this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2025
45 points (100.0% liked)

/r/50501 Mirror

664 readers
938 users here now


Mirrored /r/50501 Popular Posts


founded 1 month ago
MODERATORS
 

Look, I’ve been part of 50501, and I still support it. I believe in the people showing up, in the anger, in the need to fight back. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, we have to admit that right now, 50501 is not an effective threat to the system. It’s a mass of frustration without direction, a movement that makes noise but doesn’t force change. And if we don’t fix that, it will collapse like every other disorganized protest movement before it.

I’m not saying this to tear it down, I want it to succeed. But success doesn’t come from just showing up with a sign. We need real strategy, real coordination, real disruption.

The Problems with 50501 Right Now

  1. No Clear Leadership or Organization I get that people are wary of hierarchical leadership, but the reality is that a movement without structure is just a crowd. There’s no unified message, no coordinated planning, no ability to escalate beyond scattered protests. Right now, it feels like a rabble of different groups with different goals, all loosely connected by anger but not by strategy. That isn’t enough.

    1. No Cohesive Message What does 50501 actually stand for? Ask ten people and you’ll get ten different answers. The protests end up looking like a jumble of causes, which makes it easy for the media and the government to dismiss it as incoherent and unserious. The right-wing machine has one message, repeated endlessly, drilled into people’s heads. We need to do the same.
  2. Protests Alone Won’t Work We’ve marched. We’ve screamed. We’ve shut down intersections. And yet, the government keeps rolling over us. Why? Because protests alone don’t force change unless they escalate into something that actually disrupts the system. A one-day march doesn’t scare the people in power. They know we’ll go home at the end of the day.

What Needs to Happen for 50501 to Become a Real Threat

  1. Shift from Protests to Economic Disruption The government doesn’t give a damn if we march. But it does care if the money stops flowing. We need to move beyond street protests and into direct economic action. That means: • Coordinated boycotts that actually hurt corporations backing this administration. • Work slowdowns and localized strikes—if a full general strike isn’t feasible yet, we can at least choke productivity and create pressure. • Mass refusal to pay rent, mortgages, and debts.

  2. Build Infrastructure for Long-Term Resistance We can’t just tell people to strike and expect them to survive without support. 50501 needs to start acting like a real resistance movement by setting up: • Strike funds to help people financially sustain long-term action. • Mutual aid networks to distribute food, housing, and medical care. • Alternative communication systems that don’t rely on platforms controlled by the government and corporations.

  3. Commit to a General Strike If we’re serious about nonviolent resistance, the only thing that has a chance of working is a nationwide, sustained general strike. Not a one-day walkout. Not a weekend of protest. I’m talking months of coordinated noncompliance. 20 million people refusing to work, refusing to spend, refusing to participate. No buying. No driving. No logging in. No school. No taxes. Nothing.

The Hard Truth: This Will Be Painful

A real general strike will hurt. People will lose their jobs. People will lose their homes. Some will die because the system is built to punish those who refuse to comply. This will be vilified by the media, by politicians, by even some of our own friends and family. But that is the cost of real resistance.

50501 Has to Decide What It Wants to Be

Right now, 50501 is a symbol. A gathering of angry people with no real teeth. If we don’t evolve, if we don’t organize, if we don’t commit to real, sustained disruption, then this movement will die like every other protest movement that came before it.

So the question is: Are we here to make noise, or are we here to make change? Because change will require sacrifice, suffering, and relentless action. The system will not fall just because we wish it would. It has to be forced to its knees.


Originally Posted By u/Taste-T-Krumpetz At 2025-04-01 03:07:17 PM | Source


top 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] WormMoon@50501.chat 3 points 6 hours ago

Thanks to OP @Taste-T-Krumpetz on reddit for pushing us to think further. You really have me thinking with this. Many folks are seeing the necessity of more impactful and sustained action, including and beyond street protest, and more sustained economic disruption.

It's also really important to disrupt all business as usual. Every day that goes by where we function like it is business as usual, going to work and shutting up while we're there, is normalizing this in our bodies, hearts and minds.

And, since they're flooding the zone, we can't all act on every single thing that pops up on the regime's timing. We have to be strategic and be already acting. We know exactly what they're doing and what they're aiming for, so, we don't need to wait for them to do it before we act. Plus, they've already done enough that we can just start there.

