Photo: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has called for a general strike.
Most likely, very few Daily Post readers have ever been part of a general strike. Considering that the last general strike here in the good old USA was in 1946.
So a lot of us are excited that a general strike is a real possibility. Millions of patriotic Americans (possibly including me) failing to show up for work, and shutting down the economy.
Personally, I got interested in this idea when I heard that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson called for a general strike, during his ‘No Kings’ speech on October 18.
Granted, Pagosa Springs is not Chicago. Thank heavens. And Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson probably doesn’t even know that we exist… and that we might be excited about helping with a general strike, even if we don’t matter very much in the big picture.
Some Americans enjoy going on strike, but it’s usually just a small group of employees, focused on a particular evil company.
On September 1, workers at Hilton Americas-Houston went on strike, demanding a $23 per hour minimum wage. On August 12, about 300 construction workers with Associated General Contractors in eastern Washington went on strike. On August 4, about 3,200 machinists at Boeing plants in Missouri and Illinois walked off the job.
Going on strike during the summer, when the weather is nice, is always a good choice.
Other countries seem to have a better handle on the general strike idea, where millions of people from all different kinds of jobs, refuse to show up for work, and do on behalf of the national economy what Congress has been doing for the federal government with the current shutdown.
Shut ‘er down! If it works for Congress, it should work for the whole dang country.
But not until we’ve had time to stock the larder with lots of dry beans and rice, of course. Some of us might already be living on beans and rice, in which case we’re ahead of the curve.
When Mayor Johnson called for a general strike, speaking to a crowd of tens of thousands at the ‘No Kings’ rally, he proclaimed, “Democracy will live on because of this generation.”
The last time America has something like a general strike was during the Great Strike Wave in 1946, when about 5 million workers stayed home. But that was mainly just some unions.
Now in 2025, all kinds of folks — grassroots activists, teachers, delivery drivers, healthcare workers — are ready to stock up on dry beans and take a few days off. Or a few weeks off.
Other countries do this, and they sometimes get results.
In the Tunisian city of Gabe, for example, shops, markets, schools, and cafes have shut down in a general strike to protest a state-run chemical plant that residents blame for a pollution crisis. Here in the U.S., it’s usually private companies that cause the environmental disasters, although I wouldn’t put it past our current Congress to do something similar.
There have been a couple of general strikes in Greece this month, protesting legislation that would eliminate the maximum 40-hour work week and allow employers to demand longer hours. (I wrote yesterday about how much I, myself, enjoy working around the clock. Apparently the Greeks feel differently.)
Following the Great Strike Wave in 1946, Congress passed the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act and made it illegal for labor unions to orchestrate a national general strike, but the Act doesn’t dictate how grassroots activists and coalitions might organize one, so long as the organizing effort doesn’t involve legally-recognized labor unions.
If you want to join us — assuming you’re ready to live on rice and beans for the duration — there’s a grassroots (not union-led) campaign you can learn about at https://generalstrikeus.com/
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.