights for all
Total government reform
Publicly funded health care
Adequate and accessible disability support and services
A permanent solution to Homelessness, hunger and the housing crisis
Respect and support for tribal Sovereignty and involvement with indigenous leadership for environmental action
Enhanced enforcement of constitutional rights
More power to american voters
I hope they get their full demands sorted out. A protest without immediate actionable legal demands is pretty doomed from the start. Especially one that encourages it's protestors to give something up. Unless we can have a moment where we can see a politician sign something into law the end of the protest will be vague and mired in "negotiations" until people have had enough and decide they need to start making money again without anything of consequence being accomplished.
Then join the organization and help them. Liberals are so damn feckless, they can’t get out of their own way.
Trump is dissolving the Dept. of Education, and you’re worried about changes to government? /s
I’m in no way affiliated with #Shutdown 315. I’m just spreading awareness. The organization is on Bluesky, Reddit and substack if you’d like to get involved. The more input they get, the better they will be able to organize.
Whoops, missed the user change. I stand by my statement. I would hazard that valid criticisms don't merit the bucket crabs (though I suppose my second comment could go with the first and be cleaner and more palatable), but I'm also not about to start backseat modding.
I think it's pretty interesting actually.
The top critic I'd point to, it's that for something so huge like that, it's needed a food chain which connects rural to urban areas established. That's the first thing.
After that other things can be looked up, like electricity, water supply, etc etc
Then a rupture with capitalist system can be created, but it needs to be understood that "nonviolent direct action" isn't an option! At the first trial on labor strikes, capitalists will crush it with all their forces and repression skill
Organising takes time, if you dont do it together it wont work.
These things need to be organised and gain momentum. Fuck all people are going to “stop work today”. Pretty much asking people to risk financial ruin on the promise that “we will be there tomorrow too, promise bro”.
Why would they not be able to ignore this? They're already beating their own country's economy with a stick. Something I think a lot of foreigners don't understand is that the US Federal Government doesn't own the US Industry, they police it.
Whats going to happen? They're going to lose like 0.25% tax revenue for the year and run out of funding for all the programs they run? OHWAIT, they're already not funding those programs.
You have a better plan?
Yeah, hold up a sign outside of a state capital, sign up to volunteer with the DNC or with Bernie Sanders' organization, or print out some flyers for local Union organization steps and legal protections to put up at high traffic areas like rest stops and parks.
Sounds good. Let’s get the word out and organize this.
form an affinity group
I am late to this thread, and intrigued and on board with Shutdown 315.
Mostly, though, I want to say THANK YOU to @TokenBoomer for the removals on this page. When someone's trying to organize something, people popping in to say it's futile and pointless are simply assholes, and assholes are counterproductive for organizing.
I regret doing it. It goes against my ethos of allowing open discussions. Thanks for understanding why it was necessary.
You're entitled to disagree with both you and me (: but I'll continue thinking you've done the right thing.
Flat Earthers who show up at meetings of the Planetary Society should be shown the door.
I changed my mind after experiencing the fallout. I don’t regret it.
A weekend means that lots and lots of people who would get fired if they missed work to protest will get to protest.
Maybe make better worker rights (or any at all) part of your demands
You can demand that and you should, but the reality right now is those workers do not have the right to take a day off of work to protest.
And there is a disturbing thread I have seen lately on Lemmy where people suggest those workers should lose their job to protest because they have to suffer if they want to end their suffering apparently.
Then help them organize better.
I just wanna jump in and say good job with "Yes and." It's inclusive to make sure we're all on the same side and doing everything we can to impact, even if we disagree on how. You're awesome.
I live abroad, and my resident country's currency is weak compared to the dollar right now... but screw it. Where can I throw money that's trustworthy?
I’m not affiliated with the group, just a supporter. You can help through the substack.
I wish you best of luck to fight against your authoritarian and early-fascist regime.
