Is it a General Strike Day?

The "tactical escalation"

Today is May 1. It is also known as May Day and is an international holiday that honors workers rights.

Because of that, today is a day of action. Specifically involving no work, no shopping and no school.

If this sounds like a general strike, it should.

You wanted your general strike? You got it.

The thing is, first, we live in a country of over 300m people. Right now we can get about 8m out to protest on a given Saturday. A day when many people aren’t working or in school. A day that isn’t a heavy lift. Let’s say there’s another 2m that are participating by driving by or helping make signs — but can’t attend a protest, so the don’t get counted.

We live in too big a country to be able to do a general strike like they had in Israel on Aug 17.

Not to mention, most people can’t survive if they don’t go to work. Those who can are incredibly privileged. And that’s really important to accept.

So for a general strike to work here, in this country, it has to be targeted. We saw it work in Minneapolis. Soon after their National Day of Truth and Freedom (the general strike) on January 23, ICE started pulling out of the city. That is the power of a concentrated general strike.

The thing is, we’re in trouble. Republicans know they cannot win a fair election. And that fact becomes more and more apparent with each passing day.

We have to be prepared for their power grab in November and a possible refusal to turn over power in January.

Today is the beginning of what Indivisible is calling “our tactical escalation.” The goal is to see, on a work day, what kind of numbers can we get? How many people are capable of missing work? Do we actually make an economic impact by not shopping? How many schools were willing to close?

Then these numbers get analyzed and it helps for the next test.

If you still have to work today, you aren’t a bad person, don’t feel guilty. We don’t have the infrastructure yet for everyone to be able to put the movement first.

The point is to see where we are lacking. Where we need reinforcement. Starting to build a plan for how we can pull this off for real and what that looks like.

It’s probably not going to look like what you think of when you hear “General Strike.”

But that doesn’t mean it won’t have an impact just because it doesn’t match your vision.

If you can, don’t shop today, don’t work and don’t go to school. But if you have to do one or more of those things, that’s okay. This is not the final iteration. You just aren’t able to be part of this beta test. Maybe, with the next one, there will be more infrastructure in place for you to be able to participate.

We got six months to tighten this and make it stable. But we have moved past the point of theories and have escalated to enactment.

So, with all that said, are you participating today? If so, how?