Ageneral strike is astrike 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 tosolidarity action, which is a multi-sector strike that is organised by trade unions who strike together in order to force pressure onemployers to begin negotiations or offer more favourable terms to the strikers; though not all strikers may have a material interest in each other's negotiations, they all have a material interest in maintaining and strengthening the collective efficacy of strikes as a bargaining tool.
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An early predecessor of the general strike were the Jewish traditions of theSabbatical andJubilee years, the latter of which involves widespreaddebt relief andland redistribution.[1] Thesecessio plebis, during the times of theRoman Republic, has also been noted as a precursor to the general strike.[2]
Early conceptions of the general strike were proposed during theRenaissance byÉtienne de La Boétie,[2] and during theAge of Enlightenment byJean Meslier andHonoré Gabriel Riqueti.[3] With the outbreak of theFrench Revolution, the idea was taken up by radicals such asJean-Paul Marat,Sylvain Maréchal andConstantin François de Chassebœuf, who proposed a strike that includedmerchants andindustrialists alongsideindustrial workers andfarmworkers.[4] In his essayLes Ruines, Chassebœuf proposed a general strike by "every profession useful to society" against the "civil, military, or religious agents of government", contrasting "the People" against the "men who do nothing".[5] Chassebœuf's work held a great influence in Great Britain, where it was distributed throughout the country by theLondon Corresponding Society, while his chapter on the general strike was reprinted for decades after its initial publication.[6] The idea was later taken up by the British economistThomas Attwood and the French communistLouis Auguste Blanqui.[2]
During the early years of theIndustrial Revolution, an ill-defined conception of a general strike was expressed by workers inNottingham andManchester, but it lacked a systematic formulation.[7] There were periodic strikes throughout the early 19th century that could loosely be considered as 'general strikes'. In theUnited States, the1835 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.[8]
The idea of the general strike was first formulated byWilliam Benbow,[9] aQuaker andshoemaker that became involved in theBritish radical movement of the early 19th century.[10] After he was arrested for his political activities, Benbow turned away fromreformism and began to publish a number ofanti-authoritarian andanti-clerical polemics.[11] At meetings of theNational Union of the Working Classes, Benbow expressed impatience with the progress of theReform Bill and called for armed resistance against the government.[12]
In January 1832, Benbow published a pamphlet titledGrand National Holiday and Congress of the Productive Classes, in which he outlined his proposals for a general strike.[13] Benbow called for workers themselves to declare a month-long "holiday",[14] which would befinancially supported first by workers' savings and then by exacting "contributions" from the wealthy. He also proposed the formation ofworkers' councils to keep the peace, distribute food and elect delegates to acongress, which would itself carry out wide-reaching societal reforms.[13] Months after the pamphlet's publication, Benbow was arrested for leading a 100,000-strong demonstration, which he had intended as a "dress rehearsal" for his proposed "national holiday".[15]
The passage of the Reform Act brought with it the collapse of the radical movement, including Benbow's National Union. But six years later, in an atmosphere of rising disillusionment with the progress of political reform, the nascentChartist movement adopted Benbow's platform for a "national holiday".[16] The Chartists planned to carry out their month-long national holiday in August 1839, but following Benbow's arrest, the campaign was abandoned.[17] Benbow was tried and found guilty of sedition. Although he attempted to continue his Chartist activities from prison, after being excommunicated from the movement byFeargus O'Connor, Benbow ceased his political activities.[18]
In April 1842, after the secondChartist Petition was rejected by the British Parliament, demands for fairer wages and conditions across many different industries finally exploded into thefirst general strike in the capitalist country.[19] The strike began in thecoal mines ofStaffordshire and soon spread throughout Britain, affectingfactories,mills and mines fromScotland toSouth Wales.[20] Although the general strike started as an apolitical demand for better working conditions, by August 1842, it became directly associated with the Chartists and took on a revolutionary character. But government forces intervened, cracking down on the protests and arresting its leaders, eventually forcing a return to work.[21]
Strike actions by workers in Barcelona played a prominent role in theSpanish Revolution of 1854, which gave way to aprogressive period that extended a number ofcivil liberties to Spanish workers.[22] But labour unrest grew as the new authorities again prohibitedfreedom of association and work stoppages, leading to the outbreak of the1855 Catalan general strike, the first in Spanish history.[23] After months of strike action and attempted negotitations, the general strike was suppressed and thedraft constitution suspended in a coup byLeopoldo O'Donnell.[24]
