The Case for a General Strike

Seven million people across the United States and around the world participated in the No Kings demonstrations this past weekend — a number that far exceeds previous demonstrations. It’s a number that shows just how deeply unpopular the regime occupying the White House really is, and how deeply unpopular its policies have become. Anti-authoritarian figures who have raised their voices against the regime are now urging Americans who turned out for the No Kings demonstration not to let this moment fade as if it were just a massive pep rally with no agenda for what comes next.

Fortunately, many organizers — from the grassroots on up — have been outlining that agenda for months. If you are an American of conscience who despises what the regime is doing to this country, now is the time to act. Take up causes aligned with your passions. Protect your family, friends and neighbors, as Paul Rosenberg explains in his column, “No Kings… And No Courtiers, Either: What’s Next in the Fight for Democracy.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson made one of the most eloquent calls to resist, declaring, “We are here to stand firm, to stand committed that we will not bend, we will not bow, we will not cower, we will not submit to authoritarianism.”

Perhaps the most powerful point he made was connecting this moment to the unfinished business of the Civil War: “If my ancestors, as slaves, can lead the greatest general strike in the history of this country, taking it to the ultra-rich and big corporations, we can do it too!”

Johnson was alluding to the enslaved Black people who launched the nation’s first general strike during the Civil War. Following the Emancipation Proclamation, they broke the tools that sustained the Confederate economy and fled plantations for Union lines — taking with them their labor, their bodies and the foundation of Confederate (and American) wealth.

Other key quotes from Mayor Johnson:

• “We must put aside our differences and get in formation — labor, community, and people of conscience together — because what’s happening threatens our democracy and the very fabric of our communities.”
• “ICE has become a private, militarized force. They are acting like an occupying force in communities of color — that will not stand in Chicago.”
• “We are going to make them pay their fair share in taxes — to fund our schools, to fund jobs, to fund health care, to fund transportation.”

From labor, Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, publicly urged a general strike at the No Kings demonstration in Washington, D.C. She directed her comments to UAW President Shawn Fain, who has also called on the labor movement to organize toward a general strike. Fain’s advocacy predates No Kings but helped shape union participation in the rallies.

Here in the Los Angeles Harbor, we remember martyrs Dickie Parker and John Knudsen, whose blood helped give rise to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

The ILWU continues to honor “Bloody Thursday” every July 5 by shutting down all West Coast ports and remembering Nick Bordoise, Howard Sperry and other workers killed by police during the 1934 strike. The union has also stopped work to protest Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia, fascist intervention in the Spanish Civil War, apartheid in South Africa, and the Iraq War.

The immediate consequences of the 1934 West Coast General Strike were sweeping: commerce in entire cities was shut down, wages and business revenues fell sharply, supply lines and municipal services were disrupted, and employers and government were forced to the bargaining table — often backed by costly police and National Guard deployments.

Shipping was halted along the entire coast, immediately reducing port receipts, freight throughput and related business. In Minneapolis, the Teamsters’ strike halted nearly all commercial trucking and city distribution for weeks. Groceries, newspapers and wholesale goods went undelivered, causing shortages and stalling retail restocking.

Striking workers and many small businesses lost income during the shutdown. Employers lost sales while paying for strikebreakers and security. Yet the strikes achieved rapid political and economic results: they forced negotiations, secured concessions and reshaped labor relations by establishing union hiring halls and recognition rights that reallocated wage and bargaining power for generations.

The difference between then and now is that today’s regime has shown it will play chicken with catastrophe so long as its pockets remain lined with ill-gotten gains. Americans are finding they little else to lose before as the regime continues terraforming this democracy into something unrecognizable.