#GeneralStrike2026
Strikes are organized through unions not hashtags.
this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
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We don't have unions anymore. Reagan busted them.
All we can do is rebuild.
Not an American, what happened? How does a president just remove unions?
It wasn't so much remove them as fire anyone who went on strike...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_strike
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General strikes don't require you to be in a union. They do require a larger amount of organizing than simply having a lot of the workforce in unions though so...
Strikes require unity across a workforce.
If some workers in a local context work instead of participating in a strike, then the business is not pressured to acquiesce, and the sacrifice is in vain.
Striking in any case results in lost pay, which promotes fear and threatens survival. Solidarity improves morale and saves lives.
Fostering unity and solidarity is among the essential functions of a union.
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Next nationwide 50501 protest is a national walk-out on Jan 20th.
We'll see you there, right?
I'm my own boss. It's never an issue. Thanks for the tip. Just joined my state's 50501 group.
nationwide 50501 protest
That isn't all. There is the Tax Strike that many MAGAs are pushing. There are "Stop the Trump Takeover" events. There are also other actions to rein in the dictator.
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Thanks for this. I’m in
Some leftists talk about a general strike like its the rapture. You need the ground work done. We've done none of the work broadly to make something like that feasible. Strikers need economic and legal leverage, they'd have basically none if they tried.
You have to walk before you run.
Anytime I see posts talking about a general strike I equate to "thoughts and prayers".
Yes, but also its worse. They are demanding people shoot themselves in the crotch and saying we're cowards for not shooting ourselves in the crotch.
A general strike would need to be huge to work. And yet we see folk bitching that the No Kings rallies "did nothing", as if.just getting America to stand up wasn't an accomplishment.
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In the USA health insurance is tied to work; if you're fired "with cause" (like from general strike) you don't have health insurance or any "unemployment".
They don't make these laws without reason, they know what they're doing. The USA is a plutocracy designed to squash unions, and does a pretty good job of it
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As you look outside in the US on the first Monday after a holiday and see the countless millions of people driving to work, going grocery shopping, dropping off and picking up their kids, you need to ask yourself if you really think the bulk of the money-spending, child-feeding, bill-paying population of the US is ready to sacrifice weeks of services and food for an outcome that they don't actually want or understand.
You know it's not going to happen, but the next best thing is political organizing and getting social and making people more aware in REAL LIFE about issues in their community that impact them, and the people who represent them. Volunteer to get petitions, sign up for Progressive Victory, use that energy to help the systems already working to mitigate or even reverse damage being done to our nation.
We can still turn this boat around with traditional politics, but it takes actual humans getting involved with other actual humans. Since capital has successfully turned most of our socialization muscles to mush, it will be uncomfortable at first, but far easier to pull off than trying to get several hundred million comfortable people to break their own system.
They've cultivated this culture where nobody can afford to do any kind of direct action like a general strike. There's a reason why nearly everyone in America works paycheck to paycheck and has essentially zero savings.
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Or goto the capitol and kick them out... Vs wasting time.
While I wholeheartedly agree with both your sentiment of anger and who that anger should be directed toward, I must point out that what you propose is not realistic. We're just not at that point, nor is there sufficient political will to do so. Protests/walkout aren't a waste of time since they are actionable steps to growing movements that enact systemic change. The point of these demonstrations isn't to enact direct change, but to bring people together to organize.
Besides, how would you get enough people together to do as you suggest if getting people together to organize is "wasting time"?
- So is mass abduction of people not at that point? Is massive corruption not at that point? Is the millions who will die due to removed aid and health care not at that point? What about the genocide they support, the countries they've have and are planning to take over not enough?
- People can organise at home, on the internet, at community meetings... They don't need to make token efforts every few months.
- There is a million to 1 people in the US. There is enough people within driving distance of DC right now.
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I'm gonna end up committing sui before the general American populace does a gen strike.
No one should be buying from Amazon. Start with one big company, simple yeah? No, because post Christmas season now, the amount of people who still use amazon has not changed at all. For me sure, the general populace? They're fucking morons. Consume consume consume. I'm gonna consume myself from the inside out. These rat bitches only care about themselves. American individualism is a cancer.
I'm struggling to exist in this. I cannot tell you how much these assholes don't care.
