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116-545: A general strike is a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions of political, social, and labour organizations and may also include rallies, marches, boycotts, civil disobedience, non-payment of taxes, and other forms of direct or indirect action. Additionally, general strikes might exclude care workers, such as teachers, doctors, and nurses. Historically,

232-504: A " worldwide proletariat "; and a theoretical mechanism by which to stop wars between nation states. Industrial unionists such as Ralph Chaplin and Stephen Naft also identified four different levels of general strike, rising from a localised strike, to an industry-wide strike, to a nationwide strike, and finally to a revolutionary strike. In his study of the debates within the Second International , Niemeyer perceived

348-467: A "national holiday". The Chartists planned to carry out their month-long national holiday in August 1839, but following Benbow's arrest, the campaign was abandoned. Benbow was tried and found guilty of sedition. Although he attempted to continue his Chartist activities from prison, after being excommunicated from the movement by Feargus O'Connor , Benbow ceased his political activities. In April 1842, after

464-584: A case involving the International Longshoremen's Association refusing to work with goods for export to the Soviet Union in protest against its invasion of Afghanistan , that a no-strike clause does not bar unions from refusing to work as a political protest (since that is not an "arbitrable" issue), although such activity may lead to damages for a secondary boycott . Whether a no-strike clause applies to sympathy strikes depends on

580-429: A form of political protest. Like student strikes, a hunger strike aims to worsen the public image of the target. A "sickout", or (especially by uniformed police officers) " blue flu ", is a type of strike action in which the strikers call in sick . This is used in cases where laws prohibit certain employees from declaring a strike. Police, firefighters, air traffic controllers, and teachers in some U.S. states are among

696-446: A fraction of a day per worker per annum, on average, exceeding one day only in a few exceptional years. Since the 1990s, strike actions have generally further declined, a phenomenon that might be attributable to lower information costs (and thus more readily available access to information on economic rents ) made possible by computerization and rising personal indebtedness, which increases the cost of job loss for striking workers. In

812-631: A general strike by "every profession useful to society" against the "civil, military, or religious agents of government", contrasting "the People" against the "men who do nothing". Chassebœuf's work held a great influence in Great Britain, where it was distributed throughout the country by the London Corresponding Society , while his chapter on the general strike was reprinted for decades after its initial publication. The idea

928-535: A general strike was taken up by members of the far-left , such as Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg , who saw it as an instrument for obtaining political concessions . Having been completely frozen out of the International, the anarchists resolved to hold their own International Anarchist Congress , which met in Amsterdam in 1907. The Congress played host to a fierce debate between Errico Malatesta ,

1044-484: A general strike. In 1864, the International Workingmen's Association (IWA) was established as a federation of trade unions by delegates from England and France. The French trade union delegates, such as Eugene Varlin , saw the nascent International as a means to coordinate support for strike actions by its members. In the first volume of Das Kapital , published in 1867, Karl Marx conceived of

1160-409: A general strike. Benbow called for workers themselves to declare a month-long "holiday", which would be financially supported first by workers' savings and then by exacting "contributions" from the wealthy. He also proposed the formation of workers' councils to keep the peace, distribute food and elect delegates to a congress , which would itself carry out wide-reaching societal reforms. Months after

1276-442: A last resort. The object of collective bargaining is for the employer and the union to come to an agreement over wages, benefits, and working conditions. A collective bargaining agreement may include a clause (a contractual "no-strike clause") which prohibits the union from striking during the term of the agreement. Under U.S. labor law, a strike in violation of a no-strike clause is not a protected concerted activity . The scope of

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1392-669: A list of questions 'designed to elicit the complete and impartial history of strikes.'" In 1842 the demands for fairer wages and conditions across many different industries finally exploded into the first modern general strike . After the second Chartist Petition was presented to Parliament in April 1842 and rejected, the strike began in the coal mines of Staffordshire , England , and soon spread through Britain affecting factories , cotton mills in Lancashire and coal mines from Dundee to South Wales and Cornwall . Instead of being

1508-584: A means to establish an international anarchist organisation, efforts in this direction were sabotaged by the conflict between the two factions. Despite all the calls for a general strike to prevent war, by the outbreak of World War I , many socialists dropped their anti-militarism and instead threw their support behind the Allied war effort. The Second International itself collapsed, leaving only anarcho-syndicalists and Bolsheviks to rally an anti-war opposition. The 1926 United Kingdom general strike started in

1624-545: A member refuses to cross a picket line. Sympathy strikes may be undertaken by a union as an organization, or by individual union members choosing not to cross a picket line. A jurisdictional strike in United States labor law refers to a concerted refusal to work undertaken by a union to assert its members' right to particular job assignments and to protest the assignment of disputed work to members of another union or to unorganized workers. A rolling strike refers to

1740-420: A minimum guarantee for these services and punish violations. Similar limitations are applied to workers in the private sector whose strike can affect public services. The employer is explicitly forbidden to apply sanctions to employees participating to the strikes, with the exception of the aforementioned essential services cases. The government , under exceptional circumstances, can impose the precettazione of

