General Strike

Mass Strikes Across The US This May Day

May 1, 2020 Christopher D. Cook, In These Times. Resist! COVID-19, General Strike, May Day, Workers

Toiling amid a pandemic and a callous response from corporate America and the federal government that is exposing millions to deadly hazards and deepening poverty, workers across the country are rising up, planning hundreds of strikes and sickouts for International Workers’ Day on May 1. At a time when worker organizing could be stifled by physical distancing rules and the Trump administration’s disabling of the National Labor Relations Board, workers are walking off the job in massive coordinated walk-outs and sick-outs targeting major employers such as Amazon, Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, FedEx, and Instacart, demanding hazard pay, personal protective equipment and other basic protections.

#GeneralStrike2020: How To Participate On The May Day Launch

April 30, 2020 Popular Resistance. Resist! General Strike, May Day, Rent Strike, Workers

On May Day, the first of May, the #GeneralStrike2020 (and beyond) campaign launches across the country. Learn more about the overall campaign in our most recent newsletter, "The Era of Mass Strikes Begins On May 1; First Day of General Strike Campaign." This prolonged and broad campaign will organize around a list of basic demands, as outlined here. Not on the list, but included is the demand to save the US Postal Service. The campaign will follow a three-prong strategy - resistance through noncompliance, mutual aid and building alternative systems in our communities rooted in cooperation, solidarity and participatory democracy. On May Day and extending through the weekend, there will be many activities. Read through and decide how you can best participate in the actions. There is something for everyone to do. Be creative!

Defying Trump’s Order, Nebraska Meatpackers Strike And More Strike News

April 30, 2020 Mike Elk, Pay Day Report. Resist! Bus Driver, General Strike, Meatpackers, Nurses

Earlier today, Trump announced that he intended to use the power of the federal government and the Defense Production Act to keep meat processing plants open throughout the United States. The move comes as massive outbreaks with hundreds of workers have hit meatpacking plants throughout the U.S. As a result, scores of meatpacking plants have closed because of outbreaks. Strikes and mass sickouts at a dozen meatpacking plants throughout the U.S. have led to the closure of additional plants. It’s unclear how Trump intends to use the Defense Production Act to force meat packing processing workers back into the assembly line. Organized labor immediately denounced the move. “We only wish that this administration cared as much about the lives of working people as it does about meat, pork, and poultry products."

Amazon, Walmart, FedEx Workers Plan Walkout On Friday

April 30, 2020 Kaelan Deese, The Hill. Resist! Amazon, Fedex, General Strike, May Day

The Friday demonstrations will also request protective and cleaning equipment and full disclosure on the number of infected cases in company facilities. The protest would result in employees of the listed businesses calling in sick from work or stepping out during their lunch break. At the same time, some union members will reportedly join workers outside warehouses and storefronts in support of the strikes. "We are acting in conjunction with workers at Amazon, Target, Instacart, and other companies for International Worker's Day [May 1] to show solidarity with other essential workers," said Daniel Steinbrook, a Whole Foods employee and strike organizer. Smalls was fired by Amazon in March after organizing a walkout and has said he will take legal action against the company.

Fired Amazon Worker Chris Smalls: Support May Day Strikers

April 29, 2020 Jaisal Noor, The Real News. Resist! Amazon, General Strike, May Day, Workers

Another reason why we out here tonight is because Amazon is targeting specific people. We are being told to stay six feet apart. However, that rule does not apply for everyone. We’ve seen management do it right in front of us. We’ve seen safety that are supposed to keep us safe, do it. Yet we as associates are being targeted. Jaisal Noor: That’s Hofsa Hassan, one of the dozens of Amazon workers who staged a walkout to protest unsafe working conditions and the loss of hazard pay at an Amazon warehouse in Shakopee, Minnesota on April 26th. We can expect to see more walkouts and protests leading up to big actions on Mayday or International Workers Day, which is observed in most countries except the United States. Despite its rich militant often bloody history of working class struggle that’s secured major victories like the eight hour workday.

General Strike Campaign Growing In The United States; Begins On May Day

April 20, 2020 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. Podcast COVID-19, General Strike, Recession, Working Class

Over the last two years, there have been record numbers of worker strikes in the United States not seen since the depression. Since the recession and COVID-19 pandemic started this winter, there have been many wildcat strikes in response to workers having their pay cut and being required to work in hazardous conditions even though they are deemed essential. Now, as the government demonstrates its unwillingness to provide basic protection for the population even as it injects billions of dollars to big industries and banks, support for a general strike is here. We speak with Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson about the plans being made for the first general strike on May Day, what that will look like and how the campaign will be sustained over time.

2020 Election Year Is An Opportunity For Transformational Change If We Embrace Our Power

April 19, 2020 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance Newsletter 2020 Elections, Donald Trump, General Strike, Howie Hawkins, Joe Biden

Although we do not tie our organizing to the election cycle, the 2020 election is an opportunity for the people to set the agenda for the 2020s. We need to show that whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden are elected, the people will rule from below. We need to build our power to demand the transformation we need. As Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson said in our recent Clearing the FOG interview, the right-wing is using this time to push through their agenda of corporate bailouts, deregulation, and worker exploitation. If the left doesn't organize and counter this, the country will continue on its current destructive path. The changes we want won't come from the top. Both corporate duopoly candidate's priorities are the wealthy investor class and big business. We are going to have to organize and mobilize for the necessities of the people from below.

