Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson boldly called for Americans to stage a general strike during his speech at his city’s ‘No Kings’ rally on Saturday.
Summoning people of all backgrounds to unite and take a stand against President Donald Trump’s “tyranny,” the “ultra-wealthy” and corporate greed, Johnson said, “We are going to make them pay their fair share in taxes to fund our school, to fund jobs, to fund healthcare, to fund transportation.”
There has never been a true, nationwide general strike in the United States, though a series of post-World War II work stoppages remembered as the “great strike wave of 1946” mobilized five million American workers demanding leaders to address economic instability and untenable working conditions.
What people don’t seem to realize is that the general strike is coming for them whether or not they want it.
On Nov. 1st, nobody’s going to get benefit checks of any kind. Section 8 housing, disability checks, SS… Nothing. Federal funding is gone. They’ll only get money from state programs that managed to come up with funding workarounds (Red states all failed this process).
We’re on borrowed time and we only have our communities for aid.
StrangerFew2424 on
This is the answer..
LordEschatus on
General Strike coming, mmw.
The Government shutdown is comfortable for Trump , his administration, and the republicans, because it costs them almost nothing. This will end under general strike.
Anyone about to respond to me with “but there’s no unions ” “keep dreamin! Lol” or any other bullshit edgy snark, save it. You are fucking out of your element donnie.
U2sortie on
Just came back from Italy. They have weekly, general, rolling strikes to support ending the war in Gaza.
Why aren’t Americans in the street on the daily to preserve democracy?
Deep_Alps7150 on
Billionaires will bend the knee so quick if people quit showing up to work cause it will tank their stocks
flappy_twat on
Look at what happened with the Jimmy Kimmel stuff, as soon as Disney’s pocketbook started getting hit suddenly he was back on the air. Imagine what even more people could do
Right_Hour on
There we go, finally, calling for some real action.
Also, while he is at it – he should demand that police arrest federal agents who violate state laws (such as arresting people without judicial warrant).
Lothrak on
Im in.
Living_Pollution_525 on
Where do I sign up? Blue states pretty much run the economy, use what you’ve got, general strike and shut the ruling class down
NenPame on
The no kings protest was good energy but we need more than that to beat the fascist. General strike is our best tool to defend democracy. Get ready. Stock up on food. Sure would suck if everyone striked on black Friday now wouldn’t it. (Strike on Black Friday, spread the word)
_thepeopleschampion on
This is exactly what needs to happen. Essentially a no kings rally on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
encrypted-signals on
Finally someone has said it. Yes, we need a general strike. Federal workers are already furloughed, so now it’s time to get some people to call out sick and burn PTO until this shit changes.
UnguentSlather on
LET’S GO! The regime is already making us go broke, get laid off, no medical care, food and rent off the hook. To all of you who are like “how will I pay rent/food/bills when we strike?” – how to expect this to play out if we don’t?!?
Wanna insulate yourself and your family during a general strike? Then begin establishing mutual aid with friends and neighbors, volunteer, organize. Talk to your coworkers and/or your union. BE AN ACTIVE PART OF THE EFFORT.
Bubbly-Two-3449 on
Such a strike needs clear demands though. For example, I’d like to see:
* An end to private contributions to elections / all elections should be publicly funded
* An end to the electoral college
* An end to gerrymandering of house districts, replacing them with proportional representation (winner-takes-all is not democracy)
* Impeach the corrupt members of the supreme court
* Healthcare as a human right / national healthcare
* Banning individual stock trading
* Break up monopolies / monopsonies
* taxation of wealth not work
I’m not an expert on government though, I’m sure experts on government already have much better lists of changes they know need to be made to preserve democracy and/or save us from authoritarian capitalism.
I wish the Democratic Party would organize this, but unfortunately, I fear many of them have a vested interest in preserving gerrymandering, and preserving the private funding of elections.
If Brandon Johnson wants to organize this, that’d be great. I don’t think “No Kings” or “Indivisible” or “50501” are intent on going this far.
Smart man. We need to focus on saving our country.
User4C4C4C on
My body is ready. When do we get started?
Embarrassed-Crazy112 on
A general strike and voting are the only non-violent ways out of this, but a general strike of any moderate length would end this shit real quick. Would be great if that could happen – I think our economic and healthcare systems are traps deliberately designed to prevent such things as much as possible though.