1856-490: A no-strike clause varies; generally, the U.S. courts and National Labor Relations Board have determined that a collective bargaining agreement's no-strike clause has the same scope as the agreement's arbitration clauses, such that "the union cannot strike over an arbitrable issue." The U.S. Supreme Court held in Jacksonville Bulk Terminals Inc. v. International Longshoremen's Association (1982),

1972-660: A number of anti-authoritarian and anti-clerical polemics. At meetings of the National Union of the Working Classes , Benbow expressed impatience with the progress of the Reform Bill and called for armed resistance against the government. In January 1832, Benbow published a pamphlet titled Grand National Holiday and Congress of the Productive Classes , in which he outlined his proposals for

2088-456: A penal action (for a maximum of 4 years of prison) if the illegal strike causes the suspension of an essential service. Precettazione has been rarely applied, usually after several days of strikes affecting transport or fuel services or extraordinary events. Recent cases include the cancellation of the 2015 strike of the company providing transportation services in Milan during Expo 2015 , and

2204-404: A proponent of classical anarcho-communism , and Pierre Monatte , a disciple of the new current of anarcho-syndicalism . The latter upheld the central role of the trade union in organising a revolutionary general strike to overthrow capitalism, after which the unions would form the basis for the construction of a new stateless society with a socialist economy . But the advancement of syndicalism

2320-596: A revolutionary general strike, which would overthrow the state and establish workers' control over the means of production . This view was particularly supported by the Spanish Regional Federation , which itself organised a general strike in Alcoy , although it was quickly put down by Spanish government forces. At the Geneva Congress of 1873 , Belgian delegates proposed the adoption of

2436-525: A spontaneous uprising of the mutinous masses, the strike was politically motivated and was driven by an agenda to win concessions. As much as half of the then industrial work force were on strike at its peak – over 500,000 men. The local leadership marshaled a growing working class tradition to politically organize their followers to mount an articulate challenge to the capitalist, political establishment. Friedrich Engels , an observer in London at

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2552-455: A statewide general strike as a response to those legislative proposals. The SCFL website states, At SCFL's monthly meeting Monday, Feb. 21, delegates endorsed the following: "The SCFL endorses a general strike, possibly for the day Walker signs his 'budget repair bill.'" An ad hoc committee was formed to explore the details. SCFL did not CALL for a general strike because it does not have that authority. The largest general strike that ever stopped

2668-486: A strike vote without prior authorization of the national officers of the union concerned". The change was intended to "check the spread of general strike sentiment and prevent recurrences of what happened at Seattle and is now going on at Winnipeg ". The penalty for any unauthorised strike vote was revocation of that body's charter. As part of the fight for the Indian independence movement , leader Mahatma Gandhi promoted

2784-421: A strike where only some employees in key departments or locations go on strike. These strikes are performed in order to increase stakes as negotiations draw on and to be unpredictable to the employer. Rolling strikes also serve to conserve strike funds . A student strike involves students (sometimes supported by faculty) refusing to attend classes. In some cases, the strike is intended to draw media attention to

2900-445: A work stoppage each year on average, these strikes also contained more workers than ever recorded with an average of 20,000 workers participating in each major work stoppage in 2018 and 2019. For the period from 1996 to 2000, the ten countries with the most strike action (measured by average number of days not worked for every 1000 employees) were as follows: Most strikes are organized by labor unions during collective bargaining as

3016-459: Is work-to-rule (also known as an Italian strike , in Italian : Sciopero bianco ), in which workers perform their tasks exactly as they are required to but no better. For example, workers might follow all safety regulations in such a way that it impedes their productivity or they might refuse to work overtime . Such strikes may in some cases be a form of "partial strike" or "slowdown". During

3132-499: Is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work . A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances . Strikes became common during the Industrial Revolution , when mass labor became important in factories and mines. As striking became a more common practice, governments were often pushed to act (either by private business or by union workers). When government intervention occurred, it

3248-615: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 , the IWPA armed and drilled its members into workers' militias, seeing violent action as a necessary complement to strike action. On 1 May 1886, the IWPA organised a nationwide general strike for the eight-hour day , which had been a focus of demands for Parsons and the Chicago anarchists. Throughout the United States, hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike. The general strike's epicenter

3364-566: The Industrial Revolution . For the first time in history, large numbers of people were members of the industrial working class; they lived in towns and cities, exchanging their labor for payment. By the 1830s, when the Chartist movement was at its peak in Britain, a true and widespread 'workers consciousness' was awakening. In 1838, a Statistical Society of London committee "used the first written questionnaire… The committee prepared and printed

3480-619: The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights , which guaranteed the right to unions and striking, but Chinese officials declared that they had no interest in allowing these liberties. In June 2008, the municipal government in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone introduced draft labor regulations, which a labor rights advocacy group says would, if implemented and enforced, virtually restore Chinese workers' right to strike. In

