General Strike

Chileans Have Launched A General Strike Against Austerity

October 25, 2019 Felipe Lagos-Rojas and Francisca Gomez-Baeza, Jacobinmag.com Organize! Austerity, Chile, Class Struggle, Electoral Politics, General Strike, Latin America

In Chile’s main cities, armed forces and tanks are filling the streets. But civilians are holding their ground, refusing to abandon public space. Official reports indicate eleven fatalities so far, though there are indications that the number is higher. The president has taken to national television to announce that the country is “at war with a powerful enemy who is willing to use violence without any limits.” There are blackouts all across the country. This is October 2019, but it could just as easily be 1973, when socialist president Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup, replaced with dictator Augusto Pinochet.

“We Can’t Remain Indifferent”: Chile Trade Unions Call For General Strike In Support Of Student-Led Uprising

October 22, 2019 By Eoin Higgins, Commondreams.org Resist! General Strike, Labor Unions, Students, Uprising

As protests against the Chilean government continued Monday, trade unions across the South American country called for a general strike to support demonstrators drawing attention to the nation's high cost of living, inequality, and injustice. "We can't remain indifferent to the social movement out there," Escondida Union No. 1 president Patricio Tapia, whose organization voted to stop work at the Escondida copper mine for 10 hours Monday night or Tuesday morning, told Bloomberg Monday.

French Unions Call General Strike For Better Pay, Retirement, Education

March 20, 2019 Staff, En.rfi.fr Resist! France, General Strike, Strikes, Unions

The CGT, Force Ouvrière, Solidaires and student unions Unef and UNL hope their demonstration will put further pressure on President Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to put forward propositions in response to the Yellow Vest crisis in the coming weeks. The French communist party also declared it would take part in today's action. National Education, transport and garbage collection are expected to be affected by the strike. Four out of ten primary school teachers are expected to be absent to protest against recent education policies.

Why The Seattle General Strike Of 1919 Should Inspire A New Generation Of Labor Activists

February 8, 2019 By Steven C. Beda, Theconversation.com Resist! Class Struggle, General Strike, History, Strikes

It shut down a major U.S. city, inspired a rock opera, led to decades of labor unrest and provoked fears Russian Bolsheviks were trying to overthrow American capitalism. It was the Seattle General Strike of 1919, which began on Feb. 6 and lasted just five days. By many measures, the strike was a failure. It didn’t achieve the higher wages that the 35,000 shipyard workers who first walked off their jobs sought – even after 25,000 other union members joined the strike in solidarity. Altogether, striking workers represented about half of the workforce and almost a fifth of Seattle’s 315,000 residents.

Matamoros Strike Grows As Mexican Ruling Class Warns Of National Strike Wave

February 4, 2019 Eric London and Andrea Lobo, WSWS. Resist! Class Struggle, General Strike, Mexico, Strikes, Workers

The strike of tens of thousands of Matamoros workers spread beyond the maquiladoras this week to new industries as workers in water purification, milk production and Coca-Cola bottling walked out of their Matamoros workplaces Thursday and Friday. Several additional auto parts maquiladoras also joined the strike at the end of the week, including at Spellman, Toyoda Gosei Rubber and Tapex. Although over a dozen plants have returned to work after the companies granted the 20 percent wage increase and $1,700 bonus demanded by the strikers, more than 25 remain on strike, costing the mostly US-based companies a whopping $37 million per day.

Everything You Need To Know About General Strikes

January 29, 2019 By Kim Kelly, Teenvogue.com Strategize! Class Struggle, General Strike, History, Strikes

The word strike seems to be on everyone’s lips these days. Workers across the world have been striking to protest poor working conditions, to speak out against sexual harassment, and to jumpstart stalled union negotiations. And as we just saw with the Los Angeles teachers’ successful large-scale strike, which spanned six school days, strikers have been winning. Despite the shot of energy that organized strikes have injected into the labor movement, many people aren’t content with run-of-the-mill work stoppages, or even with more militant wildcat strikes.

General Strike: The Fierce Urgency Of Now

January 25, 2019 Staff, Afacwa.org Resist! Class Struggle, General Strike, Workers

Thank you. I am proud to represent my union tonight, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. We are aviation’s first responders and last line of defense. It’s wonderful to be joined by my family, my fellow officers Debora Sutor and Kevin Creighan, and Flight Attendant activists who are here participating in our MLK Conference and doing the work daily on our Human Rights committees. Kia Carroll, Melinda Jorge, Trina Johnson, and Jennifer Kraakevik – stand up and thank you for working to make our union stronger!