Nevertheless it's also possible to let the US burn down and join the united states of Europe. We need more (left) minded people as well before it's too late like in the US.
Banning Science and specific topics in education...that's how it began here in Germany
I think someone set one of these up for Feb 28 already, might be better to join up rather than have a bunch of them?
Why not do both?
Because its stupid not join forces and form a union. Jesus its a big enough task to motivate thr sorry losers in the shithole country nevermind if you tell them they can come in two weeks if today doesnt suit.
In general, people will not be able to keep their jobs after "protesting" twice in 2 weeks. Let's focus everyone's attention on just one event so the impact is greater.
Good idea, tell the organizers.
I would expect that one bigger event would have more effect then several smaller ones
One day isn't enough, we need to make this a month long shutdown. These military and prison industry profiteers will use militarized violence to stop such a monumental effort and this will dissolve the facade of our liberal democracy for the class dictatorship it truly is which is the wake up cup of espresso this fucking country needs asap.
I agree. Hopefully, this is only the beginning
Because I live in Trump County so all my neighbors suck. MAGA hats everywhere.
I still fight back by printing out anything I find on here that is critical of Trump and posting it by the mailboxes in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep, but they get ripped down the same morning, every single day.
It's depressing, and I'm afraid that if I keep doing it the neighborhood will eventually track me down and lynch me, but every day I post a new piece of propaganda. I'm fighting back the safest possible way I can.
Do what you gotta do. Ignore the people who don't think you're protesting "the right way". They almost certainly aren't doing shit themselves.
that really, truly sucks
honestly, if you sincerely believe that your physical safety is at risk if the people in your area knew your politics you need to GTFO, posthaste. If that's not an option for whatever reason, learn who's least likely to be hostile to your politics, the groups are probably going to be anemic but I know for a fact there's at least statewide Democratic Party organization. Not even necessarily repping for Democrats in particular there are probably other groups. In any case my point is that you may be alone, but you're less alone than you think you are
You can post while waiting in line or while multitasking, as many of us do. You can do both. Also, the irony of your comment.
and that posting can concern things more locally relevant than yet another "geNrAL StRIke". I'm on this particular forum in large part because of the hope it can be locally relevant
You can do both. Or just complain and do nothing
Really appreciate that. Thanks.
Oh, the conservatives won't take part.
We don't care what they do.
And it's that mentality that's used to take advantage of people who care. The care home / provider is responsible for the welfare of its patients, and, if she's e.g. ill, they still have to find someone to replace her.
They are a cook. They aren’t a fuckin’ heart surgeon. They can prepare meals the day prior. Or buy some fuckin’ frozen burritos.
You are the reason this will fail. You and your fiance.
Read this fucking comment section. A bunch of losers who won't contribute a damn thing to making change happen.
Good grief.
A lot of losers in this thread think that literally anything mildly disruptive brings about change. That's not how it works. Change is from paperwork and ballots, not fire and empty shelves.
Name one time in history that actual meaningful change was not a direct result of violence in some way
So you are advocating for this protest to turn violent?
Eat the rich and such yeah.
In order to get to "really disruptive" you start at "mildly disruptive". That's how movements work.
Fuck democracy. Let’s take this bitch by force.
— y’all
Troll comment, but I'll bite. It's a fun opportunity for inappropriate analogies!
Winning with just shy of 50% on the total vote does not grant you a mandate from heaven to assfuck the other 50%+ of constituents. Consent of the governed and all that.
The losers accept a certain degree of non-consensual edging for the sake of getting along. Not how they'd like things, but as long as the pants stay on they can put up with it until the next election. If you start acting like you won the entire continent and the asses of the peasantry belong to you, you're probably gonna learn why the previous administrations didn't push the system that far.
We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas!
Yep we should do something just to avoid doing nothing.
Exactly
That's sarcasm.
I chose to treat it with sincerity.
So you honestly believe that doing something just to avoid doing nothing is a good strategy?
Absolutely 👍