3596-550: The International Working People's Association (IWPA), which developed anarchist tendencies and held itself to be a continuation of the defunct IWA. Inspired by the example of the Paris Commune , IWPA members such as the Chicago anarchist Albert Parsons formulated a kind of revolutionary syndicalism that eschewed the general strike in favour of popular insurrection. In response to the repression of

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3712-491: The National Labor Relations Board permitting employers to establish separate or "reserved" gates for particular trades, making it an unlawful secondary boycott for a union to establish a picket line at any gate other than the one reserved for the employer it is picketing. Still, the practice continues to occur; for example, some Teamsters contracts often protect members from disciplinary action if

3828-729: The Preamble to the French Constitution of 27 October 1946 ever since the Constitutional Council 's 1971 decision on the freedom of association recognized that document as being invested with constitutional value. A "minimum service" during strikes in public transport was a promise of Nicolas Sarkozy during his campaign for the French presidential election. A law "on social dialogue and continuity of public service in regular terrestrial transports of passengers"

3944-752: The Renaissance by Étienne de La Boétie , and during the Age of Enlightenment by Jean Meslier and Honoré Gabriel Riqueti . With the outbreak of the French Revolution , the idea was taken up by radicals such as Jean-Paul Marat , Sylvain Maréchal and Constantin François de Chassebœuf , who proposed a strike that included merchants and industrialists alongside industrial workers and farmworkers . In his essay Les Ruines , Chassebœuf proposed

4060-530: The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that there is a constitutional right to strike. In this 5–2 majority decision, Justice Rosalie Abella ruled that "[a]long with their right to associate, speak through a bargaining representative of their choice, and bargain collectively with their employer through that representative, the right of employees to strike is vital to protecting the meaningful process of collective bargaining…" [paragraph 24]. This decision adopted

4176-675: The U.S. Steel recognition strike of 1901 , and the subsequent coal strike of 1902 . A 1936 study of strikes in the United States indicated that about one third of the total number of strikes between 1927 and 1928, and over 40 percent in 1929, were due to "demands for union recognition, closed shop, and protest against union discrimination and violation of union agreements". A 1988 study of strike activity and unionization in non-union municipal police departments between 1972 and 1978 found that recognition strikes were carried out "primarily where bargaining laws [provided] little or no protection of bargaining rights." In 1937, there were 4,740 strikes in

4292-588: The United States , the 1835 Philadelphia General Strike lasted for three weeks, after which the striking workers won their goal of a ten-hour workday and an increase in wages. The idea of the general strike was first formulated by William Benbow , a Quaker and shoemaker that became involved in the British radical movement of the early 19th century. After he was arrested for his political activities, Benbow turned away from reformism and began to publish

4408-468: The general strike of 1904 resulted in no political reforms but strengthened the social movement; in 1908, syndicalists led a two-month general strike in Parma , but were likewise defeated; and in 1911, anarcho-syndicalists mobilised a general strike against the Italian invasion of Libya , blocking troop trains and even assassinating an army officer. This series of syndicalist-led general strikes brought about

4524-487: The topgallant sails of merchant ships at port, thus crippling the ships. The first historically certain account of strike action was in ancient Egypt on 14 November in 1152 BCE, when artisans of the Royal Necropolis at Deir el-Medina walked off their jobs in protest at the failure of the government of Ramesses III to pay their wages on time and in full. The royal government ended the strike by raising

4640-454: The "largest and in all probability the most important Convention ever held" by the organisation, in part for having engineered the "overwhelming defeat of the so-called Radical element" via crushing a " One Big Union proposition", and also for defeating a proposal for a nationwide general strike, both "by a vote of more than 20 to 1". The AFL amended its constitution to disallow any central labour union (i.e., regional labour councils) from "taking

4756-488: The 2007 precettazione to stop the strike of the truck drivers that was causing food and fuel shortage after several days of strike. Legislation was enacted in the aftermath of the 1919 police strikes , forbidding British police from both taking industrial action, and discussing the possibility with colleagues. Strike pay The main unions providing a strike fund in Spain are Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) and

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4872-624: The 2011 Canada Post lockout was ruled unconstitutional, with the judge specifically referencing the Supreme Court of Canada's 2015 decision in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v Saskatchewan . In some Marxist–Leninist states, such as the People's Republic of China , striking was illegal and viewed as counter-revolutionary , and labor strikes are considered to be taboo in most East Asian cultures. In 1976, China signed

4988-556: The Basque Basque Workers' Solidarity (ELA-STV). According to ELA, its fund received 13.7 million euros between 2008 and 2011, 15.1% of its expenses, and 19.1 M€ between 2012 and 2016 (16,24%). It receives amounts to 25% of the dues of its members. ELA-STV strikers can receive between €1,000 /month (the minimum wage in Spain) and €1,243 . Another Basque union LAB provides a maximum of €30 /day (€900 /month) after

