General Strike 2020: the Plan
Since we posted our call for a General Strike to demand urgent action and provide universal healthcare and living wages to all workers, we have had a lot of people asking us about our plan. Many are skeptical that such an undertaking could be made in the USA in a short amount of time. And it’s been so long since the USA has had a general strike, most of us don’t even know what one really looks like!
In this article, we will try to answer these questions as best we can, but the very first thing we need to say:
We can’t prescribe or predict the exact form the General Strike will take! We must decide collectively what measures will be most effective, which strategies make sense for our local circumstances, and the path forward to radical change.
We can only outline our basic vision and encourage YOU to connect with your fellow workers and start putting together a plan that makes sense for your situation.
This must be a decentralized, ground-up movement. So we can’t tell you exactly what to do. On the contrary, we are here to support YOUR movement and to signal boost your efforts and your needs to our fellow workers around the world!
So please, don’t expect an exact road map to victory here. We’re counting on you to come into our movement and participate, share your perspective, and help us get the ball rolling!
What is a General Strike?
Traditionally, General Strikes involve trade unions from various industries coming together to strike together in solidarity. The first General Strike in modern history was in the USA, in 1835, in Philadelphia. The last General Strike in the USA was just after World War II, in Oakland.
Lately there have been General Strikes around the world — notably in Spanish Catalonia, in Hong Kong, in France, and in India. And we feel the time is right for a general action against wealthy elites RIGHT NOW in the USA, as we explained in our Call for a General Strike.
But General Strikes typically involve masses of workers going out in the streets and picketing and disrupting business. We obviously can’t do that during a dangerous pandemic! And labor in the USA isn’t nearly as organized as it once was — we don’t have strong unions from coast to coast like we did back in the mid 20th century. So how can we possibly have a General Strike?
The truth is, if you define a General Strike strictly in terms of what has been done before… we can’t have a General Strike! It would be foolish and irresponsible to come together in large masses right now during this pandemic. And it’s unlikely that traditional trade unions will join in at this early stage.
What’s in a Name?
So when we say “General Strike” we are obviously talking about something totally different from anything we’ve seen before. The circumstances are going to require us to develop a plan of action that is innovative, flexible, and safe and humane for workers during this public health crisis.
So why are we even calling it a “General Strike?” Well, because we want to include workers, generally, from all fields and industries. And we want to promote generalized activity that might take many different forms in various locations. Maybe “General Strike” isn’t the best term for what we’re doing. Some of our comrades are advocating the term “Care Strike,” which sounds good to us. Honestly, we don’t care what you call it! We just want you to act!
So What’s the Plan?
We are hesitant to prescribe an exact formula for the General Strike at this point. Right now, we are just a handful of people and to be perfectly honest we are not very organized or cohesive — yet! That’s why we need YOU! We need as many individuals and organizations agreeing that radical action is needed. Then we can take the steps to pull together a cohesive yet decentralized network of activity.
We believe in PLATFORMISM, which involves various organizations and local action teams working towards the same goal in various ways. Tactics that work for food service workers in New York City might be very different from effective tactics for a small group of workers in rural South Carolina. We will need to make decisions on a localized basis, but we will also need to network together to strengthen and support each others’ movements.
Our Demands
A decision we need to make right away is what we are demanding. We are suggesting three very basic demands. Each of these demands was chosen because this pandemic is showing how desperately they are all needed.
- UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE — we recommend basing our demands on the policy of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. Free and full physical and mental healthcare for every human being in the USA without exception. If this already existed in the USA, this pandemic would not be nearly as devastating to the working class.
- LIVING WAGE — again, if workers were paid a living wage, we would have decent savings and we wouldn’t be saddled with debt. It would be much easier for us to call in sick when we need to, such as during a pandemic!
- URGENT EMERGENCY RESPONSE TO COVID19 — no more murderous neglect of the working class! We suggest basing our demands on the Vietnam model: mandatory quarantines for anyone who may have been exposed with free food and shelter provided, free testing, and free healthcare until fully recovered.
