The idea is simple, but profound.
One month into the administration of Donald Trump, the nation has seen marches and protests in every major city and many small towns. Americans by the millions are angry and fearful.
Francine Prose wrote an article for the Guardian suggesting that protest is not enough. She called for a national strike to make a more powerful statement. Prose wrote:
“But the trouble is that these protests are too easily ignored and forgotten by those who wish to ignore and forget them. The barriers go up, the march takes place, the barriers come down. Everyone goes home happier.”
Prose wrote that protests are not effective unless they cause inconvenience and difficulty for those in power. So she proposed a general strike instead of separate small protests. A strike that would hit the country in the pocketbook.
“I believe that what we need is a nonviolent national general strike of the kind that has been more common in Europe than here. Let’s designate a day on which no one (that is, anyone who can do so without being fired) goes to work, a day when no one shops or spends money, a day on which we truly make our economic and political power felt, a day when we make it clear: how many of us there are, how strong and committed we are, how much we can accomplish.”
The call for a strike has been answered. Organizers have named Friday, February 17th as our General Strike day. Strike4Democracy has the details on its Facebook page, but the idea is simple.
Democracy #grabsback! #strike4democracy #f17 @ShaunKing @cenkuygur @jk_rowling @lhfang @amandapalmer Press Release: https://t.co/yObIsNk2py pic.twitter.com/jMCqPVBj4O
— Strike4Democracy (@f17strike) February 13, 2017
If you know you won’t be fired, you skip work tomorrow. You don’t send the kids to school. No spending money. No buying gas, or groceries, or ordering on Amazon.
We replace those activities with democratic action. We attend rallies or marches. We contact our elected officials. We talk with others who share our concern for the state of our republic.
We shut things down, for one day.
A general strike, when done well, and accomplished by many, is a very powerful economic and political force.
Tomorrow. General Strike! Join us!
Featured image via Twitter.