5104-595: The Chartists and took on a revolutionary character. But government forces intervened, cracking down on the protests and arresting its leaders, eventually forcing a return to work. Strike actions by workers in Barcelona played a prominent role in the Spanish Revolution of 1854 , which gave way to a progressive period that extended a number of civil liberties to Spanish workers. But labour unrest grew as

5220-841: The Confederacy of its main source of labour in what W. E. B. Du Bois described as a "general strike" in his book Black Reconstruction in America . However, this conception were rebuffed by African-American economist Abram Lincoln Harris , who dismissed Du Bois' claims of a general strike as fantastical. A. A. Taylor also rejected Du Bois' interpretation, noting that the flight from the plantations did not constitute an organised movement to achieve economic or political concessions. And American historian Arthur Charles Cole criticised what he described as "discrepancies between well established facts and extravagant generalization" in Du Bois' claims of

5336-648: The French CGT and Dutch NAS attempted to continue participation, but after being physically attacked while trying to join the London Congress of 1896 , the anarchists finally abandoned the International. Nevertheless, the anarchist defense of the general strike left a lasting legacy within the International. At the Paris Congress of 1900 , the French socialist politician Aristide Briand adopted

5452-580: The German delegates, who feared repression by the authorities. Finally, at the Copenhagen Congress of 1910 , a proposal for a general strike to prevent war was put forward by the French socialist Édouard Vaillant and the Scottish labour leader Keir Hardie , but this too was voted down by the other delegates. While it was consistently defeated by the social democrats, the anarchist proposal for

5568-848: The IWW participated in the Seattle General Strike, that action was called by the Seattle Central Labor Union, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL, predecessor of the AFL–CIO ). In June 1919, the AFL national organisation, in session in Atlantic City, New Jersey , passed resolutions in opposition to the general strike. The official report of these proceedings described the convention as

5684-570: The International could be the organisation through which trade unions could build such strike actions into a revolutionary general strike, which would abolish capitalism and institute socialism. The proposals for a revolutionary general strike to overthrow the state were rejected by the Marxist faction , who instead proposed the creation of political parties to take state power. Through the General Council, which had centralised control over

5800-564: The International, Marx moved to expel Bakunin's anti-authoritarian faction at the Hague Congress of 1872 . In response, the expelled sections established the Anti-Authoritarian International , which was designed to operate according to a federal structure . The anti-authoritarians upheld the syndicalist view of using the International as a coordinating body to support strike actions and build them towards

5916-511: The Soviet Union, strikes occurred throughout the existence of the USSR, most notably in the 1930s. After World War II, they diminished both in number and in scale. Trade unions in the Soviet Union served in part as a means to educate workers about the country's economic system. Vladimir Lenin referred to trade unions as "Schools of Communism". In France , the first law aimed at limiting

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6032-464: The State or other authorities or may be a response to unsafe conditions in the workplace. A sympathy strike is a strike action in which one group of workers refuses to cross a picket line established by another as a means of supporting the striking workers. Sympathy strikes, once the norm in the construction industry in the United States, have been made much more difficult to conduct, due to decisions of

6148-414: The United States, the number of workers involved in major work stoppages (including strikes and, less commonly, lockouts) that involved at least a thousand workers for at least one full shift generally declined from 1973 to 2017 (coinciding with a general decrease in overall union membership), before substantially increasing in 2018 and 2019. In the 2018 and 2019 period, 3.1% of union members were involved in

6264-587: The United States. This was the greatest strike wave in American labor history . The number of major strikes and lockouts in the U.S. fell by 97% from 381 in 1970 to 187 in 1980 to only 11 in 2010. Companies countered the threat of a strike by threatening to close or move a plant. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights , adopted in 1967, ensures the right to strike in Article 8. The European Social Charter , adopted in 1961, also ensures

6380-474: The Wobbly conception of industrial democracy is intentionally not presented in detail by IWW theorists; in that sense, the details are left to the "future development of society". However, certain concepts are implicit. Industrial democracy will be "a new society [built] within the shell of the old". Members of the industrial union educate themselves to operate industry according to democratic principles, and without

6496-514: The World (IWW) began to fully embrace the general strike in 1910–1911. The ultimate goal of the general strike, according to Industrial Workers of the World theory, is to displace capitalists and give control over the means of production to workers. In a 1911 speech in New York City , IWW organiser Bill Haywood explained his view of the economic situation, and why he believed a general strike

6612-662: The ability of workers to take collective action was the Le Chapelier Law , passed by the National Assembly on 14 June 1791 and which introduced the "crime of coalition." In his speech in support of the law, the titular author Isaac René Guy le Chapelier explained that it "must be without a doubt permitted for all citizens to assemble," but he maintained that it "must not be permitted for citizens from certain professions to assemble for their so-called common interests." Strike actions were specifically banned with

6728-584: The anarcho-syndicalist model. Members of the Belgian section began to advocate for a dictatorship of the proletariat and electoralism , while the French and Italian sections moved towards anarcho-communism and proposed the theory of propaganda of the deed . By 1880, the debates within the International had led to its collapse. In 1881, a revolutionary socialist faction of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLPA) split off and established

