Tech 1010 Newsletter - Issue 23
Some workers in our community have adopted the shorthand “stay and fight” to describe their colleagues’ support for their burgeoning union effort. Our industry has normalized the choice to leave, with an ever swelling chorus of “if you don’t like it here, you can always find a job somewhere else.” This chorus deflects all responsibility from those in power and has a chilling effect, presenting us with two options: we can either tell ourselves “it isn’t that bad” or we can leave. Our choice to stay and fight rejects that false decision — as workers, we deserve dignity in every workplace and we will fight to win it.
Pushing workers to leave instead of organize is a show of power – those in power thrive when we withdraw. They take advantage of us when we are desensitized and tired and isolated and set up our working conditions to make us feel that way. The most powerful thing we can do to resist is feel and rest and connect. We refuse to get caught up in the scramble from job to job or crisis to crisis — instead, we fight to create community where we can support each other, slow down, and reflect. We must slow down enough to feel it all: the hope, the fear, the uncertainty, the righteous anger. We must slow down enough to rest our bodies and imagine what is possible. We choose to stay and fight because that also means we choose to stop and build, to connect, and practice creating the types of community that can call power to attention.
We invite you to feel and rest and connect with us. Together we can build the muscles we need to stay and fight. Together we can remember that we are worth staying and fighting for.
In solidarity,
Kaarthika, RV, and Toy