India General Strike 2019

January 16, 2019 By Jamie Woodcock, Notesfrombelow.org Resist! Class Struggle, General Strike, India, Labor, Strikes, Workers

In Bangalore the strike was strong, shutting down transportation across the city. On the 8th of January, the unions called for a demonstration outside the town hall. There was the visible presence of transport workers (mainly bus drivers), factory workers (particularly aerospace), and bank workers, who joined a lively picket from across the road. While the weather reached around 30 celsius, the demo grew more and more packed. Police officers in tan uniforms, equipped with helmets and large batons, kept their distance at the edge of the demo.

Catalonia Sees Second General Strike In A Month

November 9, 2017 Staff, catalannews.com Resist! Catalonia, General Strike, Nationalism, Strikes

By Staff of Catalan News - Unions, civic organizations and political parties sign up to stoppage demanding release of imprisoned Catalan officials Catalonia sees its second general strike in just over a month on Wednesday, November 8, after the Spanish Superior Court in Catalonia ruled on Tuesday that the stoppage could go ahead. It is the second such protest in little more than a month, after the successful general strike on October 3 to protest Spanish police brutality during the October 1 referendum. Despite uncertainty over whether the strike would go ahead, by Tuesday afternoon the stoppage was taking shape, with the CGT, the Coordinadora Obrera Sindical and USTEC unions all joining up. The strike to demand the release of imprisoned Catalan officials also has the support of the ANC and Òmnium Cultural pro-independence civic organisations. While the UGT and CCOO unions decided not to join the strike, arguing that the reasons for the stoppage are political, both organizations called on the public to join the demonstrations. Protests have been called outside town halls, and in the Cathedral square in Barcelona, at 6pm. Catalan News will also be observing the strike called for November 8, 2017.

What Will Happen If Activists Stage A Nationwide Strike Against Trump?

February 4, 2017 Eric Lutz, www.mic.com Strategize! Donald Trump, General Strike

By Eric Lutz for Mic - A general strike is an organized work stoppage by a large number of employees across a broad spectrum of industries in an effort to advance a political or economic goal. More common in Europe than in the United States, the general strike has its roots in the British working class movement of the mid-1800s; one of the first major general strikes in the United Kingdom occurred in 1842, when unionists and Chartists led a massive strike for better wages and political reform. About 500,000 workers across Britain participated in the strike, which staved off proposed wage cuts and improved working conditions in most factories.

Protests Intensify, French Workers Refuse Submission

May 29, 2016 Andrea Germanos, www.commondreams.org Resist! France, General Strike, Labor Movement

By Andrea Germanos for Common Dreams. Amid ongoing blockades and intensifying clashes with police, protests against President François Hollande's controversial set of labor reforms deepened on Thursday as workers in France's nuclear plants joined the hundreds of thousands of people taking part in a nationwide strike. Fueled by "a groundswell of public anger," as the Associated Press put it, the strikes have already shut down France's gas stations forced the country to dip into reserve petrol supplies. "After oil refinery shutdowns, " Euronews reports, "Thursday's strikes at nuclear sites have taken the stand-off one stage further. Power cuts are not expected but tension is growing as France prepares to host the Euro 2016 football tournament in two weeks time." Sixteen out of the countries 19 nuclear plants voted to join the strike, AP reports. In addition to clashes in Paris, where police fired tear gas at demonstrators, the Guardian reports "that street marches took place in towns and cities across France.

Chicago Teachers Rally Ahead Of Mass Action

March 13, 2016 Madeline Wensel, www.inthesetimes.com Resist! Austerity, Chicago Teachers Union, Education, General Strike

By Madeline Wensel for In These Times. Activists from across Chicago gathered in downtown Chicago last night at the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple to demonstrate a united front in the face of continuing budget cuts and austerity measures proposed by state and city officials and a potentially impending strike of the Chicago Teachers Union. Organized by the Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign, a group of community activists dedicated to supporting the union, many sitting in the pews wore the CTU’s bright red t-shirts. But onstage, representatives from transit workers union ATU 308, AFSCME Council 31, the Black Youth Project (BYP) 100, University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100 and the Chicago Student Union joined CTU President Karen Lewis in calling for solidarity across unions and non-union groups.

Britain Strikes For A Day

July 13, 2014 Sheila Cohen, www.labornotes.org Resist! General Strike, Labor, Unions, United Kingdom (UK)

It’s finally happened. The rusty machinery of the British trade union movement has turned—sluggishly—to allow us a magnificent day of rank-and-file protest. Only one day of striking, when there should be so many. Yesterday hundreds of thousands of public sector workers “took a day off” the length and breadth of Britain to protest not only their poverty pay (already low-paid, they have now been denied anything more than a 1 percent increase since 2010), the loss of 400,000 public sector jobs in the same period, and pension losses. Support from the National Union of Teachers meant the closure of schools across the country. Civil Service strikes closed government offices and even national art galleries.

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