okay so as someone who does some labor organizing w/ iww (mostly helping put together education programs & im an external organizer on a campaign, among other things)
i am extremely annoyed & dissapointed with the Youtube Walkout campaign now that i've looked into it more
1) (this is the big one--) it seems like its extremely decentralized and doesnt have any leadership or structure. this is a MASSIVE flaw. you absolutely positively CANNOT do any sort of labor organizing without SOME sort of central democratic structure. it will not work if you don't have an organizing committee or *something*
2) as a consequence of point #1 this campaign has failed to get even leftist youtubers, who'd be most sympathetic to it, such as donoteat01, philosophytube, hbomberguy, means tv, etc on board
3) as a consequence of point #1, there has been very little information put out about this campaign; googling "youtube walkout" turns up nothing. googling "youtube walkout boycott" also turns up nothing. you have to google "youtube walkout boycott coppa" and scroll halfway down the search results before you even start to get information aboutit
4) this is just not how boycotts, walkouts, & strikes are done in serious labor organizing; you don't do a boycott or walkout unless you have actual leverage, and, as a consequence of points #1 & #2, this campaign does not have leverage
this has been so poorly executed from start to finish, with the fundamental flaw being the youtubers who have put this together either don't have enough awareness of how labor organizing works to establish a central democratic structure for this to take place...
or they refused to do so due to the incorrect myth that "structureless is better" which has sadly infected a significant ammount of leftwing organizing in the u.s.
all other shortcomings of this attempt at a boycott stem from that fundamental flaw of lacking structure
& so even though i appreciate the idea, it will not even put a dent in youtube, because, if i'm being frank, it's not a seriously organized boycott in any meaningful way
if you want to boycott youtube still, go ahead. i just hope that the folks who organized this learn from its failures and establish something a little more serious and a little more like a true union so that in the future they can have a real impact & leverage
