The (Hunger) Strike Weapon

[Radsoc]

All socialists should be members of a national or international labour union. When workers act organized and united a lot can be achieved. A union is a very important tool in the class struggle.

With a union it's possible (or easier) to start a strike. I will explain briefly how to set up a strike.

First you calculate some recommended wages (the ones below are set to higher levels than what's profitable for the capitalist, but that isn't a requirement).

Then you tell your members and all the citizens in general that there's a general strike going on. The rules for all strikers are simple:

" Do not consume food unless the wage levels recommended by the labour union have been met! "

If you reach a wellness of near 10, it is ok to eat again. Remember that a low wellness makes you produce less, which means that the capitalists profit less from your work than they would do normally. Only the capitalists are affected by your low wellness. If you are fired, just switch to another company and strike there.

Inform your co-workers about the strike by sending them a PM:

" Strike!

This workplace is under strike! Do not consume food unless the capitalists have raised your wages to the levels recommended by the Labour Union. "

Also publish articles to remind people of the strike.


In eSweden we have a long experience of labour unions. Unfortunately our union is now couped by capitalists and liberals. We wanted that the union-direction reflected the membership and elected two socialists and one liberal. But the liberal changed the password and couped the union and all its factories and resources. He didn't run away with it all, he just changed the rules of the labour union and has been taking it in another capitalist-friendly direction. But there's a small chance that we get it back. The lesson from this is that you can't afford being generous, there's no reason to make things easy for the lackeys of the bourgeoisie. A labour union must make sure socialist policies are guaranteed by contract. A socialist overseer might be a good idea.

[johnobrow]

Thought somebody might bring this up. There's no precedent for it in the UK so I didn't mention it myself. Wasn't very clued up on it.

[Robert Knotsworth]

Not a bad idea, but I can easily see ways which the bourgeoisie could counter it.

[Radsoc]

Not a bad idea, but I can easily see ways which the bourgeoisie could counter it.

Continue.


They countered my strike by spreading false information about that it was my own one-man strike, and by couping the labour union. But many players still keep on striking. I do, I've been for months.

[Robert Knotsworth]

Well, if I was a business owner of a large, profitable business I'd start gifting my workers to keep their health high. Very easy in, say, a q1 company but over q3 I can see how that would be difficult to keep up.

Also, if they're in a large nation, there's always more fish in the sea needing jobs. You just fire the unproductive ones and get more. Not hard. (Except of course if the labour union extends to everyone, which is unlikely.)

Nonetheless, it's a very good idea.

[Radsoc]

That's an option, but it still implies reduced profit for the capitalist. Plus, if they fire unproductive people or lower their wages you just take another job. Fortunately they don't check the wellness level very often, and I've been able to keep my market offer salaries.

[Ruaidhrí Garvey]

It would only work in countries where there is a desperate need for labour such as North Korea.We tried a hunger strike in Slovakia but and it caused a bit of trouble for about two weeks but they were fired and I think the businesses just did without a full 10 workers

[Patches O'Hoolihan]

How do you actually start a union? Is it created as an organization?

Why go on hunger strike and screw up your wellness? Why not just refuse to work that day? You lose money I guess, but you can still fight and gain experience (which to me is more important right now), and the loss will be even greater for the employer. I suppose you can combine both methods.

I think we should look into setting up a forum for "one big union" so to speak, organized by industry and location, and proceed to aggressively invite as many people as possible to it.

It would also be good to identify a specific big capitalist who owns a lot of factories and focus on them as a target. We need to get firm commitments from workers that they won't scab. Then we strike, publicize it as much as possible, and hopefully score a victory that can serve as an example of what the union can do.

[MachtGeil]

if you just refuse to work you 1. wont get any hard worker medal
and 2. you employer has no loss as he doesnt loose any money

[Patches O'Hoolihan]

So if all the workers in a factory refused to work, the factory would still make money? that doesn't make much sense.

[MachtGeil]

no but not making money is not equal to loss

[Patches O'Hoolihan]

True. I guess my point was that to be most effective we need the whole workplace to go on strike, and in order to involve the most possible people a diversity of tactics might be in order (as some people such as myself are trying to level up through battles and can't afford to let our wellness drop).

What do you think of my labor forum idea? Maybe we could create some labor newspapers as well to popularize these tactics.

Also I was thinking we should either create a program to send mass messages in the games (like bulk email programs) or if that's not possible create a division of labor within the Internationale of people sending messages on a regular basis to new members and members of center-left parties who may be sympathetic to us. Maybe there's something like this already in place I don't know about, but if not we need to get more pro-active about recruitment if we want to start toppling governments and building a red military alliance any time soon.

Just thinking aloud though. Let me know what you think.

[MachtGeil]

well so far there are no labour unions - interesting idea though

[Juan Harlock]

strikes will be efective once the new economic module is introduced. Companies will need their primary workers or if not they won´t be able of keeping their business

[Max Wellbrock-Talley]

If I were a Capitalist, I wouldn't think much of this strike. In eRepublik, there are thousands of unskilled workers registering every day. These workers start with 5 units of currency, enough to buy (in Germany, for example), 15 (give or take a few) days' worth of food (Q1). If they express any desire to continue eRepublik at all, they will work. The Capitalists effected by the strike would likely here it coming in advance and begin saving their capital profit, and within a short time, they can convert it into gold (in another country, if necessary) and do what Capitalists in the real world do: search for unskilled labor desperate for income. The Capitalists will persuade these workers with higher wages than they would normally recieve, but will lower them to maintain a profit. Since the eRepublik economy is not local-based, there's no need for the Capitalists to ever treat others with respect and dignity, or pay fair wages, since a region may have as many as 3000+ people, with the availability of every member of the nation. As such, a strike could only work in very specific circumstances, where work is in high demand, and where new players are low (or new players who continue eRepublik are low). An interesting testing ground would certainly be North Korea, but with their current problems with Russia, I wouldn't be surprised if they ceased to exist during that time period. Certainly something to think about.

[MachtGeil]

the war between NK and Russia is a trainingswar

[Max Wellbrock-Talley]

I know. I just used it as an example of a large nation swallowing up an internally broken nation. Not this war in particular.

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