A Call To Action: Towards A General Strike

April 11, 2020 Cooperation Jackson, Black Agenda Report. Resist! COVID-19, General Strike, May Day, Rent Strike

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the world before our very eyes. In less than 3 months, it has exposed the grotesque nature of the capitalist system to millions, ground the world economy to a halt, and revealed how truly interconnected our little planet really is. As bad as this crisis is on its own terms, it is made considerably worse by the misleadership from the White House, Congress, and many state and local governments. President Trump not only failed to heed the advice of the state's intelligence services regarding the potential threat of the coronavirus, but he downplayed its severity for months as well, and has refused to mobilize the vast resources at the disposal of the US government to address the crisis.

From Strike Wave To General Strike

April 10, 2020 Richard Moser, Be Freedom. Organize! Economic collapse, General Strike, Strike, Worker Rights

The strike wave is here. The strike wave is real. Can workers take the next steps toward a General Strike? The current crisis is a rare opportunity for us to build a movement both outside of electoral politics and based on an organizing model. That matters because the biggest shortcoming of the left and the social movements is our lack of organizing. Organizing can do what good intentions or radical theory or electoral campaigns cannot: turn solidarity from a dream into a living thing. But without some serious solidarity, all our hopes for a General Strike will fail to materialize. As we build the solidarity infrastructure needed for a General Strike lets not lie to each other. It’s called “class struggle” for a reason. Strikes are painful with workers pitting their sacrifice and suffering up against the bosses’ profits. Strikes are no party. But, general strikes, while rare, are a good match for the unprecedented interlocking crises we face.

Here’s What A General Strike Would Take

April 4, 2020 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. Organize! Finance and the Economy, General Strike, Labor Unions, Recession

You know that things are getting serious when #GeneralStrike starts trending on Twitter. It happened last week when Donald Trump was publicly mulling the idea of sending Americans back to work by Easter, a move that would imperil countless lives. A general strike has long held a strong utopian allure. But what would it take to actually pull one off? We spoke to the experts about the reality behind the dream. Amid a healthcare crisis intertwined with an economic crisis, with millions of people freshly unemployed and new wildcat strikes and work stoppages popping off daily, we are living through the most opportune environment for massive, radical labor actions in many decades. America has had great crises before, though—and it has never had a true, nationwide general strike.

French Protest Day And Night Against Macron’s Banker Economy

January 23, 2020 Staff, Popular Resistance Resist! Emmanuel Macron, France, General Strike, Yellow Vest

The people of France continue to protest against President Macron's neoliberal policies and the cutting of French pensions. France has seen months of protests, starting with the Yellow Vests over a year ago and joined by the unions to become a general strike. Firefighters, teachers, railroad workers, electrical workers, lawyers, dancers -- across multiple professions people are in the streets sometimes speaking in front of guillotines or carrying Macron's head on a stick. They remind Macron what happened to King Louis XVI, call for revolution and say 'we can begin again.' Torchlit protests occurred in major cities across the country tonight with people dancing, singing, chanting and releasing Chinese lanterns in vivid displays against Macron's neoliberal policies for the wealthy.

France At A Crossroads

January 14, 2020 Richard Greeman, Popular Resistance Resist! France, General Strike, Pensions, Yellow Vests

The nationwide general strike in France, now entering its record seventh week, seems to be approaching its crisis point. Despite savage police repression, about a million people are in the streets protesting President Macron’s proposed neo-liberal “reform” of France’s retirement system, established at the end of World War II and considered one of the best in the world. At bottom what is at stake is a whole vision of what kind of society people want to live in – one based on cold market calculation or one based on human solidarity – and neither side shows any sign of willingness to compromise.

Lesson From Radical Seattle: How General Strike Rhetoric Became A City-Wide Reality

January 5, 2020 Steve Early, Popular Resistance Strategize! General Strike, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

Winslow’s new book, Radical Seattle: The General Strike of 1919 (Monthly Review Press) hows how “labor’s most spectacular revolt” was many years in the making. It drew on the experience of previous “workplace struggles and political battles, in which working people built an infrastructure for radical politics” and became class conscious “political actors in their own right.”

French Union Workers Vote To Halt Production At Key Oil Facility

December 24, 2019 Sudip Kar-Gupta, Bate Felix, Reuters Resist! France, General Strike, Strikes, Workers Rights and Jobs

French workers voted on Monday to halt production at a key oil facility that supplies Paris and the surrounding region, joining other petroleum industry shutdowns in a nationwide strike against government pension reforms. Industrial action against President Emmanuel Macron’s reforms has also crippled train services over the past two weeks, escalating into clashes between protesters and police in the capital earlier on Monday. Protesters scuffled with police at the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris early on Monday as the strike went into its 19th day. The strike, which has disrupted Christmas preparations, has also affected other main Paris stations such as the Gare du Nord, which handles Eurostar services to London and Brussels, and the Gare de l’Est.

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