This is the BARE MINIMUM! Other activists are demanding more, and we are open to expanding on our demands.
The point is we need to begin pushing for radical change DIRECTLY! This should just be the beginning of a wider, long-term campaign to build the society we all want to live in. This is only the first step of a long and exciting journey we will be taking together, so let’s get on the same page about what we’re demanding then GET TO WORK!
And speaking of getting to work…
If you have never been involved with activism or organizing it might be difficult to know where to begin. The most important thing to remember is that UNITY and ORGANIZATION lead to SUCCESS. Organizin and planning needs to happen right now. We need to be having PRODUCTIVE meetings that lead to ACTION! Talk is cheap, we need to make our plans and put them in place!
Here is what we suggest you do RIGHT NOW to begin building this kind of platformist, decentralized activity network.
- If you are a member of a union or workers group, start talking about the General Strike right now! Bring it up in online spaces and try to find at least one or two other workers in your group or in your area who are willing to work with you to start organizing. If you’re not already in a group, we recommend the IWW and the DSA and the Socialist Rifle Association, the John Brown Gun Club, Redneck Revolt, Earth Strike, and Food Not Bombs as potential groups with chapters across America which might have members interested in participating. If you are in a trade union, you should also spread awareness about our campaign with your fellow workers. Same goes for tenant unions and other political/activist organizations. You can also check in with your local Bernie Sanders campaign members/volunteers to spread awareness and try to leverage that organization for radical change.
- Once you have put together a core team of activists, start planning. Identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in your particular community/situation. Identify tactics and strategies that will work well for your group as well as things that probably won’t work. Try to figure out what barriers stand in your way and come up with plans for dismantling them as efficiently as possible. If you’re not sure where to begin, we will identify some potential strategies and tactics in the next section.
- Once you have a basic plan in place, it’s time to start recruiting more support and reaching out to other organizations. Try to get other workers involved and excited about your specific campaign and look for mutual aid opportunities with other groups. Remember to practice good security hygiene! And also remember to protect all members from the ongoing pandemic! You might have resources in your community that other groups are lacking. Together we can build a distributed network of activists across the country working together to coordinate our actions and demand radical change.
Potential Strategies and Tactics
The best guide we’ve found for organizing activity in general is this PDF on organizing (click here). You will find tons of great advice in that document. But remember that you’ll need to tailor the advice to our situation in the pandemic!
Labor Strikes should be considered right now for a variety of reasons. For starters, capital is vulnerable right now. The stock market is dropping fast and capitalists are worried about their income.
As an example, Adidas made a callous decision to keep stores open despite the pandemic, and only after intense public outcry did they decide to shutter their stores. As of now, Burger King is using the pandemic to promote its restaurants, putting workers at risk.
These businesses do not offer robust healthcare or paid sick leave to their workers. We should be doing whatever we can to reach out to workers at large corporations which do not provide paid sick leave:
If these workers are able to stay at home, they will be protecting their own lives, the health of the general public, AND delivering a powerful message to wealthy elites who profit from their labor: we will not risk our own safety for you when you aren’t even supporting us in this crisis!
Sick-outs might be a great way to structure our labor strikes. Having as many workers as possible call in sick simultaneously will deliver the message loud and clear. If you’re asked to work at home, unite with your fellow workers and refuse — and make it clear that the reason you’re not working is because you are demanding radical change! Turn the social distancing we’re all supposed to be participating in anyway into a political act, and let the capitalist class know that we won’t be returning to work until each and every one of us is granted universal healthcare and a living wage!
But remember: striking workers will need our support, which is why we need to be building and developing mutual aid support systems (more on that in a bit).
Long story short, labor strikes GET RESULTS and most of us should be staying home anyway! Let’s defend our own health and safety and make a strong political statement by attacking the profit margins of our wealthy oppressors!