6844-461: The artisans' wages. The first Jewish source for the idea of a labor strike appears in the Talmud , which records that the bakers who prepared showbread for the altar went on strike. An early predecessor of the general strike may have been the secessio plebis in ancient Rome . In The Outline of History , H. G. Wells characterized this event as "the general strike of the plebeians ;

6960-520: The class struggle, and about what it will take to execute an eventual general strike for the purpose of achieving industrial democracy. During the final general strike, workers would not walk out of their shops, factories, mines, and mills, but would rather occupy their workplaces and take them over. Prior to taking action to initiate industrial democracy, workers would need to educate themselves with technical and managerial knowledge in order to operate industry. According to labor historian Philip S. Foner ,

7076-549: The coal industry and rapidly escalated; the unions called out 1,750,000 workers, mainly in the transport and steel sectors, although the strike was successfully suppressed by the government. The year 1919 saw a number of general strikes throughout the United States and Canada , including two that were considered significant—the Seattle General Strike , and the Winnipeg General Strike . While

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7192-612: The collective efficacy of strikes as a bargaining tool. An early predecessor of the general strike were the Jewish traditions of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years , the latter of which involves widespread debt relief and land redistribution . The secessio plebis , during the times of the Roman Republic , has also been noted as a precursor to the general strike. Early conceptions of the general strike were proposed during

7308-467: The context. Some in the labor movement consider no-strike clauses to be an unnecessary detriment to unions in the collective bargaining process. Occasionally, workers decide to strike without the sanction of a labor union, either because the union refuses to endorse such a tactic, or because the workers involved are non-unionized. Strikes without formal union authorization are also known as wildcat strikes . In many countries, wildcat strikes do not enjoy

7424-472: The current hierarchical ownership/management structure. Issues such as production and distribution would be managed by the workers themselves. In 1927 the IWW called for a three-day nationwide walkout to protest the execution of anarchists Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti . The most notable response to the call was in the Walsenburg coal district of Colorado , where 1,132 miners stayed off

7540-407: The definition and practice of a general strike changed in modern times to mean periodic days of mass action coordinated, often, by unions, but not an official or prolonged strike. Since then, in the US and Europe the general strike has become a tool of mass economic protest often in conjunction with other forms of electoral action and direct civil action. Two of the main forms of general strike are:

7656-417: The development boom of the 1970s in Australia, the Green ban was developed by certain unions described by some as more socially conscious. This is a form of strike action taken by a trade union or other organized labor group for environmentalist or conservationist purposes. This developed from the black ban, strike action taken against a particular job or employer in order to protect the economic interests of

7772-421: The dissent by Chief Justice Brian Dickson in a 1987 Supreme Court ruling on a reference case brought by the province of Alberta ( Reference Re Public Service Employee Relations Act (Alta) ). The exact scope of this right to strike remains unclear. Prior to this Supreme Court decision, the federal and provincial governments had the ability to introduce "back-to-work legislation", a special law that blocks

7888-458: The economy of an advanced industrial country —and the first general wildcat strike in history—was May 1968 in France . The prolonged strike involved eleven million workers for two weeks in a row, and its impact was such that it almost caused the collapse of the de Gaulle government. Other notable general strikes include: Strike action Strike action , also called labor strike , labour strike in British English , or simply strike ,

8004-411: The establishment of the Italian Syndicalist Union (USI), which itself led a further series of general strikes that culminated in the Red Week of 1914. In 1889, the Labour and Socialist International was established by classical Marxists and social democrats , such as those of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). At the Brussels Congress of 1891 , it became clear that the International

8120-472: The establishment of which would put a final end to all wars. In a letter to Friedrich Engels , Marx himself rejected what he described as "the Belgian nonsense that it was necessary to strike against war". When Mikhail Bakunin joined the International the following year, he declared his own support for these proposals. Bakunin rejected political participation, instead advocating for workers to take strike actions to improve their working conditions. He argued that

8236-489: The fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of communist party rule in Eastern Europe. Another example is the general strike in Weimar Germany that followed the March 1920 Kapp Putsch . It was called by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and received such broad support that it resulted in the collapse of the putsch. The use of the English word "strike" to describe a work protest was first seen in 1768, when sailors, in support of demonstrations in London , "struck" or removed

8352-410: The general strike ) about 9 workdays per worker were lost due to strikes. In 1979, the loss due to strikes was a little more than one day per worker. These are the extreme cases. In the 79 years following 1926, the number of workdays lost in Britain was less than 2 hours per year per worker. In the U.S., idleness due to strikes never exceeded one half of one percent of total working days in any year during

8468-445: The general strike as a means by which to build class consciousness . At the International's Brussels Congress of 1868 , the Belgian delegate César De Paepe proposed that a general strike could be used to prevent the outbreak of war, which he considered to be a means for the ruling class to subordinate working people. He further declared that trade unions themselves constituted the mechanism for replacing capitalism with socialism ,