21 Comments
From reporter Kelby Vera:
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson boldly called for Americans to stage a general strike during his speech at his city’s ‘No Kings’ rally on Saturday.
Summoning people of all backgrounds to unite and take a stand against President Donald Trump’s “tyranny,” the “ultra-wealthy” and corporate greed, Johnson said, “We are going to make them pay their fair share in taxes to fund our school, to fund jobs, to fund healthcare, to fund transportation.”
There has never been a true, nationwide general strike in the United States, though a series of post-World War II work stoppages remembered as the “great strike wave of 1946” mobilized five million American workers demanding leaders to address economic instability and untenable working conditions.
Link to the full article: [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson-general-strike_n_68f5168fe4b02184e56e6a11?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=us_main](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson-general-strike_n_68f5168fe4b02184e56e6a11?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=us_main)
Line. It. Up. Let’s do it!
What people don’t seem to realize is that the general strike is coming for them whether or not they want it.
On Nov. 1st, nobody’s going to get benefit checks of any kind. Section 8 housing, disability checks, SS… Nothing. Federal funding is gone. They’ll only get money from state programs that managed to come up with funding workarounds (Red states all failed this process).
We’re on borrowed time and we only have our communities for aid.
This is the answer..
General Strike coming, mmw.
The Government shutdown is comfortable for Trump , his administration, and the republicans, because it costs them almost nothing. This will end under general strike.
Anyone about to respond to me with “but there’s no unions ” “keep dreamin! Lol” or any other bullshit edgy snark, save it. You are fucking out of your element donnie.
Just came back from Italy. They have weekly, general, rolling strikes to support ending the war in Gaza.
Why aren’t Americans in the street on the daily to preserve democracy?
Billionaires will bend the knee so quick if people quit showing up to work cause it will tank their stocks
Look at what happened with the Jimmy Kimmel stuff, as soon as Disney’s pocketbook started getting hit suddenly he was back on the air. Imagine what even more people could do
There we go, finally, calling for some real action.
Also, while he is at it – he should demand that police arrest federal agents who violate state laws (such as arresting people without judicial warrant).
Im in.
Where do I sign up? Blue states pretty much run the economy, use what you’ve got, general strike and shut the ruling class down
The no kings protest was good energy but we need more than that to beat the fascist. General strike is our best tool to defend democracy. Get ready. Stock up on food. Sure would suck if everyone striked on black Friday now wouldn’t it. (Strike on Black Friday, spread the word)
This is exactly what needs to happen. Essentially a no kings rally on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
Finally someone has said it. Yes, we need a general strike. Federal workers are already furloughed, so now it’s time to get some people to call out sick and burn PTO until this shit changes.
LET’S GO! The regime is already making us go broke, get laid off, no medical care, food and rent off the hook. To all of you who are like “how will I pay rent/food/bills when we strike?” – how to expect this to play out if we don’t?!?
Wanna insulate yourself and your family during a general strike? Then begin establishing mutual aid with friends and neighbors, volunteer, organize. Talk to your coworkers and/or your union. BE AN ACTIVE PART OF THE EFFORT.
Such a strike needs clear demands though. For example, I’d like to see:
* An end to private contributions to elections / all elections should be publicly funded
* An end to the electoral college
* An end to gerrymandering of house districts, replacing them with proportional representation (winner-takes-all is not democracy)
* Impeach the corrupt members of the supreme court
* Healthcare as a human right / national healthcare
* Banning individual stock trading
* Break up monopolies / monopsonies
* taxation of wealth not work
I’m not an expert on government though, I’m sure experts on government already have much better lists of changes they know need to be made to preserve democracy and/or save us from authoritarian capitalism.
I wish the Democratic Party would organize this, but unfortunately, I fear many of them have a vested interest in preserving gerrymandering, and preserving the private funding of elections.
If Brandon Johnson wants to organize this, that’d be great. I don’t think “No Kings” or “Indivisible” or “50501” are intent on going this far.
Perhaps folks need to re-read Where Do We Go From Here: [https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/where-do-we-go-here](https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/where-do-we-go-here)
The moment we’ve been waiting for
Smart man. We need to focus on saving our country.
My body is ready. When do we get started?
A general strike and voting are the only non-violent ways out of this, but a general strike of any moderate length would end this shit real quick. Would be great if that could happen – I think our economic and healthcare systems are traps deliberately designed to prevent such things as much as possible though.