On October 18, 2025 at the No Kings March, Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago called for a general strike, not just city wide but a national general strike. His comments went viral in social media and reverberated throughout the various representative movements.
Some were echoing or redefining what a general strike would mean today. Many organizations and individuals have been calling for “general strike” for various sectors of industries or sectors of the workforce. Such as the auto negotiations and the strike(s) of 2023. There are some unions calling for strikes in 2028 and have begun to align contract expirations to expire at the same time. There have been many strikes that are referred to as “general strikes” in Seattle, San Francisco, Minnesota and the South, that were economic strikes that became broader.
In many countries, historically there have been many general strikes that involved more than some sectors but national strikes involving the broad class of workers employed, unemployed, and union and non-union.
However, what is driving the potential and need for general strike in the U.S. today?
A general strike becomes necessary when the alignment of economic struggles are elevated to political struggles that are more than the demand for reform or concessions. Increasingly involving broader and broader sections of the governed.
Our current situation is that the president is carrying out the will of the wealthy and corporations including the new tech and their demands to transfer the wealth from servicing the needs of working people in the midst of an economic transition and social transformation. It is Trump and a class (the one percent) that have diametrically opposed interests and needs, and are using the state and government institutions to reorganize the economy to maintain and increase their profits and control a more rebellious workforce.
What does that mean practically in our lives?
The currents of struggle to defend our standard of living and constitutional rights is our “social contract” that we have come to know and expect. Basic democratic processes: elections, immigration, due process put in place based on reforms and concessions through struggle; civil, union rights, voting rights and protections have unilaterally been taken away. Health care, minimum wage, housing, affordability, education, child care in essence the basic necessities of life are being lost after decades of struggle to achieve.
These historical currents of struggle are merging into a vast river of resistance being transformed into a broad general set of political demands. A general strike that has a class of interests (and demands) fighting another class that is violating what we know is how change is made in the country.
We don’t need simply a call. We need people to understand what is the next step in the struggle. General strike to immediately stop what the ruling class (and Trump et al.) are trying to do and have a set of demands to begin to resolve the economic needs of a growing impoverished mass of people and put in place the infrastructure to prevent it from happening again.
Frederick Douglass, a prominent abolitionist and advocate for civil rights, delivered this powerful statement during his “West India Emancipation” speech in 1857. In this address, he highlighted the importance of struggle in achieving progress and freedom. Douglass argued that without a demand for rights and justice, those in power are unlikely to relinquish their control or make concessions.
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