8584-485: The general strike as a revolutionary instrument, with the French anarchist Joseph Tortelier taking up the idea of the revolutionary general strike, which then spread to Italian and Spanish anarchists. Albert Parsons' wife Lucy Parsons also adopted the revolutionary general strike in her own platform, which became a founding precept of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The first trade union to adopt

8700-529: The general strike as a tactic for social revolution . This motion was supported by the Jura Federation , which additionally stressed the need for smaller strikes as a means to achieve wage increases. The discussions over strike action at the Geneva Congress lay the foundations for what was to become known as anarcho-syndicalism . But before long, the anti-authoritarians began to move away from

8816-591: The general strikes of this period reached revolutionary levels: the Russian Revolution of 1905 demonstrated the efficacy of the general strike as a revolutionary instrument, but was ultimately suppressed; in 1909, the Catalan syndicalist union Solidaridad Obrera called a general strike against conscription for the Spanish invasion of Morocco , briefly bringing Barcelona under workers' control before

8932-647: The government of the new Republic of Cuba . In the Netherlands , the railroad strikes of 1903 resulted in harsh repression against the Dutch workers' movement. The Swedish general strike of 1909 was broken up without achieving its demands, accelerating the split of syndicalists from the social-democratic unions and the formation of the Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (SAC). Some of

9048-571: The groups commonly barred from striking usually by state and federal laws meant to ensure the safety or security of the general public. Newspaper writers may withhold their names from their stories as a way to protest actions of their employer. Activists may form " flying squad " groups for strikes or other actions, a form of picketing , to disrupt the workplace or another aspect of capitalist production: supporting other strikers or unemployed workers, participating in protests against globalization, or opposing abusive landlords. On 30 January 2015,

9164-598: The idea of the revolutionary general strike in order to boost his popularity with the syndicalists. At the Amsterdam Congress of 1904 , another French socialist politician defended the general strike as a means to convince socialist voters that they were not merely supporting career politicians . At the Stuttgart Congress of 1907 , the anarchist calls for a general strike to prevent war were taken up by Gustave Hervé , but these were ardently opposed by

9280-453: The institution so that the grievances that are causing the students to strike can be aired before the public; this usually damages the institution's (or government's) public image. In other cases, especially in government-supported institutions, the student strike can cause a budgetary imbalance and have actual economic repercussions for the institution. A hunger strike is a deliberate refusal to eat. Hunger strikes are often used in prisons as

9396-673: The job, and only 35 went to work, a participation rate which led directly to the Colorado coal strike of 1927 . On 18 March 2011, the Industrial Workers of the World supported an endorsement of a general strike as a follow-up to protests against Governor Scott Walker 's proposed labour legislation in Wisconsin , following a motion passed by the South Central Federation of Labor (SCFL) of Wisconsin endorsing

9512-671: The last forty years or more". One example cited was the successful formation of the United Auto Workers , which achieved recognition from General Motors through the Flint sit-down strike of 1936-37. They were more common prior to the advent of modern American labor law (including the National Labor Relations Act ), which introduced processes legally compelling an employer to recognize the legitimacy of properly certified unions. Two examples include

9628-595: The new authorities again prohibited freedom of association and work stoppages, leading to the outbreak of the 1855 Catalan general strike , the first in Spanish history. After months of strike action and attempted negotitations, the general strike was suppressed and the draft constitution suspended in a coup by Leopoldo O'Donnell . During the American Civil War , millions of black slaves escaped southern plantations and fled to Union territory, depriving

9744-518: The pamphlet's publication, Benbow was arrested for leading a 100,000-strong demonstration, which he had intended as a "dress rehearsal" for his proposed "national holiday". The passage of the Reform Act brought with it the collapse of the radical movement, including Benbow's National Union. But six years later, in an atmosphere of rising disillusionment with the progress of political reform, the nascent Chartist movement adopted Benbow's platform for

9860-481: The passage of Napoleon 's French Penal Code of 1810 . Article 415 of the Code declared that participants in an attempted strike action would be subject to an imprisonment of between one and three months and that the organizers of the attempted strike action would be subject to an imprisonment of between two and five years. The right to strike under the current French Fifth Republic has been recognized and guaranteed by

9976-518: The period 1948-2005; the average loss was 0.1% per year. Similarly, in Canada over the period 1980-2005, the annual number of work days lost due to strikes never exceeded one day per worker; on average over this period lost worktime due to strikes was about one-third of a day per worker. Although the data are not readily available for a broad sample of developed countries, the pattern described above seems quite general: days lost due to strikes amount to only

10092-404: The plebeians seem to have invented the strike, which now makes its first appearance in history." Their first strike occurred because they "saw with indignation their friends, who had often served the state bravely in the legions, thrown into chains and reduced to slavery at the demand of patrician creditors". The strike action only became a feature of the political landscape with the onset of

10208-426: The political strike, which aims to achieve political and economic reform ; and the revolutionary strike, which aims to overthrow capitalism and the state in a social revolution . Other forms, identified by Gerhart Niemeyer, include: the general strike as a "revolutionary exercise" which would eventually lead to a transformation of society; a one-day demonstration on International Workers' Day , aimed at identifying

