Given all the denunciations yesterday from people (even self-professed left-wingers and radicals) against 'disruptive' actions, I thought some people might need reminding of the radical potential of disruption both in the UK and around the world [A THREAD]
First this, from @BrightonSolFed: "The essence of the idea is to blockade economically significant targets from shopping centres to commuter hubs to fuel depots in order to inflict economic damage comparable to a strike."
libcom.org/library/parado…
libcom.org/library/parado…
"Around the world, the road blockade, the strike of the unemployed, has emerged as a key social weapon of the unemployed or the precariously employed who cannot exercise pressure on society by withdrawing their labour." libcom.org/news/enduring-…
The most obvious example for me would seem to be the train station blockades during the anti-CPE movement in France, 2006. 
But similar actions were also taken last year by students in India against fare hikes libcom.org/news/india-stu…
And, of course, a few years ago in King's Cross, London. libcom.org/news/migrant-s…
Road blockades are also amazing and there are loads of great examples from recent history, possibly most famously the Argentinian 'piqueteros' libcom.org/library/piquet…
Brazilian GM workers did similar in their 2012 fight against redundancies, occupying the busiest highway route in the country libcom.org/blog/direct-ac…
As did Palestinians that same year to protest price rises libcom.org/gallery/palest…
Also in 2012: Asturian miners blockade roads and train lines in opposition to mine closures: libcom.org/gallery/palest…
Italians love a good road blockade
libcom.org/blog/italian-a…
libcom.org/blog/italian-a…
@UsiAit And even us Brits have been known to get involved, such as workers at Vivergo Fuels in Hull blocking roads against job losses
libcom.org/news/further-d…
libcom.org/news/further-d…
@UsiAit These roads and rail lines weren't private ones used only by billionaires; I'm sure they disrupted working-class people's lives as well. But obsessing over inconvenience and disruption only plays into reactionary discourse
Our lives and our plans are disrupted every day by redundancies, by price rises, by changes to our contracts or our pensions. Any effective action we take is going to be disruptive. Bosses use that to blackmail us into accepting it coz, basically, we're nicer than they are 😉
Assuming my numbers are right, tube strikes cost the London economy £50m a day. That's why tube workers are able to defend themselves so effectively. Unfortunately, not all of us have that level of workplace bargaining power so we have to find other methods for distruption
So stop looking for the magic 'non-disruptive' protest that only inconvenience Jeff Bezos. Instead, concentrate on blocking the economy. That's how you get the people who run the economy to listen. /FIN
