Thinking About A General Strike To Nonviolently Defend Democracy & Human Rights

Friends,

For some time, I have been thinking about how to nonviolently resist the corrupted Trump/MAGA fascist forces who are working to consolidate a white supremacist regime. Reading the daily news is painful to say the least. Thus, the idea of a general strike has been pressing upon me.

Clearly, our massive No Kings and related demonstrations manifest the growing popular opposition to the many ways that Trump/MAGA threaten our lives and security, and that of others, have been and will continue to be important. They demonstrate that we are not alone, name the dangers, and build spirits for the 2026 election. Important too are the challenges in the courts, campaigning for a free and fair 2026 mid-term elections, support and assistance to innocent immigrants threatened with Gestapo-like kidnappings and deportations, and challenges to Trumpist support of Israel’s horrifying Gaza genocide.

In the early days of Trump 2.0. when I had at least a smidgeon of hope that the Supreme Court, my thought was that the two possible triggers for a nationwide general strike would be to ensure or defend free and fair 2026 elections or if Trump and company violated an especially important Supreme Court decision.

On the verge of drafting an article to encourage thinking about a possible general strike, I came across Jeremy Brecher’s excellent article written several months ago. Jeremy has long been among our best nonviolent strategists. Rather than try to reinvent an excellent wheel, Jeremy’s opening paragraphs and a link to his article follow below.

The concept and history of general strikes is too little known across our country. But it is rich, and we need to make it known.

We have just over a year until November 2026, and the political madness and violence, encouraged now by the president and vice-president are growing. It is past time to raise the possibility of a general strike and to be talking with union and community leaders across the country about this way to demonstrate the growing popular will that the assaults on democracy, our economy, our neighbors, and ourselves must stop.

Joseph Gerson

Written by Jeremy Brecher, published April 8th, 2025 by Waging Non Violence, CC BY 4.0

Calls for a general strike in the US are growing. It’s important to understand how to organize one, given their key role in overcoming tyrants around the world.

Something is in the air: A perception that American democracy and livable conditions for working people may only be saved by the kind of large-scale nonviolent direct action variously called “general strikes,” “political strikes,” or, as I will refer to all of them, “social strikes.”

Calls for mass disruptive action are coming from unlikely places, like Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, an organization normally associated with legal action through the courts. When Romero was asked in a recent interview what would happen if the Trump administration systematically defied court orders, he replied, “Then we’ve got to take to the streets in a different way. We’ve got to shut down this country.”

Similarly senior Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern said, “We can’t just sit back and let our democracy just fall apart. What we need to think about are things like maybe a national strike across this country.”

Some in organized labor are also entering the fray. Sara Nelson, head of the Association of Flight Attendants, recently said that American workers — no matter what they do or what sector they are in — now have “very few options but to join together to organize for a general strike.” (She led the organizing for a national general strike that successfully deterred Trump’s attempt to shut down the government in his first term.)

Meanwhile, online, there are even more ad hoc efforts demonstrating the tactic’s appeal right now. For instance, more than 300,000 people have signed cards pledging to participate in a general strike.

Calling for general strikes is a staple of the radical toolkit. (I’ve made questionable efforts to call two or three myself over the past half-century.) But why has the idea of such mass actions suddenly appeared on the lips of such a wide range of people? There are three principal reasons:

1. The wide range of people being harmed by the MAGA juggernaut gives credibility to actions based on wide public participation.
2. The demolition of key institutions of democracy, constitutionalism and the rule of law is threatening to leave few alternatives to popular uprising.
3. The fecklessness of the leadership of the Democratic Party, as sublimely illustrated by Sen. Chuck Schumer’s passage in March of the devastating MAGA budget, has led to despair about resistance within the institutions of government.

These inescapable realities are forcing people to think in unaccustomed ways.

I use the term “social strikes” to describe mass actions people take to exercise power by withdrawing cooperation from and disrupting the operation of society. The goal of a social strike is to affect not just the immediate employer, but a political regime or social structure. Such forms of mass direct action provide a possible alternative when institutional means of action prove ineffective. In all their varied forms they are based on Gandhi’s fundamental perception that “even the most powerful cannot rule without the cooperation of the ruled.”

Jeremy Brecher is the author of 15 books on labor and social movements, including “Strike!” and “The Green New Deal from Below.” He is co-founder and senior strategic advisor for the Labor Network for Sustainability. He writes at Commentaries on Solidarity and Survival on Substack, and his report “Defending Society Against MAGA Tyranny: A Prospectus for Action” is available here