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A general strike is a strike action
Strike action

Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform labour . A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances....
 by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class
Social class

Social class refers to the hierarchy distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. Usually most societies have some notion of social class , but concretely defined social classes are not found in every known type of human societies....
 sympathies of the participants. It is also characterized by participation of workers in a multitude of workplaces, and tends to involve entire communities. The general strike has waxed and waned in popularity since the mid-19th century, and has characterized many historically important strikes.

The term "general strike" is sometimes also applied to large-scale strikes of all of the workers in a particular industry, such as the Textile workers strike (1934)
Textile workers strike (1934)

The textile workers' strike of 1934 was the largest strike action in history of the United States at the time, involving 400,000 textile workers from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and the U.S....
.






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A general strike is a strike action
Strike action

Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform labour . A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances....
 by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class
Social class

Social class refers to the hierarchy distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. Usually most societies have some notion of social class , but concretely defined social classes are not found in every known type of human societies....
 sympathies of the participants. It is also characterized by participation of workers in a multitude of workplaces, and tends to involve entire communities. The general strike has waxed and waned in popularity since the mid-19th century, and has characterized many historically important strikes.

The term "general strike" is sometimes also applied to large-scale strikes of all of the workers in a particular industry, such as the Textile workers strike (1934)
Textile workers strike (1934)

The textile workers' strike of 1934 was the largest strike action in history of the United States at the time, involving 400,000 textile workers from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and the U.S....
. Those "general" strikes, however massive they might be, involve workers only in a particular workplace. The classic general strike, by contrast, involves also workers (and members of the working-class) who have no direct stake in the outcome of the strike. For example, in the San Francisco General Strike of 1934
1934 West Coast Longshore Strike

The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike lasted eighty-three days, triggered by sailors and a four-day San Francisco General strike in San Francisco, and led to the unionization of all of the West Coast of the United States ports of the United States....
, both union and non-union workers struck for four days to protest the police and employers' tactics that had killed two picketers and in support of the longshoremen's and seamen's demands.

The distinction is not always that clear. In the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934
Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934

The Minneapolis General Strike of 1934 grew out of a strike by Teamsters against most of the trucking companies operating in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a major distribution center for the Upper Midwest....
, as an example, many building trades unions and organizations of unemployed workers in federal work projects struck in sympathy with striking truck drivers and to protest the police violence against picketers. Thousands of others participated in demonstrations to support the strikers. Those sympathy strikes, while sizable, never acquired the scope necessary to amount to a "general strike", however, and the organizers of the Teamsters' strike did not describe it as such.

Syndicalism and the general strike

Some in the labour movement
Labour movement

The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working class, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and political governments, in particular through the implementation of labour and employment law....
 hope to mount a "peaceful revolution
Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental social change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time....
" by organizing enough strikers to completely paralyze the state and corporate apparatus. With this goal achieved, the workers would be able to re-organize society along radically different lines. This philosophy, known as syndicalism
Syndicalism

Syndicalism is a type of movement which aims to degrade Capitalism societies through action by the working class on the industrial front. For syndicalists, trade unions are the potential means both of overcoming capitalism and of running society in the interests of the majority....
, enjoyed modest support amongst the radical sections of the labour movement in the late 19th and early 20th century. The United States, Canada, and (to a lesser extent) Australia had this trend culminate in the growth of the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World

The Industrial Workers of the World is an international trade union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. At its peak in 1923 the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers....
. General strikes were frequent in Spain
Anarchism in Spain

Anarchism has historically gained more support and influence in Spain than anywhere else, especially before Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939....
 during the early twentieth century, where revolutionary anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism

Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour union. Syndicalisme is a French word meaning "trade unionism" hence, the "syndicalism" qualification....
 was most popular. The biggest general strike in recent European history – and the largest general wildcat strike ever – was May 1968 in France. Georges Sorel
Georges Sorel

Georges Eug?ne Sorel was a French philosopher and theorist of revolutionary syndicalism....
 published Reflections on Violence in 1908, in which he promotes an understanding of the myth of the general strike:

To estimate, then, the significance of the idea of the general strike, all the methods of discussion which are current among politicians, sociologists, or people with pretensions to political science, must be abandoned. Every-thing which its opponents endeavour to establish may be conceded to them, without reducing in any way the value of the theory which they think they have refuted. The question whether the general strike is a partial reality, or only a product of popular imagination, is of little importance. All that it is necessary to know is, whether the general strike contains everything that the Socialist doctrine expects of the revolutionary proletariat.


Sorelian ideas helped the emergence of national syndicalism and right-wing groups like the Cercle Proudhon
Cercle Proudhon

The Cercle Proudhon was a political group founded in France on December 16, 1911 by George Valois and ?douard Berth. It was to include such people as French writer Pierre Drieu La Rochelle....
.

