General Strike

A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions of political, social, and labour organizations and may also include rallies, marches, boycotts, civil disobedience, non-payment of taxes, and other forms of direct or indirect action. Additionally, general strikes might exclude care workers, such as teachers, doctors, and nurses.

Historically, the term general strike has referred primarily to solidarity action, which is a multi-sector strike that is organised by trade unions who strike together in order to force pressure on employers to begin negotiations or offer more favourable terms to the strikers; though not all strikers may have a material interest in the negotiations, they all have a material interest in maintaining and strengthening the collective efficacy of strikes as a bargaining tool.

History

19th century

The general strike action only became a feature of the political landscape with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. For the first time in history, large numbers of people were members of the industrial working class; they lived in cities and exchanged their labour for payment. By the 1830s, when the Chartist movement was at its peak, a true and widespread 'workers' consciousness' was beginning to awaken in England.

The first theorist to formulate and popularise the idea of a general strike for the purpose of political reform was the radical pamphleteer William Benbow.Carpenter, Niles
William Benbow and the Origin of the General Strike
. ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'' , Vol. 35, No. 3 (May 1921), pp. 491-499. Oxford University Press Closely involved with planning the attempted Blanketeers protest march by Lancashire weavers in March 1817, he became an associate of William Cobbett and passed his time "agitating the labouring classes at their trades meetings and club-houses."

On 28 January 1832 Benbow published a pamphlet entitled ''Grand National Holiday and Congress of the Productive Classes''. Benbow began to advocate direct and even violent action for political reform, in particular he advanced his idea for a "national holiday" and "national convention". By this he meant an extended period of general strike by the working classes, which would be a sacred or holy action (hence "holy-day"), during which time local committees would keep the peace and elect delegates to a national convention or congress, which would agree the future direction of the nation. The striking workers were to support themselves with savings and confiscated parish funds, and by demanding contributions from rich people.

Benbow's idea of a Grand National Holiday was adopted by the Chartist Congress of 1839, Benbow having spent time in Manchester during 1838-9 promoting the cause and his pamphlet.

In 1842 the demands for fairer wages and conditions across many different industries finally exploded into the first modern general strike (the 1842 general strike). After the second Chartist Petition was presented to Parliament in April 1842 and rejected, the strike began in the coal mines of Staffordshire, England, and soon spread through Britain affecting factories, mills in Lancashire and coal mines from Dundee to South Wales and Cornwall. Instead of being a spontaneous uprising of the mutinous masses, the strike was politically motivated and was driven by a hard-headed agenda to win concessions. Probably as much as half of the then industrial workforce were on strike at its peak—over 500,000 men. The local leadership marshaled a growing working-class tradition to politically organise their followers to mount an articulate challenge to the capitalist, political establishment.

The mass abandonment of plantations by black slaves and poor whites during the American Civil War has, controversially, been considered a general strike. In his classic history ''Black Reconstruction in America'', W. E. B. Du Bois describes this mass abandonment in precisely these terms:

Transforming itself suddenly from a problem of abandoned plantations and slaves captured while being used by the outhernenemy for military purposes, the movement became a general strike against the slave system on the part of all who could find opportunity. The trickling streams of fugitives swelled to a flood. Once begun, the general strike of black and white went madly and relentlessly on like some great saga.

The next large-scale general strike took place over half a century later in Belgium, in an effort to force the government to grant universal suffrage to the people. However, there were periodical strikes throughout the 19th century that could loosely be considered as 'general strikes'. In the United States, the 1835 Philadelphia General Strike lasted for three weeks, after which the striking workers won their goal of a ten-hour workday and an increase in wages. Later general strikes include a one-week general strike of workers in the Central Pacific Railroad, a general strike that was not widely reported in the press or studied in literature because it was peaceful., and the more violent and disruptive 1877 Saint Louis general strike, which grew out of the events of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 across the United States and the 1892 New Orleans general strike. The year of 1919 saw a cascade of general strikes around the world as a result of the political convulsions caused by the First World War—in Germany, Belfast, Seattle and Winnipeg.

The Russian Revolution of 1905 saw a massive wave of social unrest across the Russian Empire, characterised by large scale general strikes on the part of the industrial workers. The 1926 United Kingdom general strike started in the coal industry and rapidly escalated; the unions called out 1,750,000 workers, mainly in the transport and steel sectors, although the strike was successfully suppressed by the government.

20th century

A General Strike or Solidarity Strike was when various trade unions would go on strike sympathetically to help another trade union. General strikes were a sort of "nuclear option" for trade unions to all band together and go on a prolonged strike together.

