I’m sure some readers know about the planned ‘general strike’ on October 15. Or is it a fake strike? At least, many know that a group claims it’s planning one. Is it really planning one? Maybe. Probably not. Will there be a general strike on October 15?
No.
And that’s my topic for today. In fact, the October 15 event looks like a fake strike. I want to talk for a bit about the ‘fake strike‘: why it keeps happening, what it means, and what it says about the left.
The Fake Strike
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
Some people post on social media about a strike, boycott, or some other action. They came up with the idea themselves. They didn’t really organize anyone or anything. Just started a website, set a date, and then waited to see what would happen. What happened? The date came around, and…nothing happened. It turned into a fake strike. Then someone started the cycle again.
What’s going on here? Why does this happen over and over again? I see a couple of things.
First, the action itself, in some cases, isn’t totally fake. Rather, it’s mislabeled. The group wants a demonstration or a protest, but they call it a strike.
We see this a lot. In fact, the reader looking for a good example should look to the 2019 climate strikes. I don’t want to get too deep into semantics. But most actions that took place in September 2019 were demonstrations rather than strikes.
That’s not such a bad thing in all cases, particularly the climate demonstrations (née strikes). Those actions drew attention to major issues the world faces. But, on the other hand, this misnaming of our actions serves as another example of the left’s reliance on elevator words – on using radical or revolutionary language to describe mundane, ordinary strategies and actions that often fail to advance our goals.
But, second, I find a much worse version of all this. Sometimes organizers really are calling for strikes. Or at least they’re calling for something that shares a lot in common with strikes. But they fail to do the kind of work that makes strikes a reality. They don’t plan a strategy, start a strike fund, or lay out goals for how to build working-class (and/or tenant) power.
October 15 and the Fake General Strike
That’s a problem. And it brings us to the so-called October 15 general strike.
Various outlets cover the October 15 general strike. As far as I can tell, the upcoming event is an example of the second of the two types I laid out above. Its organizers seem to want a real strike. But I see no evidence they’re doing the kind of work that goes into a real strike.
This stuff can harm the left quite a bit. Anyone who actually strikes on October 15 could get fired, and strike organizers won’t be able to do anything for them.
Beyond this, the actual goals organizers laid out sound more like a general progressive reform program rather than plausible strike demands. I think organizers want to attract an audience of of low-wage workers and political progressives. As of now (the demands have changed several times, if I recall), the demands include a higher minimum wage, universal health care, paid parental leave, and higher corporate taxes. All perfectly fine demands, but not general strike demands.
My advice? For workers, steer clear of this fake strike. If you strike, you’ll get fired, at worst, or ignored, at best. On the other hand, if it turns into a demonstration rather than a strike, that could be useful.
But strikes just aren’t done on the fly on the Internet. They require base-building and organizing work that hasn’t gone into the October 15 event.
There Won’t be a General Strike on October 15, But There Could be One Someday
And so, there won’t be a general strike on October 15.
As leftists, we don’t agree on exactly what a general strike is and what role it plays in our politics. But we can sketch out a basic idea. Over time, the left wants to use unions as one tool among several to build power and restructure society. The general strike stands out as a major event along the way, often (or close to) the final one.
A general strike (as opposed to a demonstration) requires months of planning, on top of years of preliminary organizing and smaller strikes. It’s not a first step. Nor is it aimed at getting more attention from government…or public services…or respect. Rather, it aims to take power and restructure society.
That we keep calling fake general strikes tells us a great deal about the current state of the left and its level of organization.
The more thorny and difficult question concerns why the fake strike keeps happening – where it comes from. I think it probably comes from the frustration of low-wage workers. Especially those within the ‘precariat.’ Those workers want something better, but they don’t see much action. And so, they fall into the shortcut politics of the left.
In this sense, the fake ‘general strike’ comes from the same segment of the left that falls for ideas like UBI. It’s a way to ‘win’ in an environment without organizing, even though, of course, shortcuts still don’t win anything.