10324-427: The postal service), and in more cases provincially. In addition, certain parts of the economy can be proclaimed " essential services " in which case all strikes are illegal. Examples include when the government of Canada passed back-to-work legislation during the 2011 Canada Post lockout and the 2012 CP Rail strike, thus effectively ending the strikes. In 2016, the government's use of back-to-work legislation during

10440-601: The revolt's suppression by government forces; and following the Revolution of 1910 in Portugal , a syndicalist-led general strike briefly brought Lisbon under workers' control before being repressed, resulting in the formation of the National Workers' Union  [ pt ] by Portuguese socialists and anarchists . In Italy , there was a particularly large wave of general strikes during this period:

10556-526: The revolutionary general strike into its platform was the French General Confederation of Labour (CGT). The CGT launched its own campaign for workers themselves to institute the eight-hour day, culminating in a general strike which secured French workers a reduction in working time and workload, an increase in wages and the introduction of the weekend . The CGT's example accelerated the spread of revolutionary syndicalism throughout

10672-478: The right to strike in Article 6. The Farah Strike , 1972–1974, labeled the "strike of the century," was organized and led by Mexican American women predominantly in El Paso, Texas. Strikes are rare, in part because many workers are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement . Strikes that do occur are generally fairly short in duration. Labor economist John Kennan notes: In Britain in 1926 (the year of

10788-488: The rule of a particular political party or ruler; in such cases, strikes are often part of a broader social movement taking the form of a campaign of civil resistance . Notable examples are the 1980 Gdańsk Shipyard and the 1981 Warning Strike led by Lech Wałęsa . These strikes were significant in the long campaign of civil resistance for political change in Poland , and were an important mobilizing effort that contributed to

10904-609: The same legal protections as recognized union strikes, and may result in penalties for the union members who participate, or for their union. The same often applies in the case of strikes conducted without an official ballot of the union membership, as is required in some countries such as the United Kingdom . A strike may consist of workers refusing to attend work or picketing outside the workplace to prevent or dissuade people from working in their place or conducting business with their employer. Less frequently, workers may occupy

11020-595: The second Chartist Petition was rejected by the British Parliament, demands for fairer wages and conditions across many different industries finally exploded into the first general strike in a capitalist country. The strike began in the coal mines of Staffordshire and soon spread throughout Britain, affecting factories , mills and mines from Scotland to South Wales . Although the general strike started as an apolitical demand for better working conditions, by August 1842, it became directly associated with

11136-556: The second day of the strike. Strikes funded by ELA-STV can become long: 235 days at Tubacex , 285 among the cleaners of the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum , over 1,000 days at Novaltia . Whilst some trade unions make payments to members who are on an official strike there is no requirement to do so. The UK Government makes the presumption that workers on official strike action are being paid strike pay, and so they may not be entitled to state benefits . A strike fund

11252-456: The socialist-friendly general strike for political rights within the system and the general strike as a revolutionary mechanism to overthrow the existing order—which he associated with a "rising anarcho-syndicalist movement"—as mutually exclusive. Niemeyer believed that the difficulty arose from the fact that the general strike was "one instrument", but was frequently considered "without distinction of underlying motives". The Industrial Workers of

11368-412: The strike action (or a lockout) from happening or continuing. Canadian governments could also have imposed binding arbitration or a new contract on the disputing parties. Back-to-work legislation was first used in 1950 during a railway strike, and as of 2012 had been used 33 times by the federal government for those parts of the economy that are regulated federally (grain handling, rail and air travel, and

11484-412: The strike, i.e., can force the postponement, cancellation or duration reduction of a national-wide strike. The prime minister has to justify the decision of applying the precettazione in front of the parliament . For local strikes, precettazione can also be applied by a decision of the prefect . The employees refusing to work after the precettazione takes effect may be subject of a sanction or even

11600-525: The strikers. United States labor law also draws a distinction, in the case of private sector employers covered by the National Labor Relations Act , between "economic" and "unfair labor practice" strikes. An employer may not fire, but may permanently replace, workers who engage in a strike over economic issues. On the other hand, employers who commit unfair labor practices (ULPs) may not replace employees who strike over them, and must fire any strikebreakers they have hired as replacements in order to reinstate

11716-427: The striking workers. Strikes may be specific to a particular workplace, employer, or unit within a workplace, or they may encompass an entire industry, or every worker within a city or country. Strikes that involve all workers, or a number of large and important groups of workers, in a particular community or region are known as general strikes. Under some circumstances, strikes may take place in order to put pressure on

11832-417: The term general strike has referred primarily to solidarity action , which is a multi-sector strike that is organised by trade unions who strike together in order to force pressure on employers to begin negotiations or offer more favourable terms to the strikers; though not all strikers may have a material interest in each other's negotiations, they all have a material interest in maintaining and strengthening