So. I have been thinking along the following principles as far as guiding action:

  1. No business as usual (economic disruption, visibility, protest, vigils, sit ins, slow downs, stoppages, disrupting the systems that feed the regime's power in any way and making asks and demands that weaken the pillars of power.)
  2. Building movements (Ongoing, cross-sector, based in class struggle and mutual aid. Weaken the pillars of power by reducing people's reliance on it and strengthening the people's reliance on each other.)
  3. Starting and acting from where you are (Your current roles and positions in the social order and what is important to you. For example, I am a higher ed instructor, adjunct laborer, union member, student debt holder, parent, caregiver for someone with a disability, live in low income housing, neighbor to many immigrants, etc. Any / all of these can be places I start and focus on and build from, and notice the connections between. Action is available to everyone, all the time.)
  4. Our work as our power (And work as widely understood and including all forms of unpaid labor / social reproduction. Make our work benefit the people, democracy, pressure our institutions and workplaces, build workplace power, and take away any support we can from the regime in our work.)
  5. Everyday / Every day action (Again, action is available to everyone all the time. Commit to acting every day, even in everyday ways.)

For me, as an adjunct professor, currently teaching online, I realized I have a lot of freedom about when and where I work. And, especially since Covid started, many other professors do as well. What is to stop us from starting to build power with daily or weekly "work-ins" at strategic locations, to bring visibility to the issues that affect our students and us and everyone in higher ed or education more broadly. This could be City Hall, courts, ICE buildings, etc. There could be one for each city. These could be a whole day with a clear schedule and people could come and go as they needed. There could be things like teach-ins, reading groups, work-ins, demonstration, dance parties, etc. In addition to building power and visibility in resisting the Trump regime, these could be access points for building power and organizing about workplace issues like bargaining and the budget, and cross-organizing across workplaces and sectors, taking further collection action, sharing calls to action, etc. Additionally, students could be invited so we could build different, new relationships of solidarity with our students. This also helps us build organizing power towards larger actions like work stoppages and strikes and also has the potential to bring media attention. This could provide us an opportunity to connect different things that are under attack by the Trump regime (trans rights, dept. of education, student debt, immigrant rights / deportations, , by explaining how all of these issues connect and impact students and our communities.

P.S. Yes to @Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world about stopping buying anything! I would also love to get to the point where we do this kind of general strike action! We can make it happen.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To be honest, you could probably just burn every Tesla facility in the nation and that would be enough to get the regime so pissed they stop thinking. Thats all we really need to do is stop them from thinking, throw them off their own program by chasing us so they stop fulfilling Project 2025 and their popularity shrivels as they bonk civilians.

[–] Cruxifux@feddit.nl 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Why do you think that? This regime is not just Elon Musk. And Elon Musk doesn’t even JUST have Tesla.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

These people live by symbolism. He has become the symbol of corporate power, pillaging the people's coffers. It would change the tone of the political atmosphere from one of helplessness on our part to power.

[–] Cruxifux@feddit.nl 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Well that would be fantastic. I don’t think it will be that easy though. That being said, burn em all the fuck down.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah highly unlikely. Good thing a lot of people of other countries joined in too though.

[–] Cruxifux@feddit.nl 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Here in Canada we are doing our part.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I thank Canada every day for not bending a knee. If the time comes and the Reich tries to start a war with you wonderful people I will do all that I can to harm and hinder the regime. I fucking despise this timeline.

[–] Cruxifux@feddit.nl 2 points 10 hours ago

Yeah. I mean if Vietnam can repel the burgertard army I’m sure we can.

[–] Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Step 1: stop buying stuff and working in any profession other than food for people and utilities (not fast food, just necessities).

  • good luck getting this organized with enough people to make an impact. This is the greatest challenge.
  • would be very boring for quite a while

Step 2: If, and I mean a very big IF, step 1 could actually happen, then that's when the powers that be, the real powers, get desperate and do what they need to do to get power back. Your guess is as good as mine what that would look like.

  • use of the military and police to control stuff like food, water, etc. Police are mostly right wing bootlickers. Military is a lot of young who have it ingrained to follow orders.
  • arrests and prison without due process, torture? Who knows what else.

This wouldn't be a walk in the park, and currently the bread and circuses is alive and well. They're just making your bread more expensive, but slow enough not to cause panic.