During theAmerican Civil War, millions ofblack slaves escapedsouthern plantations and fled to Union territory, depriving the Confederacy of its main source of labour in whatW. E. B. Du Bois described as a "general strike" in his bookBlack Reconstruction in America.[25][26] However, this conception was argued against by African-American economistAbram Lincoln Harris, who dismissed Du Bois' claims of a general strike as fantastical.[27] A. A. Taylor also rejected Du Bois' interpretation, noting that the flight from the plantations did not constitute an organised movement to achieve economic or political concessions.[28] And American historianArthur Charles Cole criticised what he described as "discrepancies between well established facts and extravagant generalization" in Du Bois' claims of a general strike.[29]
In 1864, theInternational Workingmen's Association (IWA) was established as a federation of trade unions by delegates from England and France.[30] The French trade union delegates, such asEugene Varlin, saw the nascent International as a means to coordinate support forstrike actions by its members.[31] In the first volume ofDas Kapital, published in 1867,Karl Marx conceived of the general strike as a means by which to buildclass consciousness.[32]
At the International'sBrussels Congress of 1868, the Belgian delegateCésar De Paepe proposed that a general strike could be used to prevent the outbreak of war, which he considered to be a means for the ruling class to subordinate working people. He further declared that trade unions themselves constituted the mechanism for replacingcapitalism withsocialism, the establishment of which would put a final end to all wars.[33] In a letter toFriedrich Engels, Marx himself rejected what he described as "the Belgian nonsense that it was necessary to strike against war".[34] WhenMikhail Bakunin joined the International the following year, he declared his own support for these proposals.[35] Bakunin rejected political participation, instead advocating for workers to take strike actions to improve their working conditions.[36] He argued that the International could be the organisation through which trade unions could build such strike actions into a revolutionary general strike, which would abolish capitalism and institute socialism.[37]
The proposals for a revolutionary general strike to overthrow the state were rejected by theMarxist faction,[38] who instead proposed the creation of political parties to take state power.[39] Through the General Council, which hadcentralised control over the International,[40] Marx moved to expel Bakunin'santi-authoritarian faction at theHague Congress of 1872.[41] In response, the expelled sections established theAnti-Authoritarian International, which was designed to operate according to afederal structure.[42] The anti-authoritarians upheld the syndicalist view of using the International as a coordinating body to support strike actions and build them towards a revolutionary general strike, which would overthrow the state and establishworkers' control over themeans of production.[43] This view was particularly supported by theSpanish Regional Federation, which itself organised ageneral strike inAlcoy, although it was quickly put down bySpanish government forces.[44]
At theGeneva Congress of 1873, Belgian delegates proposed the adoption of the general strike as a tactic forsocial revolution.[45] This motion was supported by theJura Federation, which additionally stressed the need for smaller strikes as a means to achieve wage increases.[46] The discussions over strike action at the Geneva Congress lay the foundations for what was to become known asanarcho-syndicalism.[47] But before long, the anti-authoritarians began to move away from the anarcho-syndicalist model. Members of the Belgian section began to advocate for adictatorship of the proletariat andelectoralism, while the French and Italian sections moved towardsanarcho-communism and proposed the theory ofpropaganda of the deed.[48] By 1880, the debates within the International had led to its collapse.[49]
In 1881, arevolutionary socialist faction of theSocialist Labor Party of America (SLPA) split off and established theInternational Working People's Association (IWPA), which developed anarchist tendencies and held itself to be a continuation of the defunct IWA.[50] Inspired by the example of theParis Commune, IWPA members such as the Chicago anarchistAlbert Parsons formulated a kind of revolutionary syndicalism that eschewed the general strike in favour of popular insurrection.[51] In response to the repression of theGreat Railroad Strike of 1877, the IWPA armed and drilled its members into workers' militias, seeing violent action as a necessary complement to strike action.[52] On 1 May 1886, the IWPA organised a nationwide general strike for theeight-hour day, which had been a focus of demands for Parsons and the Chicago anarchists.[53] Throughout the United States, hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike.[52] The general strike's epicenter was in Chicago, where protests against the police repression of striking workers escalated into ariot.[54] Eight of the protest's organisers, including Parsons, were executed by hanging on charges of conspiracy. In the wake of their execution, the IWPA demand for the eight-hour day spread around the world and 1 May was declaredInternational Workers' Day.[55]
Inspired by the IWPA's general strike, European anarchists began to reconsider the general strike as a revolutionary instrument, with the French anarchistJoseph Tortelier taking up the idea of the revolutionary general strike, which then spread to Italian and Spanish anarchists. Albert Parsons' wifeLucy Parsons also adopted the revolutionary general strike in her own platform, which became a founding precept of theIndustrial Workers of the World (IWW).[56] The first trade union to adopt the revolutionary general strike into its platform was the FrenchGeneral Confederation of Labour (CGT).[57] The CGT launched its own campaign for workers themselves to institute the eight-hour day, culminating in a general strike which secured French workers a reduction in working time and workload, an increase in wages and the introduction of theweekend.[58]
