Precursors , whose early conception of the general strike lay the groundwork for its systematic formulation in the 19th century 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 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 , Chassebœuf proposed 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 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 periodic strikes throughout the early 19th century that could loosely be considered as "general strikes". In 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.
Conception pictured in
Punch in 1848 The idea of the general strike was first formulated by
William Benbow, a
Quaker and
shoemaker who 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 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 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 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 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.
Early expressions In April 1842, after 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 the 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 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 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 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 was argued against 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 a general strike.
Debate in the First International , leader of the
anti-authoritarian faction of
First International, which advocated for a revolutionary general strike to overthrow the
state and
capitalism 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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.
Rise of revolutionary syndicalism of 1886 In 1881, a
revolutionary socialist faction of the
Socialist Labor Party of America (SLPA) split off and established 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 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 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 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 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 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 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). ,
Grand Duchy of Finland|thumb|right Some of 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 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 by
Portuguese socialists and
anarchists. In
Italy, there was a particularly large wave of general strikes during this period: 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 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.
Debate in the Second International , a Polish socialist who argued in support of the political general strike in the
Labour and Socialist International 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 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 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 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 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 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. , a French syndicalist who argued in support of the revolutionary general strike at the
International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam 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, 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 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 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.
20th century The
1926 United Kingdom general strike started in 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 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 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 a strike vote without prior authorization of the national officers of the union concerned". == Forms ==