Shutting It All Down: The Power of General Strikes in U.S. History
General strikes are rare in American social movements, because they are difficult to coordinate. On the other hand, few actions offer a more direct challenge to those in power. What can today’s protesters learn from their activist ancestors to help participants draw strength? How have general strikes affected long-term labor and social movements?
The two major general strikes in American history are the Seattle General Strike of 1919 and the Oakland General Strike of 1946. In 1919, the workers of Seattle engaged in a three-day mass action calling all city workers onto the streets. This was the first citywide collective action in American history known as a general strike.
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If there is one lesson to take from these general strikes, it’s that they are extremely threatening to those in power. If successful, they show that the 1% have lost the control they so ardently seek. They will react with ferocity against the organizers, laying bare structural and legal inequalities in this nation. Neither strike was successful, but we remember them as moments of incredible worker solidarity when it seemed massive changes were about to happen. They need to be seen as part of the larger struggles of working people to achieve basic rights, decent wages, and safe living conditions in this country.
Whether a general strike succeeds or not is less important than the public stand it takes against the exploitation of working-class people. The general strike is not the end of the road but rather one step on the path to taking back our country.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/shutting-it-all-down-the-power-of-general-strikes-in-u-s-history
The General Strike — A U.S. Tradition
Today labor faces great challenges. For twenty-five years the average standard of living has been driven down. Union busting and scab herding are more and more blatant as the bosses take aim at the great gains and organizations workers won in the battles of the 1930s and after. The insatiable need for ever greater profit, the nature of capitalism, drives them. The success of the capitalist west, led by the United States, in overthrowing much of the socialist bloc led by the Soviet Union, has made the bosses even more arrogant and aggressive at home and abroad.
The attacks on the U.S. labor movement have not gone unanswered. In repeated arenas across the nation workers have shown no lack of courage and determination. But what is lacking is the experience, ideas and tested leadership needed to launch an effective counter offensive. Bitter battles from PATCO to the Detroit Newspaper strike have begun to awaken the working class. Interest in labor’s history and socialist ideas are being sparked as workers see that class collaboration and bowing before capitalist legality has led to numerous defeats.
The re-emergence of class consciousness among the 100 million strong U.S. working class will be a slow and painful process. But it is both necessary and inevitable. Eventually the entire working class and its allies must rise to its feet to take destiny into their own hands, no longer captive of the bosses, the bankers and the ideas promoted in the mass media owned by the ruling class.
I hope this history of the general strike will make a contribution toward this development. With unity, knowledge and vision we will not only be able to shut down this country to defend our rights, but we will take over the factories, the mines, the offices, the hospitals and even the newspapers, to run them not for the profit of the few parasites, but for the benefit of all.
https://fighting-words.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-General-Strike-David-Sole.pdf
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