How to Organize a Real General Strike in the US
General strikes are the most powerful tool in the working class’s arsenal. Recent mass actions in Minnesota against ICE terror were strong steps toward such a strike, but much more organizing is needed. Here’s how we can do it.
If we take a lead from Minnesota and pivot nationwide to involve millions of people in winnable fight-backs against ICE, a real general strike can become a reality in the US. (Kerem Yucel / AFP via Getty Images)
What will it take to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Donald Trump? More and more Americans are coming around to the following answer: a general strike.
They’re right to move in that direction. General strikes are a powerful tactic that have defeated corrupt and authoritarian rulers across the world, most recently in Egypt and Tunisia in 2011, Puerto Rico in 2019, and Sri Lanka in 2022. As the union anthem “Solidarity Forever” puts it, “Without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.”
Unfortunately, last Friday’s national call for “No Work, No School, No Shopping,” billed widely as an anti-ICE general strike over social media, came nowhere close to the projections of its most vocal advocates. Economic disruption was minimal, though workers from Grey’s Anatomy did force production to shut down for the day.
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