“Stick Together and We’ll Win.” How to Get Inspired For the Minneapolis General Strike

Tomorrow is ICE Out of Minnesota, a mass protest against ICE and their murder, violence, and oppression of innocent people. The day of collective protest has gotten the backing of unions and politicians, and is a “statewide day of non-violent moral action, reflection: no work, no school, no shopping — only community, conscience, and collective action.” The collective rejection of ICE’s brutal and indefensible assault on Minneapolis is part of a larger wave of solidarity against the federal government. (And if you’re not in Minneapolis, there’s a map of nationwide solidarity actions to join in on.)

But as Michelle Griffith wrote in the Minnesota Reformer, this is much more accurate to describe as a general strike, a tradition of organized, mass resistance that has become rare in the United States. Minneapolis is no stranger to general strikes—there was a massive strike in the city in 1934, part of the larger wave of strikes organized by Teamsters, the ILA, the AFL, and the CIO.

In the spirit of solidarity and a hearty fuck off to ICE, here’s a list of poems, articles, excerpts, and songs about general strikes.

But how many
MACHINE GUNS
Will it it take to cook
ONE MEAL?
It is your SMILE
That is UPSETTING
Their reliance
On ARTILLERY, brother!

From “They Can’t Understand” by Anise, in “The Seattle General Strike” pamphlet

*
“Now the remedy that is to better your condition, and to snatch you from final and everlasting ruin, is placed within yourselves. It is simply – UNITY OF THOUGHT AND ACTION. – Think together, act together, and you will remove mountains—mountains of injustice, oppression, misery and want.”

From “Grand National Holiday, And Congress Of The Productive Classes” by William Benbow,

*
And what of the glowing beyond that is so bright that those who grind the faces of the poor say it is a dream? It is no dream, it is the real, stripped of brain-distortions materialized into thrones and scaffolds, mitres and guns.

From” The Principles of Anarchism” by Lucy Parsons

*
“Solidarity is the answer for the future, which means sacrificing for others as they sacrifice for you. The extent that we will stand up for the rights of others, including at the workplace, will determine whether we will continue to see growing inequality and political instability in our world or we will see the world get better in our lifetimes.”

From “Why Strikes Matter” by Erik Loomis

*
“It is not a lucky word this same impossible: no good comes of those that have it so often in their mouth. Who is he that says always, There is a lion in the way? Sluggard, thou must slay the lion then; the way has to be travelled!”

From “Chartism” by Thomas Carlyle

*
“Call a general strike. Riot. Shut down the city centers. Toss the bastards out. Do not be afraid of the language of class warfare — the rich versus the poor, the oligarchs versus the citizens, the capitalists versus the proletariat. The Greeks, unlike most of us, get it.”

From “The Greeks Get It” by Chris Hedges

*
At last democracy was to be justified of its own children. The nation was to be purged of continual sin not indeed all of its own doing—due partly to its inheritance; and yet a sin, a negation that gave the world the right to sneer at the pretensions of this republic.

From the chapter on the general strike by the enslaved before the Civil War, from Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. DuBois

*
Learn to strike right and learn to vote right. One is essential for your success as the other and both are absolutely necessary to you before you can get anywhere.

From “Railroad Unions General Strike: Debs Says Concerted Action of Rail Unions Can Bring Victory to All Strikers” by Eugene V. Debs

*
“Annie” was shy, but she managed to put on a bold look, and she came forward under the beaming encouragement of a representative of the Sun’s staff, and said: ‘All I can say, boys, is to stick together and we’ll win. That’s all I’ve got to say to you.’”

Annie Kelly quoted in The New York Times during the Newsboys’ strike of 1899, “Newsboys Act and Talk,” The New York Times

*
“In that city of over a quarter million, strangers passed each other on the street and did not have fear, but the opposite.”

From “The 1946 Oakland General Strike” by Cal Winslow

*
“Oh, the FBI is worried, the bosses they are scared/They can’t deport six million men, they know.”

“The Ballad of Harry Bridges”, the great ode to the hero of the 1934 Longshore Strike by The Almanac Singers.

There are solidarity actions across the country, and the ICE Out site has a map where you can find one near you.