The CGT's example accelerated the spread of revolutionary syndicalism throughout the world,[59] bringing with it a wave of general strikes at the turn of the 20th century, to mixed results.[60] Although theBelgian general strike of 1893 was halted in order to prevent damage to the workers' movement, it eventually won its demand ofuniversal manhood suffrage.[60] Following theCuban War of Independence, in 1902, anarcho-syndicalists organised the country's first general strike against the government of the newRepublic of Cuba.[61] In theNetherlands, therailroad strikes of 1903 resulted in harsh repression against the Dutch workers' movement.[60] TheSwedish general strike of 1909 was broken up without achieving its demands,[62] accelerating the split of syndicalists from the social-democratic unions and the formation of theCentral Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (SAC).[63]
Some of the general strikes of this period reached revolutionary levels: theRussian Revolution of 1905 demonstrated the efficacy of the general strike as a revolutionary instrument, but was ultimately suppressed;[60] in 1909, the Catalan syndicalist unionSolidaridad Obrera called ageneral strike againstconscription for theSpanish invasion of Morocco, briefly bringingBarcelona under workers' control before the revolt's suppression by government forces;[64] and following theRevolution of 1910 inPortugal, a syndicalist-led general strike briefly broughtLisbon under workers' control before being repressed, resulting in the formation of theNational Workers' Union [pt] byPortuguese socialists andanarchists.[65]
InItaly, there was a particularly large wave of general strikes during this period: thegeneral strike of 1904 resulted in no political reforms but strengthened the social movement;[60] in 1908, syndicalists led a two-month general strike inParma, but were likewise defeated;[66] and in 1911, anarcho-syndicalists mobilised a general strike against theItalian invasion of Libya, blocking troop trains and even assassinating an army officer.[67] This series of syndicalist-led general strikes brought about the establishment of theItalian Syndicalist Union (USI), which itself led a further series of general strikes that culminated in theRed Week of 1914.[68]
In 1889, theLabour and Socialist International was established byclassical Marxists andsocial democrats, such as those of theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).[69] At theBrussels Congress of 1891, it became clear that the International was already divided over two main tactical issues: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.[70] As a result, at theZürich Congress of 1893, anarchists were ejected from the International and banned from attending future congresses.[71] Anarchist trade union delegates from the FrenchCGT and DutchNAS attempted to continue participation,[72] but after being physically attacked while trying to join theLondon Congress of 1896, the anarchists finally abandoned the International.[71]
Nevertheless, the anarchist defense of the general strike left a lasting legacy within the International. At theParis Congress of 1900, theFrench socialist politicianAristide Briand adopted the idea of the revolutionary general strike in order to boost his popularity with the syndicalists. At theAmsterdam Congress of 1904, another French socialist politician defended the general strike as a means to convince socialist voters that they were not merely supportingcareer politicians. At theStuttgart Congress of 1907, the anarchist calls for a general strike to prevent war were taken up byGustave Hervé, but these were ardently opposed by the German delegates, who feared repression by the authorities.[73] Finally, at theCopenhagen Congress of 1910, a proposal for a general strike to prevent war was put forward by the French socialistÉdouard Vaillant and the Scottish labour leaderKeir Hardie, but this too was voted down by the other delegates.[74] While it was consistently defeated by the social democrats, the anarchist proposal for a general strike was taken up by members of thefar-left, such asKarl Liebknecht andRosa Luxemburg, who saw it as an instrument for obtainingpolitical concessions.[75]
Having been completely frozen out of the International, the anarchists resolved to hold their ownInternational Anarchist Congress, which met inAmsterdam in 1907.[75] The Congress played host to a fierce debate betweenErrico Malatesta, a proponent of classicalanarcho-communism, andPierre Monatte, a disciple of the new current ofanarcho-syndicalism.[76] The latter upheld the central role of the trade union in organising a revolutionary general strike to overthrow capitalism, after which the unions would form the basis for the construction of a newstateless society with asocialist economy.[77] But the advancement of syndicalism was blocked chiefly by Malatesta, who objected to theclass reductionism of the syndicalists.[78] Malatesta was particularly critical of the general strike, which he dismissed as a "magic weapon" that was incapable of fighting a violent conflict with state militaries,[79] which had the ability to starve out workers in the event of such an industrial dispute.[80] Although the anarcho-syndicalists had seen the Amsterdam Congress as a means to establish an international anarchist organisation,[81] efforts in this direction were sabotaged by the conflict between the two factions.[82]
