Thursday, May 30, 2013

Defeating Austerity with the General Tea Break

What the Cleggeron is doing to the UK people is truly damaging and ideologically driven. It is unacceptable. Therefore:

  • The cuts must be stopped.
  • Petitions and demonstrations, though necessary, are not sufficient.
  • A General Strike would be effective, but the people are not yet ready for it.  They may be in a year or two, but by that time the damage will be done.
  • Therefore, let us start with a General Tea Break.  Here's the plan

Every Monday morning, at 9 am, cuts activists meet up at work at the water cooler or someplace, and talk about the cuts for 5 minutes. That's all. Talk about the cuts for 5 mins. Anyone who comes along "Hello, we are just discussing the cuts. What do you think". 
After 5 mins they get to work. 
As numbers gather, the time slowly extends to 15 to 20 minutes and more.
If management comes and says "Why aren't you at your stations?"  the response is "We are talking about the cuts. They are going to wreck this country, do you not agree? We were just going back to our stations, but since you are here, we would like to know what you think? Do you think it will end up with a General Strike?"



Management will get the idea, as soon as they realise it is happening in other companies. They will realise we are tooling up for a General Strike, on the QT. They will have a word with the Treasury, which will have to calculate on the economic costs of a General Strike.



I do not promise that this will stop the cuts in their stride, but it is a useful weapon.  It is the Thin End of the Wedge. The thing is, it is so small (5 minutes, growing) that waverers will be encouraged to join. As more and more participate, it could go viral. The beauty of it is, if people are not sure and come up to question the General Tea Breakers, they become part of the action. 

Yes, OK a General Tea Break does not have the historic resonances of the Bolshevism to the Long March, but hey, we are British, and this is how we do things in Britain.

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