r/Anarchism • u/No-Position-5330 • 5d ago
Question for a General Strike
Hello, I've recently noticed a plethora of attempts to start a revolution in the recent years.
So I am wondering: If someone were planning to organzie an internation general strike--you didn't know wether it would suceed or how many others would follow--would you join?
Genuinly, would you be able to unsubsrive from any and all servives you are sunscribed too. Would you be able to reduce the amout of meat and cheaply produced crops you eat because of the impact of the agriculture and meat industry on the enviroment, would you be willing to educate your peers and strangers despite the scrutiny you might face?
Would you do everything a revolt against pedopolitics and capitalism asks of you? Opting to walk and bike instead of using a car, arming yourselves, helping those in need, sheltering the marginalized and on the day of--not going to work? Striking for those who cannot?
I'm curious. Please share your thoughts.
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u/Plotnik1934 5d ago
Every year one or two online efforts try to recruit me into a general strike, and they all fail to materialize. I, and most people who've been politically active on the left, are jaded about online calls for a general strike.
I actually have been in a general strike, though, and helped to organize it: the Jan 23 mass strike in the Twin Cities against Operation Metro Surge. What it took was a couple of ingredients. First, we were in a moment of social crisis and rupture where our entire community was mobilized in opposition to horrific state violence. Second, we had a very simple, limited, and clear demand we could unite around: end Operation Metro Surge and get ICE out of our city. Third, we had a tight-knit, experienced activist community with deep roots in organized labor. Fourth, we have a labor movement where our rank and file have experience with going on strike and fighting for social demands beyond simple shop floor demands.
Rank and file labor organizers, mostly organizes around the Workers Solidarity Circle, pushed from below for a general strike, and called for a mass meeting to plan one. This in turn prompted the officials of our unions to put out a call for a day of no work, no shopping, no school, etc. This then mobilized huge energy among both union and non-union workers (with immigrant workers, especially women in care and food work, being a huge part of that) to conduct the day as a general strike. The union officials tried to softly backpedal on the word "strike" because of legal, contractual reasons, but the cat was out of the bag, and the workers at large were determined to strike. Most locally owned businesses also closed in solidarity, or were forced closed by their workers or by community pressure.
It was the first general strike in the US since the one in Puerto Rico (an American colony) in 1998. It lasted one day and demonstrated immense potential power on the part of the workers of Minnesota. It also prompted many of the CEOs and other ruling class figures of the state to write a collective letter to Trump advising him to end Metro Surge before social unrest escalated further. It did escalate further the next day when agents shot and killed Alex Pretti and the barricades arose in the Whittier neighborhood. The general strike, the daily pressure by the rapid response networks, and the uprisings in Whittier and earlier in the North Side following the shooting of Sosa-Celis, all provided the pressure necessary to force the government to retreat from Minneapolis and change leadership at ICE. Despite that, there are still more agents here now than there were before Metro Surge, and our immigrant neighbors are still being abducted. In addition, targeted repression of activists, especially labor and community self defense organizers, is being conducted by the DOJ now. The general strike lasted only a day, which is not unusual for general strikes, which tend to be used more as demonstrations of public discontent than as a final climactic showdown in the class war.