Is a General Strike What’s Needed to End the Shutdown?
On Sunday, Sara Nelson, the head of the flight attendants’ union, gave a rousing speech at an AFL-CIO dinner, denouncing the government shutdown for endangering airline security and forcing workers to labor without pay. “Go back with the fierce urgency of now to talk with your locals and international unions about all workers joining together,” she told her fellow labor leaders, “to end this shutdown with a general strike!”
Nelson’s call for a general strike to solve the shutdown is particularly surprising, given the brief and limited history of general strikes in the United States and the mainstream labor movement’s hostility to such approaches. But as the shutdown drags on and the suffering spreads, it may be just what is needed to reopen the government.
American radicals have long dreamed of general strikes, but have rarely actually employed them. The Industrial Workers of
