General strike

A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants. It is also characterized by participation of workers in a multitude of workplaces, and tends to involve entire communities. The general strike has waxed and waned in popularity since the mid-19th century, and has characterized many historically important strikes.

The term "general strike" is sometimes also applied to large-scale strikes of all of the workers in a particular industry, such as the Textile workers strike (1934). Those "general" strikes, however massive they might be, involve workers only in a particular workplace. The classic general strike, by contrast, involves also workers (and members of the working-class) who have no direct stake in the outcome of the strike. For example, in the San Francisco General Strike of 1934, both union and non-union workers struck for four days to protest the police and employers' tactics that had killed two picketers and in support of the longshoremen's and seamen's demands.

The distinction is not always that clear. In the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934, as an example, many building trades unions and organizations of unemployed workers in federal work projects struck in sympathy with striking truck drivers and to protest the police violence against picketers. Thousands of others participated in demonstrations to support the strikers. Those sympathy strikes, while sizable, never acquired the scope necessary to amount to a "general strike", however, and the organizers of the Teamsters' strike did not describe it as such.

Syndicalism and the general strike

Some in the labour movement hope to mount a "peaceful revolution" by organizing enough strikers to completely paralyze the state and corporate apparatus. With this goal achieved, the workers would be able to re-organize society along radically different lines. This philosophy, known as syndicalism, enjoyed modest support amongst the radical sections of the labour movement in the late 19th and early 20th century. The United States, Canada, and (to a lesser extent) Australia had this trend culminate in the growth of the Industrial Workers of the World. General strikes were frequent in Spain during the early twentieth century, where revolutionary anarcho-syndicalism was most popular. The biggest general strike in recent European history – and the largest general wildcat strike ever – was May 1968 in France. Georges Sorel published Reflections on Violence in 1908, in which he promotes an understanding of the myth of the general strike:

To estimate, then, the significance of the idea of the general strike, all the methods of discussion which are current among politicians, sociologists, or people with pretensions to political science, must be abandoned. Every-thing which its opponents endeavour to establish may be conceded to them, without reducing in any way the value of the theory which they think they have refuted. The question whether the general strike is a partial reality, or only a product of popular imagination, is of little importance. All that it is necessary to know is, whether the general strike contains everything that the Socialist doctrine expects of the revolutionary proletariat.

Sorelian ideas helped the emergence of national syndicalism and right-wing groups like the Cercle Proudhon.

Notable general strikes

• 287 BC - Conflict of the Orders
• 1820 - Scottish Insurrection
• 1842 - General Strike in England - the first General Strike by a modern industrial workers revolutionary movement demanded not only better living-standards, but democracy, based on a 'Charter' which took 100 years to fully secure, except for one demand: 'that parliaments are elected EVERY year'. The strike and the movement was betrayed and defeated by its middle class component who refused to fight the UK ruling-class when it deployed mass violence.
• 1886 - Chicago Uprising, USA
• 1905 - "Great Dress Rehearsal", Russia
• 1912 - Brisbane General Strike, USA
• 1917 - Australian General Strike
• 1917 - Spanish General Strike
• 1918 - Irish Conscription Strike
• 1919 - Barcelona General Strike, Spain
• 1919 - Winnipeg General Strike, Canada
• 1919 - Seattle General Strike, USA
• 1919 - German Revolution
• 1920 - German Kapp Putsch Strike
• 1926 - UK General Strike of 1926
• 1934 - West Coast Longshoremen's Strike, USA
• 1934 - Toledo Auto-Lite Strike, USA
• 1936 - Spain 1936-9 - Spanish Revolution - against the Fascist coup of General Franco, backed by Europe's rulers - both Fascist Germany and Italy - AND so-called democracies like Britain and France. Initially highly successful, the popular armed revolutionary take-over of Spain was betrayed and sabotaged by the social-democratic(Labour) parties and Moscow-run Communist Party - who explicitly stated they wanted to return power to capitalist bosses.
• 1936 - Arab Revolt in Palestine
• 1936 - Syrian General Strike
• 1941 - February Strike, Netherlands
• 1942 - Luxembourgian General Strike
• 1944 - Liberation of Paris
• 1953 - East German workers' strike & Revolt against work speed-up (Work-quotas: 'Norms')
• 1956 - Finnish General Strike
• 1956 - Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (Magyarorszag) armed workers' insurrection installed the democratic rule of Workers' Councils for 13 days before the State-Capitalist rulers of Imperial Russia re-invaded killing 25,000 mainly teenage workers and students and exiling 250,000. The UN, US & European rulers had promised help but did nothing. East European people endured another 33 years of brutal Stalinist tyrants, with whom the West continued to conduct profitable business.
• 1968 - May 1968, France
• 1973 - Uruguan General Strike
• 1973 - Chilean General Strike - Millions of Chile's workers, peasants and native peoples formed Workers' Councils - called 'Cordones' - meaning 'linked' to take over and carry out nationwide food distribution after US and UK-backed Chilean bosses halted the national transport and food-distribution system. Tragically on the verge of taking their destiny in their own hands, the social democratic Allianza Popular of Allenda and its Moscow- run Communist Party invited General Pinochet into the Government and he, backed by the US and UK governments and Military launched a brutal military coup killing the elected government and over 25,000 workers. 1 million had to flee into exile. Thousands were 'disappeared'. The US and UK intelligentisa then idolised Chile's Pinochet tyranny as a 'free market' regime