Ralph Chaplin, editor of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) newspaper '' Solidarity'' and later of the '' Industrial Worker'', identified four levels of general strike. rising from a community, to an industry, to a nationwide strike, and finally a revolutionary or class strike.

In a 1905 pamphlet, published in Chicago, Stephen Naft acknowledged the same four levels of the general strike:

Naft's 1905 pamphlet (translated from the German language) traced existing sentiment for this goal of the general strike to proletarians of Spain and Italy.Stephen Naft, The Social General Strike, Debating Club No. 1, Chicago, June 1905, page 6, translated from the German language pamphlet of the same name by Arnold Roller

''The Social General Strike'' noted the complexity of modern industry, identifying the many stages in the manufacturing process and geographic dispersal of related manufacturing locations as weaknesses of the industrial process during any labour dispute. The pamphlet notes the problem of hunger during a general strike, and recommends where warehouses are available for the purpose, that proletarians,

However, the pamphlet asserts that,

The year 1919 saw a number of general strikes throughout the United States and Canada, including two that were considered significant—the Seattle General Strike, and the Winnipeg General Strike. While the IWW participated in the Seattle General Strike, that action was called by the Seattle Central Labor Union, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL, predecessor of the AFL–CIO).

In June 1919, the AFL national organisation, in session in Atlantic City, New Jersey, passed resolutions in opposition to the general strike. The official report of these proceedings described the convention as the "largest and in all probability the most important Convention ever held" by the organisation, in part for having engineered the "overwhelming defeat of the so-called Radical element" via crushing a " One Big Union proposition", and also for defeating a proposal for a nationwide general strike, both "by a vote of more than 20 to 1."''Sheet Metal Workers' Journal'', Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers' International Alliance, Volumes 24-25, Chicago, Illinois, 1919, pages 265-267 The AFL amended its constitution to disallow any central labour union (i.e., regional labour councils) from "taking a strike vote without prior authorization of the national officers of the union concerned". The change was intended to "check the spread of general strike sentiment and prevent recurrences of what happened at Seattle and is now going on at Winnipeg." The penalty for any unauthorised strike vote was revocation of that body's charter.

In the fight in the Indian Independence Movement lead by Mahatma Gandhi Gandhi promoted the use of what is called Hartal, a mass protest and a form of civil disobedience that often involved a total shutdown of workplaces, offices, shops, and courts of law.

Legality

After the passage of the anti-union Taft–Hartley Act in 1947, the general strike changed from a tool of labor strike solidarity into a general form of social, political, and economic protest. Congress passed the law in the wake of the women-led 1946 Oakland General Strike. It outlawed actions taken by unionized workers in support of workers at other companies, effectively rendering both solidarity actions and the general strike itself illegal. Before 1947 and the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act the term general strike meant when various unions would officially go on strike in solidarity with other striking unions. The act made it illegal for one union to go on strike to support another. Hence, the definition and practice of a general strike changed in modern times to mean periodic days of mass action coordinated, often, by unions, but not an official or prolonged strike.

Since then, in the US and Europe the general strike has become a tool of mass economic protest often in conjunction with other forms of electoral action and direct civil action.

Debates on general strikes

Socialists versus anarchists

In 1966, in a study of revolutionary socialism, Milorad M. Drachkovitch of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace (a conservative think tank), noted two tactical options which divided late 19th century and early 20th century anarchists from socialists: electoral politics, which the socialists embraced, but anarchists generally opposed; and, the general strike as a mechanism to prevent war, which anarchists supported, but socialists refused to endorse.

As a group, the socialists of the period repeatedly rejected the general strike as a tactic;Milorad M. Drachkovitch, The revolutionary internationals, 1864–1943, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University Press, 1966, page 83 however, a number of socialist leaders advocated its use for one reason or another. Socialist leaders who embraced the general strike tended to see it as an instrument for obtaining political concessions.

Drachkovitch identified five types of general strikes:
* the political mass strike, a general strike for political rights (such as the right to vote)
* the general strike as a revolutionary act that would transform society
* the general strike as a "revolutionary exercise" which would eventually lead to a transformation of society
* a one-day demonstration general strike on May Day (International Workers' Day), aimed at identifying a "worldwide proletariat"
* commencing in 1891, a theoretical mechanism by which to stop wars between nation statesMilorad M. Drachkovitch, The revolutionary internationals, 1864–1943, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University Press, 1966, pages 99–100

Drachkovitch perceived the first two concepts, the socialist-friendly general strike for political rights within the system, and the general strike as a revolutionary mechanism to overthrow the existing order—which he associated with a "rising anarcho-syndicalist movement"—as mutually exclusive. Drachkovitch believed that the difficulty arose from the fact that the general strike was "one instrument", but was frequently considered "without distinction of underlying motives."Milorad M. Drachkovitch, The revolutionary internationals, 1864–1943, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University Press, 1966, page 100

