HACKER Q&A
📣 bryanrasmussen

Strike Organization Software


So, I was reading someone who said it would be difficult to organize a general strike in a country the size of the U.S. I don't have any particular interest in doing this but of course it piqued my organizational software side and I thought - what are the requirements for organizing strikes?

I tried to search for some software that helped people organize strikes but no luck.

Although HN is probably not heavy on people who have organized labor movements or strikes or what have you, it is still a big community so maybe someone here has some insight into strike organization and what kinds of software is generally used for it, if there would be any reason to have specialized strike organization software (for example if there are specific requirements that would benefit from applications with built in functionality)

  👤 Mezzie Accepted Answer ✓
Don't organize strikes using networked digital means. If you want to know why, look up things like the Battle of Blair Mountain and the origin of the Pinkertons. For a general strike in particular, it's meant to shake the foundation of economic power, and using resources that your enemies control to organize is a bad strategic blunder.

You organize in places and spaces your enemies either can't access or can't monitor as well. Monitoring digital spaces, searching through data, etc. is too easy. You want in-person cells of people, secretive USB drops to share documents, archives of mistreatment on hard drives that are stuck in a box in someone's closet. The primary advantage labor has is that it's spread out and there are way more laborers, so the idea is to decentralize your organization so to take advantage of what you've got working for you: The less centralized you are, the less your enemies can take advantage of their data processing power, because they can't find the data they need.

In terms of digital/software involvement if necessary, I would suggest:

- Software that erases/bricks devices if it isn't prevented. If the cops are called on your strike, you don't want them getting everybody's information.

- Authentication methods using fingerprints, facial, or eye recognition that are completely out of corporate control + have open, shareable code.

- If you're going to organize digitally at all, have at least 2 (ideally more) tech-savvy people in the group. You need at least 2 so they can check each other, which is why more is ideal.

- Related to this, software teaching basic op sec and how to manage your electronics/giving advice and reminders to strikers to mind their digital footprint would be useful.

- Use of computer science to do things like unidentify PII, because if a movement gets large enough, some central organization will be necessary, which means security comes into play again.

In general, I'd recommend keeping it to an '80s tech level.

(NB: This is all hypothetical. I don't personally think strikes are a very viable method in 2022 in the Western World, I just have an interest in political tactics and strategy + I'm from a Michigan car family so I do actually know a fair amount of labor history/am sympathetic to labor movements.)

👤 h2odragon
Why would you want specialized software?

What you need from software, is perfectly normal contact management, perhaps notes. Many applications fill these needs.

I can't help but think you want something that tells everyone involved what to do, never requiring that anyone look away from their phone.

👤 gidorah
Organizing a general strike of a non-trivial % or 200m Americans would be "quite hard" and probably not one for an app.