Since writing yesterday’s post, my gears have been turning about whether union-style organizing may be the strongest example of real democracy. Beyond unions’ commitment to majority action, they also build grassroots power which lends strength to the people’s voice. I ended yesterday’s post wondering about whether this approach could be scalable at a national level. Can you essentially unionize the American people to uplift the public will to government? In some ways it feels like reinventing government, or political parties, but in another it feels like it could be an important counterweight to those forces that elevates the people’s will far better than our government or parties currently do.
I thought it would be cool to call this “The People’s Union,” but it turns out this name is already taken by this group that seems focused on boycotting corporations through “economic blackouts.” The founder, John Schwarz, has 427k followers on Instagram, so there’s some traction there, but I don’t really align on the strategy or aims.
Whenever I get a big crazy idea, I try to imagine it on a more manageable scale. I’ve been thinking about what it would take to organize my zip code. Could a 94107 union advocate for our collective best interests? What would we even ask for? How would we possibly go about organizing the 34,000 people in the area?
I’d like to think that there would be real value there, but it also feels daunting. I don’t even know what I myself would ask for/ try to achieve. But, then again, the first step of organizing is about connecting on shared values. I know very clearly what’s important to me, and I think many others do as well. There may be intrinsic value to this, even if the goal isn’t to move toward any particular action. Time to get to know my neighbors!
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