11948-431: The theory of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon criminalizing strike action in his work The Poverty of Philosophy . A recognition strike is an industrial strike implemented in order to force a particular employer or industry to recognize a trade union as the legitimate collective bargaining agent for a company's workers. In 1949, their use in the United States was described as "a weapon used with varying results by labor for

12064-608: The time, wrote: by its numbers, this class has become the most powerful in England, and woe betide the wealthy Englishmen when it becomes conscious of this fact … The English proletarian is only just becoming aware of his power, and the fruits of this awareness were the disturbances of last summer. As the 19th century progressed, strikes became a fixture of industrial relations across the industrialized world, as workers organized themselves to collectively bargain for better wages and standards with their employers. Karl Marx condemned

12180-408: The use of what is called Hartal , a mass protest and a form of civil disobedience that often involved a total shutdown of workplaces, offices, shops, and courts of law. In America, after the passage of the anti-union Taft–Hartley Act in 1947, the general strike changed from a tool of labor strike solidarity into a general form of social, political, and economic protest. US Congress passed the law in

12296-544: The wake of the women-led 1946 Oakland General Strike . It outlawed actions taken by unionized workers in support of workers at other companies, effectively rendering both solidarity actions and the general strike itself illegal. Before 1947 and the passage of the Taft–Hartley Act the term general strike meant when various unions would officially go on strike in solidarity with other striking unions. The act made it illegal for one union to go on strike to support another. Hence,

12412-532: The working class. But the working class, on the other hand, has always been taught to take care of the capitalist's interest in the property. Bill Haywood believed that industrial unionism made possible the general strike, and the general strike made possible industrial democracy. According to Wobbly theory , the conventional strike is an important (but not the only) weapon for improving wages, hours, and working conditions for working people. These strikes are also good training to help workers educate themselves about

12528-531: The workplace, but refuse to work. This is known as a sit-down strike . A similar tactic is the work-in , where employees occupy the workplace but still continue work, often without pay, which attempts to show they are still useful, or that worker self-management can be successful. For instance, this occurred with factory occupations in the Biennio Rosso strikes – the "two red years" of Italy from 1919 to 1920. Another unconventional tactic

12644-512: The world, bringing with it a wave of general strikes at the turn of the 20th century, to mixed results. Although the Belgian general strike of 1893 was halted in order to prevent damage to the workers' movement, it eventually won its demand of universal manhood suffrage . Following the Cuban War of Independence , in 1902, anarcho-syndicalists organised the country's first general strike against

12760-579: Was adopted on 12 August 2007, and it took effect on 1 January 2008. In Italy, the right to strike is guaranteed by the Constitution ( article 40 ). The law number 146 of 1990 and law number 83 of 2000 regulate the strike actions. In particular, they impose limitations for the strikes of workers in public essential services, i.e., the ones that "guarantee the personality rights of life, health, freedom and security, movements, assistance and welfare, education, and communications". These limitations provide

12876-495: Was already divided over two main tactical issues: electoral politics , which the socialists embraced, but anarchists generally opposed; and, the general strike as a mechanism to prevent war, which anarchists supported, but socialists refused to endorse. As a result, at the Zürich Congress of 1893 , anarchists were ejected from the International and banned from attending future congresses. Anarchist trade union delegates from

12992-492: Was blocked chiefly by Malatesta, who objected to the class reductionism of the syndicalists. Malatesta was particularly critical of the general strike, which he dismissed as a "magic weapon" that was incapable of fighting a violent conflict with state militaries, which had the ability to starve out workers in the event of such an industrial dispute. Although the anarcho-syndicalists had seen the Amsterdam Congress as

13108-439: Was in Chicago, where protests against the police repression of striking workers escalated into a riot . Eight of the protest's organisers, including Parsons, were executed by hanging on charges of conspiracy. In the wake of their execution, the IWPA demand for the eight-hour day spread around the world and 1 May was declared International Workers' Day . Inspired by the IWPA's general strike, European anarchists began to reconsider

13224-521: Was justified, The capitalists have wealth; they have money. They invest the money in machinery, in the resources of the earth. They operate a factory, a mine, a railroad, a mill. They will keep that factory running just as long as there are profits coming in. When anything happens to disturb the profits, what do the capitalists do? They go on strike, don't they? They withdraw their finances from that particular mill. They close it down because there are no profits to be made there. They don't care what becomes of

13340-547: Was later taken up by the British economist Thomas Attwood and the French communist Louis Auguste Blanqui . During the early years of the Industrial Revolution , an ill-defined conception of a general strike was expressed by workers in Nottingham and Manchester , but it lacked a systematic formulation. There were periodical strikes throughout the early 19th century that could loosely be considered as 'general strikes'. In

13456-446: Was rarely neutral or amicable. Early strikes were often deemed unlawful conspiracies or anti-competitive cartel action and many were subject to massive legal repression by state police, federal military power, and federal courts. Many Western nations legalized striking under certain conditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Strikes are sometimes used to pressure governments to change policies. Occasionally, strikes destabilize

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