Why We Need A General Strike NOW In 2026
There are increasing demands for a general strike particularly after the Gestapo ICE police murders in Minneapolis of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Hundreds of thousands of youths, workers and the community have rallied and marched throughout the United States. These are not the only murders since ICE goons around the country have also murdered Kieth Porter Jr. in LA when an off-duty ICE goon murdered Keith Porter Jr. Many others are dying and being murdered in the holding cells and concentration camps they have and are building throughout the country. They are above the law under Trump and his fascist government, and they want to put millions in these camps.
The last general strike in the United States took place in 1946 in Oakland, California where striking saleswomen at Kahn’s department store were supported by an ATU transit worker who stopped his streetcar in the street to support the strike. This brought thousands of people in the street that shut the city down.
During the 1930’s there were three major strikes in San Francisco, Minneapolis and Toledo. These strikes helped build a mass workers movement that organized the auto industry and millions of workers. Previously there were general strikes in New Orleans in 1892, Seattle in 1919 and there was a Commune in St. Louis in 1877 which was touched off by a national railway strike. The workers and people of St. Louis took over the city for one week.
We must educate workers about these strikes and how workers and unions can take power in their unions and make them organizations that defend against the bosses and unite with the communities that are organizing throughout the country. We must also support all organizing throughout the country. A general strike will shut down all the airports, ports, trucking and rail transportation in the United States along with all industry and will shut down the profits to these billionaires who support and control Trump, the courts and the Congress.
We need a general strike today to:
Halt and paralyze the ICE and paramilitary operations funded by the US government. Only a mass collective action can slow the growth of these fascist goons funded and organized by the US government controlled by fascists. The attacks on immigrants and citizens at schools, hospitals and workplaces and these goons going door to door is aimed at terrorizing the people of this country and is part of implementing fascism. They are funded with $170 billion. The workers and unions have the power to shut down ICE in its tracks.
Stop the cancellation of the mid-term elections and the destruction of democratic elections. Trump has raided the election offices in Atlanta, Georgia in preparation to take over the state operations of elections which have been embedded in the US Constitution. He has said he made a mistake in not seizing the Georgia ballot boxes in the 2020 elections and he is preparing now to use a pretext to declare martial law using the insurrection act or an instigated war to put the US under martial law and then cancel the elections.
Only a general strike can unite the working class and people of the United States to stop his agenda for martial law. He has declared that he will not be leaving the White House and event plans to have another term which is barred under the US Constitution.
A general strike is a tool by the working class to stop cancellation of elections and also establish defense committees and councils that can organize against any fascist attacks on the working people and communities.
In 2018, the Vermont AFL-CIO supported a general strike to stop an insurrection and coup, and this was attacked by former AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka who said that Trump would use the discussion of a general strike as a pretext to declare martial law. The AFL-CIO and other union leadership are afraid of a general strike because they base themselves on business unionism and labor management partnerships with the bosses. They also are telling working people to wait for the Midterm elections and the Democrats to solve this crisis. UAW president Sean Fain has said that workers should prepare for a general strike in 2028 but unless we act now there will not be any unions left to defend.
Organize the millions of US workers at Amazon, Fed-Ex, all auto and parts plants and all workers in the United States. We need to keep the strike going and use it to break the back of the billionaires like Jeff Bezos at Amazon, Elon Musk at Tesla and the many auto and parts plants that are fighting to get organized and a union contract. The general strikes during the 1930’s helped organize millions of workers and stop the use of union busting anti-labor laws and lawyers to prevent workers from joining unions. During the San Francisco General Strike hundreds of thousands of workers joined unions and bosses were fearful that if they fired workers who were joining unions there would be mass picketing shutting them down. A general strike would help organize millions of workers and the shutdown of the NLRB means that only workers power and a general strike will allow workers to get a union.
Stop the invasions of Venezuela and the war being prepared to attack Iran. A general strike should demand the closure of all 800 US bases around the world and end the more than trillion dollar budget for genocide in Gaza, wars and militarism abroad. General strike would stop all trade with the genocidal Zionist regime and its continuing murder tens of thousands of people in Gaza and the West Bank and all of the Middle East. We need to halt the trillions of dollars going to war and to use it for healthcare, housing and education for the people of the United States.
We need to stop the national racist, xenophobic, and attacks on Muslims, women by mass collective action. Trump and the fascist government are removing the history of slavery and the role of immigrants and all people in fighting for justice and human rights. They are purging schools and universities with the purpose of molding a fascist Christian fundamental education system that creates a fascist society. We need to stop that and return all teachers who have been purged back to their jobs.
Implement Single Payer National Healthcare to provide complete healthcare for all the people of the United States. We need to eliminate the insurance industry, hospital and big pharma from the healthcare system. They are denying healthcare to tens of millions to increase their profits and United Healthcare whom the Democrats and Republicans support now has 60% control of Medicare which is being privatized. The Democrats and Republicans take money from the industries and will not implement single payer and national healthcare for all.
We need a general strike to stop the arrests of journalists and the frontal attacks on all democratic communication rights in the United States. The Trump government has moved to take control of all corporate media through techno fascists like Oracle owner Larry Ellison who bought Paramount which owns CBS and also wants to control CNN through Warner Studios. Trump allowed Ellison to take over Tik Tok which is also being censored, and other social media is under the control of the techno fascists who want to destroy democratic rights. The FCC has also threatened media about who to have on the air. Independent journalist Don Lemon and Georgia Fort have been arrested, and this is only the beginning. Many other journalists will be arrested by this government to shut down all media in the United States. The right of journalists to report on our country and struggles is a threat to all.
We need a general strike that will require that AI and robotics be under the control of working people and not the technofascists who run the US government. Technology should benefit working people and the communities. Instead under Trump and the techno fascists in charge of the government are using AI to eliminate tens of millions of jobs in auto, transportation, education, healthcare, public services, tech and their fascist program 2025 is deregulating all control of AI and at the same time use it as well to organize and build a fascist state that spies on all people and uses their control of AI to terrorize the people of the US and the world.
We need a general strike to stop the deadly trade war which is destroying the US and the world economy. Trump by escalating the tariffs and trade war against the rest of the world is helping to destroy the US and world economy. The breakup of the post war capitalist economic structure is similar to the period prior to WW1 when a similar pattern of trade war and tariffs led to the great depression. The same is the case today as the trade war and tariffs are harming exports and imports and jobs for working people. Workers in auto, transportation, tourism and agriculture are facing layoffs throughout the economy. Our unions must oppose trade war and organize with communities’ actions to demand the end of the tariffs, sanctions and trade war which is always a prelude to military war and organize support for a general strike to end this trade war.
We need a general strike to help organize a mass democratic workers party that will be a political alternative to the Dem- ocrats and Republicans. A general strike can help break the grip of workers and our unions with these two capitalist parties. Our unions continue to support the Democrats and Republicans with millions of union membership funds despite the fact that these parties both support the billionaires and have supported deregulation, privatization, militarization and the destruction of working people of the United States. The Democrats will not stop fascism and only workers or- ganized in our workplaces and in the community have the power. We need to build a national working class united front for a general strike, against fascism and imperialist war and this is a life and death question for working people.
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