Notable general strikes

  • 1842 - 1842 General Strike
    1842 General Strike

    Also known as the Plug Plot Riots the strike started among the Staffordshire miners and soon spread through the country affecting factories, mills and coal mines from Dundee to South Wales and Cornwall....
  • 1912 - Brisbane General Strike
    1912 Brisbane General Strike

    The 1912 Brisbane General Strike in Queensland, Australia, began when members of the Australian Rail Tram & Bus Industry Union were dismissed when they wore union badges to work on 18 January 1912....
    , Australia
  • 1917 - Australian General Strike
    Australian General Strike of 1917

    The General Strike of 1917 was a general strike which began in the Australian States and territories of Australia of New South Wales and spread to other states over six weeks from 2 August to 8 September 1917....
  • 1917 - Spanish General Strike
    Anarchism in Spain

    Anarchism has historically gained more support and influence in Spain than anywhere else, especially before Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939....
  • 1919 - Barcelona General Strike
    Anarchism in Spain

    Anarchism has historically gained more support and influence in Spain than anywhere else, especially before Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939....
    , Spain
  • 1919 - Winnipeg General Strike, Canada
  • 1919 - Seattle General Strike, USA
  • 1920 - German Kapp Putsch Strike
    Kapp Putsch

    The Kapp Putsch ? or more accurately the Kapp-L?ttwitz Putsch ? was a 1920 coup d'?tat during the German revolution aimed at overthrowing the Weimar Republic....
  • 1922 - Italian General Strike
    Italian General Strike

    The Italian General Strike was a general strike against Benito Mussolini's power-grab with the March on Rome, in late October 1922. Rudolph Rocker, an active Anarcho-syndicalism of this period, described the event in his book: "When in 1922 the general strike against Fascism broke out, the democratic government armed the Fascist hordes and t...
  • 1926 - UK General Strike of 1926
    UK General Strike of 1926

    The 1926 General Strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted ten days, from 3 May 1926 to 13 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress in an unsuccessful attempt to force the government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening conditions for coal mining....
  • 1934 - West Coast Longshoremen's Strike, USA
  • 1934 - Minneapolis Teamsters Strike
    Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934

    The Minneapolis General Strike of 1934 grew out of a strike by Teamsters against most of the trucking companies operating in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a major distribution center for the Upper Midwest....
    , USA
  • 1934 - Toledo Auto-Lite Strike
    Auto-Lite strike

    The Toledo Auto-Lite strike was a strike action by a Directly Affiliated Local Union of the American Federation of Labor against the Honeywell company of Toledo, Ohio, from April 12 to June 3, 1934....
    , USA
  • 1936 - Palestinian general strike
    Palestinian general strike

    The Palestinian general strike lasted from April–October 1936 in the British Mandate of Palestine and was part of the 1936?1939 Arab revolt in Palestine....
  • 1936 - Syrian General Strike
    1936 Syrian general strike

    The 1936 Syrian general strike gave fresh momentum to that country's nationalist movement, which had been stalled since the 1933 suspension of parliament....
  • 1941 - February Strike, Netherlands
  • 1942 - Luxembourgian General Strike
  • 1946 - Indian General Strike
  • 1956 - Finnish General Strike
  • 1968 - French General Strike
  • 1973 - Uruguan General Strike
    Uruguay general strike of 1973

    In 1973 a coup was declared in Uruguay by the president, Juan Mar?a Bordaberry, who closed parliament and imposed direct rule from a military junta of military generals....
  • 1974 - Ulster Workers Council Strike, Northern Ireland.
  • 1988 - Spanish General Strike
    Spanish general strike of 1988

    Spain's 1988 general strike took place on December 14, and in Spain it is simply called 14-D . It was called by the two main trade unions: CCOO and UGT....
  • 1992 - Nepalese General Strike
  • 1995 - French Public Sector Strikes
    1995 strikes in France

    The 1995 strikes in France were a series of general strikes in France, mostly in the public sector in late 1995. The strikes received great popular support despite paralyzing the country's transportation infrastructure....
  • 1995 - Days of Action, Canada
  • 2002 - Italian General Strike
  • 2005 - Bolivian Gas Conflict
  • 2007 - Guinea General Strike
  • 2009 - French Caribbean General Strikes
    2009 French Caribbean general strikes

    File:Gr?ve g?n?rale Guadeloupe 2009 - Cora BdF.jpgThe 2009 French Caribbean general strikes began in the French overseas region of Guadeloupe on 20 January 2009, and spread to neighbouring Martinique on 5 February 2009....


See also

  • Atlas Shrugged
    Atlas Shrugged

    Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in literature in the United States. It was Rand's fourth, List of longest novels, and last novel....
     political novel about a general strike by the intellectual and creative class.
  • Direct Action
    Direct action

    Direct action is politically motivated activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political goals outside of normal social/political channels....
  • Industrial Workers of the World
    Industrial Workers of the World

    The Industrial Workers of the World is an international trade union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. At its peak in 1923 the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers....
  • Industrial unionism
    Industrial unionism

    Industrial unionism is a trade union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union?regardless of skill or trade?thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations....
  • Georges Sorel
    Georges Sorel

    Georges Eug?ne Sorel was a French philosopher and theorist of revolutionary syndicalism....
     and the "myth of the general strike"
  • List of strikes
    List of strikes

    The following is a list of deliberate absence from work related to specific working conditions or due to general unhappiness with the political order ....


External links


  • by Rosa Luxemburg
    Rosa Luxemburg

    Rosa Luxemburg was a Poland Germany Marxist theory, Socialism philosopher, and revolutionary for the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the German Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Communist Party of Germany....
     (1906)
  • From chartists.net, downloaded 5 June 2006