Strike On Saturday, Not Monday!

In many ways my writing and the idea of the Extreme Center are owed to Mark Fisher. Although I am reading Capitalist Realism as this is being written, in less than an hour I have already tackled half of his book, due to its reduced length but incredible quality. But much like the other architect of the Extreme Center David Graeber, Mark left us too soon. Both great social critics of my age left us in interesting times with the rise of AI the Extreme Center and the aftermath of the pandemic, a new class of thinkers must emerge, which is what I seek to do. 

From Post-Fordism to the Post-Office

Now, Mark achieved an important point in a particular essay Don’t Let Yourself Get Too Attached, where he talks about Post-Fordism, to illustrate Post-Fordism we shall first define it and then use a quote from Fisher. Post-Fordism is defined as “The emergence of new production methods defined by flexible production, the individualization of labor relations and fragmentation of markets into distinct segments, after the stagnation and profitability crisis of rigid, bureaucratized Fordist production.” So in its most simple terms Post-Fordism is the change of a labour practice and the way the workers react to it. Now to use Fisher's quote where he alludes to the consequences of Post-Fordism.  “It doesn’t seem unreasonable to infer that most of the people claiming incapacity benefit- and there are well in excess of two million of them- are casualties of Capital. A significant proportion of Claimants for instance are people psychologically damaged as a consequence of the capitalist realist insistence that industries such as mining are no longer economically viable… Many have simply buckled under the terrifying condition of Post-Fordism.” There are several implications worth unpacking; First. Are we not today in a new version of Post- Fordism, a Post-Office? Since the Covid-19 pandemic many workers have begun to work from home or been pushed out from their job, have had their job outsourced or have had its capacities taken by AI causing them to become useless. What effects has this had? Two, If this is true (which it is) is the Extreme Center related to it (it is) and why does it benefit from it. Three, if we live in an age where your job can be moved at any second, how must we react to it and what must we avoid doing? New Age Post-Fordism This new age of Post-Fordism  accelerated by the pandemic is now maintained by the Extreme Center for its own survival. It thrives on our atomization, side hustles, and passive adaptation to disposability. As workers we must resist their push to the acceptance of these new practices (such as Linkedin, outsourcing our work and having so called side-gigs) and instead develop with the future meanwhile respecting the past we are replaced by AI. All of these questions will be investigated by relating them to the British Miners strikes of 1984 to see what we must learn from them.

The Birth of the Post-Office

Much like how Fisher credits October 6th 1979, to the rise of Post-Fordism I believe that the Post-Office came to be on March 12th, 2020. I was in my last year of elementary school, super happy that I had an extended March break not fully aware of what the Covid-19 pandemic would have in store for me and greater society. Now fast forward to July, 17th 2025 that date is what changed the very framework of work in our society, giving birth to the Post-Office if you will. Workers were forced to stay at home, to continue their jobs, go on Teams meetings and appear busy. Now much like Post-Fordism which Fisher attributes to a worker movement that came about as workers rightfully did not want to work at the same factory for 40 years, is the Post-Office movement not the same? After the pandemic and to today many workers are rightfully refusing to return to the office 5 days a week for 8 hours, saying that it worked just fine meanwhile the pandemic, and although this is true is this not something the Extreme Center will take advantage of? The effects of the Post-Office are clear: workers are in a fight with the Extreme Center to advance their rights (work from home, lighter work load and less commute) meanwhile facing the threat of outsourcing to cheaper labour or AI. The two first parts of the essay have now been proven. Yes, today we are now in a new form of Post-Fordism which has been called The Post-Pandemic Office or how we are going to call it the Post-Office. Second, the Extreme Center does have a hand in this, as it has been made clear in previous essays the Extreme Center has been investing in AI research with the idea of “making the work place easier” or “advancing humanity” but all they have done is lay off workers, or outsource their work. So now that these two things have been established, what lessons must be taken from the miners of 1984?

How To Stop Six Lorries By Yourself (Lessons from the Miners of 1984)

