A general strike: what is it and how to organize one

Against Internet redefinitions and for history

There are two equally foolish liberal ways of misunderstanding a general strike: one of those liberal understandings conflates a general strike with a massive parade that might go on for a single day and would overwhelm the world just because it is a singular expression of mass will, the other school of general strike misunderstanding sees it as an impossible task only possible in the realm of fantasy because it requires some kind of global or national unity. Both of these understandings misunderstand the meaning of generality in the phrase or the meaning of strike. All can be explained with ease, but first a history lesson.

The liberal Union or the mainstream Union did not come into existence fully formed. Before liberal unions existed, anti capitalist unions were defeated and the state made specific agreements with more reformist union organizers to build the reform oriented union landscape we see today. In the reform oriented union landscape, labor strikes are most often banned by the labor contracts that mainstream unions sign with employers when and if a mainstream union wins a majority through a government regulated union election. Before a genuine general strike can be organized, this kind of contractually binding agreement needs to be exploded so that union dollars can accumulate into a general strike fund that could take care of at least 3% of the population as that 3% refuses to work for an extended period of time. If we can’t defeat the National Labor Relations Board’s grip upon formal union organizing, we have to raise money for non-unionized workers to go on wildcat strike in pursuit of specific demands.

A general strike is a prolonged refusal of work that a specific industry of worker embarks upon. A general strike is not just a massive protest. A general strike is an attack upon the function of the capitalist economy and its ability to facilitate consumption, production and circulation. A general strike must be organized in workplaces and in the committees of labor unions first and foremost. You are not organizing a general strike unless you have a presence within labor organizations or unions in some form. The part of the phrase general strike that uses the word strike is a reference to labor unions and their refusal to work unless specific demands are met. It is not a general strike unless a mass body of workers is refusing to work until specific demands are met. The word general in so far as it refers to a greater mass or group of workers or industries than just one means either an entire industry or occupation or set of occupations or an entire locality. The Seattle 1919 general strike encompassed most industries in Seattle.

The general strike is a component of all concepts of revolution. Everyone from Lenin in What Is To be Done to Mao to Berkman see general strike as key to a revolution against capitalism. Organizing a general strike is a task almost all tendencies of Marxism and Anarchism in theory agree upon as the route to a new world. But many are mistaken about it. Many think people participating in a general strike all have to be part of a single organization or party. Some think it can only be pulled off with agreement across the globe. Some think it needs the support of political parties or politicians. A general strike can be pulled off whenever a sizable percentage of workers choose to make it happen. A general strike needs no permission. Certainly a general strike will be declared illegal but if workers barricaded workplaces and refused to work, it would take days of organizing by the state and capital to defeat it if not weeks especially if the general strike is big enough.

To organize a general strike, anticapitalist militants must form committees of anticapitalist workers in a range of different unions and convince those unions to take more militant action. IWW calls this dual carding. When radicals join liberal unions and try to sway the rank and file toward communist principles, this is the way also that unions can evolve into worker councils. Workers need to be convinced of the dangers of class collaboration. Without this strategy, there is no hope of a general labor strike.