Milorad M. Drachkovitch also observed the variable success of the general strike in actual use:

Syndicalism and general strikes

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) began to fully embrace the general strike in 1910–1911.Philip S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, Vol. 4, The Industrial Workers of the World 1905–1917, International Publishers, 1997, page 140 The ultimate goal of the general strike, according to Industrial Workers of the World theory, is to displace capitalists and give control over the means of production to workers. In a 1911 speech in New York City, IWW organiser Bill Haywood explained his view of the economic situation, and why he believed a general strike was justified,

Bill Haywood believed that industrial unionism made possible the general strike, and the general strike made possible industrial democracy. According to Wobbly theory, the conventional strike is an important (but not the only) weapon for improving wages, hours, and working conditions for working people. These strikes are also good training to help workers educate themselves about the class struggle, and about what it will take to execute an eventual general strike for the purpose of achieving industrial democracy.Philip S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, Vol. 4, The Industrial Workers of the World 1905–1917, International Publishers, 1997, page 141 During the final general strike, workers would not walk out of their shops, factories, mines, and mills, but would rather occupy their workplaces and take them over. Prior to taking action to initiate industrial democracy, workers would need to educate themselves with technical and managerial knowledge in order to operate industry.

According to labor historian Philip S. Foner, the Wobbly conception of industrial democracy is intentionally not presented in detail by IWW theorists; in that sense, the details are left to the "future development of society". However, certain concepts are implicit. Industrial democracy will be "a new society uiltwithin the shell of the old."Philip S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, Vol. 4, The Industrial Workers of the World 1905–1917, International Publishers, 1997, page 142 Members of the industrial union educate themselves to operate industry according to democratic principles, and without the current hierarchical ownership/management structure. Issues such as production and distribution would be managed by the workers themselves.

In 1927 the IWW called for a three-day nationwide walkout—in essence, a demonstration general strike—to protest the execution of anarchists Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The most notable response to the call was in the Walsenburg coal district of Colorado, where 1,132 miners stayed off the job, and only 35 went to work, a participation rate which led directly to the Colorado coal strike of 1927.

On 18 March 2011, the Industrial Workers of the World supported an endorsement of a general strike as a follow-up to protests against Governor Scott Walker's proposed labour legislation in Wisconsin, following a motion passed by the South Central Federation of Labor (SCFL) of Wisconsin endorsing a statewide general strike as a response to those legislative proposals.http://www.scfl.org/ retrieved 9 April 2011 The SCFL website states,

Notable general strikes

The largest general strike that ever stopped the economy of an advanced industrial country—and the first general wildcat strike in history—was May 1968 in France.
The Beginning of an Era
'', from '' Situationist International'' No 12 (September 1969). Translated by Ken Knabb. The prolonged strike involved eleven million workers for two weeks in a row, and its impact was such that it almost caused the collapse of the de Gaulle government. Other notable general strikes include:

* In Portugal, a general strike was called in 2011 by the federation of public labour unions to avert austerity measures.
* In Honduras, a general strike was called in 2011 by union workers, farmers and other organisations demanding better education, an increase in the minimum wage and against fuel price hikes.
* In Yemen, thousands of people took the streets in a general strike in 2011 to protest President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
* In Algeria, public sector workers in 2011 mounted a general strike for higher wages and improved working conditions.
* In February 1947, General Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan, banned a planned general strike of 2,400,000 government workers, stating that "so deadly a social weapon" as a general strike should not be used in the impoverished and emaciated condition of Japan so soon after World War II. Japan's labour leaders complied with his ban.The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 February 1947, page 1
* In June 2022, Tunisian workers initiated a general strike that halted all transportation.

See also

* Civil disobedience
* Civil resistance
* Critique of work
* Demonstration (political)
* Direct action
* Earth Strike
* Georges Sorel
* Hartal
* Industrial Workers of the World
* Industrial unionism
* List of strikes
* Nonviolent resistance
* Occupation of factories
* Protest
* Secessio plebis
* Stay away
* Syndicalism
* Workers' self-management

References

Further reading

* Henry L. Slobodin, "The General Strike," ''International Socialist Review,'' vol. 17, no. 6 (December 1916), pp. 353–355.

External links

Chronology of general strikes


by Rosa Luxemburg (1906).

General Strike 1842
From chartists.net, downloaded 5 June 2006.



Strike! Famous Worker Uprisings
—slideshow by ''Life'' magazine.

Strikes and You from the National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights

Seattle General Strike Project

Oakland 1946! Project

{{Authority control

Industrial Workers of the World culture
Protest tactics