There was something uniquely beautiful about the miners strike of 1984. It was a case of class solidarity, the abolition of gender roles and of the power that we have together. The strike however failed because of two primary reasons, an aggressive Neo-Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher and the “democratic will” of certain miners, who were in a better position. Both the things that succeeded with the miners and the things that led to their ultimate defeat must be investigated, to give us a blueprint of how to act in our similar times. In the 2014 documentary The Enemy Within many miners, wives and allies are interviewed on their experience of the strike, there was a particularly beautiful story that illustrates the way that the common man must conduct himself. The story starts with a young miner, elated by the fact that the strike had been announced, went to the quarry on Saturday to begin the strike early (it had been announced that it would start on Monday). When he gets there, there are 6 lorries (or in my native North American English trucks) filled with coal, ready to leave the mine. The young miner steps in front of the trucks and commences his speech. “I am here on the behalf of the striking miners-. Interrupted by the truck driver who rightfully says. “Not much of a strike son, you are the only one here.” The young miner holds his line “I am here on the behalf of my Union head, you can speak to him here, we implore you not to cross the picket line and show solidarity to our cause against the government's pit closures, please do not cross the picket line.” At the end of that speech the truck driver bows his head, turns his wheel and returns his truck to the mine. All six trucks had obeyed the instruction of a striking 18 year old over the government. What importance does this story have to us today? Can we not see something like this in the office, just in a more relaxed and absurd atmosphere. “Sir, I am here to ask you to return your company issued phone and laptop. We have now laid you off, as we have outsourced you to AI.” to which the worker replies “No, I will not be doing that, and neither will my fellow workers, as we have been designated by our union to do, we will continue to do our work and ask you to show solidarity to the human cause, and stop asking our to give you our tools.” The young miner brings up a good point, if he was able to stop 6 trucks from leaving by himself, imagine what a united force can do. Of course, the difference between whole mining pits with thousands of jobs being closed and some office workers being laid off has different stakes, right? No, Instead the stakes are the same. For a very simple reason. The mines supported thousands of jobs, the same way that offices support thousands of jobs, although with the offices you might have smaller versions of them, they all react to each other as a controlled organism. What one bank or office does, sets a domino effect for the rest to follow. If one workspace begins to do AI layoffs the capitalist will always follow this idea, therefore the refusal of returning one laptop, can inspire the same impact for one worker. Let's expand that story, imagine if that one laptop not being returned, started going around, people started talking about it. At first they thought it was a useless, annoying person just being difficult at the thought of losing their jobs, but as they think it over they realize what it means, and what it could mean if we all refuse to return our laptops, that is the way the modern office worker must think. Oftentimes in white collar jobs we feel powerless, especially when it comes to standing up for ourselves, we will always be able to as long as we are creative and that is the first lesson we must take from the miners, to go to a strike on Saturday not Monday.

The One Thing Better Than an Iron Lady is 1000 Iron Ladies (Solidarity Beyond Gender)

The next important positive point is the way that the miners managed to destroy gender roles. An older lady named Mrs. Joyce, interviewed in The Enemy Within, said multiple interesting points related to gender. Her first point was that Thatcher often labeled herself the iron lady due to her firmness and refusal to back down. When the strike began Thatcher expected it to fail due to the fact that she cut off the miners from unemployment benefits leading to their wives to get on their back to become breadwinners again. Mrs. Joyce points out however that Thatcher did not realise that the miners had thousands of Iron Ladies themselves. These ladies at first took very traditional gender roles meanwhile the strike. Opening soup kitchens, cleaning the house and helping the miners prepare for the strikes. Mrs. Joyce refers to this as the hunter/ gatherer stage of the strike, but as time progressed gender roles eroded. The man started to help at the soup kitchens and one of my favourite scenes of the documentary happens, a very feminine beautiful singing begins about “The people united, will never be defeated.” The camera then pans to women marching. With the rise of AI we must learn from this. We must take one of my favourite phrases in philosophy from Aristotle “Human Qua Human”  he says. We must see each other, not with any differences in these trying times, but instead with every similarity this is not a time to be divided, that is what the Extreme Center is seeking to do by using social media, movies and the news. Instead we must see each other as humans, all coming from the same place. Being born on this earth and dying on this earth.

The Enemy Within: Democracy and the Extreme Center

Now the defeat of the miners comes down to two reasons: the first one is the Neo-Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. Her appointing Ian MacGregor a serial unionbuster made it known what her goals were, but what the Extreme Center does, does not interest me because simply it is expected of them. Of course Thatcher would do that, the same way that a baby cries at any loud noise, you really can’t blame them. It is who they are. What you can blame is the miners in Nottingham who crossed the picket line and continued to work because they believed that the strike was unjustified as it was not begun at the ballot box, which is what led Thatcher to call the miners “The Enemy Within our Democracy”. Let’s investigate this however, the strikes were democratic, they were more democratic then any election could be. What is more democratic than the common man coming together to protest for their rights against the elites? The miners did not need an election influenced by the wealthy and tories to legitimise their fight, however the refusal of the Nottingham miners to join this strike for this very reason led to the defeat, so the lesson? Trust in democracy, but don’t give your life to it. This echoes to Oasis lyrics from their masterpiece Don’t Look Back In Anger “Please don’t put your life in the hands of a rock and roll band who will throw it all away.” We should treat democracy the same way. The same way we can’t give our lives to rock and roll superstars who are deluded by fame, we cannot give it to a democracy run by the Extreme Center who are deluded by their business interests. When the time comes, it will be for humanity to stand up to AI and the Extreme Center. We must do the democratic exercise of elections but we cannot give up our solidarity and our moment just because elections held by the Extreme Center government have not happened.

The sound of Don’t Look Back In Anger should be the sound that guides our democracy. Not a rejection of democracy but a more pragmatic approach, the next years will be difficult and trying ones for humanity, and yet I believe in us for the sheer reason that we have made it this far. The 1984 mining strike was beautiful because of the sheer fact that it was humanity, the people or the common man however you want to call us coming into numbers, that managed to stop one of the largest Extreme Center capitalist economies of all time. We will continue to have to stand in front of six lorries by ourselves, but that is the beautiful part. The fact that we have to be ready to strike on Saturday, not Monday.