a #GeneralStrike¶

Alright, you guys want a #GeneralStrike? Good. But it's not happening this weekend, just because some people tweet about it, and put up polls about when we should just do it.

Here are the two ways a general strike can actually happen: The first relies on union leadership explicitly calling for a general strike, and members actually following through.

This would be the product of many years of organizing. The current state of organized labor precludes a top-down announcement for several reasons. First, the current national leadership of unions and federations are opposed to radical change. They are where they are because of their commitment to advancing their own power, which necessarily includes them consorting with other people in power, not challenging them. Second, union density is low, due to decades of deliberate legislative efforts and a union-busting PR cottage industry to combat union formation and expansion. It would take just as long to undo those efforts and rebuild the state of organized labor. So a top-down general strike is years or decades of labor organizing, legislative efforts, and leadership-ousting away. The second way a general strike can realistically happen is organically, starting at the ground level. This would essentially be a wave of local strikes sweeping the nation, which, together, can later be recognized as a general strike. This requires a lot more luck to pull off. You can't really plan this chain of events without a national network of organizers that doesn't currently exist in the capacity it would need for such a short time frame. But luck aside, this path to a general strike is a lot more feasible in the short term. The path forward for individuals is pretty straightforward: organize your workplace, and stay in contact other local workers, particularly unions that already have active membership. If people are making this organizing effort all across the country, conditions may be just right in a couple of locales for a city/county-wide general strike. Maybe not yours, but somewhere. With a strong media effort by the organizers in those areas, it can become regional or national news that a general strike has taken hold. This media attention can make it easier for organizers in other regions to point to a strike as a plausible action. Over the course of several weeks or months, you might--MIGHT--see a national (or even international) movement like we saw with the George Floyd protests. The bandwagon effect is our only hope of this path working to bring us a national general strike. It's still really difficult to organize local level strikes, but it has a much better chance of working than basically just hoping out loud on Twitter. So what is your next step?

1) Form or join a union. 2) Reach out to members of other local unions 3) If you have a local DSA chapter, feel them out and see if they're able to help organize workplaces. Not all chapters are willing/able to do this.