Despite all the calls for a general strike to prevent war, by the outbreak ofWorld War I, many socialists dropped theiranti-militarism and instead threw their support behind theAllied war effort.[83] The Second International itself collapsed, leaving only anarcho-syndicalists andBolsheviks to rally an anti-war opposition.[84]
The1926 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.[85][86]
The year 1919 saw a number of general strikes throughout the United States andCanada, including two that were considered significant—theSeattle General Strike, and theWinnipeg General Strike. While the IWW participated in the Seattle General Strike, that action was called by the Seattle Central Labor Union, affiliated with theAmerican Federation of Labor (AFL, predecessor of theAFL–CIO).[87]
In June 1919, the AFL national organisation, in session inAtlantic 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".[88] 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".[88] The change was intended to "check the spread of general strike sentiment and prevent recurrences ofwhat happened at Seattle andis now going on at Winnipeg".[88] The penalty for any unauthorised strike vote was revocation of that body's charter.[88]
As part of the fight for theIndian independence movement, leaderMahatma Gandhi promoted the use of what is calledHartal, a mass protest and a form of civil disobedience that often involved a total shutdown of workplaces, offices, shops, and courts of law.
In America, after the passage of the anti-unionTaft–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. US Congress passed the law in the wake of the women-led1946 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.[89] 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.
Two of the main forms of general strike are: the political strike, which aims to achievepolitical and economic reform; and the revolutionary strike, which aims to overthrowcapitalism and thestate in asocial revolution.[90] Other forms, identified by Gerhart Niemeyer, include: the general strike as a "revolutionary exercise" which would eventually lead to a transformation of society; a one-day demonstration onInternational Workers' Day, aimed at identifying a "worldwide proletariat"; and a theoretical mechanism by which to stop wars between nation states.[91]
Industrial unionists such asRalph Chaplin andStephen Naft also identified four different levels of general strike, rising from a localised strike, to an industry-wide strike, to a nationwide strike, and finally to a revolutionary strike.[92][93]
In his study of the debates within theSecond International, Niemeyer perceived 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.[94] Niemeyer believed that the difficulty arose from the fact that the general strike was "one instrument", but was frequently considered "without distinction of underlying motives".[60]
TheIndustrial Workers of the World (IWW) began to fully embrace the general strike in 1910–1911.[95] 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.[95][96] In a 1911 speech inNew York City, IWW organiserBill Haywood explained his view of the economic situation, and why he believed a general strike was justified,
The capitalists have wealth; they have money. They invest the money in machinery, in the resources of the earth. They operate a factory, a mine, a railroad, a mill. They will keep that factory running just as long as there are profits coming in. When anything happens to disturb the profits, what do the capitalists do? They go on strike, don't they? They withdraw their finances from that particular mill. They close it down because there are no profits to be made there. They don't care what becomes of the working class. But the working class, on the other hand, has always been taught to take care of the capitalist's interest in the property.[97]
Bill Haywood believed thatindustrial unionism made possible the general strike, and the general strike made possible industrial democracy.[97] According toWobbly 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.[98] 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.[98] Prior to taking action to initiate industrial democracy, workers would need to educate themselves with technical and managerial knowledge in order to operate industry.[98]
According to labor historianPhilip 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".[99] However, certain concepts are implicit. Industrial democracy will be "a new society [built] within the shell of the old".[100] 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.[100]
In 1927 the IWW called for a three-day nationwide walkout to protest the execution of anarchistsFerdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.[101] The most notable response to the call was in theWalsenburg coal district ofColorado, where 1,132 miners stayed off the job, and only 35 went to work,[102] a participation rate which led directly to theColorado 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 toprotests against Governor Scott Walker's proposed labour legislation inWisconsin, 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.[103][104] The SCFL website states,
At SCFL's monthly meeting Monday, Feb. 21, delegates endorsed the following: "The SCFL endorses a general strike, possibly for the day Walker signs his 'budget repair bill.'" An ad hoc committee was formed to explore the details. SCFL did not CALL for a general strike because it does not have that authority.[104]
The largest general strike that ever stopped the economy of anadvanced industrial country—and the first generalwildcat strike in history—wasMay 1968 in France.[105] The prolonged strike involved eleven million workers for two weeks in a row,[105] and its impact was such that it almost caused the collapse of thede Gaulle government. Other notable general strikes include:
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