For this reason, it is worth taking another look at just why the idea is important and how such mass strikes actually take place. Indeed, given the global war on the working class that has emerged out of the Great Recession and continuing crisis of capitalism, it would be strange if this powerful idea did not arise. More extended strikes played a role in the Arab Springs of Tunisia and Egypt.Ĭloser to home, in the midst of the Wisconsin upsurge of 2011, the Madison-based South Central Federation of Labor put forth the idea of a general strike for discussion and consideration. France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain have all seen recent one or two-day general strikes called by labor federations against the austerity imposed across much of Europe. The idea of calling such a strike arises these days because some labor federations have, in fact, done so. If all this was very far from the general strike that Oakland had seen in 1946 - which occurred in the context of a postwar upsurge very different from today’s disastrous state of labor - it has put the issue and potential of the general strike on the agenda for discussion. Members of the California Nurses Association took sick days to join in one shift of longshore workers, members of the ILWU, joined, responding to a blockade. The city allowed its employees to participate. The result in Oakland was certainly a good demonstration with a civil disobedience component. But what’s more important, as I will argue, is that general strikes or mass strikes are seldom simply “called” from above, if at all, or until they are well underway - and those that are “called” tend to be called off just as easily. Had they done so, however, it is very unlikely that very many union leaders would have agreed to jointly “call” such an action. One criticism of the Occupy activists was that they had not consulted the unions. ![]() ![]() INSPIRED BY THE boldness of the movement, activists of Occupy Oakland issued a “call for a general strike” in that city for November 2 - a sign of the movement’s radicalism and its sense of where social power lies. ![]() Invaluable History and Important Lessons.The Life and Memory of Elizabeth Catlett.Mapping the African-American Literary Left.The SP's Roots and Legacy: In the American Grain.
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