This isn't corporate social media, you can say suicide there's no algorithm to punish you.
Fair. I didn't write it like that for algorithm sake or whatever. I'm just so familiar with the term I shortened it lol "to commit the sui". It's just dark humor/play on words. Fuck the algorithm
I'm struggling with the same type of thoughts and feel suicidal every day now. Every headline I read is another reason I dont want to live anymore. You're not going crazy, the world is. I know it might seem counter productive to not stay in the loop of things, but I try to take a break from all social media and news every once in awhile to keep my sanity. I love lemmy and the progressive ideas that are shared on here on a daily basis, but the news you read can make you feel powerless and over these big societal issues that don't have an immediate solution.
I really hope you feel better soon, your hearts in the right place. The fediverse is the only real place where I can reliably find empathic people looking out for one another. I wish I could have offered more sound advice as I can barely keep it together myself too, but make sure you have people you can talk about this in your life. Unfortunately I can't afford meds or therapy so I've been depending on my friends and family to help keep me sane. Stay safe!
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It's classic prisoner's dilemma from game theory. Will my participation matter against the millions of people who won't ever care? Realistically no. But participating will hurt me financially because it takes away a low-cost alternative. There's a ton of stuff I can't buy locally at any cost, or can but at a much higher cost. If I go buy these things on individual websites, I'll pay shipping, negating savings. So, why would I hurt myself financially to affect no change, when others will take advantage of the system without ever caring? It just gives them an advantage over me on an individual level. Even if I convinced 1,000 people to act like me, meaningful change to the system isn't affected, only weakening of our group. And honestly that means 1,000 people who have less resources to affect OTHER change with.
Prisoner's dilemma doesn't mean that the prisoners are bad or evil, it just means there are too many individuals acting in self-interest. We are too big a country. Too big a world population.
The solution is top-down, we have to elect leaders who then make rules we ALL abide by for our own benefit at the macro level. That's the only way problems of this scale can be changed anymore. And the systems themselves know this and factor it in, locking us out. Late stage capitalism is called "late stage" for a reason, it's too late for a cure.
Target's last several quarterly earnings reports say otherwise.
You don't need amazon. You can go without. A conversation I heard in a waiting room this morning between two women sharing what they did for thier holiday, "oh we bought this 25 day activity book thing off amazon, we did most of them but some days we just did our own thing". You don't need that. You don't need these things.
You need food, shelter, and love.
All I hear when people say "but there's no cheap alternative" is "I care about my comfort more than anyone else's."
Brick by brick it get's built. It would make a difference if we all participated. Fuck prisoners dilemma, your comment reads of learned helplessness and it's exactly why the states won't see a general strike. It's frankly pathetic and why I feel so helpless/hopeless for the future. Just say you don't care the oligarchs rule the world and you like the hierarchy. It's much more concise. "Be a good consumer and do nothing to help".
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General Strike? My friend, we aren’t even in unions right now! It will take years to build that kind of power.
Let’s focus on building a new mass political party that does not exist in the wilderness, then we can work to that point.
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A general strike requires organization, but US society is completely atomized.
I’m all for it but I feel that a large population of the country is just not gonna care enough to get activated. I would love to be proven wrong, this needs to be massive to the point it makes the no kings protest look like a farmer market.
If anyone thinks a strike is actually happening with the state of things then they are incredibly naive and do not understand just how much foundational effort and structuring needs to be in place first for that to even be considered a possibility, much less actualized.
My big question with a grassroots general strike is who negotiates for us? We'll all have different "good enough" goals that would get us back to work. Seems like we'd need a strong central leader speaking for everyone....
That’s easy Bernie and AOC
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"The most vulnerable should pay for the revolution." People aren't just stupid, liberals have spent the last century implementing anti-popular-labour-action measures. A general strike would require people who cannot afford to survive to risk what little they have, mutual aid networks and consequences for those in positions of power must exist in order for that risk to be minimized.
I work in the care industry, my clients need support 24/7 and there are only so much staff around. Should I leave my clients to their own designs‽
These kinds of things tend not to happen until people are starving and have nothing left to lose.
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Well you would need strong unions and a non apathetic population to pull off a general strike.
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After the holidays would be a hilariously well timed general strike.
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