About that general strike...
it's coming, the question is whether that means this week or this decade
I’ve been planning to write about the growing calls for a U.S. general strike for a few months now, but I did not understand the opportunity would creep up on me like this.
If you’re out of the loop, the city of Minneapolis is under occupation (with operations extending to Maine) which has lead to calls for a general strike on January 30th—this Friday.
But let’s back up a bit. The widespread consensus of the labor movement for the past few years has been that the U.S. general strike takes years of organizing. They have had a plan for one… on May Day 2028, a.k.a International Workers’ Day.
United Autoworkers president Shawn Fain presented that date in Fall 2023, announcing a plan “to make union contracts expire May 1, 2028, all across the country — to precede a general strike, led by the United Auto Workers, for concessions from the ruling class,” as described by J. Patrick Patterson. Many unions have jumped on board to support the effort, such as like The Chicago Teachers Union and the American Postal Workers Union.
Fain wrote in 2024 that the date was picked partially due to the fact “May Day has its roots right here in the United States — in 1886, in the streets of Chicago, where workers were organizing and fighting for the 8-hour workday. This demand was met with brutal resistance by employers, who used both vicious mercenaries and the police to violently suppress mass protests led by unions.”
Today, the labor movement is still fighting, but this time it’s focused against exploitation from the billionaire class. And so, they’ve been hyper-focused on organizing to strike on May 1st, 2028.
The date was set five years ahead of time because it takes a lot of time and logistics to organize such a massive action. As Alex Han recently put it, “We’ve all heard calls for a general strike before — usually not as a serious proposal or strategy, but as a reaction to the attacks that working people face on a regular basis from existing political and economic power. Such calls are easy to dismiss, because they tend to come from well-meaning people without the knowledge of how difficult a strike is to launch and win in a single shop, let alone across a country of 330 million people that hasn’t seen anything approaching a national general strike in almost 150 years.”
Yet, there is something different in the air these days. Calls are getting louder for a U.S. general strike on January 30th, 2025, about three years prior to the UAW’s planned date. Why? Well… look around. ICE, an agency only about two decades old, is killing U.S. citizens and detaining toddlers.
(For those curious about the current status of the Liam Ramos—who has become the face of child deportations—case: protests have erupted at the Dilley, Texas detention center where Liam is currently being held. Texas Public Radio interviewed immigration attorney Eric Lee, who has clients at the facility, who describes it as a “horrible, horrible place” with “putrid” drinking water and meals with bugs, dirt, and debris. Here’s some footage of the children being held in Dilley:)
All of this also comes at a time when there is growing discontent with the cost of living crisis, endless imperialism, and the billions of dollars we throw away to Israel while most younger Americans believe they will never be able to afford a house
Things have reached an inflection point, and maybe it’s the Aries-in-Neptune of it all, but the call for a general strike feels not so far-fetched lately.
We are seeing some of the most solid organizing in Minneapolis. They proved that a citywide general strike could be done. In below freezing temperatures, tens of thousands of people showed up on a work day to demand “ICE OUT.” More than 700 businesses across the state closed their doors for an economic blackout, according to Democracy Now! CEOs of Minnesota’s largest employees, including Target, Mayo Clinic, and various sports team, signed onto a letter calling for deescalation.
And yesterday, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino—a name not widely known before last week—became the operations official scapegoat, as the Trump Administration says they’re taking him, and some of his agents, out of Minneapolis.
Sarah Jaffe wrote in 2024 that “The Minnesota Model Is Transforming Organizing as We Know It.” Suffice to say, they’re not new to this.
The question is: Can the cohesiveness of one mid-sized metropolis extend to the entire country, let alone the entire state? There is, as the kids say, motion to the current calls. Endorsers of a general U.S. strike on January 30th are starting to include celebrities too.
So, as we creep closer to Friday, it’s not merely a yearning for TGIF this week. Whether it’s a strike with nationwide significance, or just Minnesota clout, one thing is for sure: it’s creating a blueprint for May Day 2028.
I’LL LEAVE YOU WITH SOME RELATED MEDIA RECOMMENDATIONS:
Civil War (2023) an A24 flick I just rewatched. Taking bets on when we will need press vests in the U.S. (Now?)
One Battle After Another (2025), a current Oscar-contender (I AM STILL TEAM SINNERS) which explores what an armed resistance to detention facilities could look like. DiCaprio’s stoner-paranoia-meets-action vibes in this is very Inherent Vice (2014)—another Paul Thomas Anderson film—slash The Big Lebowski (1998).
trying to get to the Film Forum to see “The Voice of Hind Rajab” if anyone would like to join
“Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor” by Kim Kelly
“You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live” by Paul Kix (tbh, I haven’t read this yet but organizers at the Summer of Heat protests told me that reading it was integral to their organizing strategy, so I’m intrigued. It chronicles the 10 weeks of organizing in Birmingham, Alabama that led to desegregation.)
(another one that’s on my list to-read) “This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible” by Charles E. Cobb Jr.
The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House, a 1979 essay by Audre Lorde
If Something Happens to Me: A Letter to My Daughter by Adrianne Wright for The Nation
If I Must Die, a poem by Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian poet and professor killed by the Israeli Military
From Palestine to Minneapolis, ICE and Israel use the same violent playbook by Ahmad Ibsais in Mondoweiss
I linked to a lot of solid journalism and op-eds above—a plethora by In These Times, which extensively covers the labor movement. Labor Notes is good too for this kind of coverage. If you want more reporting from on-the-ground in Minneapolis, follow local reporting from The Minnesota Star Tribune and the Sahan Journal.
Listening to:
FREE THE WORLD (live) by Bay Area rapper LaRussell
AMERIICAN REQUIEM by Beyonce
My Love is Your Love by Whitney Houston
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron
Rainforest by Noname
Prayer in C (Robin Schulz Remix) by Lilly Wood and The Prick
Icky Thump by The White Stripes
Archbishop Harold Holmes by Jack White
War Pigs by Black Sabbath
What’s Up by 4 Non Blondes
Young Americans by David Bowie
Peace,
Jill