LogFAQs > #986166032

sfcalimari posted...

When's the last time a general strike happened in the US? Never?

Not sure when the last one was, but the US definitely has had some. Here's some info about one notable one. I know I've read about some in the 20th century as well, but my memory is failing me at the moment.

In 1881, a revolutionary socialist faction of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLPA) split off and established the International Working People's Association (IWPA), which developed anarchist tendencies and held itself to be a continuation of the defunct IWA.[50] Inspired by the example of the Paris Commune, IWPA members such as the Chicago anarchist Albert Parsons formulated a kind of revolutionary syndicalism that eschewed the general strike in favour of popular insurrection.[51] In response to the repression of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the IWPA armed and drilled its members into workers' militias, seeing violent action as a necessary complement to strike action.[52] On 1 May 1886, the IWPA organised a nationwide general strike for the eight-hour day, which had been a focus of demands for Parsons and the Chicago anarchists.[53] Throughout the United States, hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike.[52] The general strike's epicenter was in Chicago, where protests against the police repression of striking workers escalated into a riot.[54] Eight of the protest's organisers, including Parsons, were executed by hanging on charges of conspiracy. In the wake of their execution, the IWPA demand for the eight-hour day spread around the world and 1 May was declared International Workers' Day.[55]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_strike