• 1974 - Carnation Revolution, Portugal - another General Strike and Workers' Revolution - which overthrew UK sponsored Caetano fascism - and instututed the rule of Workers' Councils, elected, mass participative democratic organs thrown up spontaneously by workers to not only defend the majority against the violence of the ruling capitalist minority's hired killers, but to also begin to run society in the equal interests of all. Betrayed by the Labour/Social democratic and Communist parties, who were backed by Europe's social-democratic parties.

• 1974 - Ulster Workers Council Strike, Northern Ireland.

• 1979 - Iranian Revolution, another General Strike and armed workers' and soldiers' revolution which overthrew the US and UK installed/armed/financed tyranny of the Shah (Pahlavi family of multi-millionaires)to secure US-UK oil interests. The people formed and briefly ruled through Workers' Councils, spontaneously evolved, called 'SHORAS'. The Iranian ruling-class regained power and smashed Workers' democracy by the use and abuse of religion, master- minded by the most powerful and probably wealthiest religious boss - Khuomeini. His successors still rule Iran today - but face growing workers' confidence, organisation & discontent.
• 1980 - Solidarity Movement, Poland
• 1988 - Spanish General Strike
• 1989 - Velvet Revolution, Czechoslovakia
• 1989 - Romania - the 10-day 'Xmas Revolution'. General strike of 11 million & armed insurrection overthrew and executed Stalinist tyrant Ceausescu (knighted by HM UK Queen)
• 1992 - Nepalese General Strike
• 1995 - French Public Sector Strikes
• 1995 - Days of Action, Canada
• 2002 - Italian General Strike
• 2004 - Orange Revolution, Ukraine
• 2005 - Bolivian Gas Conflict
• 2007 - Guinea General Strike
• 2008 - Burkina Faso - April 8-9th - 2-day General Strike against doubled food prices caused by billionaires speculating on Chicago, New York, London & Tokyo Commodity Index Fund Futures - forces government to cap food prices. See Commodity Index Funds on Google Search. May - 3-day General Strike to raise wages by 43% to keep up with food prices

See also

• Direct Action
• List of strikes
• Industrial Workers of the World
• Industrial unionism
• Georges Sorel and the "myth of the general strike"

External links

• Chronology of general strikes
• The Mass Strike by Rosa Luxemburg (1906)
• General Strike 1842 From chartists.net, downloaded 5 June 2006
• From Reflections on Violence
• Strikes and You from the National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights