Crazy Fucking Videos

Sigh… A one day protest on a Saturday where the vast majority of participants either already had the day off or requested it from their employer is in no way a strike. It’s a large protest and an important event, but it’s just not a strike.

It’s like the actual concept of a strike is being erased from the public consciousness. Strikes don’t have a fixed duration, they have a list of demands, and the strike goes on until those demands are met or the strikers capitulate.

A bunch of Minnesotans taking a day off work to protest sends a strong message and mildly inconveniences businesses.

A bunch of Minnesotans saying “we’re not going back to work until ICE is out of our state” is what an actual general strike would look like. It would be hugely powerful if strikers held fast, but it would also be incredibly hard to organize and pull off, because you’re basically asking large numbers of people to be willing to get fired.

I’m not trying to downplay what’s going on in Minnesota - it’s good and important, but it saddens me to see people calling this a general strike. A general strike is the ultimate weapon of the working class. Calling a mass protest a general strike feels like saying “this is the best we can do,” and it absolutely is not.