Rent Strikes are another option. Landlords and property management companies across the country are delivering callous messages to tenants threatening them with eviction if they don’t pay rent on time even in the context of this pandemic.
Landlords do not care about you! They only care about your money! If they can’t profit off of you they will LEAVE YOU ON THE STREET TO DIE!
Speaking of which, homeless people are particularly hit hard by this virus. Not only do they completely lack access to healthcare, they can’t even properly self-distance or take basic care of their own hygiene and nutrition needs.
Every homeless person in the USA should be sheltered AT LEAST in a time like this! Rent strikes will show the propertied class that we mean business and we do not intend to go on being exploited through this pandemic. If you live in a housing complex or apartment building, try to organize with your neighbors and make it clear that you won’t be paying rent until the very meager demands of the working class are met.
We will not be tolerating callousness and inhumanity like we’re seeing across the USA:
Debt Strike is another potentially viable strategy. When we are all trying to figure out how we are going to pay for basic life necessities and the world is in chaos, why should we be worrying about credit card bills? The average worker in the USA has less than $1,000 in the bank, lives paycheck to paycheck, and has over $6,000 in credit card debt. That’s not even counting the tens of thousands of dollars many of us are straddled with for student debt!
This crisis is a perfect time to REFUSE to pay our debts collectively! If thousands of us refuse to pay our harsh, unjust debts, we will be sending a strong and clear message that we have solidarity in a time of crisis and refuse to be exploited when our lives are in danger. Debt striking is available to any and every worker and should be considered strongly by each and every one of us, but we have to do it in a coordinated manner to make sure the debt collecting companies know exactly why we aren’t giving in to their cruel demands.
Of course there are many other options available to the working class! If you have ideas for effective direct actions against oppression and exploitation, share them with the world! You can use the hashtags #GeneralStrike2020 and #CareStrike. Let’s think outside the box and come together to present a united front for relief and radical change.
Coordination and communication between various groups will be key to our success. Representatives from every group should be sent out to network and correspond with other groups. We should be in constant contact to help each other with needs and to signal boost each others’ efforts.
We may also consider a Wave Strategy where strikes and actions occur in waves across the country from day to day or week to week. This will show capitalists across the nation that the working class is united and working together!
Finally, and very importantly, we should stand united with Indigenous Groups in all our efforts. Deconolization should be an important component of our platform in the longer term. Indigenous and Native American groups are experienced with these kinds of prolonged struggles and have been making great strides lately. We should support these groups with their goals and look to them as examples of how to fight against harsh odds.
If we provide mutual aid support to indigenous groups we will be showing that we are serious about liberating EVERYONE from exploitation and oppression. So let’s humbly offer up our growing network of activists to indigenous groups to help them continue their struggle as we take up our own! We can work TOGETHER to build a future where all of us are free!
Mutual Aid Networks
Finally, we must continue rapidly developing mutual aid networks across the country. These networks have already sprung up across the country, but a lot more work still needs to be done! Start making an inventory of assets you have and needs that aren’t being met, and potential pitfalls that might be just ahead. Of course striking workers are likely to need food, shelter, and money, but what other resources could help extend strike efforts and keep workers secure during this time of hardship?
Building robust mutual aid networks now will have huge returns in the long term. Look to groups like Food Not Bombs for ideas on food distribution. Look to the International Anti-Fascist Defense Fund for a good model on striking worker solidarity funds.
Do you have skills or resources that may be of use to your community? Do you have a vegetable garden, a van or truck that can be used to distribute goods, electronics you never use that you can sell to donate money to strike solidarity funds? Think carefully and see what you can do to help organize support structures for your fellow workers!
This is only the beginning!
This article is now coming to a close but the real work hasn’t even started yet! Come together, organize, communicate, coordinate, and let’s fight to save our own lives and the lives of our loved ones! If you have any questions or ideas, feel free to get in touch with the author of this article at @emericanjohnson with the hasthtag #GeneralStrike2020 —
Together we CAN do this!
Unity = Success
Stay safe, and take care of each other!
